The first Marcy story was written to help my own second grader
confront issues surrounding disorganization. The second story
was created to help her deal with a classroom bully. That story
was read by me to her class and received so well that it was
followed, by popular demand, by twenty more. The series
developed as the wishes, fears and frustrations of my daughter's
classmates, (and of several teachers), were reflected by Marcy
who handled the problems they inspired.
As my daughter grew, the Marcy stories served to remind her of
many personal accomplishments. Then, once my younger
daughter entered second grade, she was comforted by the stories
until she began to face difficulties not yet handled by Marcy.
Suddenly, Marcy had to discover a whole bunch of new
adventures both in school and during summer sleep away camp.
This book is geared towards first through third graders and has
been piloted to students 7-10 years of age. It is a read aloud
"imagination series" and intended to provide an interactive
reading experience. Students are encouraged to see Marcy
through their own eyes, as Marcy has neither race nor religion of
her own.
Iankowitz has been invited to publish her work in The Silence Within, Letters from the Soul and The Sound of Poetry. Her writing has also been published in Creations, Pace Literary Magazine and The Gannett Suburban Newspaper.
Marcy and Her Friends is the largest published collection of children''s stories by Iankowitz, who devotes most of her attention to writing inspirational short stories and poetry for adults.
A Family Nurse Practitioner by trade, proud mother of two children by choice and writer and healer by nature, Iankowitz feels most at home with mountains in view, a pond nearby and a pen in hand. Her latest published collection of inspirational short stories and poetry for adults is entitled Tales of the Soil.
Visit the author at http://www.NECIankowitz.com
One day, Marcy looked out her bedroom window and shouted,
"Snow! It's SNOWING!" Sure enough, there were huge flakes
of snow. At first, there were only a few. Marcy thought they
were ashes from the chimney next door. But, no! They were
real snowflakes.
"Hurry up and get dressed" her mom said. "If you finish your
breakfast before the bus gets here, you can walk slowly to the
stop and see how many you can catch on your nose."
"Great idea!" And that's exactly what she did. By the time the
bus came, her face was wet and cold, but Marcy was nice and
warm in her pink jacket.
Once at school, her face was dry. The sun came out. Marcy
became sad. She knew it would melt the thin sheet of snow.
"Oh well," she thought "maybe the next snow will be big enough
to sleigh ride."
The students took their seats. Marcy's teacher changed them
every once and a while to give everyone a different place to sit.
Today, when Marcy looked to her left, there was something
unusual. A stranger! And more than that, he was a boy!
Before Marcy had a chance to put her books away, the teacher
said, "Class, your attention, please." Everyone looked up.
"Today we have a new student. His name is Greg. Please help
him to feel at home." Everyone stared at Greg. He looked shy.
He stared down.
"Hi. My name is Marcy" she whispered with a smile.
"Hi. Muh... my name is, Greg" he said slowly.
Marcy giggled a friendly giggle, and smiled a reassuring smile.
"I know that."
"Oh, yeah" he smiled down at his desk.
"Okay class. It's Friday and you know what that means."
Everyone groaned.
"All right now, clear your desks of everything but a pencil and
your spelling books."
Greg was confused. He glanced over at Marcy to see which
book was the speller. She showed him the cover. Then he
understood. They exchanged a quick smile. Suddenly,
something terrible happened. Down crashed his crayon box and
all the crayons rolled under and around his chair. What a
disaster!
Marcy whispered "Don't worry. Leave them. I'll help you pick
them up after the test."
"Eyes on your own papers. No talking" reminded Mrs. C, softly.
Finally, the test was over. Greg called out to the teacher,