Author hopes to inspire students

For children’s author Maribeth Boelts, sometimes the best story to share with kids is her own.
Boelts, who lives in Cedar Falls, met with groups of preschool and elementary students at St. Joseph on Thursday, reading them her books, leading them in classroom activities and teaching them some simple lessons.
“Someday, you’ll be able to read a book like this, and then someday after that, maybe you’ll be able to write a book like this,” she said to a group of preschool kids as they left smiling from the school library.
At last count, Boelts has 37 published books to her credit, through a variety of publishers, such as, Houghton Mifflin, Albert Whitman and Company, Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin Putnam, and Candlewick Press. Boelts writes the stories, she does not do the illustrations. The publisher matches her story with an illustrator. 
She travels around Iowa and throughout the country to school districts and other groups for everything from large group presentations, to writing workshop sessions, to individual writing consultations with students and teachers.

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“It is a thrill to encourage kids through teens to read and write through sharing my story,” she said. “I emphasize reading, I think reading is the most important thing. I appreciate every reader.”
 
For more of this article, see Tuesday's New Hampton Tribune.