The elementary school my youngest daughter goes to had one of their
annual author visits, sponsored by the PTO. Susan Stevens Crummel, who along with her sister produced books such as Jackalope and The Great Fuzz Frenzy, gave presentations by grade level to the kids. Watching her was a treat as she was an expert storyteller, explaining how she and her sister came by the ideas for their stories and bringing props of stuffed toys and funny hats and pulling children out of the audience to help act out those stories. I loved how she described working with her editor, “The Little Red Pen woman.” While the kids had a lot of fun with Susan Crummel they were also learning about the whole writing process. Ms. Crummel even brought along a big printout of one of her books as it came from the printing press – all the pages on one huge sheet which can then be folded up just right so that all the pages are in order, ready for machines to bind them and glue the covers on. Learning how a “real author” imagines and creates has been very inspiring to the kids as well as the teachers, I think. Of course, my own daughter thought the most amazing thing about the whole visit was learning that Ms. Crummel knew Kelly Clarkson!
Linda Austin
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