In 1998, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen's childhood dream became a reality with the publishing of her first book "Elizabeth's Doll," based partly on an experience she had while serving in the Peace Corps in Tanzania
Award-winning author inspires Fontana students
By L. ALEXIS YOUNG
Ted J. Porter Elementary School received a literary delight on the morning of Feb. 4. An award-winning children's author brought her stories to life for the students.
As a child on a Wisconsin farm, Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen had thoughts of someday becoming a writer. "I have always wanted to be a writer, it was a childhood dream," she said.
Now Stuve-Bodeen tours schools around the country and encourages children to become writers. "I love coming to schools to inspire young writers," she said.
To familiarize the students with her writing, teachers at Porter read Stuve-Bodeen's books to them every day and held writing workshops in their classes.
Janice Anderson, the Site Literacy Leader at Porter worked hard to bring the author to Porter.
"We have been working on this for six months. Writing is a focus area at Porter, so we wanted to have an author come and talk about the process of writing and creating stories," she said.
There is a section in the library at Porter devoted to Stuve-Bodeen. Students created a "Meet the Author" area filled with her writings, and some of their own. The wall is covered with pictures and stories that the students wrote about the author.
In 1998, Stuve-Bodeen's childhood dream became a reality with the publishing of her first book "Elizabeti's Doll," based partly on an experience she had while serving in the Peace Corps in Tanzania.
"I stayed with a family that lived in a mud house with no electricity or indoor plumbing. They were very poor," she explained.
The family, and in fact the whole village, was impoverished and the children made toys out of whatever they could find.
"The little girl in the family that I stayed with made a doll out of a rock, and that's what inspired my book," Stuve-Bodeen said.
In the story, Elizabeti treats her rock doll as a real baby, and eventually she does have to care for a real baby.
Stuve-Bodeen wrote her second book as a sequel to the story. In "Elizabeti's Baby," Elizabeti learns the difference between taking care of a real baby and taking care of her rock doll.
The tales of this girl continued in Stuve-Bodeen's third book, "Elizabeti's School."
Aside from these three picture books, Stuve-Bodeen has written two other children's books as well as a short story for a middle school anthology.
One of the first grade classes at Porter enjoyed "Elizabeti's Doll" so much, they wrote a song about it using the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
Other students waved and yelled out "Hi, author" as Stuve-Bodeen walked around the campus. They all were excited about meeting a real-life author, "the lady that made the books" in their library.
Stuve-Bodeen has received more than 20 honors and awards for her literary works. In 1999, she earned the prestigious Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award.
She currently lives 1,200 miles west of Hawaii on a national wildlife refuge island with her husband, who is the refuge manager, and her two daughters, Tanzie and Bailey.
