First-time author recognized by Board

Published 6:27 pm Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Susannah Noblin of Brantley may only be nine years old, but she’s already accomplished something that most people will never do – publish a book.

Susannah is in the fourth grade at Brantley School; she is also in the gifted education program. As part of her application to be in the gifted program, Susannah had to submit a work product; for her, it was taking a character she had already created and placing it in a familiar setting.

“She has notebooks filled with drawings, stories, and notes,” Kim Noblin, Susannah’s mother, said. “When we talked about different ideas for her work product, she decided to do something with Lemon Elvis, and the book just came from there.”

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“Lemon Elvis at the Grocery Store” is the name of Susannah’s book, a setting that would be very familiar to her especially since her grandfather, Charles Sasser, owns the Dixieland Food Store in Brantley.

“Lemon Elvis has to go through the grocery store, and he tells kids what is healthy to eat and what’s not,” she explained.

The fourth grader took pictures of her main character in different locations throughout Dixieland, and then arranged the layout and design of the book the way she wanted it using mypublisher.com, a computer software program that allows students to create their own finished products. The 22-page hardback book can be found in the libraries of Brantley School, Luverne Elementary, and Highland Home School. On the back of the book is a picture of Susannah with her grandmother Maxine Sasser.

Ann Head is her gifted ed teacher at BES.

So what does a young author naturally want to be when she grows up?

“I want to be a farmer,” she said, “and I also want to write books.”

Susannah is the daughter of Sammy and Kim Noblin.