Everyone knows Stafford Elementary tries very hard to give our kids everything they need for a good education. And that they help the students realize their potential and back it up with guests that reinforce the positive. Such as Michael Finklea the author of children’s books such as Fester the Pester, Tardy Marty, Creepers, Creepers Part Two and many more.

Michael Finklea came to Stafford Elementary to talk to the students about not giving up. He delighted the students with reading one of his books and explained how he was told “no” eight times after submitting his story to be published. He said he almost gave up many times but kept trying to make his book better. He told the students that Dr. Suess was told “no” twenty six times before he finally got his first book published. Finally on Finklea’s ninth try he was finally told “yes” and got his stories published.

Finklea told the students if you want to write a book you can. Anything in life you want to do you can do. The trick to that is to never give up no matter how many times you are told “no” or told you can not do it.

The floor was opened up to questions from the students. Some of the questions the students asked were, “Are your books chapter books?,” “Do you like writing books?,” “Do you write about everything?,” “Do you think I can write a book?,” “How old do you have to be to write a book?,” and many more.

Finklea was impressed with their questions and explained to the students that he was thirty-six years old when his first book was published but he knew of a six year old kindergarten student that wrote a book and got it published. So, he explained that it doesn’t matter how old you are to write a book. You just never give up.

Another exciting day of learning at Stafford Elementary!