BREWER, Maine — Third-grade students in Cherrie MacInnes’ class at Brewer Community School learned Friday that they won a national writing contest for their children’s book titled “Classroom Pets.”
“It’s a wonderful story,” Kathy Kinney, who stars as a Web-based character known as Mrs. P, told the students via Skype after announcing that they had won the seventh annual Mrs. P’s Be-a-Famous-Writer contest.
Kinney is an actress best known for her role as Mimi, a character from “ The Drew Carey Show.”
The Brewer students were up against four finalists in kindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms from schools in Florida, Iowa, Missouri and Virginia. Entries were received from 28 states this year.
“There are no true losers,” Kinney said to the students. “When you write a book, there are no losers.”
MacInnes said her students “wrote a book based on a Dr. Seuss book: ‘What Pet Should I Get.’”
Children’s author Theodor Seuss Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, died in 1991. His wife found the book after his death, and it was published in 2015.
The students’ book starts with MacInnes reading the Dr.Seuss book to her students and then asking them to close their eyes and imagine what pet they would get. When they open their eyes, they discover they have turned into pets — monkeys, chicken, fish and others — and have to figure out how to change back into humans.
“If you can tell a story, you can write a story,” the group said, when prompted by Kinney.
MacInnes’ previous classes also used Skype to “hang out” with first lady Michelle Obama in 2013, former first lady Barbara Bush and Ann LePage in 2012, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2011, and to connect with 50 third-grade classrooms from every state in the country in 2010.
A panel of celebrity judges that included Peter H. Reynolds, children’s book author, illustrator, bookshop owner and founder of FableVision; John Schumacher, ambassador of school libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs; and Mrs. P selected the winners.
The classroom was given $500 in books and other prizes and “Classroom Pets” will be professionally illustrated by Robin Robinson and read by Mrs. P on her YouTube Channel, called Mrs. P Storytime.
MacInnes said she was beyond thrilled.