Practice, and have fun!

Children's author wrote and illustrated her first book at age 6

By Jennifer Duffy

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Jennifer Ward, children's author

• Age: 42

• Genre: Picture books

• Advice to youngsters: "Write for fun! Write on scraps of paper, write when you're inspired. Just write for fun!"

And read. "In my mind, the two (reading and writing) are synonymous. It's a marriage. The more kids read, the more they're going to be inspired to write." Ward has set up a link on her Web site for kids. Visit www.jenniferwardbooks. com/kids.html to see links to fun word games for kids.

• See her tonight: The Cross-Harelson school library hosts an annual family reading night.

This year, Mr. Eddie, a storyteller from the Nanini Library, and Ward are going to talk and read to children and parents.

• Where: 1000 W. Chapala Drive (northwest of North Oracle and West Ina roads)

• When: Tonight at 6:30

Excerpt from "The Little Creek" (Western National Parks Association, $7.95).

The book benefits the Western National Parks Association, a nonprofit organization that supports the National Park Service.

There once lived a creek, as old as the hills. It flowed, slow and unhurried, for thousands of years. In the beginning, the creek was not much more than a trickle of water. It wound and curved its way along, below cottonwoods and willows. Winds blew seeds to the creek, which took root and sprouted, green and new. Soon, the creek became home to cattails, rushes, and grasses.

Author Jennifer Ward is proof that childhood dreams do come true.

Ward wrote and illustrated her very first book when she was about 6.

"It has about 30 staples along the edge. It's folded like a book and has really large lettering," she said.

Now 42, she still has the book and shows it to kids when she visits classrooms across the country.

"They all laugh at it. Every other word is spelled wrong. It's very phonetic."

As a child, Ward loved to make up stories about animals — especially horses, which she grew up riding — and fashioned her stories around plots she read in books.

Her parents acknowledged her talents for writing and drawing and saved her creations. She still has a book they gave her with an inscription that reads: "Jenny, Your mother and I see in this book the prototype for your own artistic creativity — a love for life's children and animals, too! We hope to share your volumes in years ahead! Love, Mom and Dad."

Her first published book, "Way Out in the Desert" (Rising Moon, $15.95), came later in life, in 1998. This was after she tried her hand at art school, quit, became a bank teller, fell in love and married, then went back to school and became an elementary school teacher.

It was her experience as a kindergarten teacher at Los Ranchitos Elementary School and exposure to hundreds of picture books that inspired her to become an author.

Even as an adult she still writes about the things she loves, like the desert and the ocean, and she encourages children to do the same.

"I always tell children to write what they know. . . . It's important to write about what speaks to you; that makes it easier," said Ward, who eventually quit teaching to pursue writing full time.

She tells children to write for fun without worrying about editing, spelling and grammar on the first round. Parents and teachers can help with those things later.

Her own 13-year-old daughter, Kelly, loves to read and write. "She makes books like I did, and I'm saving them all the time," she said.

"Children need to express thoughts and creativity on paper without worrying about paper," said Ward. "Their writing will improve because they're practicing without realizing they're practicing."

Jennifer Ward