Provided/Bruce Coville with Ventnor Middle School students, from left, Daniel Smith, Sofia Delgado-Salazar, Lily Hocker, Robert Salvato, Amelia Percy, Nico Tinsley, Cooper Lewis, Coville, Max Hoban, Sierra Pedrick, Ingrid Pohlig, Jonathon Parsons and Sophia Buonadonna.
VENTNOR Children's book author Bruce Coville visited the Ventnor Educational Community Complex Friday, April 29 to speak to students about the writing process.
Bruce Coville with eighth grader Sierra Pedrick.
Coville has written more than 100 books for children and young adults with translations in more than a dozen languages. He has won numerous writing awards, including the New York Library Association's prestigious Empire State Award for Excellence in Literature for Young People.
Coville's love of books began as a child by reading Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift along with zillions of comic books. He said he read "books that made him laugh, but also made him shiver in terror."
Wanting to impart those feelings to others is what spurred his love of writing.
Bruce Coville and fourth grader Noah Polinski.
Coville knew he wanted to be a writer by his mid-teens, and by age 19, he "never looked back." His first book, The Foolish Giant, a picture book illustrated by his wife Katherine Coville, was published in 1977.
Coville spoke to students in grades K-8 at three assemblies, and then attended a working luncheon in the Ventnor Middle School Library with 12 students from grades 5-8. Every student in the school had the opportunity to meet and greet the author and purchase an autographed book.
Coville also visited Ventnor in 2013, and once again, he proved to be a dynamic speaker, Librarian Debbie Brahmi said in a release.
Bruce Coville and fifth grader Robert Salvato.
