Sandy Hook Elementary School students gathered in the school's library in groups on Friday, March 3, to hear author and illustrator Lita Judge share information about her books and her life.litajudge.net

Ms Judge, who lives in New Hampshire, shared pictures from her life during the first presentation of the day. When growing up in Alaska, Ms Judge said, her parents were wildlife photographers. As a child she also spent time visiting her grandparents. Her grandmother was an ornithologist, a person who studies birds. Between the Alaskan wildlife and the eagles and hawks she encountered at her grandparents', Ms Judge told the students she was lucky as a child.

"I realized I lived in a place that forced me to have an imagination to entertain myself," said Ms Judge.

Her mother gave her blank books to draw in while her parents would be quietly waiting to take pictures of wildlife. She shared some of her drawings and writings from one of the books with the students. Journals, she said, are a place for artists and writers to develop their skills. She encouraged the students to keep their own.

She shared pictures and stories from when she worked on a dinosaur dig as a teenager. Ms Judge said she studied geology in high school and college, but she later realized she loved visualizing the dinosaurs more than she loved digging up fossils. The realization, she explained, led to her eventually writing her book How Big Were Dinosaurs? Ms Judge said the illustrations in the book help show how large the dinosaurs were.

Ms Judge also spoke about how she came to write her book Good Morning to Me! and her animals that inspired her to write it, after explaining what life as a writer is like for her.

.More information about Ms Judge and all of her books are available on her website