Children’s book author sparks Bethel Park students’ creativity

When she was young, Jean Reidy wrote stories and stapled the pages together to make books.

She continues to do so, minus the stapler.

The native of suburban Chicago recently visited two Bethel Park elementary schools to talk in part about her experience as an award-winning children’s author. Her main purpose, though, was to inspire creativity.

“Put your hand on your head if you are a daydreamer,” she told students during an April 12 assembly at George Washington Elementary. “We need daydreamers.”

And later:

“Raise your hand if you’re an artist. We need more artists in the world.”

Following her introduction by Washington librarian Becky Minella, Reidy immediately developed a strong rapport with the youngsters.

“I don’t know if it has as much to do with giving assemblies or presentations. I think it has more to do with my background,” she said after the program. “I’m an aunt to, like, 47 nieces and nephews. I’m a grandma to seven now. I have four kids of my own. And I was the one who always preferred to sit at the kids’ table at the family dinners.”

Apparently, that means plenty of time with the smaller kids.

“A lot of my friends will say, ‘I’m a 13-year-old, and the write middle-grade novels.’ And my heart probably lies around age 6,” Reidy said. “Those are essentially the books I write, as well. So when those kindergartners, first graders, even those third and fourth graders, come in, I feel like they’re my people, that I can really relate to them.”

She discussed how writers, especially of fiction, tap their imaginations and suggested the students carry notebooks to capture their otherwise fleeting thoughts. And she acknowledged that not everything is going to click.

“Some of my ideas are awesome, but others, not so much,” she said. “That’s part of the creative process.”

Whatever the case, she strives to excel at her craft, “because you, my readers, deserve the best writing.”

Speaking of which, Reidy’s work has received numerous accolades, from the 2011 Colorado Book Award for Children’s Literature for “Light Up the Night” to the selection of “A Book About You and All the World Too” for Illinois Reads 2024.

Helping arrange for her visit was Milana Popovic, librarian at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, which hosted Reidy the day before her turn at Washington.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to meet a real author and gain inspiration for their own writing journeys,” Popovic said.

Reidy’s own journey shows no signs of slowing.

“There are days when other things take over in life, when I think, oh, maybe it’s time to retire. But then I can’t turn off the stories,” she said. “It is one of my favorite things to do. So I feel very, very fortunate that way.”

For more information, visit jeanreidy.com.