“What’s That Smell?” is a new children’s book, published this summer by Balboa Press, with a theme of respecting others despite differences. Scotty, the main character, is a skunk who is about to start school; he is different from other skunks in a very important way—he has a flowery odor when he sprays, unlike his peers.
The book has a close connection to Gateway Regional: one of the co-authors is Elizabeth Bienia, the Assistant Principal of grades Pre-6 (Chester Elementary School, Littleville Elementary School, and Gateway Regional Middle School). The book’s illustrator is Nanette Higgins, a former preschool teacher at Chester Elementary School.
The book’s themes are perfect for the beginning of the school year, and Bienia herself read the book to several classrooms at Chester Elementary School. Students in Cynthia Stokowski’s third grade classroom enjoyed the experience. “The story had a good message,” said Allison Berge. “No matter how different you are, you can still be friends.” Branden Thompson was impressed by Higgins’ artwork. “The pictures really illustrated the words,” he said.
The book is co-authored by Nicholas D. Young, now Superintendent of South Hadley Public Schools, and Biena (whose penname is Elizabeth Jean). Bienia interned with Young when she was working on her administrative license. “We got to talking about children’s books, the number of books that use animals as the major character, and discussed what animal we might select if we were writing a book,” Bienia recalled.
Apparently, the answer was a skunk. And the discussion led to the development of this book.
In the end, Bienia looked in the Gateway community for her illustrator. She knew that Higgins, at the time a preschool teacher at Chester Elementary School, did some outside painting, and also knew other painters. Higgins agreed to do the series of illustrations for the book.
Bienia herself is a published illustrator. She has done the artwork for several of Young’s other books; the two are collaborating on a series of books for Learning Disabilities Worldwide (LDW). LDW is an organization that provides resources to individuals, families and educators around issues of learning disabilities. The five-part series is entitled, “I Am Full of Possibilities.” The first book is about a child who learns he has a disability. In book 2, the child attends an Individual Education Planning (I.E.P.) meeting. Other topics in the series include bullying, Attention Deficit Disorder and dyslexia, and coping with problem social behaviors. Bienia is the illustrator for three of these five books.
Juggling multiple responsibilities is not new for Bienia. In addition to her full time job, she teaches education classes at Elms College, co-owns and teaches at Karma Yoga Studio in West Springfield, and is currently pursuing her Ed.D. degree at Northeastern with a goal of completing her dissertation in December 2013.
The book was released last month and is available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.
