Local author visits Spruce Elementary

Author Jennifer Gold was the honored guest at Spruce Elementary School recently. Gold read to the students from her books “Top Leaf,” which tells the story of a very rude leaf who lives at a top of a tree, and “Yes, I Knew the Queen” which is a long poem about letting a story get out of hand. 

Gold is a freelance writer who lives in Buffalo. She was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Swansea, Wales, in the United Kingdom. She worked for 30 years as a speech-language pathologist and 11 years as a volunteer, part-time contributor for WBFO 88.7 FM where she garnered two Associated Press awards.  

Her mission at Spruce was not only to read her stories, but to talk about the process of writing.  She told students to not give up on their ideas if they wanted to create a story. 
“I went to a workshop and was told that nobody wants books where animals or trees talk, but that is what I wanted to write about, so I did,” she said. 

She gave the students tips on writing and editing their own stories. “Read them out loud and if you stop while you are reading, you probably need to rewrite that part.”  

She told the students she has been writing stories for 34 years, but sometimes it takes a while to get one to the point where it is ready to be published. 

“Sometimes I write things and put them away and come back to them with a fresh eye. You want your story to be the sort that other people want to read, too.” 

The students loved hearing Gold’s amazing and fun stories, and look forward to putting her advice into practice when they write their own tales.