Schoolkids write Jamaica history book

From the Daily News:

BY THE TIME they enter high school, a group of Queens middle school students will be published authors.

More than 30 Aquinas Honor Society students at the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica are putting the finishing touches on their latest book, which chronicles the history of their school's neighborhood. The honor society has written four other books since 2005.

The group of sixth, seventh and eighth graders has been diligently working since June to compile hundreds of historical photos and facts about area landmarks and celebrities. The finished product, "Images of America: Jamaica," is set to be published early next year.

"It took a lot of work," said Kimberly Ramcharitar, 11, who researched the Rialto, Hillside and Savoy movie theaters with fellow sixth-grader Gabrielle Hollant.

Each student researched one subject and wrote a detailed caption to accompany a corresponding photo. Subjects ranged from jazz legend Illinois Jacquet to the history of Jamaica Ave.

The first four chapters were compiled over the summer by students, who gathered at a community center at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, sometimes with Queens historians.