Everywhere one went last week, the written word was regaling listeners.

Saturday, November 13, 1999

Everywhere one went last week, the written word was regaling listeners.

Pictures, too, but this was a Writing Festival for Austin Public Schools so wordsmiths took center stage. Every author and illustrator had their day last Thursday and Friday in the ambitious effort to encourage literacy and develop good communication skills among Austin Public Schools students.

Every school was the focus of the guests’ attention.

Marion Dane- Bauer discussed writing with Austin High School freshmen and sophomore language arts students Thursday and their junior and senior classes counterparts the next day.

Duane Barnhart, a cartoonist, DuMarie Olafsdatter, an illustrator and author, and Patricia Calvert, an author, shared their skills with Ellis Middle School students and teachers as well as community education classes.

Nancy Carolson Day took her to Southgate and Sumner elementary schools, where she regaled the K-5 audiences. Douglas Wood did the same at Banfield and Neveln elementary schools and maybe more.

Renaissance man

By now, "Old Turtle" is a classic. It’s a fable for all time and a moving message of brotherhood, ecology and spirtuality; critics have raved about the book. The man responsible, a multi-faceted singer, songwriter, award-winning author and artist, Wood, is called "Minnesota’s renaissance man."

He is 48 and married with two sons, one 16 and the other 22. A former music educator in public schools, Wood and his wife live in a cabin in the north woods of Minnesota.

"Old Turtle" was written in 1990 and with this year’s debut of "Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth," he has written eight books.

Next year on Father’s Day, "What Dads Can’t Do" will be published and in 2001, "What Moms Can’t Do" will reach bookshelves.

He performed before a standing-room-only crowd Thursday night at the Ruby Rupner Auditorium at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center and concluded his visit to Austin Friday at Banfield Elementary School.

At mid-morning, third graders in Carol Gilbertson, Debra Holt, Marilyn Sinz and Marsha Wilson classes filled half a gymnasium, singing along, asking questions, nodding their heads in agreement or disagreement, fidgeting and otherwise enjoying Wood’s message.

His advice on how to handle the pesky Minnesota mosquito called the "Windigo" was given in song.

"Take along a dog and when you see one of them coming just bite the dog and they’ll think you’re one of them," he sang while strumming a guitar.

His audience laughed aloud when he said his next book "What Dads Can’t Do" will tell the mysteries behind the inability of a father to cross a street without holding a child’s hand or his inability to swing, but his zest for pushing those in a swing.

Candlewick Press is publishing his latest tome, "Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth" and this book is "personal," Wood told his Banfield audience"I feel I’ve been getting ready to write this book all my life," he said of his latest effort, "for it is about my wise and gentle hero, my Grandad."

In a question-and-answer session following his presentation to third graders, Wood admitted to one questioner, "It’s not hard to think of ideas, but sometimes it’s hard to make ideas work."

"Why did you become an author?" asked a Banfield third grader. "There are two reasons," Wood said. "I love books and I aloways loved the game of ‘Show and Tell’ in school. Being an author is just fancy showing and telling," he said.

"The pictures show and the words tell."

Wood said afterwards, he can close his eyes and all the sounds that children make, laughter, applause and more, are the same wherever he goes.

What message does he hope children receive at such events as the Austin Public Schools Writing Festival? He said, "My message is always mixed. Part of it is environmental. I want them to open their eyes to the beautiful works in nature and I also want them to understand how important literacy is."

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Editor’s Note: The efforts of authors and illustrators appearing at the Austin Writing Festival are for sale at the Little Professor Book Center in Austin.