Book About A Tomato Is Teaching Children Tolerance
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Some Cobbs Creek fourth-graders are now published authors, thanks to their winning entry on the subject of tolerance.
Here was the challenge from the National Youth Foundation, said executive Director Sophia Hanson.
"We said, interpret the word 'tolerance' and what it means to you," Hanson explained, "and write us a book with illustrations."
The book by Bryant Elementary teacher Linda Graham's students was called Fridge Files.
"As you go through with Tomato, he's trying to decide if he's a fruit or a vegetable," Graham said. "Because he doesn't really identify with one particularly, but also feels excluded a little bit from both."
Celebrity judge Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks selected Fridge Files as the winner from among hundreds of entries, to the delight of 9-year-old Kamonie Freeman-Johnson.
"I think he liked it because it was about bullying," said Kamonie.
Hicks says he liked Fridge Files' four alternate endings.
"Each story really hits your heart and had a meaning behind it," he said.
The eight winning authors each won bound copies of their book.