Pupils conclude their adventures ‘By a Maine River’

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — For nearly a month SeDoMoCha Middle School students took part in a shared reading experience through the One Book, One Adventure program. Divided into their teams, the pupils read “By a Maine River” by Thomas Mark Szelog and Lee Ann Szelog, which chronicles all 12 months alongside a river in the state through a number of photographs.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    INSPIRED ‘BY A MAINE RIVER’ — As part of the One Book, One Adventure reading program, SeDoMoCha Middle School students could choose to take part in art, photography and poetry contests. The first-place winners were, from left, fifth-grader Mimi Cameron for photography and sixth-graders Olivia Wesley and Elisabeth Cameron for art and poetry respectively.

    “There are exhibits in the lobby done during team time,” Librarian Gayle Peirce said. She explained when copies of “By a Maine River” were handed out during the kickoff in late February, each team’s book included “a slip of a Maine critter” for the groups of students to create a display based on the various wildlife depicted in the book through the “critter crawl.”
    “One made theirs like a game, one did a digital presentation, one did a flip book — I think they had some great ideas,” Peirce said. “In the end they were pleased with their work, and I am pleased with their work.”
    The various Maine wildlife on display in the school lobby included the belted kingfisher, Eastern coyote, hooded merganser and pileated woodpecker, as the teams had both birds and mammals among their critters.
    In addition to the team projects, middle-schoolers could choose to take part in contests involving art, photography and poetry based on “By a Maine River”. The first-place winners each received an autographed copy of the book, as well as having their works framed and displayed in the school library along with other contest entries.
    Sixth-grader Olivia Wesley took top honors in the art contest with her depiction of a scene overlooking a river, grade 5 student Mimi Cameron’s photograph of a snail amidst green foliage was voted the winner in its category and sixth-grader Elisabeth Carlson had the first-place poem.
    On the evening of March 24 the Szelogs were at SeDoMoCha for a program with students and parents. “I think the authors were very well received,” Peirce said.