Doreen Millichamp

Readings

The content of my readings are about young children, how they react to life around them, and lessons learned.

I usually introduce myself. I explain what an author is and a short version from forming an idea into words until the final stages of it becoming a book.

I usually read a portion of one of my books to the classroom. My first two books of The Campfire Boys – (a series of six books) is about five multicultural boys (one is in a wheelchair), who meet at a campsite. In the first book (Picking Worms), their first weekend together is crammed with adventure – learning to pick worms and planning a business to sell them to the people who are fishing. In the second book, (The Elusive Butterfly) the five friends learn to work as a team, and share their experience of catching a special butterfly for Lee’s butterfly collection before his grandfather arrives from China. This book is full of adventure and fun.

I also have various short stories or poems that I read to the students. With the kindergarten class, I have an action sing-a-long for them to do. You have to keep things moving along with that age group. As each grade progresses I have age appropriate stories or poems for the students. For the grade fours, I have a short exercise for them to do. This shows them how to expand on a short story.

My reading is usually about 15-20 minutes and the remainder of the time is question and answer period.

Book Sales:

Copies of books can be brought to be sold and autographed.

Biography

Doreen Millichamp was born in Toronto, Ontario and now resides in Gimli, Manitoba with her husband. Her two sons live in Winnipeg. Besides writing as a hobby, she is a member of the Gimli Art Club, and the Gimli & District Wildlife Club.

The material for The Campfire Boys came from her childhood experiences of camping and fishing with family and friends.

She is a member of The Lake Winnipeg Writers Group and has had a number of children’s’ stories and poems included in their printed anthology, Voices. Her children’s stories have also appeared in several Manitoba newspapers. She is presenting her work through storytelling, and “Meet the Author” at schools and bookstores.