Sharp (literary) Teeth

Maybe you know a seventh grader who’s writing skills are unnaturally, spookily sharp. Maybe you’ve seen some of the many posters around the school. Maybe you pay attention in Morning Meeting. Whatever is the case, you’ve probably heard about “Sharp Teeth,” a book of thirty different horror stories written and designed entirely by the seventh grade and Digital Design class respectively, with a number of illustrations by senior Alesia Brovtcyna.

“I thought it was really fun because I enjoyed writing my story. I think it’s a really cool concept to get this one fear . . . and then make a story,” says seventh grader Bridgette Stucky-Dorris when asked about her experience writing her story. 

Faculty Member Neil Barbour also commented on the process. “Over the summer, we read this Neil Gaiman anthology called ‘Unnatural Creatures,’. . . and really using that as a model text, we were able to understand how to craft suspense and how to examine humanity.”

Stucky-Dorris clearly understood this well.“[My idea] just kind of popped into my head one time . . . For me, it just came to me, and as I was writing it, my ideas changed,” she says. Stucky-Dorris also had thoughts about the format of “Sharp Teeth.” “I just thought it was really cool to have all our stories produced in one book, because if you want to read people’s works, you don’t have to go out and buy thirty different books.”

Sophomore Drake Spurlock was appreciative of the seventh graders’ efforts. “Big thanks to all the seventh graders and all the other people in the digital design class for doing this. There’s a lot of work, and it was a process over time.” And if it’s not obvious enough yet, Spurlock succinctly says, “Buy the book.”