Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski New York Times bestselling author Eric Litwin plays his guitar as he tells the tale of his first “The Nuts” book, “Bedtime at the Nut House,” during a presentation Thursday afternoon at the Hillcrest Primary School gym. Hillcrest teacher Diana Belter helps out by holding up the book and turning the pages.
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Hillcrest Primary School students and staff sing and dance to one of Eric Litwin’s stories. Litwin authored the first four “Pete the Cat” books, which are popular at the school.
Kris Going, reading coach at Hillcrest Primary School, introduced New York Times bestselling author Eric Litwin as a “guitar strumming, book writing, harmonica blowing, song singing, folksy, fun type of guy” when he visited the school Thursday.
Litwin had a less wordy description of himself — recovering teacher.
Formerly an elementary school teacher, Litwin now spends his days traveling to schools to share his books with young children and get them pumped about reading. He said he wanted to create children’s books that had more substance and were not decoding books or phonetically based books.
Litwin was a welcome visitor to the school, as Hillcrest students are big fans of the “Pete the Cat” picture books. Litwin wrote the first four books out of more than 20 in the series, and he is working on another series of books featuring “The Nuts.”
“I became an overnight success — after almost 20 years,” Litwin said, noting that he has sold more than 5 million books.
Litwin, with the help of assorted Hillcrest staff and his trusty guitar, read two of his published works and one of “The Nuts” books that has not yet been published. He engaged the students to sing and dance in some places, joking at one point that he has no professional dance experience but occasionally channels Paula Abdul when he presents to school audiences.
In addition to three presentations during the day, Litwin joined almost 400 students and parents at a family night Wednesday, using his guitar and his words to entertain.
Litwin’s visit was funded from money raised by the students through the school’s annual Knowledge-a-thon. This is the fourth year Hillcrest has held the Knowledge-a-thon in order to raise funds for special school activities.
“‘Pete the Cat’ is one of the favorite books of the little kids because they have rhythm, rhyme, singsong — they just love them,” Going said. “They take them right off the bookshelves.”
Going noted that the kids were so entranced by Litwin’s performances that the school plans to try and get him back again. Booking Litwin usually requires planning two years in advance, but the school hopes to win a video contest based on a Litwin book that is coming out in the fall.
“We’re going to have a flash mob of polka dot pants,” Going said with a laugh. “We’ve had local authors who were wonderful, but really the kids pick up the ‘Pete the Cat’ books and read them.”