Kutztown author Lisa Schnell walked Kutztown Elementary students through the process of creating her first picture book, “High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs,” on Oct. 19.
“I hope they get excited about horseshoe crabs,” said Schnell. “And understand that things that even might be close to them are interesting and worth knowing more about. I hope they learned a little bit about horseshoe crabs and how they can interact with nature in a way that is really positive.”
The program was sponsored by the Kutztown Elementary Parents Club KES. The Scholastic Book Fairs provided a signed copy of the book to each student. A school-wide read-aloud of “High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs” was conducted Oct. 12. Intermediate-grade students read to primary-grade students in preparation for the author visit.
“I can’t tell you how happy that made me. There are a lot of really great picture books out there and the fact that you chose mine, just really makes me happy,” said Schnell to the students.
The author also hopes the kindergarten through fifth graders become interested in being writers themselves. Her presentation included sharing with students what the research, writing and editing process is like.
“Sometimes they get really frustrated with writing but that is actually part of the process. That’s completely normal. Get used to that and know it’s going to come out okay in the end,” said Schnell.
Schnell shared her love for writing with students.
“Writing is a great way for me to share something I’m excited about with other people. After learning so much about horseshoe crabs, I think they are one of the neatest animals on the whole planet,” she said to the students.
Her book is in book stores and libraries.
“It’s like there is a little piece of me out there,” she said.
During the presentation, Schnell showed pictures, taking students through the research process that led to writing the book inspired by Schnell’s curiosity about horseshoe crabs and wanting to know more. She read books, made personal observations, talked to experts and participated in tagging horseshoe crabs, helping in collecting scientific data for research.
At one point, Schnell had students up acting out the horseshoe crab life cycle and talked about the importance of horseshoe crabs in the ecosystem. She also showed them exoskeletons of horseshoe crabs from the molting process that requires shedding small exoskeletons.
“We’ve been quite involved with the school,” Schnell said. “I know a lot of the teachers and a bunch of the students. To be able to come back in this capacity is really exciting. It was a real honor.”
Kutztown Elementary Principal Deborah Barnes loves that Schnell is a local author and is familiar to the students because Schnell’s children attended the school and because of the Schnell family’s involvement with the KES Giving Garden.
“I love that it’s a non-fiction text. Our kids can not only learn a lot about horseshoe crabs but also about what it means to be a non-fiction author. I just think this was the perfect combination of all of those elements,” said Barnes. “I hope they are able to see that they could possibly be an author some day. Lisa is so accessible to them so they can envision themselves maybe doing something like that some day.”
Barnes also likes how Schnell talked about how much research goes into creating a book.
“I think kids might be able to look at research in a different way now for when they’re doing that kind of thing for their classes,” said Barnes.
Schnell and her husband Steven live in Kutztown with their two daughters. Schnell has multiple book projects in the works but nothing scheduled to be published yet.
