French Lemons Take the Screen at The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival
- Daisy Waid
- Apr 22
- 1 min read
Earlier this month, The Children's School's 6th grade class, the French Lemons, had their film adaptation of The Mona Lisa Vanishes selected for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival and screened at the Harold Washington Library Center. The festival is an annual event in which young filmmakers create short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books. The best submissions are shown at special screenings in cities across the country. The French Lemons' film earned a glowing review on the festival's website.
The project was classic TCS from start to finish. Students read the book closely, discussed its themes, identified key scenes, wrote their own script, built props, and brought the whole thing to life through acting, costuming, and production.
Somewhere along the way, it was discovered that The Mona Lisa Vanishes isn't actually a Newbery Medal winner - it's by a Newbery-winning author, but the book itself didn't take home the prize. The festival judges included the film anyway, writing that the work was "so fantastic" they couldn't leave it out.
The moment captures something essential about learning at TCS. When students are genuinely curious and personally invested, the work takes on a life of its own - and sometimes finds an audience beyond the classroom. We couldn't be prouder of our French Lemons. Watch the film for yourself at the link below.
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