Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 4-6

LOCAL VOICE Manhattan 5th-grader gets author's attention A HQk fiftL any Word Wall words thai JF- PK II fgwied to be -wS-' Jb HttLok for words that do no! 1, ft jBj JHp HBjW'' Try other spelling pa JflfjjvJB Mi I wEi ee il the words miJL BM, By Ginger Brashinger Daily Southtown A writing assignment for 5th-grade students at St Joseph Catholic School in Manhattan resulted in more than high marks for one student. Samantha Mate, an 11-year-old aspiring writer, had no idea that her teacher, Eileen McLaughlin, planned to send the essay invitations with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" "It's really difficult to motivate children to write," McLaughlin said. "You're competing against many factors outside of the classroom" McLaughlin thought she would level the playing field by telling students they could invite celebrities if they chose. She secretly sent the essay invitations with hopes of some positive responses. Samantha, who said she "doesn't do celebrities because I don't know them that well," chose to invite Mark Cheverton, author of two series of books for young readers about the "unofficial adventures" characters have in the video game "Mi-necraft." Cheverton's "Gameknight999" series was ranked ninth on The New York Times best-seller list in February 2015, and Samantha said she had just finished reading the series.

She decided to invite Cheverton to dinner. Samantha's essay invitation painted a picture for Cheverton of what Thanksgiving Day at her grandmother's house with her parents, Ed and Erica Mate and her siblings Oliver, 14; Gina, 13; Ben, 8, and Lucy, 7, would be like should he decide to attend. Several weeks later, McLaughlin told an unsuspecting Samantha that she had heard from Cheverton, and he was impressed with Samantha's writing skills. "It's just the way her writing flows She started off immediately describing the setting and for that to come from an 11-year-old child without being directed is a gift," McLaughlin said. "I believe he saw that in Samantha's writing also." She told Samantha that Cheverton offered to hold a creative writing session with St.

Joseph's 5th through 8th grade students using Skype. "I was excited, but I didn't know what a Skype was, so I had to ask some of my friends," Samantha said. "When they told me, I got really, really excited." During the session last month, Cheverton shared writing tips for would-be young authors and revealed that he had over 250 rejections before his books became a success. His message, Samantha said, was to never give up. "I really wanted the advice because for GINGER BRASHINGERDAILY SOUTHTOWN Left to right: St.

Joseph Catholic School 5th-grade teacher Eileen McLaughlin and her student Samantha Mate. Samantha is holding a boxed set of the "GameKnight999" series, a gift from the author Mark Cheverton. Samantha invited Cheverton to Thanksgiving dinner as part of a writing assignment. "I was excited, but I didn't know what a Skype was, so I had to ask some of my friends." Samantha Mate about bullying. Samantha said Cheverton told the students about his son's devastating experience with cyberbullying and how he used his books to help his son realize the bullying was not his fault, but rather the result of the bullies' own personal problems.

Samantha, who said she has been bullied "several times" in the past, added the advice Cheverton gave to the students to ignore the bullies was how she handled the problem Besides, she has better things to do than let others bring her down. She's becoming a writer to watch. Her writing skills recently received another boost when McLaughlin surprised Samantha with the news that her poem, "The North Pole," was selected for publication by Creative Communication, a company that publishes anthologies several times a year of young writers' works, according to Samantha's success may be a sign that her decision to pursue writing as a possible career is the right one. But recognition or not, Samantha, is following her heart. "I've been thinking of different things over the years and they've all changed except for writing," Samantha said.

"I've always wanted to do that" a long time, have wanted to be an author because I really enjoy writing, so when he was talking about that I was listening very intently," Samantha said. "It helped." Samantha discovered that she and Cheverton also shared strong feelings.