From undersea helpers cleaning up pollution to mean rich girls making everyone’s lives worse, there was a diverse array of characters taking shape at Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library’s (BHML) inaugural kid’s writing club for second through sixth graders. 

“They're so excited to write. It's really cool to see because I think a lot of people don't expect that from kids anymore, but they should,” said BHML Programs & Technology Manager Bethany Schmidt.

This club differs from BHML’s previous after-school offerings, which have focused more on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) based education and activities. The switch was prompted by a desire to add variety to the programming and harken back to the library's traditional offerings of reading and writing.  

Schmidt also discussed how it is becoming more popular to integrate the arts into STEM (i.e. STEAM), but that often focuses on visual rather than literary art. BHML wants to be a space that shows that these things aren’t mutually exclusive, where kids can raise sea monkeys one week, and create their own worlds the next. “The library is helping to make these subjects more approachable outside of school.” 

Part of making storytelling understandable is breaking down its fundamentals. Every story has a character, and a setting. Students filled out a character profile with their creation’s physical traits, likes and dislikes, and goals and challenges. Then, the really fun part started as students created collages that reflected their character’s or their story’s location.  

“If anybody finds a fancy car, let me know,” one attendee asked the group. Others took a break to coo over an especially cute cat in Nat Geo. Ideas also went back and forth about doing a crossover since multiple students had characters whose ultimate goal was to take over the world. Why not team up?

Club members also got to write poems Children’s Coordinator Jen Betts plans to hang around BHML’s lawn.