Children's author inspires Jones Elementary students

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, March 3, 2006 12:49 AM CST

PORTAGE | Those who knew Peter J. Welling growing up in South Bend probably couldn't predict what the boy would grow up to be.

"When I was a kid, I hated to read and write," he said Thursday during a visit to Jones Elementary School to celebrate Read Across America Day and launch the school's monthlong Young Author activities.

But it was that early disdain, and later his annoyance at "bad books" he read to his four sons, that inspired Welling to take to writing children's books.

As a child, he looked at reading and writing as a punishment.

He didn't want other generations to endure that same attitude.

His goal, he said, was to instill the joy of reading and writing into children. His wanted his books to be entertaining to children, and their parents, and be educational as well.

Welling is the author and illustrator of a series of five children's books, starting in 2000 with "Andrew McGroundhog and His Shady Shadow." His sixth children's book has faced a delay in publishing as his publisher, located in New Orleans, is still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Welling came to work with the Jones students Thursday. In 45-minute sessions, he helped each grade level create characters, give them personality and write three- or four-sentence stories.

In the afternoon session, second-graders fashioned a story about Kelley the Penguin and Jake the Gorilla.

Welling drew rough pictures of each as children told them what they wanted: Kelley wore in-line skates and threw a baseball; Jake donned a basketball jersey with a tennis racket in one hand.

"It was a creepy night," one youngster suggested the story should begin.

"In 30 minutes working with a group you have done what every author tries to do," he told the youngsters after finishing their story. "You created characters, gave them personality and told a story."

He also told youngsters to write about what they like and to persevere -- his latest book took 26 revisions, turning the original main character of a crocodile in New Orleans to a mouse in Chicago.