A trip to the library Feb. 6 yielded more than books for the school’s students.
A campground complete with a tent, cattails and clothes hanging from clotheslines worked in sparking students’ imaginations.
That was the aim of children’s author Tim Smith, who talked to all grades in separate 30-minute sessions about the importance of “doing” something and being creative. He also wanted to show students that reading can be fun, that television can distract from the creative process and that it can take many attempts to write a story right.
Smith writes the “Buck Wilder” series to provide young readers with an introduction to a variety of natural resources and outdoor pursuits. Inspired by childhood camping and fishing trips he took with his uncle, he created the Buck Wilder character to help teach his audience how to enjoy the great outdoors in a safe and respectful way, according to an online biography.
Joy Jones, Vanderhoof librarian, wanted a way to encourage her students to read. So when she heard Smith was in town for the Colorado Council International Reading Association meeting, she jumped on the opportunity to book him for a presentation at Vanderhoof.
“When I found a man who was not only an author but an outdoorsman, I knew I had the hook I needed to get the kids excited about reading,” Jones said.
And Jones spared no detail in turning the school library into a learning campground.
After Smith’s presentation, third-grader Michelle Adjei already was thinking about what she would do when she got home.
“Mr. Smith said if we draw in front of the TV, we won’t draw well,” Adjei said. “And I’m going to go home and start drawing not in front of the TV.”
An animated man who talks with his hands as much as his mouth, Smith said education is more than the classroom.
Smith, who has a degree in microbiology, learned from his classes about mushrooms; he can name the phylum, genus and species of organisms. But he felt the classes missed some of the most important lessons.
“Never once did one of my instructors or professors say here’s how you pick a mushroom,” Smith said. “Here’s ones you cook and how you eat them.”
Smith hopes his books get children interested in the outdoors, and that’s why they’d appeal to even city folks.
“My fishing books really have nothing to do with fishing,” Smith said. “It’s about getting outside, and, really, that’s what fishing is about. … It’s being out there and looking at the diamonds sprinkle across the water and letting your imagination go.”
Smith also talked about his life as a child; he was never first in sports or first in academics. Through his books, he shows ways that going against the norm allowed him to be successful at making reading fun for children. Smith wanted to cover every topic of wildlife, including scat, aka animal droppings — a topic that elicited roars of laughter.
“I’m working on this book and for the fun of it, as an adult, I put in this chart,” Smith said.
“(It has) the bear, the moose, the elk, the deer, the wolf, the coyote, the fox and the mountain lion. I drew pictures of their footprints and right next to that, I drew a picture of their poop. I made a poop chart.”
That was the part that stood out in the mind of one third-grader.
“I liked the part when he showed us the book, ‘Who Stole the Animal Poop?,’ because it was funny,” Savannah Sanchez said.
A lesson Smith stressed was that it’s not important that a person win the race but that he or she finishes it. And that can take a lot of work, he said.
That’s the lesson that stuck with third-grader Mary Burks the most: “I learned it takes lots of tries to get (something) the right way.”
Arvada Community Editor Nicholas Dewart can be reached at 303-279-5541, ext. 244