Children Authors & Illustrators Help Bring Normalcy to Sandy Hook Elementary School

Authors/illustrators visitors to Sandy Hook Elementary School. Back Row: Alan Katz, Bruce Degen, Tad Hills, Katie Davis, Vincent Kirsch, Bob Shea, Meghan McCarthy. Front Row: Susan Hood, Mike Rex, Tracy Dockray, Marc Tyler Nobleman, Daniel Kirk.

Twelve children's authors and illustrators traveled to the Sandy Hook Elementary School to participate in the school's first assembly program. This came about through the diligent effort of Marc Tyler Nobleman, author of more than 70 books, including Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman. After many fits and starts and almost two month after the December 14th shooting at the school that killed 26 children and staff, the group presented a variety program that had music, song, videos, poems and drawing demonstrations.

The rapt attentions and smiling faces of the children was proof that normalcy is returning to the school, which was exactly the point of the assembly. During the planning process Nobleman wrote to the organizers, "Our mission is to come and reinforce the challenging and critical work you are all doing everyday and late into the night; we don't want to disrupt momentum but rather support it. We want to be part of the healing."