One Tired Teacher
One Tired Teacher
OTT 256: From Teacher to Author: Christine Devane's Journey with Elephant Beach
Christine Devane takes us on her journey from classroom teacher to published children's author, revealing how patience and persistence led to the publication of her book "Elephant Beach" after nearly a decade of waiting. What started as a manuscript written during her teaching years perfectly aligned with her current life as a mother of three, creating a beautiful full-circle moment where she now shares her creation with both students and her own children.
Drawing from personal experience with shyness, Christine crafted a story about an elephant who needs time before feeling comfortable joining others in play—a universal childhood experience that resonates with many young readers. The book's gentle approach to social anxiety provides teachers and parents a valuable tool for discussing different comfort levels and emotional needs. As Christine shares, "I wanted to write a book about somebody that's shy and it takes her a little while to want to join the elephants... she learns that she can have fun joining a group."
Her classroom visits transform simple readings into immersive experiences complete with beach towels, sunglasses, and beach ball discussions—all while honoring children's different participation preferences. This thoughtfulness extends to Christine's approach with her own middle child who needed six weeks of attending soccer before feeling ready to play. "I didn't force him to do anything... it's just funny because sometimes when it clicks with kids, he was so excited to go last night." With a grief-centered book on the horizon and dreams of expanding the Elephant Beach series, Christine demonstrates how teachers bring unique insights to children's literature by understanding the emotional landscapes of young readers. Find "Elephant Beach" on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Archway Publishing.
Elephant Beach | Christine Devane
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Welcome to One Tired Teacher. Episode 256, a conversation with Christine Devan. So today I get to talk to a special guest. She is a children's book author, she was a teacher and she's a mom and she has written a book and it is out in the world and we're gonna talk a little bit about that and about the power of read aloud and all those things. Hope you stick around.
Speaker 2:Welcome to One Tired Teacher. And even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching here. She is wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake right. Okay, From Trina Devery, Teaching and Learning your host, Trina Devery.
Speaker 1:So I'm excited to have a special guest today, christine Devane. Oh, I do that every time, every single time. I like know what I'm going to say and then it like plops into my head in a different way. Anyway, we're going to talk about some teaching things and like doing something new, and I'm very excited to have to have you on the show. So welcome, welcome.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you. I'm very excited to be on the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was. Yeah, it's been. You know, I like took a break from One Tired Teacher for like almost a year and then, like hopping back in, like interviewing and things like that. I'm like, oh, I'm a little rusty. I'm like I need to like and I have a podcast with my daughter that I might have three podcasts and I'm like, why am I rusty? Like I've been doing this since 2018. Like, what is my problem? But, but that's all right, okay. So, okay, tell us a little bit about like your background and your like why you came to your, you know, to your, your book and your ideas.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I grew up in Massachusetts and I went to Merrimack College and then, after I graduated from college, I became a teacher. I taught for one year at a Catholic school and then I moved to a public school and I taught there for 12 years. I started working on the books then because I always loved reading with my class and I thought it was so fun to see how excited they were and to learn with them. So I thought it was really fun. I left teaching and it's funny. I went to all sorts of workshops, sent the book everywhere and I didn't really hear anything and then I left teaching.
Speaker 3:I have three small children now and I love reading books with them, and then somebody reached out to me last year. So it's been a while since I actually wrote the book, but all the timing worked out perfect because my kids are a little bigger now. So it's just funny how things work out. So now, instead of reading books with my class, I read books with my kids. I have two boys and a girl, so there's a lot of dump truck books and a lot of fire truck books. She's the youngest, so she's starting to get her books in there, but I've just always loved reading with kids whether it was kids in school or now my own kids and it's funny. I always loved elephants and growing up I collected elephants. My grandparents and parents always brought me back elephants. So when I was thinking of my own book, elephants just popped into my head because they're funny, kids like them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I thought that making a story about elephants would be fun, yeah.
Speaker 1:I definitely think that that's true. They are cute, they're fun. Who doesn't love elephants? So I think that's great, and I also love how important it is, how valued you feel about read alouds in general and how they're important for classes. But they're also important for our own kids, and for a season of time, I was doing videos on YouTube called readers in the making, and it was really focused on getting like kids to love reading and like cherish reading, and so finding those, those books that hook kids, is such an important part of that, and to be a part of that is really cool, did you? So you put this out there to different publishers, or how did that part work? I'm just curious.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I sent it out to all sorts of publishers probably 10 years ago, and then last year randomly somebody reached out to me to publish it. So it's just funny how things work out and who we are so yeah, yeah, but, and now it makes it special because I can share it with my kids.
Speaker 2:Um, and it's funny.
Speaker 3:When I wrote the book I have red hair. There's not a lot of kids that have red hair, so I made sure the character had red hair. But since then I've had my daughter and she has red hair. So now everybody's like, oh, is that Adeline in the book, so it's fun to be able to share it with them too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, that's so cool. I love that. I also love that sometimes, when we're teaching and we want to do something else, we often feel like maybe we're feeling a little bit trapped and we don't know what else we can do and where our skills fit. And absolutely, writing and writing children's books is a huge use of skills. And and then your experience, like with children and seeing how they respond to things and characters and like thinking of them when you're, when you have a story in mind, I think is really valuable and very important.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you wrote a book and now it is come to life, which is, you know, very exciting and, as far as I mean, I guess I already came to life, but now it's like out in the world. So, yeah, that's great. And you, you sent, you shared that you had been in some classrooms and had shared the book and some of the things that they were doing. I would love to hear about that because I think that sounds so cool, especially when kids get to meet the author. That's such an exciting thing for kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I had a lot of fun. So we did elephant beach parties. I brought in beach towels. The kids sat on the beach towels and then I brought them all sunglasses so they pretended they were at the beach. And then we had a couple of discussions. Before we read the book, I brought a beach ball in and then, when they want to talk, we threw the beach ball, which they thought was fun. We talked about what we bring to the beach and it's funny, they love sharing all their ideas because they love going to the beach. And then we talked about our favorite animals and then we read the book.
Speaker 3:And then after the book, I had made up a couple activities. So I had a paper that said if I was at the beach with an elephant, and so kids could think of what they would do at the beach with an elephant, and then I had some coloring pages. So the teachers loved it because the kids had fun and we did a bunch of things together instead of just reading the book. I wanted to make it fun for the kids and the timing worked out, just because it's the end of the year, getting ready to go to the beach. So, yeah, I had a lot of fun. The kids really liked it and it was cute. One of the classes I went to last week they knew I was coming and this little girl loved elephants so she wore her elephant shirt for me, so it was fun. Yeah, so I'm to continue that in the fall, and then I actually I think there's a couple of daycares and stuff I might go to over the summer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. No, I think that's really fun. I know that when kids get a chance to like, understand, like, look at it as a reader, look at writing as a writer, and then seeing somebody who actually puts that whole process together and then they get, they get to meet you like and ask you questions, and things like that can be, just you know, very exciting. Do you think that? Who do you like? What age range do you think that this book is the best for? I?
Speaker 3:would say probably four to eight. I do have a lot of friends who have toddlers and they like the book for nighttime books. Four to eight would be their age range of reading independently, but yeah, I think, anything in between those ages. So most of the schools that I've been to have been kindergarten for second grade. They've really enjoyed it. I haven't really done anything above second grade but, like my daughter's too, she loves reading it and, like I said, some of my friends' kids have toddlers and they like reading it. So yeah, basically, and maybe the whole under eight age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that sounds perfect. Okay, so tell us a little bit about like coming up with the idea and and and creating a book.
Speaker 3:So I came up with the idea because I was always shy when I was younger. So I just wanted to write a book about somebody that's shy and it takes her a little while to want to join the elephants and then she finally does and she learns that she can have fun joining a group. So that's kind of where I came up with the idea and writing it took a little while because you have to cut down on the words so much. You only have so many pages and you want to make sure that the kids are able to understand the book and visualize the book with the words that you're using. So, um, and you don't want to waste a lot of words.
Speaker 3:So there was a lot of editing, back and forth, cutting down the words. That was probably the hardest part, um, and then, once it went in, I just worked with the publishing company to figure out the illustrations and I got to pick how everything looked and then we went back and forth figuring out all the pictures. I love purple, so I made sure there was a lot of purple in there. But yeah, it was. It was a fun project process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really cool. So did they. They came up with illustrations, like your publisher had somebody that could illustrate for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wrote very detailed notes for every single picture and then they drew them and then they came back to me and I got to edit them. So if there's anything I wanted to change or anything like that, so we went back and forth for a couple of months and then finally it was done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really, that's so cool. That's always been the biggest like hang up in my mind is I'm like I can't draw, I can't, but like knowing that that would not have to be an obstacle is, you know, an interesting thing to think about and I, yeah, I love. I also love the idea of like tapping into emotions for kids and you know that feeling of I'm I feel shy, I don't know if I feel comfortable joining a group, or you know what that feels like and what that looks like, and I think that's like such a great discussion starter with kids so that they can talk about those feelings and how you navigate that. So I love that idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wanted to make sure that that was included in the book and that sometimes it takes kids a little bit longer to want to join a group. So I mean, the elephants ask her to join the first time and she says no, but then they're patient and she eventually comes and plays with them, and it's the same thing with kids. I mean, some kids don't always want to play. I have three and my middle son is very shy, so sometimes he just wants to play by himself. So it's just figuring out everybody's different. So it's just figuring out kids emotions and teaching them how to be kind to each other and understanding not everyone is the same. So, yeah, and even when I go into the classes.
Speaker 3:I don't really pick on kids because I know not everybody wants to get picked on, so I let them raise their hands if they want to give an answer or join in. I think almost every kid has given some sort of answer, but there's always those kids that don't want to and that's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they feel reluctant. Yeah, I think you know. I know you did this at the end of the year, but I also think the beginning of the year is a great time for this book, because it's such a perfect way of talking about how some kids do want to join and play and being inclusive and how it's also okay if somebody is like off playing by themselves and they want to be by themselves or they want to, you know, be with one other person or whatever their dynamic is, and kind of talking through what that might look like on the playground or, you know, in PE or whatever the case may be. So I think that that would be a really good time to introduce this book as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would have to agree. And it's funny, my middle son that's shy, he is play soccer and for a while I was bringing him and he would kick the ball around at the beginning and then he would come and ask to sit down with me and he didn't really want to play and I said Okay fine fine, but I kept bringing him um and then, I don't know, last week he decided he wanted to play.
Speaker 3:He played the entire hour and then last night was his last game. So he played for the last two games. But um, he was so excited to go last night he said I'm gonna go to soccer, I'm gonna kick the ball. Um, there were six weeks he went where and he basically played for 10 minutes. But I just kept bringing him and I didn't force him to do anything and I said, if you want to play.
Speaker 3:You can play. If not, we're still going to come. But yeah, it's just funny because sometimes when it clicks with kids, like he was so excited to go last night, I can't wait, I can't wait. So it's different for every kid because my other son jumps right out on the field as soon as we get there, but for some kids it takes a little while.
Speaker 1:I agree, and you have to create like that safe environment. And it sounds like you did that and gave him the space to figure out if he was ready or not, and I think that's really important. Okay, so what do you think? Where do you see this going? Like elephant beach, do you plan on having like another story with elephant? Or like do you think, do you see more stories in your future?
Speaker 3:So I would love to do more elephant beach theme stories, and I actually have another book that's coming out by the end of the year.
Speaker 1:It's on a much different topic.
Speaker 3:It's about grief and a little girl that loses her grandfather, because that's something that when I was teaching there really wasn't a lot of books on, and a lot of kids do deal with grief. So that's my next book, but I do want to make more of the Elephant Beach books and make that a series make more of the elephant beach books and make that a series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. No, I think that the grief topic is important and it's really helpful to have books that help kids talk about feelings and like experience those kind of things in a safe place. So I like, I love that. Yeah, oh, christine, thank you for sharing and coming on and talking about your book and and your what you're doing. Where can people find you?
Speaker 3:so my book is on amazon, it's on barnes and noblecom and it's on archway publishing, so you can buy the books any of those places. And then I'm doing a story time in Chestnut Hill June 29th at 11 o'clock, and hopefully I'll be doing more story times throughout the summer, but I have that one right now.
Speaker 1:That's cool and people can find you on social media.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can find me on social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then they can kind of follow along and see where you are and if they're in the same location, that would be a great opportunity for them to check you out. Yes, yeah, thank you so much for coming and for sharing, and I wish you the very, very best.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much for having me. This was fun.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'm so glad we got a chance to catch up with Christine and I will link to her book and all of her stuff. And now next week we're talking about screens, student focus and helping kids re-engage in real life. Until then, sweet dreams and sleep tight.