Students at Dr. E. R. Richter Elementary School in Dayton had a special treat served to them by librarian Mr. Jessica Stoker on Jan. 9. Children’s author Lynne Kelly spent the day with the Richter students.
Kelly lives in the Houston, Texas area where she works as a sign language interpreter and writes books for kids.
“I found both of those fields in a roundabout way. In college I majored in psychology, but after taking some sign language courses, I decided that was a field I wanted to stick with. I’ve worked as a sign language interpreter ever since then. I still learn something new every day, and my work has taken me everywhere from classrooms to hospitals to Alaskan cruises,” she said.
For a few years, she worked as a special education teacher where she enjoyed reading great books to children.
“I’ve always loved reading, but it was during those teaching years that I fell in love with children’s literature all over again and became interested in writing, so there’s nothing about that I’d change,” Kelly said.
The Richter Elementary Library was pleased to sponsor author Lynne Kelly’s visit. Ms. Kelly spoke to the students about her two published novels, Chained and Song for a Whale.
In speaking with the students, Kelly talked about what inspired her to write each of the books. She discussed her research methods and all about the writing and publishing process.
Kelly even gave the students a little tease about her current project and invited them to email her with any further questions they may have. Librarian Jessica Stoker couldn’t have been more pleased with the behavior of the Richter students and the visit with the author.
“The students were really engaged throughout Ms. Kelly’s presentation, and they had a lot of questions about how to take a story someone has written and turn it into an actual book,” stated Stoker.
