TES ‘Young Author’s Conference’

By BETH LAKEY

Staff Writer

Jan. 25, 2001 10 PM

Some of Pike County’s youth may be getting their start toward freedom next Saturday.

On Feb. 3, the Pike County Reading Council will sponsor a Young Author’s Conference at Troy Elementary School.

Already 165 children are pre-registered for the Saturday morning event of fun and learning.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade will have the opportunity to learn more about writing and being an author, said Hilda Hall of the Pike County Reading Council.

Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. The first session will begin at 9 a.m., the second session at 10:15 a.m. and the conference should be over by 11 a.m., Hall said.

Cost of registration that morning will be $10. Parents and teachers are welcome to attend for free, Hall said.

Part of the fun will include meeting Jerry Pallotta, who is known as "the alphabet man" by young and old.

Pallotta is the author is books on the alphabet, featuring such things as airplanes, dinosaurs, extinct animals and freshwater creatures.

Hall said Pallotta’s books are "fully researched" and include all kinds of information about things interesting to children.

In addition to his alphabet books, Pallotta writes books on counting.

Hall said the Young Author’s Conference should be a fun-filled, educational morning for students from area schools.

She said all the activites will center around Pallotta’s books.

In addition to the learning sessions, the author will autograph copies of his books.