Third- and fourth-grade Farrell Elementary School students filed into the high school auditorium Friday anticipating Amy Axelrod's presentation.

After sipping some water, the popular children's author began reading her latest offering, "They'll Believe Me When I'm Gone," which, like all her books, is based on her own life.

"Everything that happens to me ends up in a book," she said. "Most authors will tell you they write books from their own experiences."

The author told her captive audience they are all writers because "everybody has a story to tell."

She candidly told the students that she prefers to write the first drafts of her stories on yellow paper using only a black -- not blue, red or green -- ink pen.

The author supplemented her presentation with a slide show, which contained snippets of her books in their finished and unfinished forms and family photos. She also encouraged her audience to answer questions and participate.

She opened the presentation for questions, and anxious students queried the author about her favorite book, her income and her family.

After Mrs. Axelrod's presentation, Michaela Thomas, a fourth-grader in Keith Fustos' class, said she learned a great deal about the process of writing.

"I thought it was interesting," the 9-year-old said. "I never knew what it takes to write a book. I learned it's not as easy as it looks."

Miss Thomas said she'd already read "Pigs in the Pantry," which combines cooking and mathematics, and meeting the author was very exciting for her.

Fourth-grader Danny Odem, 9, said he thought the lecture was funny, especially the photos of Mrs. Axelrod's son wearing an alien mask, while 8-year-old Christian Pulliam got a kick out of a photo of the author's husband in a gorilla suit.

"I learned that pigs are messy," the third-grader said.

The author said her math series "Pigs will be Pigs" grew partially out of her own math phobia.

"I still couldn't get used to the notion that I had actually written a math book," she said. "It's an important thing to me that math is naturally woven in. Each one is a complete story loaded with math."

Mrs. Axelrod, 52, said children deal with math every day, so she wanted to encourage youngsters to be comfortable with math.

"Once characters are created, they exist and can go on to have many experiences," she said, adding that her stories address math using measurements, shopping, geometry and time elements.

Mrs. Axelrod's visit was funded through a federal grant and after speaking to the elementary classes, she participated in a staff development session for teachers.

She said one of the coolest things about her job is meeting and talking with students. She's working on a novel for children ages 12 and up.

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