Children's author comes to Cedar Mountain

VERNON — In preparation to hear a bedtime story by author Jancee Dunn, Cedar Mountain Primary School students wore their pajamas to school.
Jancee Dunn came to Cedar Mountain to talk to kindergarten and first-grade students about the inspiration for her first children’s book I’m Afraid Your Teddy Has Been Naughty Today (illustrated by Scott Nash- illustrator of the Flat Stanley series).
Jancee Dunn has written several adult fiction and non-fiction books but became interested in writing a children’s book when her young daughter spoke about all of her stuffed animals and the imaginary life they led ... especially when everyone left the home. Jancee Dunn took her daughter’s imaginative thoughts and wrote about one of her daughter’s favorite stuffed animals, her teddy bear. Janee Dunn asked the Cedar Mountain kindergarten and first-graders if they ever wondered what stuffed animals do while their companion humans are at school?
She asked, “What if a teddy bear invited all his stuffed animal friends over?”. After teaching students a short history lesson of Teddy Roosevelt, our 26th president of the United States, and the origin of the first teddy bear, Jancee Dunn read her whimsical tale of teddy bear freedom and fun to the students.
Students were delighted as they listened to the teddy bear hold a wild party complete with jumping (a little too hard) on the bed, coloring on the walls, dressing up in Mom’s clothes, having a bubble-bath sliding contest in the hall, and sledding down a “cushion mountain” on a cookie tray all with his other stuffed animal friends.
To conclude her presentation to the Cedar Mountain students, Jancee Dunn shared Scott Nash’s early sketches of the pictures in the storybook and had students compare the stages of sketches to the final pictures in the book.
Jancee Dunn had students vote on other teddy bear stories she is considering writing such as the teddy bear going to a zoo, going to a mall, and going to the principal’s office. Jancee Dunn personally signed each book purchased by the students. Jancee Dunn was brought to Cedar Mountain School by Mindy Kemper of Sparta Books.