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Visiting children’s book author Julia Cook connected with Luverne elementary students Wednesday, Feb. 16, in the performing arts center.
With her two chihuahuas named Tommi and Kirby, she offered once-you’re-out-of-high-school advice.
“You don’t have to like to write but if you know how to do it right, you’ll go a long way,” she said.
“Writing is the hardest thing to teach and writing is the hardest thing to learn.”
Cook said learning to write is like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The two slices of bread the beginning and end of the story, and the flavor layers in the middle can be as thick as the writer desires.
“You have the bread, the beginning, then the middle, middle, middle, middle and bread for the end,” she said.
Cook said she begins writing by identifying “where, when, who, how, what and why” with descriptions of smells, tastes, sounds, feel and feelings.
With that information, she begins making the sandwich.
Cook has authored 137 children’s books since 2006.
The Fremont, Nebraska-based author is a former math teacher and became an elementary school counselor who often used children’s books to enhance her classroom lessons.
With the kindergarten and first-grade students she used her dogs to demonstrate how strangers use the animals to lure children away from their families.
The simple “stranger danger” message prompts a better understanding of often hard to explain social-emotional topics.
Student mental health has been a focus at Luverne Elementary since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, said elementary principal Stacy Gillette, and books are becoming tools in the classroom.
“A story is a great way to introduce some of these topics and sometimes difficult issues to talk with children about,” Gillette said.
Each elementary teacher received Cook’s “A Flicker of Hope” book.
“This book reminds children that dark clouds can be temporary and asking for help is always OK,” said elementary school counselor Marie Atkinson-Smeins.
“We all have times when we need to borrow a little hope from someone else. When your clouds get too dark and too heavy to push away, reach out and ask ‘Can I borrow some light?’ Everybody needs somebody, sometimes, to help find their way.”
Cook’s visit was supported by the school’s PPIE (Parents, Partners in Education).