Local author Hannah Goebel shared her published children’s book, “There’s an Elephant in the Yard,” with kindergarten students Friday at Deer Park Elementary School. Goebel read the book aloud to students and also spent time answering students’ questions about writing, reading and creativity.
Goebel’s recently published book was based on a true story experienced by Owensboro resident Doug Wetzel. As a young child living in Ohio, Wetzel had gone outside to play one day and discovered an elephant in his yard that had escaped from a traveling circus.
Goebel first heard the story when she accompanied her college roommate and Doug’s daughter, Langley Wetzel, to Ohio to visit members of her father’s family. Goebel said she knew the story would make a great children’s book.
Goebel not only wrote “There’s an Elephant in the Yard,” but did the illustrations too. She told kindergarten students at Friday’s visit that she taught herself to draw by watching YouTube videos.
“I’m not really an artist, but I just kept drawing, and drawing, and drawing until, finally, I did it,” she told the students. “If you want to do something, you can work really, really hard and learn to do it.”
Students were fascinated as Goebel shared the story of Dougie and his unlikely friendship with an elephant he found in his yard. Goebel asked students about their favorite animals and what they’d do if they saw an elephant in their own yard during the visit.
Kindergarten teacher Julia Boling said her students had just completed writing their first short stories when she decided to ask Goebel to speak to her class.
“We love having that resource [in Goebel], and we’re just so appreciative she’d be willing to do that for us today,” Boling said. “The kids have been excited all week to share their stories they’ve read with her, and to talk with her about their dreams of becoming an author.”
“There’s an Elephant in the Yard” is available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
