Students spend ‘A Day in Africa’

Continuing the month’s emphasis on reading and literacy, the Plumas Lake Elementary District hosted “A Day in Africa” event that put students in front of two authors with firsthand experience living in the safari land.

Les and Genny Nuckolls are California natives with a love of traveling and writing. Following an opportunity for Les, his wife and their children to live in Africa for a number of years they found they wanted to be able to share both their experience and some of their more adventurous stories with others.

The result was a book aimed at educating children through the experiences they had during this time, where they developed a deep appreciation and understanding of African family and cultural values.

Rio del Oro and Cobblestone Elementary students were treated to glimpses into some of their life experiences during a recent visit by the authors, who spent time recounting with the students some of the highlights of their book, “Growing Up in Africa.”

The book features a compilation of short stories that are easily digestible by children.

“The kids were totally mesmerized by his stories,” said Debi Hardman-Smith, librarian for Rio del Oro and Cobblestone schools. “For a good half an hour you could hear a pin drop in the auditorium as the kids listened.”

Annie and Alicia are Les’ two daughters, and much of the book is written from their perspective.

They make friends with the local children, have experiences with the wild animals, and eat some pretty exotic food – such as snake and gopher – and they have a wonderful time doing it.

“Our goal was to give the students the opportunity to meet a real author and to learn about others who live a life different from their own,” said Hardman-Smith. “This also showed kids that books and the stories they tell come from the minds of real people.”

One of the students’ favorite stories, which closes the book, recounts Nuckolls’ own encounter with the family’s pet chimp, Chester. Chester nearly
attacked Nuckolls when he laughed at the chimp, who was dressed as Santa Claus.

Hardman-Smith was excited by this opportunity for her students, who and states that it made the book so popular that all the students want to check it out of the library.

“We are going to have students come together in small groups to read portions of the book in the next few weeks,” she states. “This will give more
opportunity for all the students to read the wonderful stories it contains.”

Les and Genny Nuckolls are local to the greater Sacramento region and live in the Roseville area.

Plumas Lake Life correspondent Michele Perrault can be reached at 483-3664 or e-mail her at mperrault@plumaslakelife.com.