Students get excited about reading and writing

MARQUETTE — For more than thirty years now, elementary students have been able to attend the Young Authors Conference at NMU.

Close to 3,000 students from around ten different schools will attend the Young Authors Conference throughout the week. The conference provides students with an opportunity to hear from a professional author, share stories that they’ve written, and get excited about reading and writing.

“This kind of event is definitely awesome for our kids,” said 4th Grade Teacher Bryan Solander, “it gets them out of the classroom and looking at writing in realistic kind of sense and how they can use it as they proceed in their education and pursuing it as a career possibly.”

“We really want them to walk away with a sense of pride and ownership of their writing and we want them to know that they too at their young age are authors,” said Co-Director Lindsey Dionne.

This year’s conference features author Buffy Silverman, who writes in various styles, but specializes in non–fiction writing. She also teaches students exciting ways to conduct research and learn about new things.

“The books that I read as a child that were informational books were not really that exciting to me, so it’s finding the spark that will reach a child that makes them want to read more,” said Author Buffy Silverman.

Silverman also has events scheduled at the Peter White Public Library on Tuesday and at the Ishpeming Carnegie Library on Wednesday. Both take place from 5:30 until 6:30 and are open to the public.