Kids' Book Takes Wing

Bonnie Henry Arizona Daily Star

This is the tale of a persistent peacock, a little boy and a grandma who knows a good story when she sees one.

A couple of years ago, La Verne Olsen published a book of children's stories, "If a Peacock Follows You Home." Inspiration came early on. Pulling it all together took a little longer.

"It was four years of work," says Olsen, who tested out the material on a grandson's classmates. Children also supplied the crayon drawings that illustrate the book.

Since its publication, 250 books have been sold -- mostly to friends and relatives, Olsen admits. Now the rest of us get our chance, at a book signing on Saturday.

All this is somewhat dizzying to Olsen. "I'd never written anything before. I hated English class." Ah, but that was all that boring grammar stuff, diagramming sentences and such. This, however, was a labor of love.

A Tucsonan since 1953, Olsen, who'll be 81 Tuesday, arrived with a sick husband and raised four kids here. He died in 1977, leaving her a widow at age 48.

A retired medical transcriptionist, she's now the grandmother of six, ages 10 to 25.

It was just after Christmas of 2001 when she took her grandsons, Matthew and Garrett Prellberg, to Reid Park Zoo.

Then ages 6 and 4, respectively, the boys were visiting from their home near Atlanta.

"I had signed up to be a docent at the zoo, but they canceled after two classes. But I still know how they feed the animals," says Olsen. She was explaining to the boys how the giraffes were fed when "this little peacock jumped the wall and started following Matthew.

"He kept following us so Matthew bought some popcorn and threw it to him. He loved that. We couldn't get rid of him." In fact, they almost couldn't get through the turnstiles minus the peacock when they left.

At dinner that night, Matthew turned to Olsen and asked, "Grandma, what would happen if a peacock followed us home?"

The wheels began to turn. After dinner, Olsen and Matthew started cooking up various scenarios on her home computer.

One, offered by Matthew, was that the peacock could jump on top of the car, and they wouldn't know it until they got home.

"It seemed the most logical way to follow you home," says Matthew, now 13, during a phone interview.

Together, they worked up a brief story, one that had Matthew keeping the peacock overnight, then calling up the zoo to retrieve it.

The following spring, Olsen flew to Atlanta for a visit and read the story to Matthew's kindergarten class. "I was all happy about it," says Matthew. "I think they liked it."

Indeed. One little boy even called Matthew's home that night, asking if he could see the peacock. "I thought, 'That's a good story,' " says Olsen.

But of course, she couldn't leave Garrett, Matthew's brother, out of the book. "So I wrote a story with him in it." she says. More stories followed, a dozen in all. Granddaughter Kristyn Olsen, then 11, drew the cover.

"I liked that she used my cousins' stories I had never heard about," says Matthew.

But all those stories needed illustrating. Thumbing through the Yellow Pages, Olsen saw an ad under "Art Instruction" offered by Lillias Apland, also known as the Crayon Lady.

"I went to the art class. I took the stories, and I wrote new stories, too," says Olsen.

"I let the children read the stories, and each child was assigned some illustrations," says Apland. "One student ended up doing quite a few of them."

In all, five of the students, ages 7 to 12, were paid to supply the drawings that now adorn the book. "She also gave each child a copy of her book," says Apland.

"I had no idea she had written a book," says Matthew, about his grandmother. "She had always talked about writing one. I was touched that she used my story."

Grandkids aren't her only fans. "I read to one kindergarten class during Love of Reading Week. I told them I would read my own book," says Olsen. "After I was done, they asked me if I could read to another class. I ended up reading to five classes that day."

Unlike some children's stories -- anyone for "Bambi"? -- there is always a happy narrative for every one of Olsen's stories.

"That doesn't always happen in children's books," she says.

It does here.

IF YOU GO

La Verne Olsen will sign her book, "If a Peacock Follows You Home" ($15 softcover, 50 pages) from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday at Mostly Books, 6208 E. Speedway. Books are available for purchase at the store.

DID YOU KNOW

The 20 or so peacocks roaming the grounds of Reid Park Zoo are "freeloaders" and are not part of the zoo's regular collection, says zoo education curator Vivian VanPeenen. Because they lay their eggs in sometimes-hidden places, most of the zoo's current crop of peacocks were born there.

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