In celebration of Children’s Book Week, veteran author Jo Ellen Bogart visited the Wallaceburg Library last night to speak to some local kids.
“When I go in to talk to kids there are surprises, wonderful surprises,” she said. “Their little brains are ticking away and they come up with things that I hadn’t thought of, it’s great.”
Bogart has penned dozens of books in her career including Jeremiah Learns to Read, Daniel’s Dog, Gifts, Malcolm’s Runaway Soap and her latest book Big and Small, Room For All.
She said she had a couple of books in the works.
“They are very different books,” she said. “One is really funny and one is a little more intellectual. That is what is coming, but it does take a long time. While I patiently wait for those books to come out with great excitement, I’ll work on more things. I got a few ideas on the drive yesterday to Tilbury, and I had to stop a few times to make some notes because I was thinking about a book.”
Bogart said her presentation coincides with Canadian Children’s Book Week.
“At this time there are 25 children’s authors touring Canada, they are all over the place,” she said. “I’m not a part of it this year… this is an independent tour. I was speaking to kids from A.A. Wright, H.W. Burgess and D.A. Gordon today, Tilbury yesterday and tomorrow at Tecumseh in Chatham.”
Ben Hazzard, principal at D.A. Gordon Public School, helped coordinate Bogart’s visit in Wallaceburg, which was funded by the Susan Talach Book Fund.
“It is really special to have somebody that has written so many books and is so well known here in Wallaceburg,” Hazzard said. “The Sue Talach Book Fund has done so many things, bringing those authors into Wallaceburg and was mainly at D.A. Gordon. This year we talked about spreading it out to the community, so we can help other kids too. We had other kids in the Jeanne Gordon Theatre as well as the evening presentation at the library. It really spreads the literacy message across Wallaceburg.”
Hazzard added with the the pending closure of D.A. Gordon next month, the Sue Talach Book Fund will be stationed out of A.A. Wright Public School next year.
He said the goal is to continue expanding the program to include kids from all across Wallaceburg.
