Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 27, 1995 TAG: 9511290025
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH COX SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Because it's fun,'' one pupil replied.
Lewis, author and illustrator of "Silly Billy" books, agreed. Lewis said he once had a job that wasn't much fun. He worked at a General Motors body plant, where workers twisted screws for eight hours a day.
Lewis told the pupils he attended Dartmouth College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire, after making straight A's in high school. He went on to a successful career in marketing, made lots of money and saved it. What he really wanted, Lewis said, was a fun job.
"How do you get a fun job?'' he asked the kids at Roanoke Academy. Lewis said it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out: You stay in school, do your homework and listen to your teachers.
Lewis said he did just that when he was in school. He is passing that message along to students across the United States, through his computer-written and illustrated books and personal appearances.
In his book "The Planet Yes," the main character, Silly Billy, learns that what makes a difference in life is not what color a person is, but "how much you dream and read and learn. It matters that you have love for the people with whom you share your planet," Lewis wrote. In Lewis' "The Last Book," Silly Billy learns that without books (they were stolen by invaders in a spaceship), life just isn't fun - or functional - anymore.
Lewis told the Roanoke Academy audience that when he first entered Dartmouth, he learned that Dr. Seuss also had gone to school there. What Dr. Seuss did - write books for children - sounded like a fun job to Lewis. So Lewis worked hard, saved his money and read everything he could on how to write, how to create characters, how to illustrate and how to sell his books.
"No matter what you want to do, there's a stack of books out there that'll help your dreams come true. I don't have friends who don't like books. Through reading, anyone can do anything,'' he said.
Lewis showed the pupils his $15,000 computer, with its pressure-sensitive tablet and a mouse in the shape of a pencil. With this in hand, Lewis pulled up an illustration of a desert, pasted a photograph of a group of children onto it, multiplied the children, reduced the size of some of them, then clicked over to another photograph and started working with that one.
"Coooooool" ... "oooooh" ... the kids were hooked. This computer saves him lots of money, Lewis told the group, because he can do so many things himself instead of paying other people to do them.
"I went to my bank and got a $15,000 loan to buy this computer because I had good credit. I had good credit because I had a good job. I had a good job because I earned a college education. I went to college because I learned how to read. You can't go to the bank if you don't know how to read," Lewis said.
Lewis said that in about 75 percent of the schools he visits, the pupils are below grade level. He doesn't blame any single factor, but said he sees a need for innovation, or new things and ideas, in education. Computers, he said, are a good innovation.
"Computers manipulate thought. With a computer, you can start with an idea, move it, expand it, copy it and bring in graphics," he said. "The computer is the equalizer of modern society. The whole world comes to pupils' doors if they want to see it."
Lewis' latest creation, which can be found on a web site through the Internet, is Morph Boy. "He's black, he's white, he's Asian, he's Native American - he's a government experiment gone wrong,'' said Lewis.
"The good thing about Morph Boy is he's a good person who's somewhat confused about who he is. He just changes from race to race, and sees that people who love him one day don't want to sit with him the next,'' said Lewis.
According to Lewis, education as well as computers - or perhaps computers in education - also is a great equalizer.
It's also great fun. Lewis spent a few minutes describing the writing process to the pupils.
First, he said, you come up with a four-sentence story summary. This guides you where we're going in your writing. Next, you develop the three parts of the story - the beginning, middle and end. Then, he said, "my wife and I spend three to four months rewriting the books. That's about four pages of writing - the rest is illustration - and four months of writing."
After listening to Lewis, Brittany Richardson, who loves the language computer programs at Roanoke Academy, said she wants to be a writer more than ever. Malika Jones prefers math programs during computer lab, and Mark Cabbler likes to explore science.
Lewis has firm opinions about computers, and he doesn't mind voicing them. "People who have access to computers and don't use them are fools,'' he said.
Lewis' visit was sponsored by First Union National Bank's Excellence in Education program.
Lisa Soltis, Regional Marketing Consultant and Excellence in Education Coordinator for First Union bank, believes in the same message. First Union paid for Lewis' day at Roanoke Academy when school funding dried up, said educator Elizabeth Hiles. Soltis said programs such as Lewis', that encourage children to read and write, is great preparation for the sixth grade Literacy Passport test.
by CNB