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Cornelia Visits Ridgely Elementary School in Springfield, Illinois

Several hundred children had a lot of good questions to ask their visiting author Cornelia Maude Spelman.

As part of the Illinois Authors’ Book Fair, sponsored by the Illinois Center for the Book, held the last week of March in Springfield (“Land of Lincoln”) Illinois, area schools hosted visits from children’s book authors.

Cornelia was invited to talk with students at Ridgely Elementary School, and the several hundred students had some wonderful questions:
“Why do you write books about feelings?”
“Does it help you express your feelings to write your books?”
“How do you get ideas for your books?”
Cornelia “read” two books to the students (When I Feel Angry, When I Feel Sad), by projecting the pictures and text on slides so that the whole large group could see them.
Many of the students would like to become authors themselves, and everyone there had favorite books.

Some other questions asked were: “What if you can’t cry?” (“Try to find a place where you can, because crying is good for us when we feel sad,” was Cornelia’s response.)

On the way out of the auditorium, one girl, thinking an author might know the answer to everything, not just about books, asked quietly, “How does God make people?”
“I don’t know,” Cornelia replied. “But it’s a very good question. Talk to your mom and dad about that, and other adult s you like, and see what they say.”