WEST WYOMING — How do you color a picture without markers, pencils or crayons?
Ty Cruz, a Pre-K student at The Cookie Corner Nursery and Day Care in West Wyoming, learned the surprising answer: use the color from your shirt.
“We grabbed our shirts then we threw the color onto the coloring book,” said the five-year-old Cruz.
Cruz isn’t just imaging things – he really did grab his shirt and throw the colors at a blank coloring book as hard as he could – but it was magician Glenn Davis and his self-described apprentice Mark Smith who turned Cruz’s efforts into a tangible result.
Davis and Smith recently visited The Cookie Corner to perform magic tricks and talk to students about their book, “The Next Notre Dame Mascot.”
The children’s book is about Notre Dame’s Mike the Mascot, and Irish terrier looking to retire from his days of leading the Fighting Irish onto the football field.
Davis and Smith authored the book with Daniel O’Brien and Thomas Stapleton. The four men, all retired themselves from tenures as elementary educators, were inspired to write the children’s book during their weekly meetings for Monday Night Football and shuffleboard at Senunas’ Bar & Grill on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.
They got to work at the start of 2015 and had a completed product in their hands that August. To save the final product from a busy cover, they decided not to print their names on the front; instead, they’d go with the pen name The Four Pops.
“I guess I came up with the name The Four Pops because that’s what our grand kids all call us,” said Smith, a 64-year-old resident of Plains Township. “The book is dedicated to our grandkids.”
Smith said all of his grandchildren attended The Cookie Corner before graduating to Kindergarten. His youngest, Noah Gravine, is currently part of the institution’s Pre-K class.
The Cookie Corner asks parents enrolling their children if they or any relatives have talents or interesting professions they’re willing to share with the students. That’s when the corner learned about the pops.
“We thought it’d be great for them to come in and talk about authorship,” said three and four-year-old nursery school group teacher Joan Urban.
The Cookie Corner Director Donna B. Brenner said the school has a number of visitors throughout the year, from dental health experts to Pennsylvania State Police troopers. She said the activities are “a diversion from the regular classroom.”
The two pops gave presentations in four classes: two groups of three and four-year-olds and two Pre-K groups. Smith said they draw on their experience as educators to alter their content for each age group, and it’s something they’re willing to do for any classroom willing to host them.
“We all loved what we did,” Smith said. “With the little ones we sort of tell the story verbatim. We go more in-depth with the older kids and make it more square-one of writing your own book.”
Smith said the magic show is an “added plus,” though if five-year-old Cruz is any indication, it’s more than that for the students who witness it.
Layla Marks, a five-year-old student at The Cookie Corner from Avoca, said she was also impressed with the magic show, but her real takeaway was her copy of “The Next Notre Dame Mascot.”
“I got the book and I read it with my pop two times,” Marks said. “My pop likes Notre Dame. A lot.”
