Elementary Teacher Writes Book For Granddaughter

EVA’S GIFT’ INITIALLY SCRIBBLED ON MCDONALD’S NAPKINS

By Anna Fry

Thursday, November 5, 2009

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Olivia Olson, a resource teacher at Mathias Elementary School in Rogers, speaks Wednesday about the book she wrote, “Eva’s Gift.”
Photo by SARAH BENTHAM

ROGERS — Olivia Olson’s first granddaughter was going to be born in Russia.

Her son taught English in Siberia and married a Russian woman. Olson was thinking about ways to connect with her granddaughter, Eva. Olson decided to write Eva a book.

Olson was driving in the caron a long trip in the fall of 2008 when plot ideas started coming to her, she said. She grabbed the only writing material she had available, McDonald’s napkins, and scribbled them down.

Olson is a resource teacher at Joe Mathias Elementary School in Rogers. She wrote “like crazy” during her 2008 fall break to finish “Eva’s Gift,” she said.

She read some draft sectionsto students, who are acknowledged at the front of the book. They encouraged Olson, she said.

Tate Publishing and Enterprises accepted the book for publication a year ago Wednesday, according to a letter they sent Olson.

The book was released Oct. 27 of this year, Olson’s publicist said. It’s available at bookstores, online and through the publisher’s Web site, a news release stated.

Olson, a member of several historical societies, has a passion for history, she said. She’s long been interested in Nicholas II, Russia’s last czar.

The book is about a girl,Eva, turning 8 years old. On her birthday, her grandmother gives her matryoshka dolls, dolls of decreasing size that fit into each other, featuring the czar’s family.

She keeps them in a cupboard at her grandmother’s house, and they come alive after her grandmother leaves, Olson said. They giveEva riddles and she learns about her heritage.

The book is aimed at 8- to 12-year-olds. Olson said. She has plans to write more.

Olson is working on a book now involving a little boy and the Civil War. Olson’s grandmother used to tell stories about her grandmother, who lived during the Civil War.Olson videotaped them and later wrote the stories down to read to her four children, but none were published.

She usually writes during weekends and school breaks, she said.

“It has to be very quiet for me,” she said. “I have to have no distractions. If I’m home and see laundry that needs to be done, that just does not do it for me.”

Five months after Eva’s birth in October 2008, her family returned to the U.S. They and Olson and her husband live in Rogers.

Olson saved the fi rst book that came o◊the press to give to Eva when she turns 8.

News, Pages 1 on 11/05/2009

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