Fairmount School welcomed two-time Caldecott winner Eric Rohmann for a visit recently—and the gymnasium looked very familiar, given that Rohmann himself attended Fairmount more than three decades earlier.
“These ropes are the exact same ropes,” he exclaimed, pointing up at the ceiling.
Rohmann stopped by his former elementary school on Oct. 12 to talk about – and demonstrate, to the students’ delight – how illustrations can tell a story. He showed how the smallest details—such as whether an underwater skateboarding pig looks nervous—contribute to the meaning of an illustration. He told them that every story has to have a problem to solve or overcome.
Rohmann has a wealth of experience from which to draw. His book “Time Flies” was named a Caldecott Honor book in 1995, and “My Friend Rabbit” won the Caldecott Medal in 2003. The Caldecott Medal is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children to the top picture book for children published that year.
Rohmann said he has loved to draw for as long as he can remember.
“If I’m good at what I do, it’s because I’ve been doing it for a really long time,” he said.
He told the students that when they talk at home about what they did at school, they are telling stories.
“The only difference between what you do and what I do is that I write it down,” Rohmann said.
He also shared some historic details about his former school with the current Fairmount kindergarten through third-graders, including that the mascot – now the Falcons -- was almost the Paisley Panthers due to a student vote in the 1960s.
In addition to his visit to Fairmount, Rohmann was the guest of honor at Henry Puffer School’s Family Reading Night Oct. 12, which was attended by more than 120 people. He talked with the preschool students, presented to families in the gymnasium, and signed books during the PTA Book Fair.
