Author helps students say good-bye to their school

Cleveland Elementary being torn down as Brookwood Elementary is being built next door.

Andrea Cheng, a Cincinnati-based author of books for children and young adults, gives and autographed copy of her book “Where the Steps Were” to Joseph Eaton, 11, while visiting Cleveland Elementary School on Friday, March 19.

Staff photo by Samantha Grier Andrea Cheng, a Cincinnati-based author of books for children and young adults, gives and autographed copy of her book “Where the Steps Were” to Joseph Eaton, 11, while visiting Cleveland Elementary School on Friday, March 19.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 7:17 PM Friday, March 19, 2010

HAMILTON — Next school year, Cleveland Elementary School will be no more.

And even though most of the students there will be going to the shiny new Brookwood Elementary being built next door, there’s still some sadness and trepidation, said librarian Jane Haight.

“A lot of them have been coming to school here since kindergarten and are sad about leaving the school even though we’re only moving a few steps away,” she said.

So with the help of the Lane Public Library and a Library Services and Technology Act “Choose to Read” grant from the State Library of Ohio, author Andrea Cheng made the first of three visits Friday, March 19, to Cleveland Elementary to help guide a project based on her book “Where the Steps Were.”

“Where the Steps Were” is a novel in verse inspired by the closing of the Windsor Elementary School in Cincinnati where Cheng’s sister taught and where she volunteered every Friday.

The book follows the year through the eyes of five different children at the fictional Pleasant Hill Elementary as they prepare to move to a new school and see their old school demolished.

“I got to know the kids and I talked with her a lot about the kids there,” Cheng said. “The poems I wrote are not specifically about those children, but were inspired by what happened to them.”

Friday’s visit focused on getting the Cleveland’s fourth- through sixth-graders to write about what they know, how to twist the truth in order to create a better fiction and where to find inspiration.

Haight and the classroom teachers will now help the children work on writing their own book and Cheng will make a return visit in April to work with selected students to create illustrations for it.

Of Cheng’s 16 published books, “Where the Steps Were” is the only one that she illustrated herself. She created wood block prints to go with her poems, but because of the difficulty of carving wood blocks, she’ll help them carve Styrofoam.

Each student at Friday’s sessions also received a personalized autographed copy of “Where the Steps Were.”

As part of the requirements of the grant, her sessions at Cleveland Elementary will be videotaped and posted on the Web sites of the school, the Lane Library and the State Library of Ohio, according to Gratia Banta, coordinator of youth services at Lane Library.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

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