Penguin Bookshop celebrates 86th year in Sewickley

A talk by a children's author marked the 86th anniversary of the Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley last week.

Nick Courage, 33, of Shadyside spoke with children and families about his career in book publishing and becoming a professional writer.

He also discussed his book, “The Loudness”, a middle-grade novel about superheroes emerging from the unlikeliest people, and showed boys and girls how to create their own characters.

“It was very participatory,” said store owner Susan Hans O'Connor, of Edgeworth. “The kids were amazingly creative.”

Courage, who was born in New Orleans and worked in the publishing industry for a decade before moving to Western Pennsylvania more than a year ago, said he enjoyed brainstorming with the children.

“The audience (included) super creative 8 to 12-year-old writers,” he said. He spoke Oct. 29. “Basically, it was a room full of my favorite people.

“The session was overtly about creating a superhero, but it was more generally about developing and writing any compelling three-dimensional character. As writers, they all really responded to that.”

Alex MacDonald, a fifth-grader at Quaker Valley's Osborne Elementary School, said it was “cool” to learn how to create a story line.

MacDonald's mother, Annette Cronauer, was impressed by Courage's presentation.

“He had such a knack to get these kids to let their creative juices flow (uninhibitedly),” Cronauer said. “(My son) didn't want to leave.”

Mackenzie Morehouse, a fifth-grader at the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School in Oakland said she gained confidence after meeting Courage.

“I had never talked to a real writer before,” said Mackenzie, 10, of Sewickley Heights. “Instead of standing up there and telling us exactly what he wanted to tell us, he made it very interactive.

“Although the evening was supposed to be about him, he made it about us and our ideas. It definitely gave me more faith in my writing abilities.”

Courage said his goal was to inspire.

“As I was signing books, a girl who had been making incredibly smart observations throughout the session told me that she wanted to write a book that changed the world,” he said. “That's really what it's all about: meeting those kids and encouraging them to tell their stories.”

Karen Kadilak is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.