Events and Activities : ‘STORMIN’ NORMAN’ AUTHOR & CP LIBRARY FRIENDS TEAM UP FOR FUND RAISER DEC. 10

At their Nov. 3 meeting the Center Point Friends of the Library enjoyed visiting with C.R. St. Jude’s kindergarten teacher Andy Allen who has just had his first children’s book, “Stormin’ Norman the Soggy Doggy,” published.

Andy will be helping Friends at the Dec. 10 all day fundraiser bookfair at Barnes & Noble on Collins Road in Cedar Rapids. He will read from his book at 11 a.m. that day and sign copies from 11 to 2. Friends gets a percentage of Barnes & Noble sales all day when customers drop the Friends of the Center Point Library name at checkout.

Friends also gets a percentage of Barnes & Noble online sales from Dec. 10 through 16 when customers use the Center Point Friends Bookfair ID number: 10583466.

Friends teamed up with the “Stormin’ Norman” author because the Pointer dog mascot of Center Point-Urbana school is also called Stormin’ Norman. The Stormin’ Norman of the book is a black and white Labrador/Boxer mix and the rhyming story is about his and his master’s experience during the 2008 flood.

Andy said he wrote it after reading children’s books he thought were pretty poor. “I would think, ‘ this book is horrible’,” Andy said. “If this book can get published, I can get one published. I wrote “Stormin’ Norman in like 2 hours. It took about two years to get the whole thing done.” The illustrator, Brian Barber from Minnesota, took about 6 weeks, working from photographs Andy brought him.

Andy has already finished writing his second book. “It’s about Norman and it’s about bullying,” he said. “I coach basketball too, so being around kids of all ages you get all kinds of inspiration.”

In other business, Friends discussed promoting the book “Lewis Bottoms Its Legacy and Lore” many copies of which have been donated to Friends for sale. Eloise Dennis, a Lewis granddaughter who had the book written, invited Friends to tour the Lewis homestead farmhouse south of Center Point.

` Friends meets the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 in the Library basement. Visitors and prospective Friends are always welcome at these public meetings.