Students from Rhonda Smith's eighth-grade class at Thomas County Middle School recently became published authors through a national student publishing program. As part of the publishing process, students planned, wrote and illustrated their own books using a free publishing kit provided by Studentreasures Publishing. 

Each class created their own book with each student contributing a page that he/she wrote and illustrated.  Students brainstormed topics for their books and then held a class vote to make the final decision on the topic which may vary from holidays to music. Publishing a book in the classroom engaged the students through hands-on learning and inspired a love of reading and writing.