Warsaw Schools Media Coordinator Tells Students About Her Book
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The Warsaw Community Schools coordinator of media services answered each question with as much eagerness as it was asked.
Sitting in the Leesburg school’s library, she told the boys and girls the historical fiction middle-school reader was about her childhood and how it was impacted by the farming crisis in the 1980s. The crisis caused her family to lose their farm in southern Illinois and move to Indiana, and it tore the family apart.
Leesburg fifth-graders are learning about memoirs. After librarian Connie Waters read Kovach’s book, she thought it would be a great tie-in to the teachers’ lesson plan and with WCS’s mission statement of “enriching the lives of others.” As Waters read the book to the students, they wanted to know if the main character of Amy was a real person, so Kovach was invited to speak to students Wednesday.
When a student asked Kovach why she wrote it, she replied that she had stories she needed to tell – about the farming crisis, her “Paps” and her mother. It’s also a tribute to farmers, her grandfather and her mother, retired WCS teacher Christine Foster.
“It’s a tribute to my mom. As a kid I didn’t realize how many sacrifices a parent makes. She’s such an inspiration,” Kovach said after meeting with the students.
Kovach said her mom was very brave during the whole crisis and never showed how scared she really was, so she wanted to honor her mom with the 120-page book. Her mother was one of the people during the farming crisis who fought for farmers’ rights and testified before Congress about it.
The farming crisis is a part of history, she noted. It’s not talked about a lot, and she wanted students today to know about it. She wanted to “enrich the lives of students” and others through her book, she said.
Writing the first rough draft of the book took Kovach four months. She let students in Fort Wayne read it and give her feedback. She took their comments and rewrote it. After another group read the book and commented, she rewrote it a second time.
“I wrote a lot on a laptop any spare chance I got, anywhere I could,” she told students.
She had started thinking about the book and writing it, however, 10 to 15 years ago in college, she said.
“I always loved to write, even as a kid. Even though I was a horrible speller,” Kovach said. Later, a little girl announced, “I’m a bad speller, too, so you’re OK!”
Kovach’s grandfather told her lots of stories growing up, which encouraged her story telling. Her fifth-grade teacher changed her life when she told Kovach she could write stories, too, just like her favorite book, “Bridge to Terabithia.”
One of the hardest things about writing the book was deciding who would be in it. She left some of her family out, and changed some names.
Many of the events in her book actually happened, she said, including the “tractorcade” to the bank. However, some things have been changed including people’s names.
She is glad she grew up on a farm the first 12 years of her life because it made her realize how important farms are and how much easier her life is now.
One student inquired if she had ever gone back to the family farm. Kovach stated she had a few years ago. Some of the abandoned buildings are still there, as are descendants of the family’s cat, “Old Blue.”
She went back and saw her grandfather after she married Bill Kovach. It was kind of hard for her grandfather, she said, because so much time had passed since he saw her last.
“From time to time, there might be a phone call or a letter,” she told the students.
The loss of the family farm really made Kovach look at the world around her, she stated. The loss and her mother’s wisdom motivated her to go on to college and earn her English undergraduate degree at IPFW and her master’s degree in library science at IUPUI. Kovach graduated from Warsaw Community High School in 1995.
“It helped me understand it was not the end of the world and I can go find another dream and achieve it,” she said.
“Do you plan to write a sequel?” a student asked.
“I thought about it, but I don’t know how interesting it would be,” Kovach replied. If she did write a sequel, she said it could be about how the main character Amy’s life changed after moving from Illinois to Indiana.
When another student asked “Mrs. Kovach” if her real name was Amy, she told them it was not, it was Wendy. The students gasped and whispered among themselves like she had revealed something Top Secret.
“Lessons of the Land” officially was released in late 2012, but is available through Amazon.com, which has a copyright date on the book of September 2013.
Copies of Kovach’s book, which is geared toward fourth- through sixth-graders, are at the Warsaw Community Public Library and in each school library within Warsaw Schools. In honor of her late husband Roger, Rebecca Burger donated copies of the book to the school libraries because she was so moved by it.[[In-content Ad]]
The Warsaw Community Schools coordinator of media services answered each question with as much eagerness as it was asked.
Sitting in the Leesburg school’s library, she told the boys and girls the historical fiction middle-school reader was about her childhood and how it was impacted by the farming crisis in the 1980s. The crisis caused her family to lose their farm in southern Illinois and move to Indiana, and it tore the family apart.
Leesburg fifth-graders are learning about memoirs. After librarian Connie Waters read Kovach’s book, she thought it would be a great tie-in to the teachers’ lesson plan and with WCS’s mission statement of “enriching the lives of others.” As Waters read the book to the students, they wanted to know if the main character of Amy was a real person, so Kovach was invited to speak to students Wednesday.
When a student asked Kovach why she wrote it, she replied that she had stories she needed to tell – about the farming crisis, her “Paps” and her mother. It’s also a tribute to farmers, her grandfather and her mother, retired WCS teacher Christine Foster.
“It’s a tribute to my mom. As a kid I didn’t realize how many sacrifices a parent makes. She’s such an inspiration,” Kovach said after meeting with the students.
Kovach said her mom was very brave during the whole crisis and never showed how scared she really was, so she wanted to honor her mom with the 120-page book. Her mother was one of the people during the farming crisis who fought for farmers’ rights and testified before Congress about it.
The farming crisis is a part of history, she noted. It’s not talked about a lot, and she wanted students today to know about it. She wanted to “enrich the lives of students” and others through her book, she said.
Writing the first rough draft of the book took Kovach four months. She let students in Fort Wayne read it and give her feedback. She took their comments and rewrote it. After another group read the book and commented, she rewrote it a second time.
“I wrote a lot on a laptop any spare chance I got, anywhere I could,” she told students.
She had started thinking about the book and writing it, however, 10 to 15 years ago in college, she said.
“I always loved to write, even as a kid. Even though I was a horrible speller,” Kovach said. Later, a little girl announced, “I’m a bad speller, too, so you’re OK!”
Kovach’s grandfather told her lots of stories growing up, which encouraged her story telling. Her fifth-grade teacher changed her life when she told Kovach she could write stories, too, just like her favorite book, “Bridge to Terabithia.”
One of the hardest things about writing the book was deciding who would be in it. She left some of her family out, and changed some names.
Many of the events in her book actually happened, she said, including the “tractorcade” to the bank. However, some things have been changed including people’s names.
She is glad she grew up on a farm the first 12 years of her life because it made her realize how important farms are and how much easier her life is now.
One student inquired if she had ever gone back to the family farm. Kovach stated she had a few years ago. Some of the abandoned buildings are still there, as are descendants of the family’s cat, “Old Blue.”
She went back and saw her grandfather after she married Bill Kovach. It was kind of hard for her grandfather, she said, because so much time had passed since he saw her last.
“From time to time, there might be a phone call or a letter,” she told the students.
The loss of the family farm really made Kovach look at the world around her, she stated. The loss and her mother’s wisdom motivated her to go on to college and earn her English undergraduate degree at IPFW and her master’s degree in library science at IUPUI. Kovach graduated from Warsaw Community High School in 1995.
“It helped me understand it was not the end of the world and I can go find another dream and achieve it,” she said.
“Do you plan to write a sequel?” a student asked.
“I thought about it, but I don’t know how interesting it would be,” Kovach replied. If she did write a sequel, she said it could be about how the main character Amy’s life changed after moving from Illinois to Indiana.
When another student asked “Mrs. Kovach” if her real name was Amy, she told them it was not, it was Wendy. The students gasped and whispered among themselves like she had revealed something Top Secret.
“Lessons of the Land” officially was released in late 2012, but is available through Amazon.com, which has a copyright date on the book of September 2013.
Copies of Kovach’s book, which is geared toward fourth- through sixth-graders, are at the Warsaw Community Public Library and in each school library within Warsaw Schools. In honor of her late husband Roger, Rebecca Burger donated copies of the book to the school libraries because she was so moved by it.[[In-content Ad]]
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