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Author visits Austintown school
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Buck Wilder, also known as Tim Smith, tells about his style of writing and hiding objects in every page of his books. Smith visited Austintown Intermediate School on Tuesday to get the students excited about reading nonfiction.
By Kalea Hall
Austintown
Austintown students learned many lessons about nature at their assembly with author Buck Wilder, also known as Tim Smith.
But the most important lesson they learned was about life — and erasers.
“Don’t be afraid to try something new,” Smith told the children. “You are going to goof up. [Erasers] will be your friend.”
The third-through-fifth grade students at Austintown Intermediate came dressed in camouflage to hear about writing nonfiction and the joys of being an author from Tim Smith, who writes his books as the character Buck Wilder.
This was the first author visit of the year and the first activity the literacy team at AIS has put on to get the students excited about reading.
“We were trying to find an author who writes nonfiction,” said Kim Freiser, literacy coach at AIS.
The common core standards for Ohio schools focus on nonfiction books, she explained.
The Buck Wilder series focuses on silly, fun and adventurous stories about nature. Some popular titles are, “Who Stole the Animal Poop?,” The Work Bees Go on Strike,” “The Ants Dig to China” and “The Owls Don’t Give a Hoot.” There are also Buck Wilder guides, including a fishing guide, hunting and camping, boating and animal wisdom.
Smith, who is from Traverse City, Mich., talked to the students about his life as an author, fisherman and overall adventurer.
He writes about adventures in his books and sketches out different scenes in each book.
A hidden “fuzzy the worm,” secret nature messages and upside-down writing encompass the pages of each book he writes.
He even has an animal poop chart in “Who Stole the Animal Poop?”
“I do the silliest things in my books, and that’s why they are popular,” Smith said.
Smith, decked in fishing gear, with a tent in the background and a large poster of Buck Wilder, told the students about the time he spent in time out with nothing but a pencil and a piece of paper. He used his imagination to create characters with his paper and talk to spiders on the wall. He worked in many professions and finally decided to write books at age 50. It takes him one week to finish one page of the books he writes. Overall, that is a year of hard work for one book.
“I never knew I would be an author, and I love being [one],” he told the students. “There is a lot of talent in this room. Don’t be afraid to use it.”