New York City Public School students become authors

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- It is not easy to get published, but several dozen New York City Public School students can now call themselves authors.  

They celebrated at a book signing at the Strand Bookstore on Saturday in Union Square. 

All the student authors are enrolled in the New York Edge after-school program. Through the organization’s Book Publishing Program, students strengthened their storytelling skills and collaborated with award-winning children’s book author Jesse Byrd to craft stories based on their personal experiences with diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

New York Edge CEO Rachael Gazdick tells PIX11 News "What's so important for us at New York Edge, we ignite kids' intellectual curiosity, we bring reading in, in a different way, and also writing." 

Babacar Deme, 12, tells PIX11 News "At the start, we didn't think we'd want to do it because it's probably going to be boring, but then as we put more effort, and we kept going on and going, the book started to come along and be fun for us." 

Stephan Codrington,10, who wrote "Four Friends: Beach Day at the Museum", tells PIX 11 News "I feel great and the reason I feel great is because mostly all my friend were involved, and I was involved, and this would be the first time I would actually make a book and be an author." 

The Saturday event kicked off Read Across New York Edge Week.