Remembering Caroline Gill (July 1, 1937 – May 25, 2022)

Caroline Gill

I was deeply saddened to hear of the sudden passing of my good friend Caroline Gill. The last time I saw her was just a few weeks ago when she stopped by my house so I could give her copies of my newest books, Planting a Garden in Room 6 and Keeper of the Light: Juliet Fish Nichols Fights the San Francisco Fog. Earlier in the spring we had gone out for a prepublication celebratory lunch at a new little French restaurant in the neighborhood.

Among our many common bonds besides our love of books, Caroline and I shared the same first name—both spelling and pronouncing it the same (with a short “I” as in Carolyn.) She always signed emails as Caroline G. and I as Caroline A. Sadly, I will no longer have to make that distinction. We also shared our Midwestern roots—she grew up in a small town in Iowa, not too far from Grinnell, Iowa, where I went to college. And we both loved to travel, especially to Australia, where Caroline had lived when her then husband (an academic like mine) did a sabbatical year from his job in Michigan. Caroline moved to California shortly after their divorce and began working as a librarian in the LAUSD public schools.

I can’t remember where or when I first met Caroline—at the Women’s Reading group at Westwood Presbyterian Church where we discussed books and women’s issues, or at the Palms Middle School library, where she was the librarian for so many years, or at a meeting of FOCAL (Friends of Children and Libraries), the support group of the children’s department of the Los Angeles Public Library. Caroline was the heart and soul of the FOCAL organization, helping to coordinate the annual awards luncheon, library book sales, and other events. She recruited me to serve on the FOCAL awards committee and helped us through the process of choosing the winning book each year.

Caroline was so proud of her family, especially her sons and grandsons, and I loved hearing about their accomplishments through the years. Caroline was also a great cook, famous for her lemon bars that she frequently brought to the book group for refreshments. And she loved to sing and was a member of the church choir. Caroline was devoted to her job as a school librarian and often invited me to speak to her students about my books and the process of writing when she was at Palms Middle School. Caroline touched so many people in her long life. I will miss her very much.

Caroline Gill, FOCAL President, at the FOCAL awards luncheon 2019

 

 

Review of BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6 at the Mom Read It Blog

I was pleased to find the following excellent review of my new book BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6 at the Mom Read It blog, written by librarian Rosemary Kiliditas. I am especially happy that she mentions the book's connection to STEM/STEAM education. I hope that reading my book and learning about metamorphosis inspires young children to think about becoming future scientists.

Mom Read It (blog) March 7, 2019
Spring is getting closer and closer, and that means that science classrooms all over the place are going to introduce their little ones to the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly. We’ve done it in my home, and each of my kids has done it in school, and it’s exciting every time. Butterflies in Room 6 revisits the Kindergarten students of Room 6 – a new group, since Hatching Chicks in Room 6 was published in 2017 – as they raise butterflies, starting from teeny, tiny caterpillar eggs.

Full-color photographs and informative text take this STEM/STEAM story through the step-by-step process by which the class observed and cared for their caterpillars; feeding them, observing the stages of life, moving the chrysalises to a larger, netted environment, the exciting emergence of the painted lady butterflies from their cocoons, and their release into the world! Leaf-shaped callouts throughout the book provide additional caterpillar and butterfly facts, and back matter provides butterfly questions, vocabulary, and a nice list of online and print resources for further reading.
Butterflies in Room 6 brings a real-world look into a primary classroom – it’ll get kids excited about science, especially if this is one of your classroom projects. Pair this with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the classic that my kids all read in their kindergarten classes, Deborah Heiligman’s From Caterpillar to Butterfly.
By Librarian Rosemary Kiliditas

The Lasting Value of Author Visits

Author Visit at Taft School, Anaheim, CA 1996

You impacted our lives and helped instill the love of reading in my students! That was the subject line of a recent email. I do many author visits in schools every year. I often wonder what the impact of my visit is on my audience. Recently, I received the following letter from a librarian, whose school I visited more than twenty years ago. I was delighted to find out that even today, students and teachers remember my visit. Elizabeth Fisher has graciously agreed to let me share her letter. I hope it will inspire many more author visits at more schools. Meeting a "real live" author is one of the best ways to promote reading and writing and get kids excited about books.

Hello Ms. Arnold,

The year was 1994. I was a first year teacher teaching a combo 5th and 6th grade class at Riverdale Elementary School in Anaheim, Ca. The school was in Orange Unified School District. Riverdale Elementary School has since closed.

Our Librarian had selected you and then enticed you to come to Riverdale Elementary School to be our Author of the Day. Our entire school was excited to be getting you as our guest. 

My students and I researched you. We read every bio we could find about you- normally on the book jackets of your books. We made large posters announcing you would be coming to Riverdale Elementary School. Students made individual posters to place in every classroom. The posters had your picture on it, the books you had written and the date you were coming to our school. Students painted signs welcoming you. They were placed on Riverdale Street for the community to see and they were posted all over our campus. We were excited. YOU were coming to our school!

I purchased every book you had written and my 5th and 6th grade students practiced reading your books. I taught the students how to teach the other classes all about Caroline Arnold the famous author. They learned how read a book to an audience, how to hold the book while reading to students, to share the pictures in the book and to emphasize the words that went with the pictures. Classes (100% of them!) signed up to have my students come to their class to present about you, our visiting author, and to read one of your books to the class. Riverdale Elementary School was pumped! Their favorite author was coming to the school and the students couldn't wait!

Your visit was a HUGE success! We LOVED, LOVED, LOVED you!

Over the years I have ran into teachers and students from Riverdale. Many of them have shared with me the memory of the day of your visit. They remember preparing for your visit and then getting to sit close to you as you read your own book to us.

Such a thrill it was to have your visit back in 1994 and to see it still has impact on their lives today. Oh, the power of a well written book is there, but even more so, the power of an author who takes the time to visit schools! You are amazing!

Elizabeth Fisher
Library Media Specialist
Canyon High School 
Anaheim, CA

Note: I dug in my boxes and found a photo that was published in the LA Times Orange County edition of my author visit to a school in the Orange USD. I thought it was from my visit to Riverdale but, as it turns out, it was taken two years later, in 1996, when I visited Taft School and the Times sent a reporter and photographer to do an article about the author festival. Even though it isn't from my visit to Riverdale, it shows the excitement of kids meeting a real live author at a neighboring school.

Why Author Visits Matter: A Teacher-Librarian's Love Letter. My friend and fellow author Alexis O'Neill contacted Elizabeth and got permission to post her letter on her website School Visit Experts.com. Thanks, Alexis, for spreading the word about the value and importance of author visits!