Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Jan 12/00) - Grouchy ladybugs making promises not to throw rocks at Franklin or Arthur while they're getting out of bed may soon be leaping into classrooms from the imaginations of young students.

Exploring the wonderful world of books will be a top priority during the next two months at Leo Ussak elementary school in Rankin Inlet.

The latest in the school's theme-orientated learning program, Favourite Author, will be undertaken by kindergarten through Grade 4 students at the school.

School principal Cheryl Forbes says Favourite Author is another result of the brainstorming session by staff members to come up with a list of themes for this semester.

She says the staff have collected a wide variety of books so there will be plenty of material for students to choose from.

"There's a good chance we'll also have some groups trying their hand at working to write and illustrate a book for Scholastic Canada's Create-A-Book Contest which students from Inuglak school in Whale Cove won last year," says Forbes.

"In preparation for Favourite Author, we've sorted and catalogued all our books to make them that much easier for the kids to use."

Students will also benefit from every class in the school now having its own listening centre.

The kids will be able to pop in a tape, put on their headphones and follow along in the book as they listen to the story being read.

Nunavut's own Michael Kusugak will be one of the featured authors the kids will be studying.

Kusugak will be in good company as other featured authors include Robert Munsch, Marc Brown, Eric Carle and Paulette Bourgeois.

"The kids are going to learn that a book just doesn't appear," says Forbes. "It's a lot of hard work.

"Even though they're young, they'll also learn different authors have different styles."

A number of students helped construct a special bulletin board to mark the event and the school will be hosting a Literacy Night on Jan. 31, from 7-9 p.m.

Parents will be able to come to the school, see the books their kids are studying and have the students explain the stories to them.

"This project should really help the kids understand books more. Too often they will read a book and not have any idea who wrote it.

"Working with the books will also further enrich their language and reading skills."