— iPhone photos by Heather Conn
At the last minute, Community Services in Sechelt, BC invited storyteller John Conway to read aloud Gracie’s Got a Secret at their fundraising event in December 2011. John used the same puppets from the book launch. (See the post below for more details.)
He had some rambunctious boys in the audience, but with the help of Gracie and Mopey, John kept them engaged with the story. It was fun to watch the interactions.
Goldfish sure get around. Every week, I keep learning about new goldfish worlds. Somebody told me about Dorothy the Goldfish, who appears on Elmo’s World. Remember “Tickle Me” Elmo from Sesame Street? Of course, I had to check this out on YouTube.
I found Elmo hugging Dorothy’s fishbowl and sharing his love with her in the short video “Elmo’s World: Happy Holidays.” “Cute” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
As a neophyte filmmaker, Elmo creates a mini-movie of Dorothy in her bowl, complete with wavy, hand-held camera angles, called “Dorothy in Water.”
The best one is the creature-filled world that Dorothy imagines from inside her goldfish bowl. The alligator and elephant in the song “Tickle Me Land” aren’t nearly as sweet as Lillian’s Mopey and Nellie, though.
I still like Gracie’s world much better. Am I biased? Yup.
Gracie and Heather Conn will appear at a fun event Dec. 5 in Sechelt, BC to support kids with special needs. As part of a fundraiser for Kids In Motion, a program run by the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society, they’re going to join about a dozen local craftspeople and home party vendors and sell their wares.
Ten per cent of the sales of Gracie’s Got a Secret will go towards this important community initiative.
Join Gracie, Heather, and others from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Community Services Building, 5638 Inlet Avenue. For further information about the event, contact Liz or Merrily at the Infant Development Program at 604-885-5881.
Gracie and Heather Conn, along with Sunshine Coast author Shelley Leedahl, will be selling books Dec. 1 at a special kids’ event at West Sechelt Elementary School. From 5 to 8 p.m., they’ll join other vendors with home-based businesses who offer products for children.
If you haven’t bought Gracie’s Got a Secret at one of the Sunshine Coast bookstores or craft fairs, this will be a great time to get a signed copy from the author.
— photos by Janice Williams
Author Heather Conn and storyteller John Conway
A plucky three-year-old girl who can trumpet like an elephant. A talented storyteller who brings words and characters to life with accents, puppets, and sound effects. Free goldfish crackers for a goldfish book. How can you not have a fun book launch?
Several dozen hardy listeners battled high winds and darkness Nov. 26 to attend the 5 p.m. launch of Gracie’s Got a Secret in Sechelt, BC. Local children’s entertainer John Conway was a hit at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre event with his hilarious antics and puppet interactions. He and a child volunteer shared elephant sounds while raising their respective arm like a trunk. The girl was a natural!
John used a puppet for each of the book’s three main characters to tell the story. When Nellie appeared, as an elephant puppet with tusks, I was waiting for some young voice to point out that she had tusks, but no one did. When one of her ballet slippers fell off, I felt compelled to run up and correct this “wardrobe malfunction.”
John was wonderful at prompting smiles and giggles from the audience. He invited adults to add glub-glub-glub sounds to his own fish noises for Gracie, but people seemed a tad too shy to become temporary goldfish.
— William Gelbart photo
After John read the book to the group, using three volunteers in his performance, we took a short break for free snacks: cookies and goldfish crackers, juice, and coffee and tea.
Afterwards, in the Q&A, someone asked me if I’m planning to do a sequel. The answer is yes. I’ve already got another character that I want to use with Gracie. There wasn’t room for him in this story.
Many thanks to everyone, young and old, who came to the reading. I appreciated the help with book sales from Bev from Talewind Books and her daughter.
— William Gelbart photo
Thanks to John for putting on such a great show. And a huge thank you to my husband Frank, who spent time getting everything set up and ready while I was selling books at the Seaside Centre before the event. Your help made all of the difference.
Curious to find other goldfish books on the Internet, I recently came across some wacky and intriguing titles in a variety of genres:
My favourite was the title How to Train Goldfish Using Dolphin Training Techniques by C. Scott Johnson. Gracie doesn’t need such education — after all, she can fly. In Hollywood, they use wranglers (trainers/handlers) for every creature from horses to maggots, so maybe they even have them for goldfish. I’d love to meet one. Can’t imagine a real goldfish twirling a ball on its nose, can you?
After receiving a copy of Gracie’s Got a Secret for his birthday, my uncle Don, in his mid-80s, sent me a typed letter. Here’s what he wrote:
“A long time, more than 80 years ago, Hart family [my mother’s side] had a children’s book. It was a marvelous book. It was created by your grandmother’s best friend and roommate while she attended classes at Mac Hall [at the University of Guelph, Ont., Canada]. The book did not seem to be anything very special. It started with a 5 cent “HUGE” scribbler, the kind little children took to school to write out their lessons. (These were tough times, money was scarce.) As I remember, all the printing and drawing was done with pencils and wax crayons.
“I don’t remember if the material used was conventional as in ‘Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow”
Or was it all original verses with the pictured colored? Some of it was certainly original. ‘And the Swallermareezeres that swallered themselves.’
“I can’t remember the rest. That much was certainly original. It was my favourite and I heard it every night. . . It’s strange, but that is the only thing that I remember from the whole book . . .
“The old scribbler gradually fell apart from all of the little hands that wanted to hold it. It was sort of like shuffling a deck of cards to get all of the pages back in place.
“There is magic in a book for children. Your book has this magic too. . .”
Love, Uncle Don
If you like my book Gracie’s Got a Secret, why not write a comment on the Gracie blog on this website? Or if you prefer, you could write one on Amazon.com. I’d love to hear from parents, grandparents, children — anyone who appreciates sharing stories with young ones. Let’s inspire the next generation with books and reading!
“In this delightful children’s book, a little fish leads the way through a wonderful adventure in which she meets and helps other creatures through their dilemmas by sharing her secret with them. . . . Heather Conn is a skilled children’s author and Lillian Lai’s illustrations are beautifully crafted — giving readers a truly professional product by a talented team.”
— Carol Gardarsson, Editor, The Local, Sechelt, BC (Nov. 17/11)