Local author Tricia Springstubb visits Brunswick Middle School

BRUNSWICK — Young adult and children's book writer Tricia Springstubb visited Brunswick Middle School Friday as a reward for students who took part in the summer reading program. Over 560 people from Brunswick participated in this year's program and logged more than 380,500 minutes, Brunswick Library's Teen Librarian Mel Vavra said. There were 152 more participants and over 100,000 more minutes read in Brunswick than Medina. Springstubb is from Cleveland Heights and has written more than 10 books over the course of her career such as the Cody series. She spoke to students about her journey of being an author. She said she always loved to read as a child but never imagined herself being a writer. "It always seemed to me that people who could write books must be really smart, really special," Springstubb said. "Maybe they actually knew some kind of magic that they could put these stories on paper and pull me in the way they did. I didn't think I could be that special or that smart." What she did know is that she wanted to work with kids, she said. In her other jobs, she learned what kids liked and disliked and how they felt about the world. "I go home at night, and I think about what stories they might like to read," Springstubb said. "Stories where they can see themselves. Stories where they can maybe understand what other kids were going through." Many of her first stories were rejected from being published, yet she kept writing because she enjoyed it, she said. She was 30 years old when her first story was published and has been in the industry now for 42 years. "As long as you are thinking up stories and putting them on paper, you're a writer," Springstubb said. "You do not need to be published to call yourself a writer." Even though she has written many published books since then, some stories still get rejected from time to time. "You should know that even though I've been writing for a really long time, still not everything I do succeeds," Springstubb said. "It's still always a learning process." The event was a coordination between Brunswick Middle School, the Medina County District Library and local organization Buckeye Book Fair. Buckeye Book Fair put on a variety of local author events before the pandemic started, and Springstubb's trip to the middle school is the first author visit since then, Executive Director of Buckeye Book Fair Kimberly Crislip Jarvis said. Her visit is part of a series of events which leads up to an annual book fair on Nov. 5 at the Greystone Event Center in Wooster which will feature about 100 local authors. Springstubb said events like an author visit recognize kids for reading and show them that they can be a writer too. "I think that when people see you reading, and they celebrate you for reading, it makes you proud of yourself," Vavra said. "These kids should be really proud that they like to read." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.