As Lorraine and I drove down Ridge Road on a brisk early spring morning we had no idea what lay ahead at the quaint Lee Whedon Memorial Library in Medina. It turned out to be one of the most extraordinary moments in our lives. And Lorraine and I have had some great moments together….
It seemed the perfect adventure for a couple of book-lovers so we just HAD to attend this wonderful luncheon with Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, children’s author and family historian. We met her immediately upon entering the library (along with the lovely library ladies from Lee Whedon) and found her bright, fun, earthy and real. She welcomed us with her warm, wide smile and completely drew us into her magical world.
Her presentation focused on her inspiration, the Northeastern Kingdom of Vermont. She said it was the last little section of Vermont to be settled and her family has lived there for 7 generations. They emigrated from Scotland hundreds of years ago, and their stories came ashore as well. She writes incessantly of her own family history, often embelishing little snippets of things she discovers here and there.
“I write to honor these people who came before me,” she declared over and over again. “I want to tell their stories.”
And she has written their stories quite succesfully!
Her slideshow mesmerized us with beautiful Vermont scenery and introduced us to her wild animal friends. Natalie is much more than just a writer. She is an outdoors-woman, an athlete and an animal rescuer. She loves her animal friends completely and seems connected to their world. You can’t spend a moment with Natalie without hearing one of her unbelievable animal stories. She has had many interesting encounters with bears, moose, foxes, wild turkeys and coyotes. But she especially loves the birds.
Now her books are as captivating and inviting as her laugh. They are folksy and have a certain forever-ness about them. Little children will enjoy The Bear Who Heard Crying and imagine they are lost in the woods, adults will read The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar Island and marvel at the simplicity of one nameless little girl’s passion for some wild horses, and older people will understand the gentle passage of time in The Canada Geese Quilt. We don’t have all of her books at the Lewiston Public Library but we can help you order them through our inter-library loan program.
Natalie is a prolific writer and her words seem crafted out of the moon and the stars. She confessed that there are some stories that almost magically write themselves. She is currently writing at least 50 stories at the present time. And she does not spend her days clicking away at a computer keyboard. Her medium is merely a pencil and some paper. Lorraine also asked her about her illustrations, as most of her books are picture books. Natalie admitted that she is quite lucky as she has a definite say in her choice of an illustrator. Most authors do not. The New York City editors often have a little trouble seeking an authentic depiction of her farm life in Vermont, but she quickly sends photos to the illustrators and they seem to do a spectacular job.
Natalie had a little surprise for all of us library ladies, too! She brought a neat little stack of quilts from long ago. Her childhood was very influenced by her dear grandmother, Helen Urie Rowell, who was the inspiration for her story, The Canada Geese Quilt. Natalie, who doesn’t like to sew herself, used to draw the designs for her grandma’s quilts, choose the colors and schemes and watch grandma piece it all together. And everyone knows that quilts are stories, too. We saw the actual Canada Geese Quilt which her grandmother had crafted with her own hands, and even some created by Natalie’s dear sister, the genealogist of the family, including The Bear Who Heard Crying.
Natalie’s sister, another Helen, unfortunately passed away a few years ago. They were very close and she was a sort of co-conspirator for many of Natalie’s works. Helen did much of the research which gave the stories their backbone. Together they listened, they ravaged the old records left behind by their ancestors, they tiptoed through many a cemetery. The popular story The Bear Who Heard Crying was actually an artistic rendering of little bits and pieces of a family story from hundreds of years ago. Natalie turned to all of us and said: ”You, too, have stories to write from your own family. These stories get lost because people don’t write them down and people don’t tell them.” Natalie often tells children to visit their grandparents and their aunts and uncles and to get their stories before it’s too late. She believes we all have these wonderful adventures within our ancestral past and they are waiting to be found and shared.
I don’t think Lorraine and I will ever forget our afternoon with Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. As the afternoon drew to a close, we felt the need to purchase our own special copies of her books and were told the perfect little shop was just down the street. To our surprise, Natalie decided to accompany us in our little excursion and we found ourselves practically arm in arm with this adventurous author. We stumbled across the railroad tracks and down Medina’s nostalgic Main Street looking for The Old Book Shoppe. We giggled over things like a couple of school girls and watched as a flock of Canada Geese flew overhead in a great V.
It was a wonderful sign to end our spectacular and enchanted afternnon with Natalie Kinsey-Warnock.
Michelle Ann Kratts
