The sky's the limit for creativity in Shirley Bowers Donak's 8th-grade reading class at West Middlesex.

The students were assigned to read a book and give a presentation to the class about it. The kids were given free reign as far as what type of presentation they wanted to give.

"I told the kids they had to present their books in some way, shape and form because they rarely get a chance to be creative," said Mrs. Donak, a school guidance counselor who is also teaching reading this year.

She said the project showed the kind of creativity kids have if they're allowed to display their inventiveness.

Students did everything from computer projects to making movies.

Ben Rzicznek read the book "Zoology," and turned part of it into a movie. Enlisting the help of his neighbors -- Shane Polleto, Erin Bowers and Adam Keller -- the group portrayed two reporters, an ape and a hunter for a humorous interpretation of the story.

Ryan Miller said he read a 230-page book about golf, and made an instructional video for beginning golfers.

Sarah Cunningham read the book "Harley Like Person" and did a play with her classmates that focused on a peer pressure situation at a party.

"The project was fun because you could add your own twist to the book," Sarah said.

Kayla Beck said she turned the play, "Time Stops for No Mouse" into a newscast complete with an introduction, a summary of the play about a watchmaker who is a mouse and a commercial for a product in the book.

Michael Bryan said he read a book about former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw and then created a Web site with pictures, statistics and links to other Web pages. His site can be viewed at www.geocities.com/mailman09/12.html.

Lauren Palmer said she thought the project was good because each student got to choose their own book and read something they are interested in. Lauren said she created a newspaper based on her book "Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever."

Other students gave presentations using pictures, Power Point presentations, mobiles and props to illustrate the stories they read.

After all of the presentations were complete the class held its own version of the Academy Awards. The kids nominated presentations and voted for which classmates would receive awards, Mrs. Donak said.

"They're reading, and they're reading something they're interested in," Mrs. Donak said of the project. "At the end (of the presentations) we all felt like we had read 30 books. It took a lot of work to do that."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Kristen Garrett at

kgarrett@sharonherald.com