English teacher Jay Rehak and 30 of his students at Whitney Young Magnet High School just finished a very cool project announced today. The class co-wrote and published their first crowd-sourced novel, 30 Days to Empathy.
It’s not about teenage vampires (bummer), but it does follow the sullen, unsympathetic Jake Holomann. The kid sounds like he's basically a jerk—until, in a plot twist, he finds himself living a day in each of his classmates' lives. Each of those chapters was written by a separate student in Rehak's senior class. The authors shared revisions via a Google Doc, and published the manuscript through Amazon's CreateSpace.
As for the quality of the writing, the students are convinced they have a hit on their hands. According to one contributor, the multi-author concept was "such a genius idea." Another writer says, "It's a good book, too. We've got some talent." Want to see for yourself? It's $10 on Amazon.