Former PCVS teacher signing books Friday
A local author will be penning her autograph possibly for the last time in Peterborough on Friday.
Connie Brummel Crook, 87, will be signing books at Chapters on Lansdowne St. from 2 to 4 p.m.
She’s authored 12 historically based novels and two picture books over the last 27 years. Her most popular picture book is Maple Moon, set at Hiawatha First Nation. Most of her books are used in schools across Canada, as well as in Dutch private schools.
Crook was 60 when her first book, Flight, was published. At the time, she’d recently retired from a 30-year English teaching career, having spent 26 of it at PCVS.
As a child, Crook loved books, and as a teacher, she loved teaching them. She often wondered whether she could write her own, but didn’t think she had the imagination for it.
“I don’t have enough of an imagination to write wild stories about the future,” said Crook while sitting in her living room Tuesday.
So she decided to focus on history, gathering information from historical files and bringing it to life.
In 2010, No Small Victory, Crook’s first autobiographical story, was published. She’d originally named it Bullies, Bugs and Baseball but her publisher suggested the alternate moniker.
No Small Victory, set during the Depression, shares stories of central character Bonnie’s years living with her family on a farm near Lang.
Currently, the mother of two is working on another autobiographical piece that takes place during the Second World War. She touches on her high school years in Norwood, her five-kilometre walk to school and of winning a beauty pageant.
The teachers at Norwood District High School played an important role in Crook’s future by entering her for scholarships in her final year. Crook earned grants for Queen’s University, where she studied English, history and psychology. Without those teachers routing for her, Crook said she never would have gone to post-secondary — her family couldn’t afford it.
In 2000, Crook was inducted into the Pathway of Fame Peterborough and District for her literary contributions.
The west-end resident expects her current book will be her last, at least to hit the shelves anyway.
“I will keep on writing, but I won’t necessarily try to push it,” she said with a laugh.