Kids Share Newtown

Welcome to Newtown, Connecticut, as seen through the eyes of its children. It is a place with a flagpole in the middle of Main Street, and two-dollar movies at the old town hall. It is a place of afternoon sports practice, dance and music lessons, Scout meetings and playdates, and weekends filled with baseball games, Sunday school and hikes in wooded parks. It is a place where the start of summer is marked by the reopening of the local ice cream stand, where autumn means apple-picking and hay mazes, and where winter brings historic homes alive with dazzling lights. It is a place of wonder, of joy, of belonging and of promise. Above all, it is home. On December 14, 2012, when that familiar place of comfort was shaken and in danger of being cruelly redefined, many of us felt compelled to do what we could to help the community heal. For Kristina Applegate, who grew up in another small town just 20 minutes away from Sandy Hook Elementary School, it meant bringing her book-making workshop home to Connecticut. For her former high school classmates and newly-recruited volunteers, it meant coming together to reassure our children that their special place still exists. This book began as a nine-day after school program held in Newtown during April of 2013. Each afternoon, 27 children ranging in age from 6 to 12-many of them students at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and nearly all of them from the greater community-arrived at the Newtown Youth Academy to write stories, create illustrations, and ultimately have their work published in this book. Yet they did far more than that. Through a lighthearted curriculum carefully designed for them by a professional art therapist and an experienced teacher, the kids explored what was most important to them, what brought them comfort and what they might change if they could. They discovered new talents within themselves, and they forged new relationships. They shared a bit of their lives...even if they didn't realize it. The narratives and illustrations in this book tell of time travel, of hidden treasures, of super powers and of a world in which all creatures are happy, well cared for and safe. They are imaginative and funny and unfiltered, just like the kids who created them. We are thrilled to help Connecticut's children share their work, just as their counterparts in Asia and Latin America have done during past Kids Share Workshops. To read more about our program, please turn to page 92 or visit www.kidsshareworkshops.com.