JAY – Fourth-graders celebrated their rise to authors Friday with the unveiling of their newly published book, “Marvelous Maine.”

Jay Elementary School students researched special features of the state, wrote about them and drew illustrations to match what they thought would best showcase the topic.

Teachers Nancy Anctil, Tammy Deering and Donna Labbe held celebrations in their classrooms with students, friends and family.

The book had been kept under wraps until Friday.

The children dedicated their masterpiece to the elementary school. The cover had an outline of the state of Maine with individual pictures of the students in each class within the boundaries.

They wrote about Mount Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, Moosehead Lake, the largest lake, Milton Bradley, a native inventor, the chickadee, the state’s bird, and Maine novelist Stephen King.

Parents paid the $14.95 for each book and those who opted not to still have a chance to bring the book home with them for a review.

“It pulled out the creative spark in them,” Labbe said of the students’ creations.

Students explained the process and how they used a planning guide to create their parts.

“It’s nice,” Aline Purington, grandmother of Morgan White, said as she looked over the book.

White’s story was about apples. She featured a large apple in the illustration and smaller apples and landscape traits.

“I thought about a big apple, hills, little apples and trees,” White said.

Jose Diaz read his story about the Appalachian Trail, the national scenic trail, detailing the miles it is in each state.

The trail extends from Maine to Georgia, he said, and it is estimated about 1 million people walk it each year.

“I wanted to make the Appalachian Trail come alive,” Diaz said. “I decided to make a man walking and have birds and a sign saying, ‘to Georgia,'” Diaz said.

Chelsea Waite also wrote about the trail.

“I think it was fun because we could color and draw and put it in a book,” she said.

Jeremy Black, a grandfather of one student, said he learned something new.

“I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know Milton Bradley was born in Maine,” Black told Labbe’s class.

Student Jason St. Pierre wrote about Maine novelist, King.

Though he hasn’t read any of the books yet, he did learn a lot about King and that he wrote more than 300 stories, St. Pierre said.

Trevor Doiron, editor of the Jay Elementary News, also wrote about King.

“I learned a lot (King) started a high school newspaper and also edited a newspaper,” St. Pierre said.