Of Books and Boys and Other Stuff » dr. kate

Serendipity through the Mail

W.H. Beck — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:14 +0000

A librarian from Florida contacted me earlier this month. She is retiring and looking for new homes for some of her books. She was wondering if I’d like her autographed copy of Adele Comandini’s 1956 biography of Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb, Angel on Snowshoes. Autographed not by Adele Commandini, but by Dr. Kate.

Oh, my.

Who is this Dr. Kate?, you are probably wondering. Well, she was one of the only doctors in northern Wisconsin in the first half of the 20th century. She visited her patients by snowshoe, by canoe, and by snomobile. She knew to stop by a home if a red rag was tied to a bush along the road. She took her payments in firewood and vension steaks. She delivered over 2,000 babies and never lost a mother or child. She was so beloved by her community, the high schoolers held a penny drive to raise $10,000 to build her a hospital. They were successful beyond anyone’s dreams–collecting over $130,000 from all over the world. Because of their efforts, Dr. Kate ended up on the TV show This is Your Life and having a best-selling book written about her.

A original signed copy of which is now in my home and in my hands.

Why me? Well, 50 years after all this occurred, I found Dr. Kate’s story and I turned it into a book for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

So, yes, Diane Welch Kazlauskas of the University of North Florida, I am delighted to give your book a home. It is a treasure to me.

Out and About

W.H. Beck — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:35:03 +0000

Working full time in a school means it’s hard to visit other schools and events as an author. At least during the school year. But I’ve squeezed in a couple this spring.

Here I am at the WEMTA Authors Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. (That’s Kashmira Sheth next to me.) I attended as a media specialist, but moonlighted as an author Sunday night. It was a great event (and conference), with over 40 Wisconsin authors and illustrators. And we got to watch the ice go out on Lake Monona from the huge windows of the Monona Terrace Convention Center!

In April, I was part of a local reading celebration for university students and their elementary-age reading partners and the middle school Literacy Leaders group, hosted by Reading Partners Coordinator, Lucianne Boardman. We talked writing with students, signed books, and even put on a readers theater of Where the Wild Things Are. (Photos thanks to Julie Bowe.)

Katie McKy, Julie Bowe, Marybeth Lorbiecki, me

(from left) Marsha Qualey, Pat Schmatz, me

I think I scared off more would-be writers than encouraged them when I shared the amount of research we did for our Follow That Food Chain series!

Look, our act made it in the Publishers Weekly’s Children’s Bookshelf newsletter!

Next up, a presentation and signing at the American Library Association conference in Chicago!

Write by Night

W.H. Beck — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:24:56 +0000

Eek! There’s an interview with Don and me about our Last Night for Dinner series in our local arts/entertainment newspaper, Volume One. It’s out now so you can pick it up when you’re out and about. Or go read it here. (But only if you promise to promptly erase any memory of what I look like in that first photo.)

Also, if you click on the pink “Related in Print” link to the right of the article online, you can see a couple pages from the Temperate Forest book.

Got Any Spare Change?

W.H. Beck — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:32:46 +0000

Whew! After a whirlwind week of hosting our school’s bookfair and rejoicing in the ALA Awards news (besides RULES, we were really excited FLOTSAM won the Caldecott), I’ve been gearing up for the Big Penny, the district-wide fundraiser for our public library’s extension of the children’s room that starts next week. We’re trying to collect a million pennies! Here’s a photo is of me and some of the fabulous youth services staff at the public library. It went out in a press release last week.

I’m in the photo because, besides being the guardian of the penny jug at my school, a chapter of my forthcoming Dr. Kate book has been distributed to all the participating schools as an accompanying read aloud. (Read along!) Yesterday I shared it with the 4th grade classes–it was the first time I’ve read my writing aloud to kids who aren’t related to me. Gulp. But–what fun! They didn’t get too squirmy, had great questions, and are now primed to dive into their couch cushions for extra coins.

Let me know if you want to send some coins our way. We’ll be mapping “exotic” postmarks.

Dr. Kate and the Big Penny

W.H. Beck — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:28:23 +0000

Our local public library is in the midst of a huge fund-raising effort. 3.2 million dollars to expand and remodel, with the bulk of it going to a new children’s section. Beside the obvious library and reading connection for me, I moved to this town when I was in second grade. The same year that the existing building was opened. We’ve grown up together; it’s one of my all-time favorite places to be. When I go there, even now, it’s like visiting old friends because I always remember how excited I was as a kid to find the next book in Ramona or Anne or Meg or Nancy’s adventures.

So I’ve been wishing I could help them more in their efforts to expand.

Well, a few weeks back, all the schools in the area were contacted to see if they would like to involve their students with raising funds at their school. I thought this was a great idea. Our school already does a lot of community service–and since much of the money will go to improving youth services, this was a great concrete way for our students to see their results. Then I found out that what the public library had in mind. They’re organizing a penny drive called the Big Penny. And I got excited because it was so similar to the manuscript on Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb that I turned in this summer. Part of Dr. Kate’s story is how the kids in her community collected pennies–eventually from all over the world–and built her a hospital. When I mentioned this to the library board and the head of youth services, they got excited, too. Now it looks like excerpts from my Dr. Kate manuscript will be used to launch the Big Penny in the schools. With permission from my publisher, we are reproducing a chapter (with photos from my Dr. Kate Museum field trip) for school librarians to read aloud and talk up the “power of a penny.” There’s still a lot of details to work out (and some of them are terrifying; I was asked yesterday if I would be willing to be interviewed on the news and Wisconsin public radio), but I’m so happy to be able to help out with this. Who I am today is due in part to our public library. I am the thankful one.