South Fentress Elementary Student Has Book Published

A South Fentress Elementary School student is now a published author after winning the nationwide “Share Your Story” competition with her novel titled, “The Burger.”

“So, this burger from Tennessee, he goes to New York, meets a pizza named Pepper, they become friends, and travel the world.”

That’s 10-year-old Reese Smith, who competed along with her sister, Sadie. Their mother, Whitney Smith said the two are avid writers and both intend to become professional authors.

“We are very excited,” Whitney Smith said. “She and her sister Sadie write books all the time. Every week, they’ve got a new book that they’ve written and they give them away to teachers or friends.”

Whitney Smith said the family will travel to Fayetteville, Georgia on May 18 to see the grand unveiling of the hard-cover book with illustrations from a professional artist. She said the event will include a book signing, and copies will be put up for sale, with all of the proceeds going to the author.

“Writing is not something unusual for them, but to see all the work that they put into a book and then to see this reward from it, we’re very excited,” Smith said.

Reese Smith said she had a lot of fun writing the book and looks forward to starting her next one. She said she was filled with excitement when she found out her book had been selected as the contest winner.

South Fentress Elementary School Reading Ambassador Belinda Payne said she is extremely proud of her student.

“I have never done anything like this at school,” Payne said. “Now, we’ve had teachers who will make books out of things from their class and then they send them in and get them bound together and give them to their students, but this is the first time that we’ve had a student to, like, have a book that’s going to be published.”