Holley students Jeffrey VanOrden and Jennifer Hardie read There’s a Whale in the Canal with the author, Spencerport resident Ron Mazzarella. Provided photoStudents in Kristen Wagner’s and Carla Rodrigues’ classes at Holley Middle School/High School not only had the opportunity to crack open a brand new book, but to meet its author, Ron Mazzarella. The Spencerport resident and his mom, Chris Mazzarella, read aloud There’s a Whale in the Canal, then answered the students’ questions. “I was playing a rhyming word game with my three-year-old daughter, Samantha, one night and she said, “There’s a whale in the canal.’ I thought it sounded like a kids’ book and that’s how the story came about,” Mazzarella told the students.
It took him about three months to write the book while traveling for his job in sales, then nearly two years to find an illustrator and get it published. The illustrator is Tom Paul Fox, also a Western New York native. “The most fun part of all of this is reading the book to my daughter,” said Mazzarella. “I wrote it for her because reading is an important part of our relationship.”
The book begins when Humphrey, a young whale, learns about Niagara Falls in fish school and decides he must see this natural wonder for himself. He learns about persistence, resourcefulness, and friendship as he travels down the Erie Canal toward his destination. “I think this was a great opportunity for our students to experience a reading from a local author,” said Teacher Kristen Wagner. “These experiences don’t happen every day, so I’m grateful my students were able to be a part of it!”
