Current in Education
York schools, library offer "Ready, Set, Go!" next week
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK VILLAGE - It may feel like summer, but it's time for children and their families to sign up for "Ready, Set, Go! ... to Kindergarten" at the York Public Library.This invitation to all York kindergartners, their parents and their siblings, is for a special event on Wednesday, Aug. 9, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., when author/illustrator Lisa Jahn-Clough and her dog - and inspiration - Happy come to town, explained York School Department Coordinator of Library/Media Services Elizabeth Crawford Reisz.
Participants will learn how Jahn-Clough creates a book, from those first moments of inspiration through to the finished product.
Children and their families will also meet Happy, who the author describes as her unlikely muse, and will hear how both their lives have been transformed by friendship.
Jahn-Clough's most recent picture book "Little Dog" is dedicated to all great dogs - including Happy, who found Jahn-Clough some 1,200 miles from her Maine home on the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico.
Happy, a street dog or "sato" is the kind of dog that dances in circles upon seeing a person he loves, and was a stray who wandered to Jahn-Clough's mother's home.
Born in Rhode Island, Jahn-Clough summered on Monhegan Island before moving to Maine at the age of 10 - knowing she wanted to be a writer. She is now the author and illustrator of over a dozen picture books for children and the chair of the illustration department at the Maine College of Art. She paints and writes with Happy at her feet in her Portland home.
Those who attend Ready, Set, Go! will be able to join Jahn-Clough in an art project while their parents meet with library staff to learn about library services.
"All entering kindergarteners, registered at Village Elementary School, and their parents are welcome to attend this author event at the York Public Library on Aug. 9," Reisz said. "We ask, however, that they pre-registered with the Children's Librarian at YPL by calling 363-2818."
The program is a York Education Foundation and Maine Reads Community Literacy Project.
