Christmas WS's!
Continuing our children’s book authors series, today Nancy Allen tells us about her commitment to writing children’s stories packed with learning and morals. Her books are fun, engaging and beautifully illustrated.
By Nancy Kelly Allen
In my part of the world—Kentucky—storytelling is a way of life. So it seems only natural that when I became a librarian I’d want to tell my own stories. After reading all those books to students each day, I decided to try my hand at writing.
Gaining Inspiration from Everyday Events
It began one Saturday afternoon when my husband was mowing the fields on our small farm. He came home hot and sweaty and walked upstairs to change clothes. He pulled coins out of his pocket and accidentally dropped them. The coins pinged and tinged as they struck the wood floor.
When I heard them, I said to my canine muses, “Listen, girls, the money tree is ripe and dropping its fruit”. Those words just poured out of my mouth, and I knew they, too, were ripe for a story. Once Upon a Dime became my first book and focuses on counting money.
From the Kentucky Fields to the Amazon
Ideas come suddenly and unexpectedly. I read an article about pink dolphins and wanted to order some books on the subject for my library. I couldn’t find any so I wrote On the Banks of the Amazon, which tells the story of two wildlife hunters on a photographic safari. Readers are introduced to a variety of rainforest plants and animals.
Stories with Morals
Flowers bring me joy and that was the inspiration for The Munched-Up Flower Garden, a story about a girl named Liz who finds joy in growing prize-worthy flowers. Joy turns to tears when a goat munches the flowers on the day the blue ribbons are awarded. But joy dries the tears when Liz wins the blue ribbon. Young readers learn how hard work pays off.
Learning about the Environment through Mystery
The award-winning sequel, Trouble in Troublesome Creek, is an eco-mystery. As a former history teacher, I wanted to write a story to connect the present with the past. The swimming hole has floating, dead fish. Yuck! No one knows what’s killing the fish. After triggering a rockslide and opening a cave, the Troublesome Creek kids find the answer that dates back 150 years to the Civil War, and they discover that how we treat the earth today affects the environment in the future.
Nancy enjoys hearing from her readers. She can be contacted on her Web site www.nancykellyallen.com and her Writing Workshop blog http://nancykellyallen.blogspot.com/ which offer loads of ideas for using my books across age levels and subject areas.
If you are an author and would like to write about your books for children - be they fiction or non-fiction - on the K5 Learning Blog, please contact asa (at) k5learning (dot) com.
