After missing out last year, area students will have a chance to hear from an author and illustrator next week.
The Author Visit Program returns Monday and Tuesday, bringing author and illustrator Henry Cole back to local schools. He was scheduled to visit last year, but the pandemic upended that plan. 
Still, it wasn’t easy to organize this year’s visit. Social distancing rules will be enforced, which limits how many students can gather in one place at one time. Finding facilities to accommodate large groups was quite challenging, Deb Greenwall, who is one of the organizers of the author visits, said.
As a result, students will be divided into groups between 100 and 200. They’ll be scattered at schools and the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, with Cole traveling between them throughout the day Monday and Tuesday.
This year, all elementary schools in Allen County will participate: those in USD 257, Humboldt and Marmaton Valley. Yates Center Elementary and Crest Elementary will take part for the first time.
“For most of these schools, this is the first time the entire student body will be able to come together at the same place at the same time since the pandemic,” Greenwall said.
“A lot of people worked really hard to make this happen.”
Because of the social distancing requirements, no parents or the public are allowed to attend.
The program is made possible by a grant from the Helen Gates Whitehead Trust of Iola.
COLE has visited local schools before. He was a visiting author in 2012, and quickly became a favorite with students because of his humor, storytelling and artistic skill.
“He is magical,” Greenwall said.
“He’s so expressive. He just makes it fun.”
During his last visit to Iola, Cole told the Register he was teaching at an elementary school that hosted a visiting author. He asked where he might find a publisher for a book he had illustrated about bats, the author obliged, and soon Cole had a new career.
He’s written and illustrated several books, including Jack’s Garden, I Took a Walk, A Nest for Celeste, Nesting, One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey.
TYPICALLY, visiting authors will meet with students and sign books.
That won’t be possible this time, but students pre-ordered books and Cole will personalize and sign a book plate for each book purchased.
