{"id":7796,"date":"2022-05-12T23:54:12","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T23:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/?p=7796"},"modified":"2022-05-25T23:55:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T23:55:41","slug":"pitt-meadows-student-and-teacher-team-up-to-publish-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/pitt-meadows-student-and-teacher-team-up-to-publish-childrens-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitt Meadows student and teacher team up to publish children\u2019s book"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A student and teacher in the Maple Ridge \u2013 Pitt Meadows School District have teamed up to write a new children\u2019s book.<\/p>\n<p>Magpie Mischief is set in the forested area behind Edith McDermott Elementary, where author Helen Donnelly once taught, and illustrator Lena Meszaros was once a student. The pair have stayed connected over the years as they both moved on to Pitt Meadows Secondary, where they began talking two years ago about collaborating on the story.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56%; padding-top: 20px; height: 0;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/hml.sd42.ca\/player?autostart=n&amp;videoId=5Ej1j6gc&amp;captions=y&amp;chapterId=0\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><!--more-->\u201cHelen and I met in Grade 5, and I\u2019ve been friends with her ever since,\u201d said Meszaros, who is now in Grade 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been perfect,\u201d Donnelly added. \u201cIt has been great growth for the both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Donnelly first got the idea for the book more than four years ago. After reading it to some students, they encouraged her to find a way to get the story published.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a student who said to me \u2018Miss Donnelly, you have to get this published,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThose words have travelled around and around in my head for years.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_13141\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13141\" style=\"width: 1400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13141\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sd42.ca\/assets\/media\/Untitled-1-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"486\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13141\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Author Helen Donnelly, left, illustrator Lena Meszaros, centre, and paginator Justin Cardas, right.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To layout the book, the pair turned to Justin Cardas, another School District 42 student, who put together the text and art into the final package. Today, Donnelly and Meszaros visit libraries and classrooms around the district, reading the story to students and talking about the process of coming up with the book.<\/p>\n<p>Magpie Mischief tells a story of friendship and how our connections with other people are more important than material things, Donnelly said. So, when it came time to find an artist to illustrate the book, it was only natural for her friendship and connections to lead her to Meszaros, who was happy to share her talent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are friends,\u201d Meszaros said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like student to teacher. It\u2019s person to person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13138 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sd42.ca\/assets\/media\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-11-at-3.40.32-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"660\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In coming up with the illustrations, she spent a lot of time in the forest around Edith McDermott, getting a sense of the birds and the natural environment. She also close studied Donnelly\u2019s text, building a deep familiarity with the story and its elements before putting her pencil to paper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mostly just read it over and over until I got a base for how I was going to draw it,\u201d Meszaros said. \u201cI am really happy with how the book came out. I\u2019m proud of how my illustrations came out. I\u2019m very proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 For a lesson plan to accompany Magpie Mischief, email Helen at <a href=\"mailto:donnelly.h@gmail.com\">donnelly.h@gmail.com<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A student and teacher in the Maple Ridge \u2013 Pitt Meadows School District have teamed up to write a new children\u2019s book. Magpie Mischief is set in the forested area [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-announcements","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7796"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7799,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7796\/revisions\/7799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/pmss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}