children’s books

Frankie the Walk ‘N Roll Dog Heads Back to School – In a New Way.

Posted by Barbara Techel

Frankie the Walk 'N Roll Dog Heads Back to School - In a New Way.

Two weeks from today I’ll be visiting Fair Park Elementary School in West Bend, WI.

It’s been a long time since I set foot in a school. I’m looking forward to talking about the writing process, life as an author, Frankie, compassion, empathy, and making a difference. And most of all encouraging students how important writing and reading is in their lives – whether they pursue writing as a career or not.

Of course, I won’t have my side-kick Frankie with me. It’s been almost four years since she has been gone, which is how long it’s been since I’ve done a presentation also.

But her message is still one kids and adults can learn from. And this time I’ll be talking more about the process of writing, which will be a new experience for me, and one I’m looking forward to.

I bought a stuffed dachshund toy to use for demonstration purposes and to show how wheelchairs work for dogs. I’ll be tying this in with talking about empathy. I really wanted a brown dachshund, but couldn’t find one big enough. So black and tan it is and will still make the point.

When the principal, a friend of mine, contacted me before Christmas, asking if I’d visit their school, I wasn’t sure I was up to doing it. Those old nerves certainly never seem to go away no matter how many times I’ve talked in front of a room of people! But a part of me was curiously open to the idea and wanted to give it a try.

Yesterday I received the list of questions the students prepared for me. We will be doing this mostly as Q & A sessions which I love to do. I’ll work on preparing photos to go along with some of my answers to add a visual component.

I’m so impressed with how organized the school is for the visit with an agenda they also sent me. In the morning I’ll talk with the K-2 students, then a lunch and learn with staff, and in the afternoon will meet with the 3-4 grade students. It will be a full day!

So…..here we go Frankie….in a new way!

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A Friendship All Because of a Dachshund in a Wheelchair

Posted by Barbara Techel
A Friendship All Because of a Dog in a Wheelchair
from left: Ron, Cameron, Karin and Barb

If it wasn’t for bug spray, a book about a dachshund in a wheelchair named Frankie, a young boy who loves dachshunds, and a best friend who had “connections” well, I’d have never met this wonderful family, the Thein’s.

As is their tradition, every year between Christmas and New Year’s, the Thein’s make the trek from their home state of Illinois to Wisconsin to stay at one of our local resorts here in Elkhart Lake.

Okay, so I live in Wisconsin and you are perhaps wondering why bug spray is involved in winter, right?  Well, there was the time the Thein’s were here when it was warmer, and the skeeters were something fierce! And that is how this all began.

They wondered into the Feed Mill Market that once housed a grocery store and still has a retail shop and deli, looking for relief in a bottle of spray to keep the bugs away.

Instead of bug spray, young Cameron found my children’s book about my paralyzed dachshund Frankie. He was immediately drawn to her because of his love of doxie’s.

As he carried the book in his arms, the manager of the Feed Mill Market, Victoria, who is the best friend of the author of the Frankie book took notice. Oh, and I guess I might add, it would be me that is the author of said dachshund book (in case you are new here).

Victoria told young Cameron that she knew the author and Frankie, and she was pretty sure she could arrange for them to meet us. And yup, she was right. I was more than happy to make the short jaunt down to the market with Frankie after she called me.

And ever since then, most every year except for last year, when John and I went out of town after Christmas, I’ve gotten together to catch up with them.

The only thing missing the past three years though has been dear Frankie who passed away in the summer of 2012.

But each year when I spend a little time with the Thein family, I get this warm feeling inside that Frankie is wagging her tail in happiness that a friendship she helped to create continues to build memories.

Safe travels back home Thein’s and wishing you the best year ever in 2016!

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Take Peace – Living a Creative Life

Posted by Barbara Techel
Take Peace - Living in a Creative Life
Tasha Tudor and her beloved corgis

Every Christmas season, at least once, if not several times (okay, many times!), I just have to watch a documentary called Take Peace – A Corgi Cottage Christmas with Tasha Tudor.

A children’s book author and illustrator, Tasha passed away in 2008 at the age of 92. I discovered her in 2012 when looking through an old edition of Victorian magazine where they had paid tribute to her.

I became obsessed with her, checking out just about every book at the library I could that was about her, and that she’d also written herself. I also visited the Tasha Tudor Museum in Brattleboro, Vermont the same year I learned about her.

I’m in my obsession mode again having gotten out the Christmas DVD, Take Peace to watch it over the weekend. To me, Tasha truly celebrated in the spirit of the season as it should be. The tree got cut on Christmas eve and decorated on Christmas day, along with many other traditions not practiced too often these days.

She lived in her own world and pretty much self-sustained, within a small English style cottage her oldest son built, out in the country miles away from the outside world.

But what I love most about her, and what really hit home watching the documentary this weekend, is that her creative life was woven into her daily life – there really was no distinction between the two.

Each were instrumental to the other, but it came most naturally to her. Tasha’s children’s books and illustrations depict this very clearly – but it was also how she lived. She wrote and painted what she was living and had lived as a young girl.

Isn’t this what all creative people seek?  I know I do. And I guess it’s why I’m so mesmerized by a woman who was able to make this work. She didn’t let the outside distractions get in her way of what a meaningful life was for her.

While many considered her quite eccentric, and she lived without electricity or running water for the most part of her life, I admire her greatly for living by the beat of her own drum.

As she also states in the film, she was never in a hurry – she didn’t see a point of that and she always took time for tea each day no matter how much was going on her life –and yet she managed to write and/or illustrate close to 100 books in her lifetime.

And I can’t help but think how so often we look outside ourselves for answers, and yet, Tasha found them all within her own world – and that is what she created from.

It was her love of corgi’s, her exquisite flower garden, her love of nature, cooking, sewing, creating, and goats, cats, and doves that she wove right into her paintings and books which are adored to this day by many.

And yup, I’m one who continues to be inspired by her with many books by Tasha I requested from the library so I can once again immerse myself into a space of peace and joy…

And which encourages me to continue to strive to live from that inner light that I call me, and that only I can live from, which I hold sacred and dear.

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