Author Returns Home In Conners Emerson Visit
Diane Magras brings the power of dreams come true to fourth graders
BAR HARBOR— Once, there was a very, very, very, small dragon named Large Marge. She lived in Italy in a pizza parlor. She wanted to prove herself to Joe’s Pizza, the place where she wanted to work for, not just live at.
However, she didn’t know how to cook pizzas. This was a problem.
Another problem?
Marge was a terrible cook.
It sounds insurmountable, but it’s not a problem, not really, when you have a group of Conners Emerson seventh graders and a published writer creating a premise together at the school’s library. Large Marge was in able hands.
The Conners Emerson PTSA funded the event, bringing Diane Magras to the school via the proceeds of the Tiger Raffle fundraiser earlier this school year.
“The PTSA funded Diane's visit and purchased a class set of The Mad Wolf's Daughter,” teacher Meryl Sweeney said. “My initial grant request was for a virtual visit, but since their fall Tiger Raffle fundraiser was such a success, they were able to bring her here in person and gifted her a stay at the Acadia Hotel.”
Students were not only able to learn from someone who had gone to school on Mount Desert Island just like them, they were able to create with a published author.
When Diane Magras grew up on Mount Desert Island, she dreamed of being a writer. Buoyed by support from Mrs. Plourde, her seventh-grade teacher, words, plots, and trips to Scotland, fast-paced adventures, historical research, character development, whirled around in her mind.
“As a seventh grader, I dreamed of being published someday,” she said.
Her dream came true. Her imagination became reality.
What might not have whirled around was that Magras would be coming home again, talking to a group of Meryl Sweeney’s fourth graders at the Conners Emerson School library and creating an oral story about Large Marge, that very tiny dragon, with the students as they discussed how to build a premise of the story.
“Author visits help kids connect with books and create a culture of reading,” Sweeney said. “They also inspire kids to write, as they're able to see authors as real people whose books aren't created by magic, but word by word, with creativity, and hard work. Being able to connect with Diane, a Conners Emerson alum (and Minecraft player!), made this even more tangible for my students.”
Magras laced those connections throughout her talk. She showed slides of Ocean Drive, Hunters Beach, the Jesup Memorial Library. She laughed that the Conners Emerson students might be the only ones who could recognize the places that inspired her imagination and her writing.
That journey from island girl to author, began by running on the rocks by Ocean Drive, spending a lot of times in the woods, Hunters Beach, and the library.
“I used to race between the trees,” she said. “I’ve always told stories.”
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper and Mrs. Plourde combined to help Magras realize that she should try to write in longer forms.
“I wrote my first novel in seventh grade,” she said. “I did not know how to revise though, so I kept writing first drafts.”
She explained that she threw approximately 700 pages away to write the 280-or-so pages of her finished novel. “Revision is when you really pull it all together.”
She began writing bleak literary books where people died horrible deaths at the end, she said, but when her son was in middle school and she read The Luck Uglies by Paul Durham, she realized that she could write something else. Maybe even a book that was full of adventure, a book that ended happily.
“He was brutal. He told me when it was boring. He told me when it was confusing,” she said.
The students asked Magras why she chose to set her book in Scotland; told her that they visited London or that they liked medieval things; and they asked her how she came up with character names.
“Historical nerdery,” she explained.
After Magras read from her book, one student sat up straighter on the couch and said, “I really like your imitation of the voices and I’m intrigued to read more.”
The students and Magras created a premise together. “It’s the very first part of building a story that becomes a novel,” she told them.
They created a character, internal and external goals, a conflict and stakes and came up with the story of Large Marge, who is, ironically, quite a small dragon. The climax is a cook-off with giant dragon, Small Marge, in the pizza parlor. Every night, they eat a pizza to celebrate the victory.
She told them, “Think of what’s most important. Think about what you care about most in your writing.”
That is what you’re meant to write.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
To learn more about Diane Magras, check out her website.
The PTSA’s Facebook is here.
Correction: Some versions of this article, may say Ford for Plourde. We apologize for the error!