GINA B. GOOD / PVT Manse Elementary student poets pose in a kindergarten. Adults standing from left are: Evangeline Visser, principal; Brenda Gibbons, Pahrump community children?s librarian; Susan Wonderly, Pahrump Community Library director; Heidi Hughes and Ruthy Andresen, kindergarten teachers. Standing children are: Thomas VanLone, Carlos Estrada, Andrew Wood, Yamileth Aguilar, Violet Rowland-Schumacker, Teresa Leavitt, Jacob Padilla-Baird, and Colby Ratashak. Sitting children are: Chelsea Sprouse, Kylee Naujock, Mellisa Calderon, Kyle Schaffer, David Lefferts, Madison Cooper and Daniel Gomez. Not shown is Rion DaeGorn. Advertisement

It seems kids are getting more precocious every year.

Three-year-olds use computers, 4-year-olds can spout statistics on subjects their parents have barely heard of, and kindergarten students at Manse Elementary School will soon be published authors.

The students' poems will be published in a hard-cover anthology titled "A Celebration of Poets," and the students will participate in the Author's Extravaganza on April 25 at the Pahrump Community Library.

Since the young students can't yet write, each created a poem by telling their teachers, Ruthy Andresen and Heidi Hughes, how they felt about the subject.

The teachers wrote down the student's thoughts.

The children's favorite poetry topic was their moms. One student's poem was about her little brother, and one young poet chose meatballs as her topic. In fact, food in general was a popular topic, with eight food poems, ranging from apples to watermelon.

Apples beat out dad 4-2.

Chloe Beasley wrote about hide and go seek, Colby Ratashak wrote about bicycles, and Madison Cooper chose stars as a topic.

Not all 27 Manse students who entered the contest, sponsored by Creative Communication in Logan, Utah, won a place in the anthology. According to the organization, less than 50 percent of the thousands of poems submitted nationwide are selected for publication.

According to their teachers, however, all the budding poets had fun composing their poems and illustrating them.

The fact that 20 poems from Manse Elementary were selected places the school among the top 10 percent of schools entering the contest, based on the number and quality of the entries accepted.

It also means Manse qualifies to apply for a $250 language arts grant from Creative Communication.