A Dallas ISD fifth grader is doing something good to foster a love of reading in all children.
Elijah Robertson attends Clara Oliver Elementary School in Dallas and said he was tired of reading the same books.
“I love chapter books. I love horror, and sci-fi and fiction,” Robertson said.
He said there are only so many books in the library and he wanted to add his own spin. During National School Library Month, he decided to fix what he saw as a bit of a problem.
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“I wrote three books in one weekend. It’s online so my friends can read them virtually,” Robertson said. “I looked at this fiction book once and saw that it wasn’t many pages and it wasn’t interesting. So I wrote my own.”
Robertson’s plan is to share the books with his classmates in hopes of showing them reading and writing are both fun and essential.
The library specialist at his school, Elizabeth-Reed Smith, said it’s kids like Robertson who make her job worth it.
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“It is my purpose for being here. It motivates me and makes my day. It lets me know that I have a purpose and I am fulfilling it. He even inspires me to do more,” Elizabeth Reed-Smith said. “He is even writing in a genre where there aren’t many authors who look like him. So it’s just really cool.
Robertson is also in the African American Success Initiative in the Dallas ISD. It is a program that the district says was devised to boost self-esteem in students and give them the tools they need to be successful in and out of the classroom.
