Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 28, 1994 TAG: 9412290008
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Bonnie-Alise Leggat's book started appearing on library shelves three years ago, when she was 9. She had won the 1991 National Written and Illustrated By ... Awards Contest For Students the year before for a book she wrote, "Punt, Pass & Point." Seven thousand 6- to 9-year-olds had entered the competition.
Leggat's book is the story of a young girl who broke her arm during ``the big'' football game and whose parents then signed her up for ballet lessons, hoping she would learn to ``stop charging into a room like a wild buffalo.'' Unwilling at first, Amy discovered that trading in her cleats for ballet shoes wasn't a bad idea, after all.
Leggat not only won a college scholarship, but she also gets a small amount of money for every book sold (called royalties). She's traveled all over the country, speaking to teachers, students and other writers. She's even met some of her favorite authors, such as Madeleine L'Engle, Shelly Gill and Judy Bloom.
Leggat recently came to Roanoke County from her home in Culpeper to speak to pupils at Glen Cove Elementary School.
Alise (that's what she likes to be called) Leggat has had articles written about her in newspapers and magazines, has been on TV and has signed lots of autographs. She's even ridden in a limo.
She gets fan mail from kids, which she answers herself. "I never got mail, except on my birthday. After the book was published and I started speaking at schools, I started getting mail from kids," she said. "When someone writes that 'Punt, Pass & Point' is their favorite book, that feels really good."
When Leggat won the contest, she went to Kansas City, Mo., to work on the book with the publisher and had to stay out of school for a whole week. During that week, she had to work really hard to revise (improve) her book to get it ready to be published.
"It needed more details, and a lot of the lines in my drawings weren't very smooth," she said. One drawing had to be redone 16 times. On the 15th time, her pen slipped and she had to start over again.
Originally, her book was called, "From Football Fields to Ballet Floors," but the publisher thought "it was too long and there were too many ordinary words," she said. So, she changed it.
Leggat also had to make sure her drawings showed what she had written. For instance, she described the ballet teacher as being pretty, but had drawn her with a big nose and bulging eyes. That didn't fit. So, she changed that, too. (No, she didn't write that the teacher was ugly, she changed the drawing.)
Leggat had to do research for some of her drawings so the facts in it would be accurate. She also had to make sure that if she drew clothing, such as shoes, she also drew feet to a size that would fit the shoes.
During the eight months Alise worked on the book (she did go to school during that time, too), she learned a lot about the important elements of a good story.
If you've ever started a book that was pretty dull at the beginning, you probably didn't read very far. Leggat learned that a book should have a beginning that makes the reader want to continue. "Punt, Pass & Point" starts with the words, "Hi. i am amy."
Can't get more boring than that, huh? But, using small letters for the "i" and "a" in amy just might make you curious enough to read on.
A good book (for elementary school pupils) should have only one or two main characters and should limit the number of places involved. Otherwise, the book could get very confusing.
A lot of kids don't think they have anything to write about. Leggat said she gets her ideas from the people and places around her and then uses her imagination.
"Take people you know and exaggerate a little," she said.
"Punt, Pass & Point" is not autobiographical. Leggat has never played football, but she did play soccer and took ballet lessons for a while. Some of the characters are based on her good friends (with some exaggeration) and some are made up. The idea of writing a story combining football and ballet came from a class writing assignment about opposites.
Now Leggat is working on a book about a des(s)erted island. She heard about a small boy who asked his mom what a deserted island was. Alise used her imagination and is writing about an island of cake and candy.
Leggat asked a lot of kids she knows what they thought the tooth fairy looked like. She also is writing a book of poetry based on what they told her, and is putting her ideas into it, too.
After Becca Frazier, a fifth-grader at Glen Cove, listened to Leggat's talk, she said of her writing, "I don't use enough adjectives. You really have to explain things well, with lots of details."
Good authors read a lot. "Reading gives you a better vocabulary and lets you know what a good writer thinks," Leggat said.
Although Leggat writes and reads daily, she also takes time to be outdoors. She loves to ride bikes with her brothers, jump on her jumbo trampoline and surf-fish when she goes to the beach.
"I liked the book, but I'm not going out for ballet," said Casey Templeton, a Glen Cove fifth-grade boy. "Alise taught me that anyone can be a winner."
by CNB