 
 
A LITTLE ABOUT ME (CAROL GOODROW)TEACHING The classroom has been my first home since 1978 when I was hired as a special education teacher in Tolland, CT. My specialty? Dyslexia. I enjoy teaching spelling, decoding, writing, and math. It's a job that takes patience, insight, and creativity along with a lot of love and caring. But my job isn't limited to my specialty. I also work with children with other learning differences and suspect that someday I may change my "specialty" to children with more significant needs. 
When I became a runner, I started integrating running with the curriculum. I still run with my schoolchildren on Fridays. I also have an after-school Happy Feet, Healthy Food Kids' Club that meets twice each week. We use my books, play running games, eat healthy snacks, and journal. LATE BLOOMER My running, artwork, writing, and designing all started after my children were grown. The term LATE BLOOMER fits because I had little confidence in athletics, art, and writing - most everything that I now love to do! I admit being terrified of dogs as a child. There was no such thing as a leash law and in our neighborhood a growling German Shepherd Dog roamed the streets. It was this great fear that was the inspiration for Hannah, the main character in The Treasure of Health and Happiness.  MY FAMILYI'm married to Kevin. We live in a small old country home in Sturbridge, MA, with our dog, Midnight. Midnight is the model for Toby in my "Treasure" book. He's also my best running buddy. I take him on my shorter runs. We run on country roads and on the trails. If he doesn't see a squirrel, all goes well. I have a daughter, Josie, a son, Keith, and 3 grandchildren. My daughter is a runner and my son races road bikes.  Oh, joy!Receiving a healthy-heart tee from the Greenville School during an author/illustrator assembly. MY PASSIONS Designing, creating, and writing. It's a joy to me to be the illustrator of my books and my Web sites. I enjoy the process of creating a book as much as seeing the finished product. A child once asked me, "How does anyone know that they should be an author/illustrator?" My answer? "When you just can't stop the ideas from popping out of you - out of your head and your heart. That's when you know." ON THE WEB I've been on the Web for many years. I started with Cool Running and built their first children's page, WayCoolRunning.com. It no longer exists as I built it, but if you look at KidsRunning.Com today, June 21, 2009, you'll see that it looks like WayCoolRunning.com looked years ago. That is because I also created the Runner's World site. Starting next month, I will only be working on this author site. BECOMING AN AUTHOR ILLUSTRATOR In 2003, Amby Burfoot of Runner's World magazine, phoned me. The reason for the call was to urge me to write my first book. We decided that I should write a children's running log. From this conversation, Happy Feet, Healthy Food was born. Within a couple of months, I found a publisher, Garth Battista of Breakaway Books. I was thrilled to find a publisher so quickly. Not only did I sign on as an author, but also as the illustrator of my books. MY HOBBIES I run, read, and cycle. I run every day that I can and for many years was always training for a half marathon, somewhere. Now, I run for fitness, fun, health, and for the love of the outdoors. I don't run fast, but still I enjoy most everything about running. I read novels for relaxation and also to ponder big ideas or to understand myself, the world, and others. But I also read to learn how to do things. My last year's project was poetry. I have a stack of 5 books on poetic form waiting to be read. They are still waiting. I got sidetracked this year and read many books to help my schoolchildren: The Explosive Child, Lost in School, and books on Asperger's. For years I cycled for fun and also as part of the Pan Mass Challenge (pmc.org). It's a 112 - 192 mile bike ride for Dana Farber - always the first Saturday a.m. in August. I did this ride in honor of my friend Fran Lucas. I was thrilled to hear that he wrote my name on a beam at Dana Farber as a hero. I rode my final PMC last year and will miss this event. FAMILY My husband Kevin Kevin is selling Subaru cars. longsubaru.com If you are in the area, stop by and say "hello". He's very friendly. My sister Lois You can find my sister Lois here. LOIS SIEGEL is a filmmaker, casting director, writer, photographer, professor and musician extraordinaire. She lives in Ottawa, Canada. Her Web site is siegelproductions.ca/ My sister June My daughter Josie My son Keith My 3 grandchildren, Alex, Hannah, and Axel AWARDS 1982: Curriculum Award, Tolland School System 1994: Teacher of the Year, Tolland School System 2001: CAHPERD (CT Assoc. of Health, P.E., Recreation and Dance) Layman Award 2007: Celebrate Literacy Award, IRA (International Reading Assoc.) Central Massachusetts Branch PRESS Kids on the Run: The New Trend in Family-Friendly Fitness by Amanda MacMillan, Columnist for Health.com, August 30, 2009 Local artist counts off a year's reasons to run Christopher Tanguay, Sturbridge Villager, August 28, 2009 PDF, View Page 4. This is the extensive article mentioned below. A good day for a run by Chris Tanguay, Southbridge Evening News, August 19, 2009 (Note that a much more extensive article appeared in the print edition on Aug. 21, but is not yet available online). Get Kids Running by Bev Sklar, AOL Health July 10, 2009 Kids Running Site John Conceison Running, Worcester Telegram and Gazette, July 2009 Review of The Treasure of Health and Happiness letsrun.com, by Monte Wells, February 2009 Book Review: Kids Running: Have Fun, Get Faster & Go Farther by Robert Schribner, Letsrun.com, September 2008 Book for Young Runners courier-journal.com, by Linda Stahl, September 2008 Talk To Me...Conversations with Creative, Unconventional People. Interview by Host Rita Schiano on blog radio, September 2008 Book Review: Kids Running: Have Fun, Get Faster & Go Farther by Robert Schribner, Letsrun.com, September 2008 Children can read their way to fitness by Jon Conceison, Telegram and Gazette, August 2008 BOOK REVIEW, Carol's Kids Running Book by Sheila Schencke, August 2008 Running Book for Kids by Bev Sklar, That's Fit, August 2008 Review of Kids Running: Have Fun, Get Faster & Go Farther by Phoenix for Cool Running Australia, August 2008 Triathlons are challenging kids to go the distance Newsday, August 2008 Kids Running: Have Fun, Get Faster & Go Further Newsday, August 2008 (oops - should be "Go Farther") Tolland teacher releases her third book to get kids out running Journal Inquirer April 2008 What's New? Tampa Tribune April 2008 FOOTLOOSE: Amby Burfoot's Runner's World Blog March 2008 FitKidsOnline.com March 2008 Sturbridge Times February, 2008 Speaking Volumes February 2008 School Nutrition Talk (see page 14) Summer 2006 A Couple of the Many EVENTS Carol has attended Manchester, CT, January, 2008 - Book Signing at the Living Well after-school program in Manchester, CT Greenville, NH, February, 2008 - School Assembly PowerPoint Greenville Elementary School. Boston, MA- April 2008 - Book signing at the Boston Marathon, Runner's World booth Litchfield, CT- 2009 - PowerPoint How to Use Happy Feet  Happy Feet, Healthy Food, Your Child's First Journal of Exercise & Healthy Eating The Treasure of Health and Happiness Kids Running: Have Fun, Get Faster & Go Farther |