Lemuria Books brought Sherri Duskey Rinker, author of the beloved Construction Site series, to Jackson Academy, where kindergarten through second graders were among the first school children to hear her newest book, Construction Site Firefight, read aloud by the author herself.
The 40-minute presentation covered a range of topics, including the difference between writers and illustrators, fiction vs. non-fiction, and how Rinker developed her love of storytelling. A Chicago native and author of 43 books, Rinker told students: “Every time you read a book you get a little bit smarter.”
Hearing directly from authors is a cherished and frequent tradition at JA, fitting for a school with reading at its very foundation. Jackson Academy was established on the principle of teaching reading through phonics at a time when sight reading was the dominant method, and that commitment to literacy has shaped the school’s culture ever since.
The Story Behind the Stories
Rinker shared that her grandmother sparked her love of reading by reading aloud to her as a child: a tradition she carried forward. Her second son Zak, who was obsessed with trucks but struggled to wind down at bedtime, inspired her very first book. To help him fall asleep, she invented a story about a truck settling in after a long day of work. Zak even helped shape how the truck “went to sleep,” and soon, so did he.
The road to publication of her debut book took three years from first draft to bookstore shelf. In the meantime, Rinker kept writing — and hasn’t stopped since, with 43 titles to her name spanning trucks, trains, squirrels, non-fiction, and chapter books.
