Author-ventriloquist visits Hilltop

Sparta - Award-winning author and ventriloquist Karen Rosteker-Gruber paid a visit recently to the Hilltop Country Day School in Sparta, along with her puppet friend, Maria. Rosteker-Gruber visits schools all over New Jersey to entertain and teach children. One thing she is more than qualified to teach is persistence. After 12 years of submitting manuscripts and 484 rejection letters, she is now an award-winning children’s book author. Her book, Rooster Can’t Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, just won the International Reading Association, Children’s Book Council, Children’s Choices Award. It is now on the Bureau of Education and Research’s “best of the year” list and it was just nominated for the Missouri “Show Me” award. Rosteker-Gruber says she writes on two levels. “I write books that are entertaining for both parents and children,” she explains, “because if a child asks a parent to read the same story 50 times, it better be good!” Her first children’s book, Food Fright, was published in 2003. Rooster Can’t Cock-a-Doodle-Doo was published in 2004, and her third children’s book, Bandit, will be released in 2008. For information on Rosteker-Gruber, log on to karenrostoker-gruber.com. For information on the Hilltop School, log on to hilltopcds.org.