AUTHOR VISIT AT ECOLE BILINGUE, BERKELEY, CA: Celebrating Women’s History Month with KEEPER OF THE LIGHT

Ecole Bilingue, Berkeley, CA

Last week on Friday I had a terrific visit with third, fourth and fifth graders at Ecole Bilingue in Berkeley, California. The main focus of my presentation was my book KEEPER OF THE LIGHT: Juliet FishNichols Fights the San Francisco Fog. Learning about Juliet’s experience at the Angel Island Lighthouse and during and after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake fit right in to the students’ studies of California history. While most of them had not personally visited Angel Island, it is a familiar sight, visible from any of the major bridges that cross San Francisco Bay—the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Rafael Bridge.

With the first slide of my power point presentation.

The timing of my visit was perfect because March is a national celebration of women’s history. After I shared the story of the book I asked the students what kind of a person Juliet had to be as a lighthouse keeper. Their answers: brave, persistent, hard-working, strong, committed. Clearly they understood that Juliet Nichols is a true hero. I also shared a few of my other books and details of my writing and illustrating process.

How plucky Mrs. Nichols wound up the fog bell machinery every fifty minutes for seventy-two hours and saved ships in Golden Gate from running on the rocks. (San Francisco Chronicle, 1906)

Ecole Bilingue is a bilingual school where children learn in both French and English. (I don’t speak French so my presentation was in English.) I have a special connection to EB because my granddaughter Paige was a student there from pre-school through middle school. My last visit to the school was in 2019 when she was in 8^th grade. It was a pleasure to return to EB and see many of her former teachers and meet the new staff as well. I especially thank Emily Kaltenbach, the English Program coordinator for arranging my visit and making sure that everything ran smoothly. I will be returning in April to celebrate Earth Day with the K-2 students.