Becker Primary School first grader Crosby Spear has been getting a lot of attention for a book he wrote, illustrated and then presented on video from his living room couch.

It is entitled, The Boy Who Missed School.

Crosby’s teacher, Lauren Pauley, encouraged her class to work on writing a book if they had some extra time after their daily assignments were completed.

Crosby jumped at the chance.

“Even though it doesn’t make one of his favorite subjects, Crosby has always seemed to enjoyed writing,” says Crosby’s mom, Jessica.

“I remember at his pre-school conferences his teacher told us that he would spend most of his ‘choice time’ in the writing center area.”

Crosby decided to write the book for fun and asked his mom to record him reading it and send it to his teacher. The Spear family also shared it with some family friends and it seems to have caught a lot of people’s attention.
“After he began writing the book, he told me he wanted to be the illustrator as well,” said Jessica. “A term I’m sure he hears at school often.”

Crosby’s book goes as follows;

One day, my mom was watching the governor talk on TV (school is closed). After he was done talking, my mom told me there would be no school for a while.
At first, that made me very happy. I could sleep in and stay home and play all day. Yippee!
But after a couple days, I was sad. I miss going to school.
I miss my teachers.
I miss math.
I miss my friends. I miss phy-ed.
I miss everything about school and I hope to go back soon.

“Yes, math and phy-ed are my favorite classes,” said Crosby. “Because in phy-ed you are able to get exercise which is good for you and math, I am very good at.”

“When I mentioned to him that he could spend some time writing a book one day, I wouldn’t have expected he’d write about how he was feeling,” said Jessica. “I know he’s not alone, lots of kids can relate to missing school. I was happy he could share his story with others.”

Crosby’s parents are Jessica and Lonnie Spear and he has two older sisters in Macy (ninth grade) and Chloe (sixth grade). The family lives in Becker.