Ohio University alum Calvin Shaw ’11, who writes under the pseudonym The Caterpillar Stampede, was recently featured in the Toledo Blade for creating a children’s book with local elementary students.
“The Peg-Legged Caterpillar is a picture book written with students whose schools have been adversely affected by budget cuts in their art department,” Shaw says on his website. Shaw earned a B.A. in Psychology from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University.
Shaw notes that “a portion of the proceeds from The Peg-Legged Caterpillar will be directed toward these schools that have been adversely affected by budget cuts.” The book can be purchased at his online store.
Calvin Shaw
The Blade’s Vanessa McCray tells the tale of his return to Glenwood Elementary to share the new book with the students who helped to create it in “Students helped story morph into final book; Author takes finished product to school.”
The tale of a caterpillar who wants to fly burst to life from the imaginations of Glenwood Elementary School students, who reconnected last week with the author who sought their input to create the children’s book.
Calvin Shaw wrote and self-published The Peg-Legged Caterpillar after meeting a couple of times last year with second graders at the Toledo school.
He visited their art class to seek suggestions on how to develop the plot and depict the colorful characters.
He returned last Wednesday to show off the finished book, which the students, now in third grade, took turns reading page-by-page.
“What I did was try to involve these students just in the creative process to get them engaged,” said Mr. Shaw, 29, of Toledo.
A graduate of St. Francis de Sales High School, he went on to study psychology at Ohio University and has a deep interest in art and music.
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