Chesco author is a big man in little books

Eighteen first graders gathered in Carol Baker's classroom at Hillsdale Elementary School in West Chester for a treat last week - a visit by local author Bruce Larkin.

All had read some of Larkin's hundreds of books. Standing at the top of the class was a 6-year-old named Cole, who said he had read more than 200.

"I like the nonfiction," Cole said, "so I can learn about stuff that happens."

Larkin, of Westtown, is not a father, but his words regularly connect with children like Cole. Hailed as a "local celebrity" by Baker during his visit on Nov. 13, the 56-year-old author said he had written more than 1,000 books for children in kindergarten through second grade.

"Kids don't have the ability to read 100 simple pages as texts. It intimidates them," Larkin said. "But they gobble up short texts. . . . They will grab the little books like potato chips."

The short narratives with colorful images are eight or 12 pages long, and about two-thirds are nonfiction.

The titles include What Is Pollution?, Zoo Animals, All About Polar Bears, Looking at Fish, and Unusual Amphibians.

They are perfect for young readers, said Julie Pecorella, the principal at Hillsdale, "because there are few words, clear pictures."

Larkin talked with the children for an hour, entertaining them with a poem he wrote about a jumping jackalope and photos he took from a recent trip to the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Ariz.

"It's called research," he told the students, explaining that he went to the Southwest to learn as much as he could about the region's desert habitat. "I went to ask questions, because when I write a book, I want it to be accurate," he said.

Larkin, who said he makes about a dozen school visits per year, gave away one of his books, Looking at Scorpions, to each of Baker's students. He also gave them a two-inch-long scorpion encased in acrylic.

"This is the funnest part of my job," Larkin said.

The students agreed.

"It was way fun," Cole said.

Baker said her students read Larkin's books every day and love his poetry.

"It means a lot to me as an educator to have a local author willing to give us his time," Baker said. "When they see the person who wrote the book, it makes a difference."

Larkin's books are designed at his own publishing firm, Wilbooks, which he founded in 1996 in East Goshen Township, near West Chester.

Larkin writes the stories while his associates illustrate them. Larkin then distributes his work to customers through his website, wilbooks.com. In addition to sales - Larkin said he sells about two million books per year - the author said he has donated books to more than 50,000 elementary schools.

Each book costs $2.50, but there is a minimum purchase order of four books for $10, Larkin said. Some schools, particularly low-income schools, get discounts, he said, but the sales easily generate several million dollars for the company.

Pecorella said Larkin had donated an "incredible" number of books to her school.

Larkin wore hiking boots, hiking pants, and an unbuttoned long-sleeved shirt over a gray T-shirt. His unassuming appearance is a result of his working-class background, he said, and his comfort with facing a crowd comes from his days as a stand-up comedian.

The son of an Irish immigrant father and a Philadelphia-born mother, Larkin grew up working for his father's small construction company in Westtown. At 17, he joined the Coast Guard and served from 1974 to 1978.

"I wanted to be a general," he said. "We didn't know anyone in writing or academia."

Larkin's parents died in the 1990s, and he founded Wilbooks in 1996, selling other people's books to area merchants. From 1995 to 2005, he moonlighted as a stand-up comedian, which he said was like being a sparring partner.

"You get beat up a lot and you don't make much money," he said. Larkin said he never headlined a show, but performed at the Comedy Stops in Atlantic City and Laughlin, Nev. He also said he performed at Georgine's Restaurant in Bristol Township.

Larkin said he spends eight months of the year away from Pennsylvania doing research for his books.

He said he always enjoyed reading but never imagined he would become a self-publishing author of short stories and poems. Larkin changed his company's focus in 2000 from publishing others' works to his own after he noticed what he called a shortage of short stories for young children.

So he started producing books, such as his eight-page Everybody Scattered, which features animals and people scrambling out of a house when a skunk comes to visit.

"I think a lot of people just didn't believe in these simple books," he said.

1,000

Children's books written by Bruce Larkin

50,000

American elementary schools that have copies of Larkin's books

8

Months a year that Larkin spends traveling outside Pennsylvania for research

30 million

Larkin books in circulation

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For a look at Bruce Larkin's collection of work, go to his personal Web site, brucelarkin.com.

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