Local author reads to children at Hampden Library


Reminder photo by Debbie Gardner

By Debbie Gardner

PRIME Editor

HAMPDEN There wasn't a seat left in the house well at least, not on the reading rug in the children's room of the Hampden Free Public Library as local author Karla Grant introduced her book, "The Library Cat."

"How many have been to the library before?" Grant asked the 19 boys and girls who gathered to hear her read.

"How many have cats?" she continued. "How many would like to have a cat?"

She told them about her own cat, then about her book, which is "the story of a cat who lived in the library in Monson."

Grant told everyone that she first met Monson's famed library cat, named Buster, when she visited the library for a poetry reading.

"He laid on the podium and listened to the poems, then went around to visit everyone," she recalled.

Grant said, after that visit to the Monson Library, she started telling everyone about Buster, the Library Cat. One day a friend said she should write a book about him.

And so, she did.

"It starts with a poem," said Grant as she began reading to the children. "Buster liked poems."

Grant spun the tale of Buster's life at the library, stopping now and then to share some of the watercolors she had created to illustrate the book.

As the story closed, she asked the children if they knew how to make a book, and explained the steps she had gone through to create "The Library Cat."

"The first thing I had was my idea for my story," Grant said. "Then I went to the library to talk to the librarians about Buster. I took pictures and went home and did the paintings for my book."

Grant then invited the children to join her in creating their own drawings of Buster using crayons and pre-printed outlines of a cat.

Writing "The Library Cat"

After the children's art session, Reminder Publications sat down with Grant, a former kindergarten teacher who now works in high-school level special ed at Minnechaug Regional High School, to talk about her book.

"I did the book in 2003," said the Hampden native. "Recently, the cat died, and someone asked me if I had published the book yet."

"I got going with the publisher," she continued. "It was now or never."

Grant said she spent an afternoon talking to the Monson librarians about Buster, and about three hours writing the story.

The illustrations took a bit longer.

"It was not done under pressure," said Grant, an accomplished artist who regularly shows her work in Hampden's annual art show. "I have summers off. Once a month I would sit down and play."

Once the paintings were completed, she scanned them into her computer and added the text.

"It's the first time I illustrated a book,"Grant said. "Actually I was quite pleased. When you put [the paintings] on the computer, the colors come up quite vibrant. They look better than they did in the watercolors."

Copies of "The Library Cat" are available for purchase at the Hampden Free Public Library. The cost is $10, and proceeds benefit the library. "The Library Cat" can also be ordered online from Trafford Publishing at www.trafford.com/05-2807.