Photography Books for Brookside

Ethan Trunnell
SJHS Staff Writer

On Thursday, November 20th, Mr. Jethro Gillespie’s 6th and 7th period photography classes went to Brookside Elementary to talk to the kids they would be creating books for. Groups of three students will work together to create a children’s book for a Brookside student.

The photography students will use a program called Gimp 2. Each photo album is four inches wide, and six inches long. The albums contain 36 pages, and were fairly cheap in cost.

The books will be centered on the student’s level in reading, learning discerning shapes, etc. Many books are alphabets with a picture and name for each letter of the alphabet. Some are full of shapes colors and letters. Mr. Gillespie’s photo students' creative ability has been greatly challenged.

The books should take several weeks to complete and must be 20 pages minimum. The project is worth a whopping 200 points on the students' grades. However, Mr. Gillespie hopes that it will be more than just another assignment. “I think it helps my photo students to be motivated to come up with a tangible product for a real, cute, little kindergartner,” he explained.

As for publishing cost and technicalities, the books will be printed at Costco for about five dollars each. The books will be paid for with the photography budget. A ten dollar fee that the students paid at the beginning of the year created this budget.

This project is sure to be a great success, and the students at Brookside will appreciate their books for a long time into the future.