This program was made possible in part with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

♪ ♪ From the wisp of a cloud ♪ ♪ to the seed of a song ♪ that's talking to you, ♪ ♪ ♪ telling you just ♪ how important ♪ ♪ it is to keep the ♪ earth growing strong.

♪ ♪ It's talking to you.

♪ ♪ Listen, ♪ ♪ pass it along.

♪ ♪ You got the message.

♪ ♪ Make it a part of ♪ this beautiful land.

♪ ♪ Pass it along, ♪ ♪ keep it healthy and strong.

♪ ♪ we've got to ♪ pass it along.

♪ Crescent> Do you see it?

Lee> See what?

Crescent> What you were looking for.

Lee> I was looking for you.

Crescent> Oh.

Oh, why were you looking for me?

Lee> You've been spending a lot of time out here lately.

What's so funny?

Crescent> You are.

>> I was concerned about you.

What's so funny about that?

Crescent> Why didn't you just ask?

Lee> Would you have told me?

Crescent> Sure.

Lee> Oh!

Crescent> Come on.

I'll show you.

Lee> What's all this?

Well, see, there's this book by Jean George called "My Side of the Mountain."

It shows how you can live with nature.

I eat roots and berries and nuts and things I make cups out of leaves.

Lee> And you've been reading this book, so... Crescent> I've already finished reading all her books.

Lee> I should have known.

Crescent> I like Jean George.

She's one of nature's best friends.

Lee> And I like her, too.

Crescent> She talks to kids a lot and helps them understand about nature.

Lee> Show me.

(chime) (Falcon calls) Child> Looks scary.

Child #2> You don't have to be afraid.

Jean George> Hi.

Child #2> How did you know we were here?

Jean> I heard the Pperegrine falcon calling you.

That's frightful.

(Falcon calls) Jean> Yeah, see.

You see how big his eyes are?

And his big, strong beak?

And look at the size of his feet.

I see you have some books here.

Child #1> We wanted to learn how to live off the land.

Child #3> And to be writers.

Jean> That's what I do.

You've come to the right place, I guess.

And how about this being your first subject?

Do you think you could write about a peregrine falcon?

Children> Yeah.

Jean> But let's go on in the house.

Maybe we can talk about living off the land and writing too.

Children> Sure.

All right.

Jean> Questions?

Child #3> How many books have you written?

Jean> I'm on the 54th, right now.

Child #4> When did you get started writing?

Jean> Well, I really began in the third grade.

I knew I wanted to be a writer, I loved words.

I wrote poetry first.

I think, you start very simply with easy things.

Child #2> How did you get into writing, and stuff?

Jean> That's a good question.

My father was a naturalist, and my brothers are naturalists, and my cousins and my aunts and my uncles, and I grew up along the Potomac River in Washington near Washington, D.C., learning all the birds and the plants and the animals.

And that's a very important source of information and inspiration when you think of being a writer.

The things that are happening to you right now and the feelings you have.

One day you will be drawing upon them for your own stories.

Child #1> Are all your characters real?

Jean> They are make up characters.

Sometimes, like Sam Gribley, it's my father, my brothers, my cousin and myself.

Child #4> Do you have any pets?

Jean> There's a parrot in the dining room and a cockatiel in my study.

And I have a beautiful Alaskan Malamute called Kimmick, the heroine of a book I wrote, "The Tarantula."

They're very sweet.

And you know what I do?

Let me give you some hints, now, if you're writing a book.

I take notes.

I take...

This is a diary I kept as a child.

But now that I'm all grown up and I go out to write a book, say down in the Colorado River, I also want to do drawings so that I can remember when I come back and start writing at my typewriter, what it looked like.

So this is the Colorado River.

Child> You should be an artist.

Stacey> That's nice, Jean> It's a long river.

Child> Did you have to go all across, the river to see the whole thing?

Or did you just think it up?

Jean> No, I was out on the river.

See, I like to go out into nature.

I write about nature and the environment.

And so I went down the Colorado River and drew the pictures as I went.

So I'm beginning to think you all have a lot of stories.

And then maybe we should start thinking about how you're going to go about it.

By the way, here are my two tools as a writer.

Roget's Thesaurus, and the dictionary.

I'm a terrible speller.

I have to look up every word, practically.

How would you all like to keep some diaries like mine and begin writing?

Children> Sure.

Yeah.

Great.

Jean> All right.

I have some here that I use when I go out in the field these days.

And I think I'll give every one of you one.

And as I pass them out, you think about that falcon and what you'd like to say about him and how you feel.

How did you feel when you saw that beautiful bird?

Stacey> Scared.

Jean> You scared?

And we'll meet tomorrow in the woods.

And maybe I could show you some plants and animals you can eat.

And how you might live off the land.

Children> Yeah.

Jean> Would you write something for me after we do all these things?

Children> Sure.

Jean> All right.

This is wonderful.

I wasn't sure you were really going to take me up on this.

Mind if I talk to you a little bit about the writing before we start off?

Childrem> Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Well, you all know there are many different kinds of literature.

There is poetry and drama, and there are novels, and there are biographies and autobiographies and there's science fiction and nonfiction.

Child #2> Have you ever written any nonfiction books?

Jean> Yes, I have, as a matter of fact, I've written 3 or 4.

But what I like to write best is a nonfiction setting, like the meadow we're sitting in and have all the trees correct and the flowers blooming at the right time.

But to take the character and moving in a story form all through these natural events.

Child #2> Your books are nonfiction, but the character and the story are fiction.

Jean> That's very good.

They call my books realistic, realism.

Child #3> How do you start a book?

Jean> That's a good question, but I usually suggest you begin with a date, particularly if you're keeping a journal, which is the form of writing we're going to do today, first person.

Stacey> I started mine like this.

My name is Stacey.

I'm sitting in the grass under a tree about to live off the land.

Jean> We've already got some suspense in that one.

I think we'd better begin our adventure.

And what do you think, the first thing that Sam Gribley would have done if he started out living off the land?

Child #4> Find food.

Jean> There you go.

Let me see what you can find right within this abandoned orchard.

Child #1> Here's a hickory tree.

Child #3> Maybe, we can find some nuts.

Child #1> Yeah, maybe.

Here's one.

Child #3> Here's another one.

Child #1> There's a whole bunch here.

Child> I got all the ones up top.

Child #2> All right.

♪ Child> Which one?

Jean> If you would all spread out and begin to look for food here.

Some of you can go on rocks.

I like to wade myself.

The crayfish are under the stones.

Want to see them?

They taste like lobster.

Child #1> Dear diary, when I got to the stream, I rolled up my pants.

I stepped into the cold flowing stream and saw many quick swimming crayfish zooming across the waters.

Child> Wow.

Woops.

Look out, was about all we hear.

Then we started to catch big crayfish.

I was so excited that I walked back and tripped over the bucket and let all the suckers into the stream.

>> The people were laughing because they fell in the water shrieking and yelling about the crayfish.

By the end, I was drenched from the splashing and slimy from the crayfish.

I felt as dirty as a pig.

(indescernible conversations) Child #4> My stomach growled, I was hungry.

I wanted to catch some fish to eat.

I found a worm and put it on the hook.

I dropped the line in the lake.

After what seemed for hours, I caught my fish.

It was a 16 inch pickerel.

So far in my fishing career, that is the biggest fish I've caught.

Jean> Wow!

Look what you all brought in out of the woods.

And I think you answered the question you asked me yesterday.

Right?

Children> Yeah, yeah.

Jean> Can you live off the land?

Children> Yeah, yeah.

Jean> And how about you all putting the apples on a stick?

We'll put them on sticks and then we'll put the nuts in them.

I think you and I will work on the acorns because they take some doing, if you will put them in this hollow log I found out there.

And we'll put them on a rock and break off the covers.

Meanwhile... Wow, what a dinner!

Child> Today I built a fire for the first time.

First, you make a circle with fairly large rocks to keep the fire from spreading.

Then you put the dry grass in the circle.

You then put twigs on top of the grass.

Last but not least, you light the fire.

You light the fire with matches or with a magnifying glass.

If the fire starts to go out, either get dry leaves, sticks, dry grass, or newspaper.

We had heavy smoke and it blew in all our faces.

Jean> Each one of you is an individual and has something to say.

Would you mind, reading one of your passages to me, maybe?

Colleen> I will.

Jean> Go ahead, Colleen.

Let's hear it.

Colleen> It's about crayfish.

I didn't like them, and I knew I wouldn't catch any.

I stood on a rock for a long time.

Then I went to another rock and a crayfish looked up at me with his breedy eyes.

I splashed water at him, but he wouldn't go away.

Jean> Very thoughtful.

Child #3> When I first picked up a crayfish, I didn't know what would happen.

When I picked it up again, his claws were opening and closing.

After that, I put him back in the water.

Some people named their crayfish, so I named mine too.

I felt very good after I picked it up.

Jean> Two opinions.

That's marvelous.

Anymore?

Or do you want to go off and write?

No.

I bet you want to eat.

Who wants to eat?

Dinner time?

Child> When it was time to take the food out of the fire, we rolled it out with a long thick stick.

I waited five minutes.

Then I couldn't wait any longer.

I had to try just a little bit.

"Hmmm", I said, biting into it even though it was hot, it tasted so good.

"I've never tasted such good fish.

", I said, smelling the aroma.

I have to do this again, but I don't think the fish would be as good as it was today.

Jean> It's good.

Child> I took a bite into the apple and it was delicious.

I never had anything better in my life, besides candy, ice cream and pizza.

Jean> I think this trail all through here looks like a good way to go to find a shelter.

(Children moan.)

Child> I'm tired.

Child> What would Sam Gribley do now?

Jean> What would Sam Gribley do now?

Child #4> Probably build the shelter to get ready for the night.

Jean> What kind of a shelter, I wonder?

Colleen> We could build a lean-to.

Jean> I think he would have built a lean-to.

Child #2> Why is it called a lean-to?

Jean> Because... the sticks lean against it and it's open on the front.

Want to make one?

Child #1> Too much work.

Jean> Too much work.

Well, any other suggestions?

Child #3> Let's sleep under of the stars.

There's a beautiful tent above us.

Jean> It is a beautiful tent.

I think Sam Gribley would have slept out under the stars.

Child> With a falling roof?

Jean> No, not with a falling roof.

We better have better shelter than that.

Child> There's a cave over there we can sleep in.

Children> Yeah, yeah.

Jean> Hey, we've come to the Indian caves.

Child #5> At least if it rains, we can stay dry in there.

Jean> I think we've come to the right place.

Want to write in your diaries?

Children> Yeah.

Yeah.

Jean> All right.

You all go off and find your special places.

Colleen> Dear diary.

Now that I have found shelter to keep me away from danger, I need to find a way to keep myself warm.

Because it gets cold at night.

Child #1> I found a cave in the side of the mountains.

that I knew would be just right.

Child #4> There were zillions of little bugs hiding in the rocks.

I chased them out, kicked up the leaves and sticks, threw out the rocks.

And pretty soon I felt like I was in my own cozy little house.

Jean> You know, it just might be a very beautiful start for another book.

You never know where an inspiration comes from.

Lee> I didn't know there were so many ways to survive in nature.

And Jean George must know every one of them.

Crescent> Well, she wrote the book on it.

Lee> Were you there when she wrote the book?

Crescent> Oh, I hung around and helped her visualize things.

Lee> Did you appear to her?

Crescent> A few times.

Crescent> I was a crow and a raccoon.

And once I was a falcon.

Lee> Why so many different things?

Crescent> It's just the way she saw me.

She's fun being around.

And I like being a falcon.

Lee> There's something else I don't understand.

Crescent> What?

Lee> What are you doing out here?

No, I mean, it.

What's all this for?

Crescent> Well, you were so curious.

I thought you said find something.

Lee> Why do you come out here so often?

Crescent> It's pretty out here.

Lee> Oh!

Well, you're right about that.

Hand me some more of those nuts, will you?

♪ ♪