Citizen Staff/Hank Snyder
Captivated by the way children think and talk, Dorothy Peterson has gathered 10 years of the best quotations and observations and put them in a book, Small Talk. She has four book signings coming up, and is working on publishing five other books she's written.
WAUPUN — When Dorothy Peterson left her sewing business and entered the child care business, she never looked back.
“Where else could I walk into a room and see so many eager faces turn to greet me?” she said. “Where else could I wear the same thing time after time and so often be told I look nice? Where else could I guide the first letter formations of a chubby little hand and think that someday it might write a book or an important document?”
From the first day on the job, Peterson would come home and tell her husband things that her students had said; things that would bring a smile or laugh to both of them. After two years, she considered the wit and wisdom of the children so endearing that she started jotting down their statements, and storing away the hand drawn pictures given to her as gifts. This recordkeeping went on for 10 years until Peterson retired.
“I worked for 12 years with 4- to 6-year-olds at the Wee Care Child Center,” she said. “I scribbled down what they said, then brought the notes home and put them in a notebook. In three years I had a notebook full. I told the girls I worked with that I was going to write a book someday.”
Peterson not only took notes home with her, but she also left about four or five binders full of notes and pictures at the day care center, said co-owner Carol Glass. “She enjoyed her job, and always brought a lot of smiles to the staff and kids. Before leaving she convinced two of the staff to continue recording some of the cute things the kids say. We miss her.”
Peterson said writing was exciting for her.
“It was fun. I got to see how children think, then put their thoughts to words,” she said.
When it came time to find a publisher, a friend helped Peterson craft an introductory letter, and sent it off to Dorrance Publishing.
“I waited a month, then got a reply that they liked it. I was so excited,” said Peterson. “I got published with Rose Dog Books, a division of Dorrance Publishing. They do the children’s books.”
Her first book is appropriately named Small Talk.
While all this is happening, Peterson isn’t sitting still. She has set up a series of book signings, and is still bitten by the writing bug.
“I’m writing books involving children and animals. One is called Monkey Skunk (which was my nickname when I was a child) and is about when I was a child going to Taylor Park in Fond du Lac,” she said.
Other books she’s written which are waiting for publication are The Magic Window (about her backyard window, where she can view countless animals), Day Care Bunny Center (about an experience at day care), Grandma’s House (in which she uses her granddaughter as the center of the story) and Grandpa’s Cabin (in which her grandson is the center of the story).
For more information call Peterson at 324- 3865.
Book signings for Small Talk will be held at:
Wee Care Child Care, 1 W. Brown St., Waupun, on Nov. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m.,
Book World, 116 Front St., Beaver Dam, on Nov. 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Fox Lake Library, 117 W. State St., on Dec. 10 starting at 5 p.m.; book signing at 6 p.m.,
Waupun Library, 123 Forest St., on on Dec. 9 at 10:30 a.m. There will be a book signing with the story hour.