Dunn Elementary School student author flashes creativity by authoring 3 books

As Andrew Hernandez looks through one of the three books he’s recently created, the budding author pauses for a moment to think about the accomplishment.

“I feel proud,” Hernandez, a third-grade student at Dunn Elementary School in the Rialto Unified School District, responded. “I feel like not giving up. I feel like I’m going to be a smart kid!”

Of course, he is! Hernandez’s three books — “Animal helpers,” “Denzel and his cleats,” and “My favorite holiday” — are proof that he is already a super smart and very creative student. 

He created the books using the online “Create-A-Book” tool by Footsteps2Brilliance. 

Footsteps2Brilliance is a comprehensive, bilingual early education program that provides high-quality literacy content and tools for students. The company’s “Create-a-Book” feature allows students, like Hernandez, the ability to write, edit, print, and email books using words and artwork from books they have read. 

With the feature, Hernandez was able to merge words and pictures to generate fully formed stories.

As an example, in his story “Animal helpers,” Hernandez writes about dogs helping people paired with pictures of man’s best friend. In the story, Hernandez wrote: “When people feel sad a dog can be a good friend and companion. A dog can be a good friend to humans.”

Just like professional authors, Hernandez said the blank page felt a little intimidating at first, but he worked through it. He credited his mom, Cinthia Hernandez, for helping him generate ideas for the stories. 

“I didn’t really know what to do at first,” Hernandez said. “When my brain came up with some ideas, I just put it in the story.”

Simple as that! 

Hernandez is excelling as a third-grade student in Michele Horner’s class at Dunn Elementary School. Horner said she wasn’t surprised to see her student flourish as an author. He displays that type of creativity regularly in class. 

“Andrew is an exceptional student in many ways, but his love for learning, his wide range of interests, and his love for reading and writing make him extraordinary,” Horner stated. “Andrew decided to start creating books on Footsteps2Brilliance because he loves reading and enjoys using the online tools. He loves to see what sort of things you can add to the backgrounds to make his own stories great. He is a creative young man and crafting these books allows him the chance to use his creativity, be artistic, and learn all at the same time.”

His teacher is not the only one to recognize his accomplishment. Footsteps2Brilliance provided a certificate of recognition from “Detective Sherlock Mouse,” the Footsteps2Brilliance mascot, in honor of Hernandez’s accomplishment. 

Dunn Elementary School Principal Mario Caranza praised both Hernandez and Horner for their awesome work. 

“Ms. Horner is an inspiring and dedicated teacher with some exceptionally creative students like Andrew!” Caranza said. “I appreciate her support of Andrew and her endeavors to make Dunn Elementary a place of opportunity and academic success. It is a pleasure working with Ms. Horner and watching her motivate and influence students on a daily basis.”

While Andrew has plans for more books in the near future, he doesn’t think he’ll remain an author forever. Andrew wants to become a police detective.   

“I want to be a police detective because I love solving mysteries and trying to figure things out,” Hernandez said. “I think that would be a fantastic job because I can help people, solve crimes,  and protect people from other bad people.”