Her first of many planned books is called “The Secret of the Stolen Crops,” and encourages practice of the K and G sounds. While many children’s books focus on reading and then comprehension, LoMonaco’s book is meant to be read by an adult to help children practice their sounds. It comes with a page full of tips to encourage parents to ask their children specific questions during the story, which prompts them to work on those K and G sounds.
“I want children to understand,” LoMonaco said. “If a child has a language difficulty, a lot of their goals can be geared toward answering questions about stories. Sometimes their comprehension is low, so we read a book to them and gather information. It’s kind of like trying to make it a mystery book to have them guess: ‘Who do you think did it?’”
Reaction from the staff at Landmark has been positive. Principal Kelly Meyering hung up posters to promote the book to families and has been supportive of LoMonaco’s efforts from the start.
“We love to celebrate and highlight our incredible staff,” Meyering said. “As she's gone through the process to create her book it's been fun to see it go from an idea to a draft to the final product. I know our whole community wants to support her in any way we can.
“We are so proud and excited for Taylor. She is an asset to our Landmark team and supports our students, staff and community. It's been fun to see her passion for speech and language come outside of the classroom with her book. I know it takes a lot of time and commitment, and she's been so intentional about the whole process.”
Creating the book took one year, and LoMonaco said some parts were easier to stay excited about than others.
“It took me a lot longer than I thought it was going to. I loved working with the artists, I loved writing the books, I loved deciding where I wanted the characters to be, the colors. The business side of things, the legal things, a lot of the background stuff was the hardest for me.”
With much of that knowledge in place, LoMonaco said her next book will likely take about four months to complete. While she’s already making plans for the next book, her favorite part of the process has been interacting with students throughout the process.
“I had some Landmark kids draw some of the characters at the end to make a little dedication page for them. It’s been so fun.”
Congratulations on your first book, Taylor!
About Landmark Academy at Reunion
Landmark Academy at Reunion is a tuition-free, public charter school in Commerce City, Colorado, serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the National Heritage Academies (NHA®) network, which includes more than 100 tuition-free, public charter schools serving more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through high school across nine states. For more information, visit nhaschools.com.
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