Archive: Around Town

"We had one family tradition that I remember better than anything, and that was the Friday night box of books," children's author Ann Mazer told a group of Lansing kids Saturday.  "Every Friday night my father would bring home a paycheck from the factory where he was working.  He would also bring a huge box of books.  So in my family it always seemed like books were as important as money, or maybe more important than money."


The Ithaca author visited Lansing Town Hall to help the Lansing Community Library Center (LCLC) celebrate Children's Literature Week.  She recalled her childhood and the impact books had on her, as well as memories of her two author-parents typing in the middle of the night.  "They figured out that when my baby sister woke up at three or four in the morning for her morning feeding, that they'd just stay up and write," she recalled.  "I can't believe that they did that.  It seemed so crazy to me.  I could never get up at three or four and write.  That's what my Mom and Dad did every single morning from the time I was five years old."


That eventually inspired Mazer to become an author herself.  So far she has published over 35 titles, including The Salamander Room, a Reading Rainbow Feature selection and 1993 ABC Children's Choice book.  Other titles include a series called 'The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes,' and 'The Yellow Button.'


Mazer sprinkled readings of her books with childhood memories.  She said that writing was different for her parents than it is for her.  "They didn't have computers," she explained.  "Electric typewriters were just invented and they had these two huge electric typewriters -- they were called Selectrics.  They were monsters.  They were bigger than some computer desks and they made a lot of noise.  As you typed on them a carriage would  move back and forth and a little bell would ring.  And the keys were noisy and they would go 'click, click, click, click.  That's what I heard every single morning when I woke up."


She talked about where she gets ideas for her books, and read some of them to the gathering.  "The Salamander Room is a serious book with a lot of imagination in it," she said.  "That's probably my favorite kind of book."  But she also likes to write silly books like 'The Fixits,'  and 'The Know Nothings and their Baby.'

About 20 kids, parents and teachers attended the event.

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