Byron Center — Third-grade teacher and author Erica Abel recently asked a room full of fourth-graders, “What makes someone an everyday hero?”
Some of their answers included:
“People who do good stuff.”
“Heroes were people during World War II.”
“A hero just needs to be nice and stand up for someone.”
Abel said she hoped Heritage Elementary’s students were inspired to be everyday heroes, like the group of dogs determined to start their own school in her book, “Minna and the Canine Club,” illustrated by Rachel McCoy.
During the reading, she also asked students to pay attention and be able to identify the plot, setting, main problem and the solution.
Inspired by her own rescue dog named Minna, with a long “i,” Abel wrote the book alongside her mother, Shelli Abel, a retired teacher from Caledonia Elementary School; her sister Jessica Babinec, a kindergarten teacher at Countryside Elementary; and her aunt Kelly Savage, and self-published it in 2019.
“We thought it would be a fun family hobby to write a book together,” Erica said.
The four women created their own business, Whimsical Writers, to write stories inspired by their favorite pets and provide lesson plans for teachers to accompany their Canine Club adventures.
The Whimsical Writers’ second book, “Minna and the Canine Club Save a Life,” and third book, “Minna and the Canine Club Meet a Ghost” — both written by Shelli Abel — are dedicated to first responders and the U.S. troops, respectively.
“We want every kid to feel special and see themselves in the characters,” Erica said.
Shelli added: “We also want students to love reading, so we included teaching points in the back of the book to encourage reading out loud at home and learning new vocabulary words.”
Erica said writing books about her pets encourages connections with students about their pets, and their dreams of becoming authors.
One fourth-grader stayed after the reading to ask Shelli if she thought he could write a book one day.
“If your teacher did it, then you can too,” she answered. “You just have to do it and don’t let anyone dull your diamonds,” quoting one of Minna’s lines from the book.
Reading & Rescues
Having Abel and her mom read their book to every grade level fit right in with the building’s dog and cat theme for March is Reading Month.
Media specialist Andrea Trzinski helped organize a collection drive for Mackenzie’s Animal Sanctuary and Second Chance Cats of West Michigan, and during classroom visits read a series of dog and cat books to face off in their book bracket challenge, similar to March Madness. Students donated over 100 items to be delivered after spring break.
Fourth-grader Harper Roede said she brought in several items to donate, like food bowls, dog bones and squeaker toys.
“We foster cats and puppies at home, so I love helping animals,” she said.
Fourth-grader Maddie Rop said she and other students decorated collection boxes for students to place their donations near the front office.
“We made the boxes and printed out colorful cat pictures and dogs with speech bubbles that said ‘woof’ to put on the front for the collection boxes,” Maddie said. “We collected toys so that dogs and cats can have fun.”
Read more from Byron Center:
• Exploring language, finding community in German class
• Fourth-grade writers share personal narratives
