![\"kris3\"](\"http:\/\/quantumnew.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/kris3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIndeed it is. Fedich, who went by Kristyn Pede (her maiden name) when she received her bachelor\u2019s degree in 2006 and then her master\u2019s in 2011 from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, capped off last summer by writing her book. Before school started at Mountain Villa School in the fall, part of the Allamuchy Township School District where she is a first grade teacher and reading specialist, Fedich settled in on their patio set on the deck to write.<\/p>\n
There was no computer, no iPad, no laptop. Fedich simply used a Mead notebook and a pen to write her book in about a week\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m old-fashioned,\u201d Fedich said of her approach.<\/p>\n
Maybe the way in which she puts her thoughts on paper is, but there\u2019s nothing old-fashioned about the illustrations or the lesson in the book, which centers around a shy starfish named Seamore who is worried about how he looks and about trying new things. He learns that with courage and confidence he can do anything he desires.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not bashing today\u2019s society, but I feel like the world today\u2019s kids are growing up in is more difficult than when I was young,\u201d Fedich, 30, said. \u201cThere are more challenges for them and they can be more self-conscious. I want them to know that it doesn\u2019t matter what they look like. All that matters is if they tried their best. I\u2019ve seen kids cry because what they\u2019ve done isn\u2019t perfect, but there is no reason to be perfect. I want them to know it\u2019s good to try new things. You might be good at it and you might like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fedich wrote the book to be geared toward children from kindergarten through second grade and hopes that teachers and guidance counselors will use it as part of their curriculum or to help kids understand what bullying is. She\u2019s already read it to her students and they\u2019ve read it to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey lose their football game at the end of the book,\u201d Fedich said. \u201cWhen my husband read it (before it was published), he said, \u2018Why did they lose?\u2019 I said, \u2018Because you don\u2019t have to win.\u2019\u00a0 Then the responses I got from friends and families and parents of students this year said they really liked the message. Life isn\u2019t all about winning.\u201d Although none of the names have a special connection to Fedich, she was seeking alliteration, hence the names Seamore the starfish, Rayna the ray, Sally the starfish and Eli the eel. And since she loves the ocean and starfish have always been her favorite animal, making those the main characters in the book were a given right from the start. But you can\u2019t help but wonder why Seamore isn\u2019t spelled the traditional way, Seymour.<\/p>\n \u201cSeamore is more phonetic for children,\u201d she said. \u201cStudents chunk up words in first and second grade, so it\u2019s easier for them to read and pronounce when it\u2019s spelled Seamore.\u201d<\/p>\n Fedich said writing a book has always been her dream, but she never was sure she could take on the challenge of not only writing the book, but self-publishing it (she did it through CreateSpace).<\/p>\n Stephanie Romano, Ed.D., ESU associate professor emerita of reading, never doubted Fedich\u2019s ability to go through the tedious process of writing a book.<\/p>\n \u201cShe always gave it 110 percent in the classroom and her projects were exemplary,\u201d Romano said. \u201cShe always put more than was necessary into them. She was passionate about children\u2019s literature. And it was obvious she had both the knowledge and the persistence that you need to write a book and that\u2019s truly what it is. I\u2019m really happy for her. It\u2019s just so good to see these young teachers who are carrying the torch for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Fedich said her ESU professors, such as Romano, gave her the extra confidence she needed to start the arduous journey.<\/p>\n \u201cI had professor [Victoria] Principe (a former part-time instructor in ESU\u2019s reading department) and I loved her and all the knowledge she had,\u201d Fedich said. \u201cShe was someone in the back of my mind the whole time. Dr. [Jesse] Moore (professor emeritus and former chair of the reading department) definitely instilled the love to continue reading and writing. Dr. [Mary Beth] Allen (professor of reading) and Dr. [Rhonda] Sutton (assistant professor and chair of reading), too. And Dr. Romano was just a beautiful light during my time at ESU. She was just such a positive influence.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly what Fedich is hoping her book will be to all the children who read it.<\/p>\n NOTE: The website for Fedich\u2019s book is seamorethestarfish.com<\/a>. Seamore is available directly on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. The links are on the website. To pose questions to the author, email her at info@seamorethestarfish.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Inspired By Her Time at ESU, Alumna Writes Children\u2019s Book Filled with Lessons About Growing Up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,20,22,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-esu-success-stories","category-facebook","category-news-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9777"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9828,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9777\/revisions\/9828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n