LOGAN SQUARE — A monster anthology crafted by a group of fifth graders in Logan Square, complete with professional illustrations, is nearly ready for its debut.
You might describe it as frighteningly good.
The fifth graders from Logan Square's Brentano Math and Science Academy have been working on their 217-page book alongside the professionals and volunteers at 826CHI since September and will be celebrating its release at the Printer's Row Lit Fest June 11.
The book, "The Monster Gasped, OMG!" is an anthology of tales written by fifth, and a few fourth, graders at the school. It is undergoing final edits before it will be professionally bound and published this spring.
The book is no joke. Each student's story has been carefully crafted over a months-long process and nearly half of them are accompanied by Chicago-based artists and illustrators.
The final product is a glossy, high quality six-by-six-inch square book that will be available at the 826CHI's Wicker Park storefront and tutoring center as well as at local bookstores around Chicago.
The Young Authors Book Project is something that 826CHI produces each year in partnership with an individual CPS school resulting in a professionally published book. What makes this year's project different is that it involves fifth graders and their unbelievably creative imaginations.
Previous year's projects have focused on narrative journalism exploring positive social impact in Englewood and a book of more than 100 emotional personal narratives by 10th graders at Curie Metropolitan High School.
The monsters in this year's anthology draw from the students deep-rooted fears and desires.
The creations live on planets such as Glarth (which is lush, humid and has lakes as green as toxic slime), have dreams of dancing on Broadway, have fears of being called "phony" and a "fraud" and have 22 siblings.
Dlarim, fifth grader Joshua Parsio's monster who lives on Glarth, was slightly different from the rest.
Dlarim was a good monster — not ugly, gross, or big — because he cleaned himself up. That made the other monsters think he was weird. He had fewer limbs and weighed less than the other monsters, because he was smaller. That made him scared of the other monsters. He really wanted a friend that he could trust, but he couldn’t trust anyone — if they told the other monsters that he was a good, and who knows what they might have done? They might have put him into a special school to make him have a blank attitude.
"Some of them are very creepy and dark and mysterious and kind of twisted and fascinating…," said Abi Humber, communications and program manager at 826CHI. "There's a lot of shape shifting, a lot of time dimension hopping, a lot of time travel, a lot of monsters who are mad at their mom in their own way. It’s really good.”
826CHI spent 15 weeks visiting Mark Harlan’s fifth-grade class at Brentano, 2723 N. Fairfield Ave., to create the work.
The group started by reading "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou and the accompanying illustrations by Jean-Michel Basquiat for inspiration.
"There's a true excitement," Harlan said. "I don't feel like a relief [being done]. It's just an exciting thing that our work is really materializing."
Student Leodan Venegas said he enjoyed feeling like a “real author” during the project.
“I like reading because I can visualize things and then infer what happens next,” Leodan said earlier this year while working on his story. “For this, we got to use our imaginations. I liked creating a character who could eventually save the world.”
The illustrators and artists who agreed to participate in the project shared a similar excitement.
Logan Square-based illustrator Ryan Troy Ford has been volunteering at the creative nonprofit for about two years and jumped on the chance to participate.
Ford illustrated a story by Vanessa Benavides titled "Luna and the Battle For Preservation" about a Mermaid on a quest to find a mysterious person whose name she found on a necklace.
"I was like yeah, this is awesome," Ford said. "I can't believe a fifth grader wrote this."
Ford, a 27-year-old illustrator and graphic designer, spent about five hours on the art.
"I wanted to really put some time into it and make it special," Ford said. "I have to imagine seeing a full color vibrant illustration of their work by an actual illustrator is pretty exciting."
We present one of the 57 brilliant stories that you can find in the book before it launches in June.
The Thing That Came from Above
By Joshua Parsio, Grade 5
illustrated by Megan Pelto
Dlarim lived on the southern part of the planet Glarth. Planet Glarth was lush, humid, and had lots of lakes that were as deep as oceans and as green as toxic slime. All of the monsters were gross, ugly, slimy, and horrible. They had sharp teeth and they were tall as redwoods, strong as bulldozers, and scary. They had five arms, but it was hard to tell because of all of the slime on them. They were as fat as elephants and each had twelve eyes and seven legs.
Dlarim was a good monster — not ugly, gross, or big — because he cleaned himself up. That made the other monsters think he was weird. He had fewer limbs and weighed less than the other monsters, because he was smaller. That made him scared of the other monsters. He really wanted a friend that he could trust, but he couldn’t trust anyone — if they told the other monsters that he was a good, and who knows what they might have done? They might have put him into a special school to make him have a blank attitude. Then, he would not have been good or evil; helpful or unhelpful. He would not have had any feelings. Or, they might have brainwashed him to make him actually evil, and Dlarim did not want any of those things to happen.
Dlarim was working on making a spaceship to get to another planet to find a friend, but he couldn’t tell anyone, because they would have gotten suspicious.
“I can’t wait ‘til I'm done building this spaceship!” Dlarim excitedly whispered to himself.
Dlarim was almost done with the spaceship. It was big enough for only one living thing and its luggage to fit. It had large holes at the bottom for the fire to come out so it could fly. It had one window on the only door on the spaceship. VRRRR, BANG, BANG, VRRRR. He drilled in the last screw. Dlarim turned all the switches on.
“Lift off in 10 … 9 … 8 … 7 … 6 … 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1. Goodbye, planet Glarth!”
Dlarim laughed as the engines of the spaceship turned on, fire came out of its bottom, and it flew to who knows what planet.
The next thing he knew, he landed on a planet: Earth.
“Where am I?” Dlarim asked.
When someone saw him, she called the police. Two scientists named Sky and Jeremy were both very smart and had lab coats. Sky had curly short black hair and a below average height and weight. Jeremy had slick brown hair and an average height and weight. They’d found out about an alien on Earth.
“We have to get that monster!” Sky exclaimed.
“But how?” Jeremy asked.
“We have to find him and chase him down. We don’t know how fast he can run or how smart he is,” Sky answered. They had no idea. Dlarim had six legs and was as smart as Albert Einstein. The scientists tried to capture Dlarim and they chased him into my house.
When I saw him I was scared. I didn’t know what to do.
“What are you?” I gasped.
“I am Dlarim. I am from planet Glarth. Can I hide here?” he asked. “The scientists are trying to get me.”
“Yes,” I said. “For how long?”
“As long as it takes for the scientists to give up,” Dlarim answered.
“OK, but stay hidden from my mom. She will freak out if she sees you,” I warned him.
On the third night that he was there, the scientists kidnapped Dlarim and put him in a car. They almost made it to the lab when Dlarim used his laser eyes to escape. He started running home.
The scientists learned from their mistakes, so they made a cage out of metal that couldn’t be melted by any heat from Earth.
Dlarim’s laser eyes were out of this world, literally, so he escaped again.
The rover on Mars soon found a type of metal that could hold Dlarim.
So, when Dlarim and I were playing at the park, the scientists snuck up behind him and captured him. He tried to escape, but the metal successfully held him.
The scientists were about to give him shots when I came in and tried to help him escape. I tried to steal the key from Jeremy, but he kept it in his pocket and he put a lock on this pocket. I tried to break the metal cage, but that obviously didn't work if Dlarim could not escape. When I went out of the lab, a UFO came, along with another alien like Dlarim!
I went to go talk to him and he was a good alien like Dlarim of the same species from planet Glarth. His name was Hsoj. I found out that he was from the northern part of planet Glarth. That part was cold and gloomy, and it rained every day. Hsoj came to Earth because he thought he was the only good monster, too. Hsoj and I made a plan to help Dlarim escape. He wanted to help because he was a good alien too, and he thought it wasn't right for someone to lock an alien up to do tests. He distracted the scientists by running past them and having them chase him while I stole the key and helped Dlarim escape.
Three years passed as the scientists chased them down, but finally they gave up. After that, Dlarim and Hsoj came out of hiding and we all were friends. We went to school together and everybody heard about what happened. We played games. Not video games though, because with eight fingers on each hand, Dlarim and Hsoj would always win. We just did normal things that kids do, except that they are aliens.
Everything that happened after that was normal. Not really, because there was an alien living in my house… but you know what I mean.
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