CLIFFSIDE PARK - After nearly six months of hard work, three Cliffside Park students have completed a children’s book entitled "Daddy’s Heart, My Heart, The Purple Heart," about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in soldiers, which has been published through Amazon books.
Angela Kohout, 12, Madeline Murillo, 12, and Elizabeth Sagi, 11, under the supervision of sixth grade teacher Michael Ryan, worked together on creating a story both honoring veterans and shedding light on an often misunderstood mental disorder.
At the Board of Education meeting on Oct. 21, Kohout and Murillo presented their completed book to Superintendent Michael Romagnino and the members of the board. Sagi recently moved to Germany and was unable to attend the presentation.
The two students explained in a brief speech how this story came about.
"Five months ago, our sixth grade teacher Mr. Ryan gave us an option (in class), to either continue writing lots of essays or write one book, well you know which one we chose," Kohout said.
Originally, the students planned to write a book on bullying but, it was Sagi who came up with this idea after the three girls attended the Cliffside Park Memorial Day parade. She mentioned a friend of her cousin suffered from PTSD after returning home from his deployment in the military.
"Most kids and some adults in the world have never heard about this disorder. But it is very serious and affects many people who come back from serving our country. I wanted to show people this problem and also show my respects to those people who give their lives for our country and come back with this disorder," she wrote in an email.
Ryan explained that this assignment quickly developed into a community project as more and more people came forward to help the girls with their story.
"I started this project with the students because of their extremely gifted writing abilities. I gave them a simple direction; write a story with lots of figurative language, and boy did they deliver. Words cannot express how proud I am of these students," said Ryan.
Tony Frato, director of School Security and an author of two published books, also helped the girls and gave them advice about how to get their book published.
School 3 teachers Jill Guider and Judi Panzella made suggestions to improve their story along with John Ryan, a veteran, and Carol Cota, who was a teacher in the school district for more than 25 years as well as board president.
However, it was the Cliffside Park American Legion Commander Carl Raincourt who helped the three students meet Korean War Veteran Richard Allen.
"Most importantly is that we also got help from Mr. Raincourt who loved our story and helped us locate Korean War Veteran Richard Allen who loaned us his Purple Heart for out photo shoot," said Murillo.
Over the summer the students got together with Ryan, School 3 secretary Ms. Dragone and teacher Craig Nichols to take the photos for their book.
Overall, these three girls could not be happier with the finished product. Although they are not even teenagers yet, their love of writing and understanding of this often misunderstood illness helped them create a book that can be read by children of any age.
As the girls passed out copies of their finished product and signed each book, Romagnino congratulated them on creating such a professional-looking book.
The three students agreed to donate all proceeds from their book sales to School 3.
CLIFFSIDE PARK, NJ — Cliffside Park sixth grade teacher Michael Ryan helped three former students self-publish a book on a fictional family dealing with PTSD.
“We wanted to write something to honor these veterans. Mental issues are still not seen as real issues,” said author Angela Kohout, who wrote the fictional novel with fellow 12-year-old Madeline Murillo and 10-year-old Elizabeth Sagi.
It originally started as a classroom assignment. After Memorial Day, the trio changed their focus from bullying to PTSD. Once the project developed, Ryan and others saw its potential. He sought help from veterans with the American Legion Post 126, faculty, and others like Tony Frato, a Cliffside Park resident self-published author.
“Angela - her descriptive language was really impressive. Elizabeth creates characters that you can really fall in love with and connect to, and Maddie has a way of linking it all together,” said Ryan. The three often worked simultaneously in Google Docs. They conducted their own research, spent two days in the summer taking pictures for the book, and worked on revising the text.
"The most challenging part was correcting all of the errors," stated Elizabeth Sagi in an email. "But the hard work paid off," she stated.
They were inspired by a relative’s friend who had similar experiences but they wanted to bring forward a story of hope.
"Math and science are so structured, but (Ryan) took them out of the classroom. I saw the joy and excitement in his eyes. They got it done because of him," said Frato.
Local Korean War veteran Richard Allen of the Cliffside Park American Legion Post 126 loaned the group his Purple Heart so they could photograph it.
“They not only have to deal with everything during their time serving, but they have to deal with the scars after they serve,” Ryan said.
“When I gave my dad - a Vietnam veteran - a copy, he smiled at me and he read it again,” said Ryan.
The book went live on Amazon.com on Oct. 16. They sold 150 copies for $11.99 each, and ordered another 100 more. All proceeds go toward Cliffside Park Elementary School No. 3.
