Children’s author conducts book reading at Peters Elementary

It’s a heartwarming tale of farm life in America’s storied past.

But for students at Peters Elementary School, it was a chance to be entertained by a highly esteemed children’s writer.

Children’s author Alane Adams conducted a pair of assemblies Monday morning at the school to highlight her books.

Adams read one of her picture books, “The Egg Thief,” to the students, who displayed lots of passion and energy as they listened intently.

The premise of the story is that Young Georgie wakes up to a morning of chores back in 1920s Pennsylvania when he gets the bad news: Someone has stolen all the eggs in the henhouse.

It turns out the culprit is Buster, a stray dog who takes Georgie on an adventure to find more eggs.

Before she read to the students, Adams said the key to being a good writer is to have an imagination.

“My imagination has no limits to it,” Adams conveyed to the pupils as she encouraged them to use their imaginations.

Adams said the story is based on stories from her father’s life growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1920s.

“My dad said, ‘I want you to write stories about my childhood,’ ” she said. “My dad said to me a lot of really cool things happened in the 1920s.”

Adams’ book, “The Egg Thief,” is among four picture books. The others are “The Coal Thief,” “The Santa Thief,” and “The Circus Thief.”

A resident of California, Adams visited the school as part of a tour across the country to promote literacy.

Peters teacher Sara Shimer organized the assembly after months of messages back and forth with Adams.

Shimer said her 4-year-old daughter, Sutton, was the one who discovered Adams’ book, “The Coal Thief” on a website called Storyline.

She said that during the summer, an online movement called #clearthelist was brought to her attention.

“The movement allowed teachers all across the country to create a wish list for items they needed to support a better learning environment within their classroom,” Shimer said.

“After teaching upper elementary my whole career, I switched to kindergarten and decided to participate in the movement.”

Shimer said she reached out to Adams via Twitter, mentioning that her daughter was a huge fan of her books.

“From months of messages back and forth from me, Alane and even my daughter, we found out Alane would be traveling to schools across the country to promote literacy,” she said. That is how she found her way to Peters Elementary School. She mentioned she wanted to meet her number one fan, as well as bring the joy of reading to children across the country.”

Principal James Schnyderite said Adams “is not just a dazzling children’s author, but also, quite a performer,” and that the students were “mesmerized by the story.”

“All of the teachers and students left the assembly with a huge smile on their faces,” Schnyderite said.

“I am so pleased that she was able to visit our school and showcase her books for our students.”