Limitless
On Friday we had two very special visitors at Central School! Theresa McDonnell Eckler and Julia Walker Lewis, both former Central School students and Marshwood High School graduates, came to share Limitless, a children’s book they wrote and illustrated together. Theresa, currently a fourth grade teacher in upstate New York, drew inspiration for writing the story from some of her childhood experiences. She is a skilled writer but she needed someone with amazing talent to illustrate her book. She thought back to her days at Central School and knew the perfect person would be Julia. Although they hadn’t seen each other in about 20 years they talked and shared their ideas and were excited to work on this project together. The book was completed during the COVID years and all of their correspondence was done through zoom meetings. After many months of writing and revising, drawings and revisions they completed their first book together.
Central School had another very special connection to this book! Julia drew inspiration for one of the characters in Limitless from a family friend who happens to be a first grade student at Central. When Mrs. O'Brien read the book to his class Maverick said “hey that is me!” pointing to a character on the cover. Maverick is so proud and is now a Central School celebrity!
During their visit Theresa and Julia shared about the writing process and how they worked together to create their book
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Harper, the main character in Limitless, used her creativity and brain power to solve how to fix the broken kite. Theresa wanted our students to realize that they too are limitless! Just like Harper they can solve problems by using their own creativity and brain power.
