I Survived Author Lauren Tarshis Visits Pound Ridge Elementary

Pound Ridge Elementary School students recently had the pleasure of a visit from author Lauren Tarshis. Best known for her I Survived series, Tarshis is also the author of the picture book “Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose” and the middle grade Emma-Jean Lazarus series.

Tarshis met with third through fifth graders and then kindergarten through second graders, tailoring her presentation slightly to each age group. The younger students were very excited to talk about “Only My Dog Knows I Pick My Nose.”

She told students that she gets up at 4:30 in the morning to write books — a statement which was met with gasps of surprise — and that her loyal dog Roy stays by her side as she works.

“When they were younger, my kids told me that Roy knew all their secrets,” she said. Her son sang to Roy using a toothbrush as a microphone. Her daughter fed Roy the broccoli she didn’t want to eat. Her other son brought a frog into the house and Roy chased it around until her son could catch it and set it free.

Those little details were what gave Tarshis the idea for her picture book.

“That’s what an author does,” she said. “We take real things and then mix it together with something made up.”

To give students an idea of how it’s done, Tarshis had a surprise.

“We’re going to write a book together,” she told students. Their delight was audible as they gasped and exclaimed to each other. “We need to think of a character first,” she told them.

Tarshis had a slideshow ready with ideas, giving students a choice of different hamsters to write a story about. Their decisions helped decide how scary, silly or serious the story would be.

Once they had their character, they needed a problem. They continued brainstorming until they had a story that was a little bit scary and a little bit silly and which took place at their school over Thanksgiving break.

“When I’m writing a story, I don’t always make them up,” Tarshis said later, referring to her I Survived series. “I read a lot of stories and do a lot of research.” She went on to tell them that she sometimes reads twenty different books and travels to the location where the story takes place to gather more details.

When she was done explaining her work to students, Tarshis opened up the floor for questions — and PRES students had plenty!

“How hard is it to write a book?”

“How many years did it take you to write all of those books?”

“What is your favorite book you wrote?”

Tarshis answered their questions, encouraging them to keep reading and writing and learning.

“I was 42 when my first book was published,” she said. “You guys have so much time to decide what you want to do. Don’t worry if you make a lot of mistakes. That’s how you learn.”

Thank you to PRES PTA for helping to make this experience possible.