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SABINA — A former local teacher is a published children’s book author after a trip to the zoo with a grandson provided the inspiration.
Beth Woodruff of Sabina was a Spanish teacher at East Clinton for 30 years, and for many of those she even traveled to Mexico, Spain, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico with EC Spanish students.
“Six years ago I took my first grandson to the Cincinnati Zoo,” Woodruff said. “He was really enthralled with the elephants. When we came home, a story idea went through my head and I wrote a poem, entitled ‘Mr. L. E. Font’. And so that Max would have a copy of the poem forever, I cross-stitched it for him.”
Woodruff said a local photographer had accompanied her on the trip and took photos of the experience.
“With my words and her pictures, we created a Snapfish book which I gave to my friends’ kids for Christmas that year,” she said.
“Mr. L. E. Font” is about an elephant that stands in his pen watching the spectators watching him. He wonders what it would be like to talk to them — and “once you open the cover you will learn of the life lesson he learned,” said Woodruff. “And you might be surprised!”
“Last winter I decided I would see if anyone would ever publish it,” Woodruff said. “I sent the manuscript to a few publishers and Newman Springs Publishing from New Jersey called me one day and said they liked the book. From that moment on we began formatting the book for publishing.”
It took about 10 months, she said, with many steps to go through and an editor there was very helpful. About 10 months later Woodruff’s first shipment arrived to check it over for printing errors, and with her approval the book was published.
“It’s my first venture into the publishing world — and book number two is being edited and in the works at the company right now,” she said. “It should be available in about 10 more months!”
“Mr. L.E. Font” is available for purchase on Amazon, Walmart.com, and barnesandnoble.com.
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