When Joy Cowley was a kid, she wanted to be a pirate or a violinist.
If that had happened, students around the world would've been denied her charming story-telling abilities.
Cowley, a children's author from New Zealand, spoke to students at Fargo's Hawthorne Elementary on Thursday. In her honor, the students donned kerchiefs - a symbol of one of Cowley's most popular storybook characters, Mrs. Wishy-Washy.
Cowley asked students to raise their hand if they liked stories. Every arm shot up.
"If I could, I'd put up three hands," Cowley said. "One for writing stories, one for reading stories and one for telling stories."
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The author read from two of her books. She spun stories about a tiger with a toothache, a Horrible Thing with Hairy Feet and spilled beans. Then she let the kindergarten, first- and second-graders ask questions.
"How do you make up stories?" From my own experiences.
"When did you start writing books?" I used to write books for adults and then I had a son who wasn't reading, so I started writing for him.
"Do you mess up?" Someone once told me if you don't make mistakes, you don't do anything.
Cowley will speak to students at West Fargo's Eastwood Elementary today. She will give a public presentation at 10 a.m. Saturday at Zandbroz Variety, 420 Broadway, Fargo.
Kudos to the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton and Moorhead High School speech programs.
Kathy Martin, D-G-F speech coach, was named 2005 Minnesota Class A Speech Coach of the Year by her peers.
Martin has coached speech at D-G-F for 24 years. Her accomplishments include coaching 10 state champions.
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She is now chairwoman of the Northern Lights National Forensics League District, which covers northern Minnesota.
Moorhead High School has again been recognized as one of the nation's top 100 schools in speech and debate.
The National Forensic League ranked Moorhead 54th out of 2,700 schools nationwide. Rebecca Meyer-Larson coaches the Moorhead team.
An open house at the Clayton Lodoen Community Center in West Fargo will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Monday. A rededication and ribbon cutting will take place at 5:30 in the Lodoen Community Room.
The center is at 109 3rd St. E. Several school programs, including the Community High School and a preschool, are located there.
Moorhead holds its elementary parent FYI Night from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Monday at Ellen Hopkins Elementary, Room 209.
Principals from the Moorhead School District's three elementary schools will talk about what parents can do to get the most out of parent-teacher conferences.
Forum reporters Jonathan Knutson can be reached at jknutson@forumcomm.com and Erin Froslie at efroslie@forumcomm.com .
