Principal Tristan Komlos, 4th grade teacher Kim Griffin, author Marcy Winograd

Lola Zola and the Lemonade Crush authors Marcy Winograd and Jackie Hirtz want to thank the wonderful 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students who participated in the Lola Zola Readers Theater at John Muir Elementary School in Santa Monica Monday morning.

Students cheered “LO-LA LO-LA LO-LA” during Lola Zola’s speech for Sixth Grade Class President, showing full appreciation for Lola’s promise to extend recess five minutes for rehydration.

A few boos, however, could be heard coming from the friends of Lola’s campaign rival —  Buck or Slime Bucket. When the Buckster (played by various talented students) sauntered over to the imaginary podium to deliver his speech, he flashed an impish grin at the crowd before promising to cut down on his farting during music lessons.

Co-authors Marcy and Jackie appreciated the excellent questions raised by fifth graders wanting to know more about the writing process.  Oh, and the lemon juggling was fantastic, with one student juggling two lemons at once.

Before the morning was over, students sipped lemonade, ate delicious chocolate chip cookies (thank you Melissa Tarsky, Sarah and Elizabeth’s mom) and wrote in Lola’s diary:

“Lola, you seem like a very great personality and a great reader.”

It’s true, Lola Zola is a great reader. In fact, she’ll even be able to read this entry after we translate it into Pig Latin!

Sarah, 3rd Grade

Authors Jackie Hirtz and Marcy Winograd with 3rd grade teacher Joe Ramirez

Thank you also, 3rd grade teacher Joe Ramirez, librarian Diane Greenseid, the 4th and 5th grade teachers including Kim Griffin, and principal Tristan Komlos.