Third graders at Jennie Dean Elementary School in Manassas are officially published authors, thanks to a lot of hard work and a teacher who found a great idea on the Internet.

Talk about a good way to get students interested and excited about reading an writing: let them publish their own book, complete with a hard back cover, their picture and brief bio,  self-made illustrations and fiction or non-fiction story of their choice.

First-year teacher Ms. Drauszewski, who teaches a very enthusiastic group of third graders at the local elementary school, coordinated the event. 

Ms. Drauszewski said she was "feeling a little overwhelmed" being a new teacher and decided to  search "ideas for third grade" on the Internet and came across the  website for Studentreasures, which is part of  Nationwide Learning, LLC.

When Ms. Drauszewski found out "each child got a book for free," she quickly took the idea to her team of third grade teachers and then school administrators, who all agreed it was a good idea.

All 105 students received a 'kit' that came complete with all the pages for their book including a title page and dedication page.

The publishing process not only increased the students' interest in writing but also "increased their creativity," Ms. Drauszewski said.

"They were really excited and took ownership over their own learning," she said.

The students started the planning process for their books in October, including choosing a topic, fiction or non-fiction. They produced two drafts with the help of their teacher and a Sharpie, and on Thursday, March 10, finally saw their finished work for the first time.

The books were presented to the accomplished young authors in a graduation-style ceremony during a book release celebration in the school's auditorium among family,  peers, teachers, the principal and even Manassas City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gail Pope, who was seen signing several of the students' books following the ceremony.

The students also heard from Mrs. Poppy, the author of "The Snowy Day" and "She Wags her Tail."

Mrs. Poppy shared with the students what it is like to be an author, including how it is OK to make several changes to your book before it is complete and writing about things that are fun.

The students names and titles of their books were broadcast to the audience during the ceremony and the children leapt onto the stage to finally get the chance to hold in their hands what they had been working on for the last five months.

You could tell there was a good mixture of  fiction and non-fiction books by the titles read aloud. Titles ranged from "John's Story" to " My Hamster Can Fly."

So what did the students feel about the whole process?

Gabriella Bustillo who is in Mrs. Viera's third grade class said the process was "kinda hard, kinda easy." For Gabriella, "trying to do the neat handwriting" was the difficult part, while "drawing and coloring" was the part she liked the most. She also said she would like to publish a book again.

As for Brian Ramos, also in Mrs. Viera's class, he didn't particularly like writing but likes math, and wasn't too interested in publishing another book. 

And it wasn't only the students who caught the publishing bug but also the school's social studies teacher who had her classes produce the book, "It's All Greek to Me" to help students learn about Greece.