Author, young illustrator reach out to second-graders at museum program

adminMoby — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:03:43 +0000

By ROBIN MILLER
Advocate arts writer
Published: May 15, 2011

Moby Pincher dared not show his face until Dee Scallan was ready.

And even when she decided she was ready to introduce her big, red Louisiana crawfish to the world, Scallan realized he still didn’t have a face.

Not really.

Oh, her words were enough to create pictures in children’s imaginations.

Still, where would a children’s story be without pictures?

So, she turned to Daniel Myers. This is where Moby’s story really gets interesting, because Myers wasn’t a typical book illustrator. He’d had no artistic training. He’d had no experience in book illustrating. And his only true life experience was being an 8-year-old kid. Which was perfect for Scallan, for who better than a kid to create illustrations for kids?

“Daniel loved to draw,” she said. “And what I found most interesting was that he didn’t have to look at anything in order to draw it. He just drew it.”

Myers is now 15 and a freshman at Dutchtown High School. He was a student at Scallan’s school, Miss Dee’s Montessori School Preschool in West Monroe when he first met the author.

But even Myers didn’t know he was being taught by an author.

“I wrote these books, then I stuck them in a closet for 25 years,” Scallan said. “I wanted to find different ways to help kids learn, and I came to understand that by using many different paths, I was able to help them comprehend and retain what they learned.”

She uses some of those paths on this particular day at the Louisiana State Museum’s first “Get Caught Reading” program.

This day’s program is designed to reach out to second grade students in East Baton Rouge Parish. Another “Get Caught Reading” program at the Louisiana State Museum system in New Orleans coincides with this one.

But it’s here where Scallan stages a song and dance routine based on her stories of Moby Pincher, where children act out the stories that teach them about Louisiana’s culture, history and environment.

And where, in an upstairs conference room, Myers teaches these same students how to draw Moby,

“I always start out like this,” Myers said, drawing a line with a slight squiggle.

The squiggle turns out to be Moby’s smile, which paves the way for his face, then claws, then crawfish tail.

“I always start out with his face,” Myers said.

Which is totally understandable, because Moby’s personality is founded in his smile. It’s how a kid would imagine a crawfish living in the imagined fantasy of Louisiana’s swampland.

“I’ve been drawing since I was 2,” Myers said.

He was still drawing when he entered Miss Dee’s Montessori Preschool. And Scallan remembered Myers’ artistic ability when parents began asking her where they could buy her books.

She began sharing her stories of Moby Pincher with the children in her school, using the tales as she does at the Louisiana State Museum’s “Get Caught Reading” program – to teach kids about the states culture, history, agriculture and environment.

Trouble was, there weren’t any books at the time. Moby Pincher was still living on a shelf inside a closet at Scallan’s home. So, she pegged Myers to draw Moby and his friends when she finally decided to publish the books in 2004.

“When I first saw the illustrations in the book, I was pretty proud,” Myers said. “Miss Dee asked if I could go to workshops with her, and the kids would act out the books.”

And Myers would show the kids how he draws Moby, just as he does here.

There’s just something about a kid making a presentation to other kids. They connect, and an audience of children isn’t afraid to ask a peer, “How?”

How, exactly, does Myer go about drawing Moby?

“I saw some potential illustrators in these sessions,” Myers said. “Some were able to draw Moby really well. A lot of them didn’t ask questions, though, because they were too busy watching what I was doing and drawing on their own paper.”

Myers is joined by his mom Tammy Myers in this session. She remembers how her son really wasn’t sure how he’d draw a crawfish at first.

“We showed him a crawfish, and he knew how he would draw it,” Tammy Myers said.

Myers’ family also brought him to New Orleans’ French Quarter to help him develop illustrations for a Moby Pincher adventure in the Crescent City.

Scallan, meantime, continues teaching through Moby. She and her husband have purchased a motor home, which allows them to easily travel throughout the state presenting Moby Pincher programs and promoting writing in schools.

Look who is reading Moby Pincher books!

adminMoby — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:49:45 +0000

Join the Lt. Governor and get caught reading with Moby.

Moby’s Hurricane Adventure

adminMoby — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:01:24 +0000

Moby’s Easter Video

adminMoby — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 03:51:14 +0000

To Louisiana, with Love

adminMoby — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:32:36 +0000

Written by Kristin Baird Rattini

Two Bayou State natives pay tribute to their irrepressible state with a series of children’s books.

Dee Scallan swears she didn’t have a crystal ball. But just two weeks after the Louisiana teacher published her children’s book Moby Pincher’s Hurricane Adventure in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated her home state much like the storm in her book.

Scallan has helped in the healing that has happened since then. Her six Moby Pincher books celebrate Louisiana’s resilience, its proud culture and history, as well as its unique flora and fauna — starting with the main character, Moby, “the largest, most kindhearted crawfish in all the South.”

“My life is in Louisiana; I love this state,” Scallan says. “I want the children in my state, and all over the world, to learn about the treasures we have here in Louisiana.”

Illustrator Daniel Myers — who was 8 years old when he first sketched Moby to life — takes readers on vibrant treks across the state, from New Orleans’ famous Jackson Square to northern Louisiana’s Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge. A seventh Moby book, due out in January, will visit the coastal wetlands and address children’s questions — as well as their fears — about the Gulf oil spill.

Scallan herself takes Moby on the road, in song-and-story presentations at schools in the state’s poorest parishes. During those visits, she works with classes to write, illustrate and produce their own storybooks. One hardcover version goes in the school library, a paperback edition goes to each student, and a free online version is posted at www.moby pincher.com. So far, her “We Want to Be Authors” program has created 40 books — and a lot of enthusiastic new authors who, like Scallan, are eager to tell even more stories about the state they love.

Visit the Source Here

http://www.americanwaymag.com/dee-scallan-louisiana-free-online-version-daniel-myers

Moby Pincher Pictures

adminMoby — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:27:59 +0000

“Getting to Know You”: Dee, Daniel, and Moby

adminMoby — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:26:07 +0000

“Getting to Know You”: Dee, Daniel, and Moby

by Jackie Tucker
There’s a new author in town and she’s rarin’ to tell all her young readers about the glories of Louisiana.

Children’s author Dee Scallan is compressed energy packaged in a petite, green-eyed body. No wonder her students have found her a fascinating story teller and educator. Dee has been in the education profession for more than 26 years, and during that period she has told hundreds of stories to inform and entertain her young pupils. Only in 2004, however, did she begin to publish her stories. The star of her books is Moby Pincher, “the largest but most kind-hearted crawfish in all of the South,” and he is brought to life in colorful drawings by a 9 year old, Daniel Myers.

This odyssey from teacher to author began in Mississippi when, new to the profession, Dee sought a variety of ways to help her students learn. “I came to understand,” she recalls, “that by using many different paths–visual, tactile, auditory–I was able to help them comprehend and retain what they learned.” When she realized that her students did not know very much about their state, she began making up stories about the flora and fauna of Mississippi and Louisiana. When parents started asking where they could purchase the stories, Dee began writing them down. Unfortunately, having no illustrator and facing the obstacles of the publishing business, she wound up putting her stories on the shelf for many years.

Dee met young Daniel when he was only 3 years old and a student at her Montessori preschool in West Monroe. Even at that early age, Daniel was showing a precocious talent as an artist. Her budding career as published author took off, however, when she realized that Daniel, now age 8, could illustrate her stories possibly even better than a professional because “his perception is from a child’s point of view. I just hand him my manuscript and he comes up with the drawings all by himself.” She explains, “It’s strictly his imagination that brings out the right picture for the story.” Daniel, who is wholly self-taught, works very fast, drawing each illustration quickly, then using water colors to add color. A quiet youngster, Daniel loves fantasy, especially dragons; is now a fourth grader at Claiborne Elementary School; and is a devoted soccer player.

Moby Pincher’s Wonderful Christmas Present was the first of Dee’s stories to be published. When it appeared in October of 2004, the 250 copies initially printed sold out within two weeks. By Christmas another 1000 had been sold. But that was just the beginning of Moby’s adventures. Since then he has appeared in Moby Pincher’s Special Easter Party and Moby Pincher’s Hurricane Adventure (a prophetic event considering the Katrina disaster). In January, Moby Pincher Visits New Orleans is scheduled for release. The latter is about Moby’s visit to his cousin, who lives in a mud hole in Jackson Square. Planning for the future, Dee says, “I would eventually like to take Moby on a Mardi Gras excursion or possibly even out of state–to Texas or Arkansas, perhaps–for some adventures.”

Since her continuing goal is for the books to be teaching tools as well as entertainment, Dee is adding educational material in the back of the latest books. The Hurricane Adventure, for example, includes hurricane facts, vocabulary, important hurricanes of the past, as well as information about Louisiana’s wetlands and the creatures that live there. There’s even a drawing lesson for children who would like to try their hand at creating Moby.

In addition to the success she is experiencing with the books, Dee is taking her teaching and performance skills to various school systems and other venues to help teachers use the books for their own classrooms. She and Daniel have appeared on numerous television shows and at many book signings to publicize their creations, and Dee maintains a hefty schedule of workshops for teachers and parents. One of the latest additions to her presentations is an animaltronics theater. “It has flashing lights and flying flags,” she explains. “When it opens, Moby and Louie Lighin’ bug talk to the children and teach them a song. The children love it.”

One of her most exciting experiences occurred in November at the Starlit Children’s Literacy Festival, an event to which authors from all over the nation are invited. Proceeds from the festival benefit the Bethlehem Center for Children. “I’m still in shock at being invited,” she admits. She met a number of famous authors, including the daughter of Jackie Robinson and author of Stealing Home. “It was a memorable experience and we really packed them in,” she says enthusiastically. “People, young and old, are very interested in our state.”

Dee’s books emphasizing the positive attributes of our state couldn’t come at a better time considering the disastrous events of the fall. We hope to see more of Moby and his bayou friends in the coming months as they continue to introduce our state to readers everywhere.

Moby Pincher Brings Literature to Schools

adminMoby — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:24:57 +0000

Moby Pincher Brings Literature to Schools.

By Richland Beacon News

Featured in the Richland Beacon Newspaper

Richland Parish students learned a bit about writing and the environment thanks to a visit from Moby Pincher and friends recently.

” The week before Thanksgiving I went on quite an adventure.” Richland parish Arts Center manager Hopper said. ” I had secured a grant last year with the Richland Arts Council from the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council through the Decentralized Art Fund of the Louisiana Division of the ARts and in honor of the Children’s Book Week, I secured a grant to bring a noted children’s book author, Dee Scallan, and a 10 year old boy named Daniel Myers, who illustrated all three books she has written, to all the elementary schools in the parish.”

The group did two shows each at Rayville, Mangham, Delhi and Start Elementary schools.

“It was a really good presentation and I was surprised at how well the older children responded to them,” Hopper said. ” Dee uses an interactive program where she selects 18 children from the school and has them play the different characters in the book.”

The book she presented was “Moby Pincher’s Hurricane Adventure” and it was written prior to Katrina. It was inspired by a field trip she took a group of children on from her Montessori School in West Monroe.

” None of the children knew what a crawfish nest was or what spanish moss was or a lot of things they saw on the trip, ” Hopper explained. ” She incorporated and sent a lesson plan about the geography, biology and ecology of Louisiana along with her when we went to all the schools”.

Scallan begin writing the Moby Pincher books at the request of parents. She originally made up stories about the crawfish and his friends for students before nap time.

When the parents begin asking where to find the stories, Scallan began to consider putting the stories on paper. When she saw Myers’ drawings of characters from the books, she knew she’d found the perfect illustrator for the series of children’s books and went ahead with the project.

Performances have been shown at Downsville, Marion Farmersville Elementary and Junior High and Spearsville. The programs are provided by a Decentralized Arts Fund grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts as distributed by the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council and presented by the Union Arts Council and Bernice Historical Society.

Crawfish “Invades” Union Parish Schools

adminMoby — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:23:39 +0000

Crawfish “Invades” Union Parish Schools.

By Winnie Baldwin

Featured in the Farmerville Gazette and the St Mary and Franklin Banner Newspapers

During the month of October Moby pincher, the largest most kindhearted crawfish in the south according to Dee Scallan, author of The Crawfish Tales series, invaded schools in union parish.

Moby is always doing what he can to make his friends, old and new as happy as can be. He also inspires children to be aware and get involved in environmental protection. The series of books includes Moby Pincher’s Wonderful Christmas Present, Moby Pincher’s Special Easter Party, and Moby Pincher’s Hurricane Adventure. All of which were illustrated by Daniel Myers, nine year old artist who lives in West Monroe , Louisiana .

Scallan grew up in central Louisiana near Alexandria, Louisiana has since lived in Baton Rouge, New Iberia and Lafayette and now resides in West Monroe .

She is on the Louisiana state artist roster and the list of performing artists for the Louisiana State Library. She performs presentations on the environment using The Crawfish Tales books as a base for providing audiences with music, interactive role playing, arts and crafts, and even an animated electronic display of Moby’s Crawfish Town .

The author has owned and operated a preschool for 25 years and is affectionately known as “Miss Dee” to her students. She created Moby Pincher for story time hour at her school and attempts to familiarize the children with the events, animals, insects, plants and other things native to Louisiana but relevant to young environmentalist throughout the country and the world. Children are entertained by Moby’s antics while learning about the environment and culture .

Daniel Meyers is the son of Ronny and Tammy Meyers, and they also live in West Monroe . He demonstrated an early aptitude for art, beginning his career at age three.

He is a former student of miss Dee’s Montessori Preschool, is now in the third grade at Claiborne Elementary School , and as active in soccer.

Union parish School Board Counselor / Union Arts Council Secretary, Elizabeth Pierce accompanied and introduced Miss Dee to the lively audience of K-fourth graders in Bernice who were eager to participate in Moby Pincher’s Hurricane Adventure, which the author said she wrote before the Katrina in Rita disasters.

Teaching the Art of Writing

adminMoby — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:22:54 +0000

Teaching the art of writing
‘Moby Pincher’ began as spoken stories at preschool during story time

By Barbara Leader for The News Star

Five years ago, local author Dee Scallan, was taking the first steps toward marketing her book about the most kind-hearted crawfish in the South, “Moby Pincher.” Today, she’s making presentations at Disneyland, helping young authors publish their works, recording voice-overs for her Internet books, and conducting workshops in several states.

Moby Pincher began as spoken stories at Scallan’s preschool during story time, but has now become a six book series, with four more in process. As Scallan waits for publication of those remaining four books, she is staying busy with new ventures — chief among them is an expansion of the “We Want to be Authors” program which coaches elementary school children through the process of brainstorming, writing, illustrating, editing and finally publishing a book. Scallan says the program is an effort toward a unique way of teaching designed to meet the needs of most students.

“So much has been taken out of schools — art, creativity and imagination in favor of working toward the test,” Scallan said. “We’re just teaching the curriculum in a different way.”

To date, Scallan has published 20 books with elementary school students for the school’s libraries and for each child to keep a single copy. Now, Scallan is beginning a new chapter in her own life as she begins recording the books to put on the Internet so that children all over may access the tales written by many of the state’s elementary school children.

The books will be available free of charge and will provide an opportunity for students to follow along with the books online while listening to Scallan’s and friends with their animated voiceovers as they reinforce the morals of the characters conceived and created in Louisiana and Texas classrooms.

A grant from the Louisiana Reading Association is helping to finance the effort and the expenses associated with the internet accessibility. Tommy Usrey and the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council have also been supportive of the “We Want to be Authors” program.

“It’s not a money-making venture,” Scallan says. “But it is promoting Louisiana, literacy and our children.”

The featured books include “Freddie the Frog Thought He was a Duck” by students from Bernice Elementary about a frog who thinks he’s a duck and “Roll On, Roland” by students from Sallie Humble Elementary about a roly poly who loved to roll.

Selections will also include two bilingual books which will offer readings in both Spanish and English.

Scallan says initially 16 or 17 of the books will be available online and others will be added as soon as possible. Illustrations featured in the books and online are a combination of the work of all of the children in the classes, oftentimes combining more than one child’s work into the same illustration.

The books should be available for listening online within the next two weeks at www.mobypincher.com.

For more information on Scallan, Moby Pincher or the “We Want to be Authors” program visit her Web site.