SHOW ME A GOOD BOOK! HARVEY GIRL by Sheila Wood Foard Middle grades. Ride the rails with fourteen-year-old Clara Fern Massie as she runs away from her Ozark home to become a waitress (a Harvey Girl) in New Mexico and at Grand Canyon. Clara meets movie stars, famous suffragists, cowboys, and Indians, while secrets and lies threaten to send her home. Amazon.com review by Seadragon (aka writer Linda Herman) .

It was the sort of moment that makes all the hard work worthwhile: I was in Eldon, Missouri, talking to a group of fifth graders, when a young man at the back of the classroom raised his hand. "Do you remember that book you held up on TV--Wild Timothy?" he asked. "I went to the library the next day and checked it out. It was good!"

The idea of using short TV spots to highlight the work of state authors came to me while driving home from publicizing a completely different project of the Writers Hall of Fame, based in Springfield. As a member of the WHOF board of directors, I'd just been interviewed on TV about a writing retreat for senior citizens we were cosponsoring with Drury College, and I began to wonder how we might use TV time to do something for our youngest citizens as well.

By the time I reached my office, I had the new project's name--MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS!--and much of its format in mind. We could contact Missouri authors who had trade books in print or available in the library and ask them to donate autographed copies. We could then feature their books on TV and give them away as prizes to young people who wrote in and told us about their favorite books by Missouri authors. Perhaps we'd celebrate authors' birthdays or authors-of-the-month. Lists of authors and books could be distributed in libraries. Maybe we could do posters. Might bookstores get involved? How could we interest parents, teachers, librarians?

As my typed notes grew longer and longer, it became obvious that I had as many questions as answers. This nebulous "we" I kept referring to needed to be brought into focus to help iron out the details. I first approached fellow children's author and Springfieldian David Harrison, who pronounced the idea "charming" and agreed to share the responsibilities involved in making it happen. Together we presented the concept to the Writers Hall of Fame. The response was encouraging from the first and remains so a year later. "The Writers Hall of Fame is very enthusiastic to be one of the supporters of this project," says president Jeanne Duffey. "MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! fits right into our mission of stimulating interest in writing among young people and recognizing established authors."

Annie Busch, executive director of the Springfield-Greene County Library District, also saw the project's potential and agreed to the system's support of its efforts. "MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! is not only a highly visible and effective way to encourage children to read," she says, "but it also makes children realize that authors can be your next door neighbors. As important is the fact that the project brings awareness to children that they, too, can become authors."

Personal interaction--one writer speaking directly to one reader, one reader choosing to give that writer his or her full attention--is among the many unique qualities books offer. What better way to make that uniqueness apparent to young people than to forge a connection between them and the "real, live" authors in their own state?

Spurred on by the responses of the Writers Hall of Fame and the Springfield-Greene County Library, David, Jeanne, and I pressed ahead. I compiled a list of authors and wrote scripts, Jeanne sent out letters requesting donated books, David made arrangements with Fox 27 at first and, more recently, with Ozarks Public Television to tape and air the spots. Books poured in from all over the state, along with the good wishes of their authors. David and I rehearsed and bravely faced the cameras. MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! began to air, randomly dotting the schedule from morning to night. And, sure enough, children responded with letters hailing their favorite Missouri authors, living and dead.

David Harrison and Sandy Asher display books by Missouri authors.

Some Missouri authors are already well known and inspire many letters, but it soon became obvious others would need a bit of a push. Included now are spots I call "Discover Another Missouri Author." David and I read briefly from a book, mention its title, and invite kids to go the library and read the rest. Teachers are also encouraged to send in packets with an entire class's letters and become eligible to win six autographed books for their school library.

The work continues. Posters inviting children to write letters and flyers with a list of authors' names have been placed in all Springfield-Greene County Library branches and in Waldenbooks, Heritage, Hastings, and Barnes & Noble stores around town. An updated list of titles available in area libraries is being prepared. Letters will also go out to area schools inviting class packets of letters. Dan Schiedel, Ozarks Public Television's director of production and corporate communications, recently expressed his organization's continuing commitment: "Ozarks Public Television is proud to support MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! Literacy and preparing children for learning are among public television's key goals. We feel that by working with Sandy and David in this educational venture, we can better serve our viewing audience and help build interest in lifelong learning and literacy."

During Children's Book Week in November, David and I got to meet "our viewers" when we presented programs in three branch libraries, book-talking the work of Missouri authors. We'd been warned that patrons often show up for special programs, enjoy them, and then depart without ever visiting the bookshelves. Not so with MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! "The young people in our live audiences leave their chairs to come up for a closer look at the display books by Missouri authors," David recalls. "They often settle down for a good read right on the spot. When we stop speaking, some return, maybe two or three times while we're packing our things, to check the titles of their new favorite books. Then they hurry back out to look for them in the library stacks. This is all great fun."

Indeed it is! And it's been a learning experience for the two of us. "Telling kids about other people's books has made me more aware than ever that Missouri authors not only write for kids," David says, "they do it with style." I wholeheartedly second that vote of confidence.

MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! is on the road now, a regular feature on Ozarks Public Television and in traveling live programs--David and/or me, the books, posters, and flyers, making the rounds of libraries, schools, conferences, and festivals, including the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Write to Learn Conference, the Warrensburg Children's Literature Festival, the Missouri Association of School Librarians and Missouri Council for the Social Studies state conferences.

"Exciting kids to read is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a children's author," David has told me, and everyone involved so far agrees that MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! has become a particularly rewarding way to do just that. In the letters we've received, in the libraries we've visited, in that classroom in Eldon, we've seen and rejoiced in the project's impact. The word is out: MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS!

HOW TO JOIN

• Published authors of trade books for young readers who currently live in Missouri are eligible for inclusion in MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! Those without a website, please submit your name and hometown along with the title of at least one published book. Those with a website, please see the "How to Join" section on the AMERICA WRITES FOR KIDS! home page at usawrites4kids.drury.edu. Please note that authors' pages under consideration must be devoted entirely to work for young readers and that we link only to authors' personal websites, not to publishing companies.
• Authors living outside of Missouri, please visit AMERICA WRITES FOR KIDS!
• Playwrights, please see USA PLAYS FOR KIDS!

Missouri author web pages can be linked to the MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! website in exchange for a reciprocal link. No web page? No problem! We'll gladly set one up for you. See Sandy Asher sample page. For our very reasonable rates and guidelines, please contact MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS! at the above address or e-mail.

MISSOURI WRITES FOR KIDS!
is a project of the Drury University School of Education and Child Development.

It is supported by

Springfield/Greene County Libraries and Library System of Lancaster County

Link to this home page or get an Author Web Page
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