The traditions of storytelling continues to influence the youth as students from the Southern Ute Indian Montessori Academy recently provided the Ignacio Community Library with their own original stories.

The young readers, Jade Ivey, Harmony Reynolds, Tamarius Roland, and Dominique Rael wrote and illustrated original stories relevant to their interests as part of a group of advanced readers. The students started with an interest survey where the ideas for their narratives were developed. Each story was completed with a ‘thank you’ page and short biography of the author.

The Purple Eruption by Tamarius Roland tells the tale about a volcano that erupts ice cream. Roland stated that his desire to see a volcano in real life resulted in the inspiration of his story.

Jade Ivey’s story titled More and More Sports, features themes of sportsmanship due to her fondness of soccer, basketball, and other activities.

Harmony Reynolds’ story, The Horse Who Ran Away, tells the tale about a horse running away from its habitat into a large world.  Reynolds said the idea of the story came from a more personal background involving her grandmother and her horses.

All About Hummingbirds was written and illustrated by Dominique Rael and features many informative notes and subjects regarding the many different breeds of hummingbirds. Rael loves all types of birds, which resulted in her telling this story.

The library humbly welcomed the stories to be put on display for visitors to gander at the influential work from the voices of youth.