NMS Students Share Books And Make Friends

The Share A Book, Make New Friends activity, which is sponsored by the library media center at Newtown Middle School, held its first meeting October 7.

Students got together with others to share books they have just read and offered an informal oral review. By sharing their opinions of the book, the students help each other choose another book to read or explore in a different genre.

Meredith DeSousa, a former editor from Scholastic Library Publishing in Danbury, attended the first meeting. She explained to the students the role of an editor, and tips for getting writing published. She commented that as an editor reads a manuscript, one needs to ask: Is this good enough? Is it entertaining? Does it need pictures? Am I bored?

“All of these questions,” Ms DeSousa told the students, “help the editor decide if the manuscript goes to the next level of review.”

She passed around a manuscript with editing and revision comments to detail how a manuscript is handled.

She also shared experiences about books she has worked on, and gave some examples of things the students can do if they encounter writer’s block.