Last Thursday, students from John S. Clarke Elementary School were rewarded for their good behavior by having the opportunity to meet Nadine Poper, an author and school librarian, at the Pottsville Free Public Library.

Poper, who was born near Cressona, wrote the books Porcupette and Randall and Randall. She began her presentation by showing the students images of various animals and quizzing them on the different elements in the pictures. In addition to that, to introduce her story, she compared the natural phenomenon of “symbiosis” to how humans create and form friendships.

The author then continued her presentation by reviewing the writing processes she went through to finalize her two books. Poper presented slides that corresponded with her writing processes, making it easy for the children to interact.

Third grader Kennedy Holden said, “I enjoyed that the author let the kids participate in the program and how she showed interesting slides and asked us questions.”

To wrap up the day, Poper read one of her books, Randall and Randall. Towards the end, students got to recreate a scene from the story, while the other students aided in creating sound effects. While two students acted as the protagonists, Randall and Randall, another student portrayed the antagonist, a shark. Their peers participated by popping bubble wrap, mimicking the sound one of the protagonists makes.