With her exciting page-turners, Cynthia Lord enjoyed sparking the imagination of children and giving them encouragement too.
The author recently visited Sunset Avenue School and Sampson Middle School to talk about the process of writing books. She began writing at the age of 4. She began her journey by writing a song with her sister called “Ding Dong the Cherries Sing.” Lord continued writing as she became older and had short stories published in college.
Students listened to Lord as she spoke about not being afraid to make mistakes or being intimidated by grammar, spelling or punctuation.
“Nobody is perfect,” she said. “You don’t have to be prefect to be a good author.”
She said the internal voice inside is important when putting words on pages. Lord also encouraged them to dream or become detached for a while through daydreaming for ideas. But later, writers are challenged with looking at a blank page and not giving up, once they finally get started.
“Somewhere in the middle, it’s not as good as you want it to be. That’s where a lot of people give up and start something else,” Lord said about not finishing. “So what I did is not let myself give up when it’s hard in the middle. I keep pushing though that first draft even when I think it’s terrible.”
Another important step is making a good story with revision. Several rewrites of the rough draft are required for a successful process.
She has sold millions of books. Some of them include the “Hot Rod Hamster” series, “TouchBlue,” “Half a Chance,” and “A Handful of Stars.” In 2007, she earned the Newbery Honor Award for her book, “Rules.” The story follows a 12-year-old girl and her brother with autism. She spent several year teaching him rules to stop embarrassing behavior. Some of the include “keep your pants on in public” and “a peach is not a funny-looking apple.” Through the book, readers receive an understanding about autism. Lord received inspiration from her family and personal experiences with her children.
Quinn Pollock, an eighth-grader at Sampson Middle, said Lord’s words was very inspiring and informative. Beside writing, Quinn said the message can be used in other parts of life.
“It can help you with schoolwork, it can help you in life and the information was very helpful,” Quinn said. “I really enjoyed it.”
Language arts is one part of school she enjoys.
“Her presentation helped me because I’ll be able to focus better on my writing,” Quinn said.
At Sunset Avenue, she met with fourth-graders who read “Half a Chance” and spoke to students in different grade levels. Becoming a better writer was one of Lord’s many lessons. Brianna Rangel, a fifth-grader at Sunset Avenue, said she always wanted to meet an author.
“Her books were very interesting and they inspired me,” Brianna stated in a news release from Clinton City Schools. “Her books made me happy.”
NyAshia Sparrow, a fifth-grader at Sunset, felt the same way.
“I enjoyed hearing about the author,” NyAshia said. “I liked the way the author showed friendships in ‘A Handful of Stars.’
“I like the way she writes where you just want to keep on reading it.”
Her visit was made possible through a grant from Simple Gifts, a local philanthropic organization. It was obtained through a grant by Alison Ray, media coordinator at Sunset Avenue.
“This is a well accomplished Author and students having access to literature is vital,” Ray stated. “The students that ate lunch with Mrs. Lord read the books and submitted questions they wanted to ask Mrs. Lord. It was a good way to allow students a reward and some quality time with an author.”
Robert Jones, media coordinator for Sampson Middle, hopes the visit motivated students to see the world and think outside the box.
“That’s the main thing — exploring their opportunities,” Jones said. “There’s more than life than just Clinton. There’s a big world out there and they need to try to explore it. They can start with their minds first and hopefully other opportunities will follow.”
