How to Get a Girlfriend by students of the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia

Senior Kindergarten Students of the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia- Leo Dzuver, Alexander Hald, Matej Crnogorac. (2015). How to Get a Girlfriend. New York: Scholastic.

In 1986, the Kids Are Authors competition was established to help encourage children to read and write stories of their own. Every year, parents and teachers submit completed boos written and illustrated by children to participate in this competition. Several books are chosen as winners and are published by Scholastic, who sells the published books at book fairs across the country. How to Get a Girlfriend was written and illustrated by several kindergarteners at the American International School of Zagreb, Croatia to let “grownups and kids [know that] if [they] want a girlfriend, then [they’ll] need to read this book.”

This book is so genuine because it was written and illustrated by children. The fact that is was produced by kindergarteners shows that children from a very early age appreciate the written word and take pride in their own work as well.

The children who illustrated How to Get a Girlfriend used pencil for the outlines and hair of their drawings and crayons and markers to color them in. It seems that even the text was written in crayon. If I did not know otherwise, it would be like holding the original copy of the story in my hands, which invites in a lot of readers, especially young readers.

If I were to use this book in my future classroom- which I seriously would!- I would use it as an example for other students to use. In one of my recent classes, Dr. Ryan- the professor of that and this course- asked us to write and illustrate a story of our own, which we all published in the classroom. I think this is a great project for students of any age and grade because everyone has a story to tell and it teaches them about the writing process as well as appreciation of others’ work and of their own.