Helen Schell (l) and Karen Petit

Last fall new author Karen Petit read her first book chapter by chapter to Helen Schell’s creative writing class at Hand Middle School. This helped her make important changes to her dog mystery Shandon’s Ivy League: The Mystery of the Screecher Creature.

Just before school was out for Christmas holidays, students celebrated the last chapter in which they finally found out who had been committing robberies in the Shandon neighborhood in the story. Students received certificates for participating in the creative process and heard a preview of the next mystery in the series.

Schell welcomes the weekly reading by a real author because the experience exposed students to the entire writing process and made them part of it. Petit credited the students with some suggestions she reflected in her changes.

Since the last reading, Petit has begun working with an illustrator and is finishing the second book in the proposed series. “We are looking at a fall production date,” Petit said.