Kim Moser
My name is Kimberly Moser, and I’m a 6th grader at Saucon Valley Middle School. The week of May 14th was Literacy Week, and our school had two presentations, one by author Caitlin Alifirenka, and one by the storyteller Ingrid Bohn.
Caitlin Alifirenka shares her story with the student body.
The first presentation was for 7th and 8th grade students, and the presenter was the author of the book, I Will Always Write Back, Caitlin Alifirenka. She prepared for us a slideshow presentation that was about an hour long. The slideshow had lots of pictures and even showed a video of when Caitlin first met Martin! Caitlin also talked about what she is doing now. She lives in the Lehigh Valley, works as a nurse, is married, and has two kids and three dogs. Caitlin said that having a penpal affected her in many ways. It inspired her to be a nurse, since helping Martin was the best feeling ever, and as a nurse she gets to help people every day. It also helped her feel less caught up in the drama at school, and it helped her feel more thankful for what she has. Also, Caitlin mentioned that they might write a sequel to the book about their lives after the letters and a movie could be coming soon, too! Caitlin reminded us that kindness can be very contagious and urged us to do nice things for other people!
Storyteller Ingrid Bohn entertains the 5th and 6th graders.
The presentation for 5th and 6th grade students was a storyteller named Ingrid Bohn. She prepared three stories for us that had a theme or moral. The first story was called “The Golden Goose”, and it taught us how stereotypes can affect us. In the story, one character was always called “simple”, and it made people not want their family members to be around him. This was unfair because the so called “Simple” Simon character turned out to be a truly remarkable person. In this story Ms. Bohn got volunteers from the audience to play various characters. This story was colorful and light-hearted and certainly not one to be missed! The second story taught us about how the clothes we wear affect how people treat us. The story was about a man who went to a dinner party, but he was not wearing nice clothes because he didn’t have time to change out of his work clothes before he went. At the dinner party nobody would talk to him, so he went home and changed into nicer clothes. When he went back, everyone treated him with great respect. However, when the food came, the man gave the food to his jacket rather than to his mouth. When the host questioned him, he responded, “When I came dressed dirty, no one talked to me, but when I came well dressed, you gave me your best. Obviously you invited my clothes to dinner and not me.” This story was very inspirational about how not to treat people differently based on appearance. The last story taught us about how things can be wonderful and horrible at the same time. The story was about a king who wanted to retire and pass the throne down, so he gave his advisor a test to see if he was fit to rule. The test was to prepare the best and worst meal. For the best meal, the advisor cooked an oxen tongue, because the tongue provides people with communication, language, speech, and music. However, when asked to cook the worst meal, the advisor cooked an oxen tongue, saying that the tongue provides people with teasing, hateful words, and misjudgment. The king saw the advisor was very wise and passed the throne to him. This story gave a powerful message to be more careful of how you speak.
Overall, I am very thankful I have such great opportunities in school to see amazing people who work in literature.
Thank you to the Saucon Valley Foundation for Educational Innovation for supporting and sponsoring these great events at the Middle School!
