From doodles to designs

Heather Cory

Mark Lundy, right, describes how he became an author and illustrator of children’s books to art students at Basic High School. Lundy has visited a number of schools to encourage reading and writing as part of the APPLE Core literacy celebration.

By Diana Cox

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | midnight

Heather Cory

Children's author and illustrator, Mark Ludy, shows the illustrations of his wordless book, "The Flower Man," to art students at Basic High School on Sept. 22.

"How many of you have a doodling obsession?" children's author and illustrator Mark Ludy asked about 100 Basic High School art and theater students Sept. 25. Laughs erupted in the audience and nearly all of the students raised their hands.

Ludy said doodling in school once got him into trouble, but now it helps him make a living.

The author of "Jujo: The Youngest Tribesman" and "The Flower Man" spoke to Henderson students throughout the week as part of the city's APPLE Core celebration, the kickoff of a yearlong literacy program that rewards children for reading.

At Basic, Ludy encouraged students to go after their dreams.

"This may be a blip in your lives, me talking to you today," he said. "But I want to encourage you."

In Ludy's book, "The Grump," Mr. McCurry Brogan Howlweister, a man whom all the people in Dinkerwink fear and dislike, is forever changed by a girl named Lydia who cannot hear or speak. She knows him only as the man with the upside down smile.

Ludy's inspiration for the story came from a trip to Bulgaria he and a friend took when he was 18.

His friend wanted to visit an orphanage, he told the students, but he thought it would be a waste of time. But while in the orphanage, he met a girl named Lydia, who grabbed his hand and began chattering to him in her native Bulgarian. Though he could not understand her words, her spirit left an impression, he said.

"I wanted to help her discover the world" he said.

That girl became the character Lydia, and the back page of "The Grump" is dedicated to her.

Ludy said that at first he did not think he could achieve his dream. It took him eight months to write his first book, "The Farmer," about a farmer who loses everything and must sell his animals to his awful neighbors. When tragedy strikes again and the neighbors lose everything, the farmer is there to help them.

Ludy said he called his father and told him he didn't think he could do it.

"What would the Farmer do?" his dad asked him.

Ludy finished the book.

Ludy's goal was, during one brief meeting in their lives, to inspire the students to pursue their artistic dreams.

"Like Lydia" he said, "who I met only once, but she changed my life forever."

Diana Cox can be reached at (702) 990-8183 or diana.cox@hbcpub.com.