A year ago, Lorie Hetrick-Volenberg became an author for the first time when she wrote “Gramelda The Grasshopper.”
The Mexico resident was inspired by Graham Cave State Park to write …
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A year ago, Lorie Hetrick-Volenberg became an author for the first time when she wrote “Gramelda The Grasshopper.”
The Mexico resident was inspired by Graham Cave State Park to write the 76-page children’s book.
“I worked there for quite a while,” Hetrick-Volenberg said.
On May 14, Hetrick-Volenberg returned to the Danville park to talk about her book during a five-hour event called The Art of Storytelling. She held a book signing and talked about grasshoppers and nature activities inspired by the book.
“The story is whimsical,” Hetrick-Volenberg said. “There is some educational material at the end of the book. The idea is to get kids interested in what Missouri has to offer. There is a lot of information about insects, glades and tall grass prairies. There are things at the end of the book that they can do like experiments, coloring things and forms to fill out. They can go out in nature and look for certain things.”
Other guests at the event were Montgomery City Public Library Director Gaylee Harris and husband and wife duo Larry and Marilyn Kinsella. Hetrick-Volenberg said she was happy that Graham Cave held the event.
“This is the first time that they have done storytelling,” Hetrick-Volenberg said. “I think it worked out really well.”
The Kinsellas combined their talents to share traditional stories and demonstrations of flint knapping in a presentation called “Stories ‘n’ Stones.” The couple is from Fairview Heights, Ill., just outside St. Louis.
“When we got married, we kind of had our own ways of doing things, like he (Larry) got really interested in stone tools and I got interested in storytelling,” Marilyn Kinsella said.
Harris, who has been MCPL director since September, read popular nature-inspired stories during the event.
Hetrick-Volenberg wrote her book under the pen name, “Lena Lichenpold,” which was given by her husband, who is Norwegian. Lichenpold comes from conversationalist Aldo Leopold and Hetrick-Volenberg’s love of lichens.
“It started off as a joke,” Hetrick-Volenberg said. “Then when I wrote the story, I thought, ‘I can use this name as a pen name.’ So that’s where it came from. We just kind of have fun with it.”
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