By Anne W. Semmes
Arlene Mark of Greenwich has written a children’s book of engaging and enduring magic, “To the Tower – A Greenwich Adventure.” Written in 2002, and published by the Greenwich Historical Society, it’s historical fiction based as on a real Tower located on a real Shell Island off the Byram shore, now protected by the Greenwich Land Trust.
That “To the Tower” book took center stage last Thursday week at a Ceramic Workshop with a Live Read by the author at the Byram Shubert Library, with some 26 elementary school age kids with their parents, caregivers or grandparents sitting expectantly before tables where they would build their own towers based on the real one on Shell Island.
“So, this is the order of the program,” began Miguel Garcia-Colon, branch manager of Byram Shubert Library. “First, I’ll introduce Arlene Mark, a Greenwich author who happens to be a friend of this library and of mine, then she’s going to read from her book and describe the tower, you’ll ask some questions, and then build a tower. And at the end you’re going to get a signed copy of the book with your name in it.”
Standing before her audience Mark began her read, “Emma had no choice. If she didn’t go, the teasing wouldn’t stop. The canoe trip over to nearby Calf Island, just offshore from her home in Greenwich…would be easy. Then would come the tough part. She’d hide her boat on the island and walk across the low tide sandbar to Tower Island. She’d gather all her courage and sneak into the mysterious tower to do what she had to do. That was her plan.”
It was Mark’s own kids and grandkids who’d inspired the book. “My kids did go to Julian Curtiss,” like her character Emma,” she tells, but the story grew from her telling stories with her grandkids that she’d heard over the years of strange creatures being spotted inside the tower. “Was it a creature?” Or “Was it a dragon?” they would ask her. And so her character Emma wants to prove her bravery to her teasing Julian Curtiss classmates and visit the Tower with her camera.
As the plot unfolds, author Mark brings in some real history. And in the back of the book she shares the real history of that Tower and of the island, but also she lays out how young readers can engage with the story. Might they share an adventure? What did they learn from it? Were they ever teased? How did they handle it? How might they have worked to protect or preserve the Tower?
Then it was tower making time, and sculptor Lucia Fenning took the stage, delivering to each child a ball of clay. “So, we’ll make this bottom part of the tower and then we make the top of the tower and then we make the steps. So, we start with the ball – let’s bang it.”
So, the little hands worked with their clay as the foundation of the tower took shape. And Mark visited each one as their works progressed, asking them if they had had adventures.
“Oh, I love it,” admired sculptor Fenning, adding, “Excuse me. I think some people are using too much clay, so, it’s going to be very difficult to cut the windows.”
And while they sculpted with Mark visiting each one, Branch Manager Garcia-Colon announced that Mark’s book “To the Tower” was being celebrated by further programming through the fall. “We’re going to have a puppet show inspired by the book, and we’re going to have a talk about one of the descendants of the owners of that Tower island.” And he added, “We’re doing another reading with the Greenwich Historical Society celebrating children’s authors and the late Esther Banker, first librarian at Byram Shubert.”
Then it was book signing time. “Well, they’re just so shy,” tells Mark, “When I made those little inscriptions to each of them, I would say to Jason or to James or to Anna, ‘May you go on amazing adventures in your life and find your own tower to climb and discover…maybe, treasure.’ Emma discovered treasure and I hope as they close the book, they will say, ‘Good for Emma!’…and move on to their own discoveries.”
