When Beth Ain’s daughter, Grace, was in fourth grade at Manorhaven Elementary School, she and her classmates were assigned to write about a specific memory in their lives.
Grace wrote about zip lining in Canada, Ain said, with the entire piece focusing on one experience.
The teacher bound the stories into a book called “The Stories of Our Lives.”
Ain, an author who lives in Port Washington, said Grace’s assignment inspired her newest book, “Izzy Kline has Butterflies,’’ a free-verse novel focusing on a young girl’s everyday life with friends, school and her parents.
“Their stories were very inspiring to me because they worked so hard on them,” Ain said. “I wanted to take an entire school year and collect specific moments.”
Ain, who authored the “Staring Jules” series for Scholastic, is having her release party on March 11 at the Dolphin Bookshop & Cafe on Main Street in Port Washington.
The book, published by Random House, will be released on March 7.
Ain said she has had other releases parties at the Dolphin and she “couldn’t be luckier.”
“The support from the community blows me away everytime,” she said. “The Dolphin is an amazing place to have a launch. It’s a very special place for me and friends will come and my children’s friends will come, along with teachers and librarians I know. It’s amazing.”
Ain’s book is targeted toward children between ages 8 and 12, but, she said, it’s probably more suitable for 9 to 12 because “it’s somewhat emotional.”
“Some people who have read it said it feels very 1970s,” she said. “There’s concepts of feminism in it and it was really inspired by my early 1980s childhood. I kept it timeless so it can resonate across time.”
Before moving to Port Washington in 2010, Ain lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but grew up in Pennsylvania.
Born in Hershey, Ain’s family moved to Allentown when she was young, and she will return in March for a book appearance.
Ain said she grew up as a writer.
“I always did write,” she said. “I liked writing and I really liked telling stories. I liked turning my own stories into fiction. It was my way of journaling and I always used my own experiences and memories for writing.”
As an editor for Scholastic from 1998 to 2004, editing historical fiction books, Ain said, she got the “itch” to write again.
Ain began to merge her passion for writing with her other passion, American history, which she studied in college, she said.
Ain regularly writes parenting articles for magazines, encouraging parents to introduce reading into their children’s lives, while helping them make sure they are pairing their kids with books that fit them.
“I believe that if you have a lot of books around the house and you live a reading lifestyle, your kids will be drawn to books instantly,” she said. “If you match a kid to the right book, you build a reader, but you also can’t force them.”
She said she also encourages reading aloud to children when introducing them to books to engage them more.
“My third grade teacher read E.B. White out loud to us and it was such a special experience.”
Ain said she enjoys giving recommendations to children, helping find books and authors that inspire them like Judy Blume and E.B. White did do her.
Ain’s son, Elijah, 9, and Grace, 12, are essential to Ain’s writing process, giving honest feedback and constructive edits, she said.
“They’re amazing readers and constructive editors, too,” Ain said. “They are my muses.”
Because Ain finds inspiration in her children’s lives, she said, her books are never targeted toward their age.
“I’m always just out of their age range, because I’m inspired by the age they are when I write them,” she said.
