An Opportunity To Meet Nancy White Carlstrom, Sunday

The Booth Library Authors Fund will present Nancy White Carlstrom on Sunday, December 10, at 2 pm, at C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street in Newtown.

Nancy White Carlstrom is the author of over fifty books for children, including Who Said Boo?, Wild Sunflower Child Ana, and the Jesse Bear series. Her first release was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, from 1986. Her books have been illustrated by a range of artists including the Caldecott Award winners Leo and Dianne Dillon and Newtown resident Bruce Degen, and she has been honored with awards by Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist Editors Choice and American Bookseller, among others.

Mrs Carlstrom will be speaking about writing for a living, what it is like to live in Alaska with her family, and, of course, offer a reading from her books. Younger children will be delighted as well as older children and adults interested in children’s book publishing.

“Although I do most of my writing at home in Fairbanks, Alaska, ideas come from wherever I am at all hours of the day and night,” Mrs Carlstrom has said. “Often I get the title for a story first, then the story comes in bits and pieces, which I put into a folder.

“It’s as if I have a good pot of stew simmering on the back burner of the stove,” continued the writer. “Sometimes I stir. Sometimes I taste. But most of all I toss in new ingredients and make sure the stove is turned on. When me ‘story stew’ is ready to serve, I am ready to write.”

After graduating with a degree in education from Wheaton College in Illinois, Nancy Carlstrom taught first and second grade. She then became involved in short-term missions projects in West Africa, the West Indies and Mexico.

Mrs Carlstrom was also the founder of a very special children’s book store in Seattle, A Secret Garden. She and her family currently live in Fairbanks, where she continues to create “story stew.”

Mrs Carlstrom’s discussion on December 10 will be followed by a book signing, including copies of her newest Jesse Bear book, Where Is Christmas, Jesse Bear?

Children’s book author and illustrator Bruce Degen established the fund in June 2000 with a monetary gift to Booth Library. The Newtown resident decided to create the fund, he told The Bee that month, after realizing how lucky Newtown is to have so many authors who could come into town if a budget were available to pay them for their appearances.

Admission to Authors Fund presentation is free and open to all ages. For additional information contact Booth Library children’s librarian Alana Meloni at 426-3851.