Most importantly, Person wanted to make sure her students found that one book that would spark their journey into reading, which she believed Mourning's series would provide. Most books can be difficult to connect with the curriculum if the students don't connect with them. Mourning also has a curriculum to help teachers learn how to increase students' knowledge of the language art standards through his books. She had followed Mourning's career on Twitter and was so impressed she reached out to him. To halt the decrease in these numbers, Person wanted to find an author who wrote stories that her students could relate to their own experiences. Reading Scores: Third-grade reading scores drop 6% in Santa Rosa, 3% in Escambia from 2019 Officials say they suspect a lot of the impact could have been due to COVID-19 and remote learning. Years later when she became a principal, she wanted to bring authors in to interact with students for the impact it would have on them and their reading habits.Ĭurrently in Escambia County, kindergarten readiness scores have decreased from 48% to 42% and the reading proficiency of third graders have dropped to 53%, which is 3% less than it was in 2019. The day was special for Shona Person, principal of Montclair Elementary School, who had the importance of reading instilled in her when she was young. Montclair purchased over 200 books for the students and he was able to sign every one of them, as well as hand out shirts. 28, Mourning visited Montclair Elementary School, where students from second through fifth grades were able to read the first book of the series. Now Mourning is the author of the Crunchy Life series where he tells stories, in his view, of the 'real side of the world' and what kids are going through. After college, he became an elementary school teacher and when he realized his stories could make an impact for children, he decided to get into the publishing business to create his own children's books. He decided to continue this path in writing as he played college football at University of Connecticut and majored in English. Inspiring the youth: Pensacola chorus teacher looks to create safe haven, spark talent with Music Academy 'I had a house full of adults that just did their own thing and I was in trouble in school so much that I didn't really have a chance for teachers to even take a look at the writing that I was doing.'īuddy Reading Program: Brain power and confidence: The wonder that happens when one child reads to another 'It was really a way for me to just get any of the frustration or any of the ideas that I had in my head just out, because I didn't have a lot of people that cared to listen to me when I was a little kid,' Mourning said. For him, these moments of writing stories and characters were therapeutic.

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