First-graders' book on Sept. 12th published

KENNETT, Mo. -- Darlene Robertson says that on some days, the rut is the best place to be. On Sept. 12, it was the daily rut of life in Robertson's Southeast Missouri town that provided the stability her first-grade students needed in that insecure time after the terrorist attacks.

"Sept. 11 upset the routine of America, and these little children felt it," Robertson said. "That's why the rut was so important for us that day."

Those students, now second-graders at H. Byron Masterson Elementary School, wrote about their experience in a book titled, "September 12th ... We Knew Everything Would be All Right."

The book, which the children also illustrated, won the Kids are Authors contest sponsored by Scholastic Books.

Now Scholastic is publishing the book and distributing it nationwide.

When Robertson first heard of the contest, she began talking with her husband about topics for a book her students could write. They knew that a lot of children would be writing about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, so her husband suggested Sept. 12 as a topic.

So the idea for the book was borne, and in March, Robertson and her students began to recall what Sept. 11 and 12 were like -- how they had discussed what they saw on television, and how she assured them they were safe inside their classroom.

"That really stuck with them once we started writing the book," Robertson said in May, when she learned they had won the contest.

The book takes readers through the day after the attacks and how the students' daily routine was a comfort to them: The sun rose again, and the students traveled to school as usual. They still had homework. And two plus two still added up to four, they wrote in the book.

"On Sept. 12, our parents still tucked us in our warm, safe beds," they wrote. "We knew we would be all right because our parents said they loved us."