Author book signing to raise funds for Glen Ellyn Children's Resource Center

Pat HarteNaus has no bitterness in her voice when she remembers her "sometimes pal."

Instead, the girl who became her childhood friend on the weekend and a "bully" in school helped define who HarteNaus is today, someone who has spent her career teaching kids about respect and kindness.

"It was a labor of love," she says. "Teaching and writing - it's what I've always been connected to."

HarteNaus has retired from the former after 35 years working at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Glen Ellyn. But she's still a storyteller, publishing them herself and inspiring youngsters to find them, too.

"You write what you know," she said.

So it's no surprise that the third installment in her Belden Boy series is told from the perspective of a child bully, Franky.

HarteNaus will be signing copies of "Backwoods Bully" at 1 p.m. Saturday at The Bookstore at 475 N. Main St., Glen Ellyn.

Proceeds will go toward the Glen Ellyn Children's Resource Center, a nonprofit group that provides after-school tutoring and mentoring for low-income families.

The group offers programs at Lincoln Elementary, where HarteNaus could see its impact firsthand.

"It's time to give back," she says.

The history buff has done just that by setting aside proceeds from the sales of the first two books in the series toward restoration of a one-room, limestone schoolhouse near Galena.

The old Belden school, dating to 1859, would serve not only as the setting of the book series, but a summer writing camp HarteNaus has led with her former colleagues at Lincoln Elementary.

Over the course of a few days, students get one-on-one instruction, write and illustrate their own books and later receive hardcover copies. It's become so popular that HarteNaus, who splits her time between Glen Ellyn and Galena, expanded the camp to two sessions this summer.

The students "produced 27 beautiful stories" about family, vacations and seeing a problem through to the end, HarteNaus said.

"It is so exciting to watch," she said. "I sit back and I think about where I can go with these camps."

Without giving away the ending, what happens to Franky, the bully in her own book? She says one character, a soft-spoken girl "not quick to react," will help guide him into a "new way of thinking." And written from Franky's perspective, the story may even spark some empathy and help readers understand why he acts out.

Before it hit the shelves, HarteNaus dedicated the story to all her former students, and as a parting gift, gave copies to her last class.