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UPPER FREEHOLD: ‘Historical detective’ enthralls students

Eight Stone Bridge Middle School students won a PTA-sponsored historical story contest that earned them a pizza lunch in the school library with author Jim Murphy, a two-time Newbery Honor Book and Robert F. Siebert International Book Award winner for his stories that make events in American history come alive for young readers. From left are sixth-graders Nick Stagnitti and Tommy Krosnowski, eighth-grader Michael Gagliardi, fifth-grader Carly Roche, Mr. Murphy, seventh-grader Adrianna Amaro, fifth-grader Kaileigh McLaugh´lin and sixth-graders Mari Kay Hannon and Sara Gutter. The Stone Bridge winners wrote about the bubonic plague pandemic in medi´eval Europe, slavery in America, Rome, the Irish potato famine, World War II, the American Revolution and Vietnam. (Staff photo by Joanne Degnan)