HARWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AUTHOR VISIT

HARWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Author Visit

September 29/03

Kindergarten and grade one’s were led into the library and seated in neat rows in front of the display table. There was a little bit of shuffling, some shoe lace tying and a lot inquisitive looks. Another author visit was about to begin.

More than six weeks before I met grade two teacher Mrs. Ward, at The Cherryville Festival of The Arts. After looking over my books she asked, “I assume we have your books in our library?”

I replied with, “I don’t know, which school are you with?”

“Harwood Elementary in Vernon.”

I told her that I was planning on visiting the Vernon schools this coming school year. She then proceeded to write down not only her name and phone number, but the name of the school’s librarian and his phone number.

Mom and I had just been discussing how far into the school year we should wait before beginning our phone calls. As I spoke with Mrs. Ward, Mom nudged me and said, “Ask her when to start calling.” Like the obedient daughter I am, I did just that.

Today, we would have to wait for the second session to begin before Mrs. Ward would bring her class in along with the other grades two and threes.

In the first session we did have a special guest or two. A lady who worked at the bank in Lumby, she’s since been transferred to Kelowna, who has purchased both my children’s books for her children were among our special guests. Her son Eli has wanted to meet me ever since hearing The Rocking Chair Rescue but he attends Harwood in the morning kindergarten class. So his mom brought him back to school for our afternoon visit along with Sarah, his little sister. Eli and Sarah brought their copies of my books with them, it was wonderful to see that they [the books] are certainly being read. I could tell because of the wear and tear on the poor covers. I never thought I’d be happy to see my books in that shape, but it was wonderful!

Our other special guest, I would learn later, was Kristin Froneman, a reporter from the Vernon Morning Star paper. Having e-mailed her prior to the visit and not hearing back, I was delighted to know that she had made it.

After Mr. Taylor introduced me, I spoke to the children for a few minutes then I asked Mr. Taylor if he would like to read The Rocking Chair Rescue to the children while sitting in the rocking chair. He kindly obliged.

We always set up some of the original illustrations from the book for the children to see. Although not everyone could see the illustrations, Mom handed a teacher sitting on the opposite side of the group, another copy of the book. She then held it up for the children to see.

After the story, there were the usual questions and answers. It never ceases to amaze me, there are always new questions. For instance, one boy asked, “Why did you put yellow around the rocking chair in the book?”

I had to stop for a minute and think what he was referring to. Then it hit me, he was referring to the page after the rocking chair had been rescued and we cleaned it, after which it was “sparkly.” While the book was being illustrated I asked our illustrator if he could make the chair look “clean and sparkly.” So he set the chair on a yellow outlined area, hoping to reflect “sparkly.” And as it says in the book, “If a chair can be sparkly at all,” this is how we showed it.

Another question was in regards to the dinky toys mentioned in the story, a girl wanted to know what color they were. Boy, talk about having to use my memory.

Soon the first session was over and the second session was about to begin. In the second group Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Davidson each brought in their class of grade two’s, and Mrs. Munk and Mrs. Burns brought their classes of grade three’s in. Now we really had a houseful.

Since these children had probably not heard either of my books, we decided to have Mr. Taylor read The Rocking Chair Rescue, which explains who Davey and Kathy are, to the second group as well.

The children paid very close attention and after the story was finished, questions and answers once again followed. I was a little taken aback by one, “Did you get arthritis from the rocking chair?”

Not quite sure how to answer that, I explained briefly that no one really knows for sure how anyone gets arthritis. However, I did assure her that I did not get it from the rocking chair.

Once again my age became an issue, not quite sure why kids want to know how old I am. I told the young lady asking the question that I wasn’t 50 yet but I had seen 40. I’m not sure why I don’t tell them how old I am. Maybe I will the next time someone asks. But we’ll see how that goes.

I’m getting used to having the teachers ask some questions, and yesterday was no exception. However one teacher along with her question also had a comment that we found interesting. Some of the children had been asking if the man who had thrown the rocking chair out ever wanted it back. This teacher mentioned that she had lived in Germany and it was customary for people to recycle their furniture. They would put out an old couch or chair or what ever, and anyone who was in need of a couch or chair would just help themselves. Being of German background I guess my brother and I were just keeping a German custom without knowing it.

One child came up with a unique question and that was, “Were you a cartoon?”

I wasn’t quite sure what to say to that nor was I sure how to answer the question. After asking some of my own questions and with the teachers help, we concluded that if we had used real pictures in the book it wouldn’t have been as interesting as making Davey and Kathy into cartoon characters. So I guess, my answer would now be, “Yes, I am a cartoon.”

Near the end of the session Mr. Taylor asked the children how many would be interested in checking out a copy of my books. Almost every hand in the room went up so he decided he had better purchase a few copies.

With that I was given a warm, rousing round of applause and another author visit had been successfully concluded. But that was not quite the end of our visit.

While Mom was packing up and I was writing out the invoice, Mrs. Borden from a grade one class of the first session, came to check on something. Her class had gone back to their room and was doing their own illustrations of what they remembered from the story. She said she had to come back and see the red convertible car that some of the children had mentioned. And sure enough after thumbing through the book she saw the red car they had been talking about. This was also the first time that Mom had noticed the car. Well at least the story will never be old …

We had another visitor while we were getting ready to go. During the first session I had been asked about the name of the publishing company and how it came to be. I explained a few of the ins and outs of self publishing and figured I would show them why Mom’s Company is named ShortHand.

I pushed up my sleeves and placed both elbows on the table, revealing one hand shorter than the other. One young fellow must have found this amazing because he now brought his brother in to see for himself. When I was young I found that some children could be cruel, this was not the case today. This young man asked in a caring, non-judgmental way. After showing his brother my short hand and getting some tips from this “would be carpenter” on how to cushion the arms of the rocking chair, they were on their way.

So, we conclude another author visit. I’d like to thank Mr. Taylor, all the teachers, our very special guests and of course the wonderful students at Harwood Elementary for a truly wonderful afternoon. Your many generous gifts, good wishes and invitation to return with episode three is most appreciated. J

*Update: On October 23rd I received a package of beautiful illustrations of The Rocking Chair Rescue which the children from Mrs. Borden grade one, Div. 14 class had done for me after my visit. I can not tell you how much your thoughtfulness means to me. I guess I know where my next illustrators will be coming from. Thanks you so much Mrs. Borden and especially all the children! I shall treasure these illustrations. J