When children’s book author Dana Meachen Rau visited the Welles Turner Library to share some of her early stories and picture books , children got the opportunity to meet a real author who has a wealth of books under her belt and a tremendous talent for teaching .

At the recent event – which was part of the library’s summer reading series – Rau brought along some of her books about insects and shared two in particular about ladybugs .

Rau’s books , entitled “ Look for Ladybugs” and “ Crawl , Ladybug , Crawl !” entertained children in Kindergarten through second grade , as she read aloud and provided children with constructive information about these curious insects .

In games geared towards teaching the basics of elementary scholastics , Rau engaged the children with handson instruction , and even got some of them to dress up as different bugs to illustrate some of their similarities and differences , so that they could see lifelike versions of these colorful critters up close and in person .

Keeping what Rau calls an “ idea bin” is one way this author stays motivated to write . “ The world is a wondrous place , ” she said . “ When I have gems of ideas for a new book , I write down my thoughts and place them in the bin for future reference . This is one way I keep the rhythm of writing going . ”

For inspiration in writing all of her many books , Rau described the process as “ distilling hard information down to simple terms . ”

She said , “ You really have to make it into something a child would understand , whether through picture clues or three-word sentences that they sound out . Through this , they begin to decode words and become successful readers . ”