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Children's author Barb Rosenstock gives writing tips to Butterfield School students

Vernon Hills author Barb Rosenstock says research is how a writer learns about their main characters.

"Research is just a fancy way of finding out about something," she told students at Butterfield Elementary School.

Rosenstock spent Wednesday at the Libertyville school, where she made presentations about her children's books, gave writing tips, explained the research process and talked about America's national parks.

Her book, "The Camping Trip that Changed America," was a focal point of the presentation. It is about a camping trip made by President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir to Yosemite National Park in 1903, where they spent much of the time discussing ways to preserve our nation's wilderness.

During the presentation, second grade student Daniel Olesen and third grade student Marissa Quill were called to the front of the classroom to dress up as Roosevelt and Muir. That brought big smiles from fellow students and gave them a visual on what the main characters looked like.

Rosenstock said she researched biographies, newspapers and the Internet to find details for her book. She encouraged the students to do the same, but also use their five senses to collect details for writing.

"If you can use your senses in your writing, you just improved your writing by 1,000 percent," she said.

The Butterfield Family Association sponsored the author's visit.

Other books by Rosenstock include "Ben Franklin's Big Splash," "The Littlest Mountain" and "Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library." For more information about Rosenstock and her books, visit www.barbrosenstock.com.

  Children's book author Barb Rosenstock of Vernon Hills talked about the research and effort that went into producing her book "The Camping Trip that Changed America" Wednesday at Butterfield School in Libertyville. Paul Valade/pvalade@dailyherald.com
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