Children’s book ‘Ted Kooser: More Than a Local Wonder’ shares life story of Ames native

For many Ames residents, Ted Kooser is more than a local wonder.

The 1957 Ames High and 1962 Iowa State grad inspired many nationwide with his words, becoming U.S. Poet Laureate and winning the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

Author Carla Ketner, who lives near Kooser in Seward, Nebraska, agreed. She said Kooser’s life story tells universal truths and offers an exemplary tale of overcoming obstacles.

Inspired by the down-to-earth local literary celebrity, she authored a lyrical, poetic children’s book titled “Ted Kooser: More Than a Local Wonder,” beautifully illustrated by Paula Wallace’s watercolor images.

“Ted was a little boy who felt like he didn't fit in, and we can all relate to that. He eventually found his passion, found a thing that was important to him and helped him find out who he was as a person,” Ketner told the Ames Tribune.

That passion was storytelling.

Kooser is a born storyteller

Kooser was unathletic and yearned to fit in throughout his childhood in Ames. But he found solace in stories, including the storytelling of his father.

“My father was a marvelous storyteller, and I remember somebody saying that they'd much rather hear my dad describe someone than to see them themselves,” Kooser told the Tribune in an email interview.

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He also heard many tall tales when he visited his maternal grandfather’s house and filling station in Guttenberg, where his family visited a few weeks each year.

As a youngster, Kooser discovered the book “Lentil” by Robert McCloskey, which inspired him to become a writer.

He still recommends the book.

“The illustrations will remind you of old Ames,” he said.

It started him on a path of storytelling that would lead him to connect with readers through his words. His themes often involve nature and the people and places of the Midwest.

Storytelling helps connect readers to the world, building empathy along the way.

“I read a while back that we humans seem to be born hard-wired to love stories, and that's why conspiracy theories have such wide appeal,” Kooser wrote. “They're good stories. Not true but good. I think local stories and three-by-five recipe cards hold communities together.”

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Ketner held a celebration for Kooser's Poet Laureate honor

Ketner is the managing owner of the independent bookstore, Chapters Books & Gifts, in Seward. A former elementary school teacher and college-level instructor in children’s literature, she opened her store just a few weeks before Kooser was named U.S. Poet Laureate, an honor he held from 2004 to 2006. He also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

“I had asked him to be the speaker for our grand opening,” Ketner said. “Between the time he said yes, and the actual event was when he was named Poet Laureate. So I think I had the first event with him after he was named Poet Laureate.”

The title of Ketner’s children’s book is an homage to Kooser and also to his prose memoir “Local Wonders.”

Kooser said he was “very happy with how it came out. I've written six children's books of my own, for Candlewick Press, and Carla and Paula's book is up to the highest standards.”

Most recently, Kooser and Connie Wanek co-authored the children's book, "Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech," which received the 2023 Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award.

Illustrator Paula Wallace spends most days in her studio at the Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Her watercolor paintings complement Ketner’s words, which are evocative of Kooser’s work. Wallace pulls from Kooser’s work, as well, using lines from his poems throughout her images, swirling in pools of water and lining fence rails.

A life shaped by Ames memories

Kooser taught ninth-grade English in the Madrid school district for a year after graduating from Iowa State before moving to Nebraska. It’s there that he began to really focus on his writing, creating a refrigerator-box writing office in his small apartment.

Kooser left Ames 60 years ago, but he still remembers his hometown with great fondness. He supports the Ames History Museum, and the staff has been “wonderful to answer my questions when I've been researching something,” he said.

Kooser delivered the Ames Tribune as a kid, and after he became Poet Laureate, his poems were published in the local newspaper weekly for many years.

“I've written a good deal about Ames here and there in my books of poems, and in my prose memoir ‘Local Wonders,’” he said.

He still thinks of Ames as the town it was before it became a small city.

“So much has changed since I left 60 years ago. Mary Greeley has gobbled up my old neighborhood, which is now a historic district, but our bungalow at 109 West Ninth Street still stands,” he wrote. “Nearly everyone I once knew is now gone, though my dear friend, Jack Winkler has stayed there and thrived.

“My memories, Jack, and the Kooser grave markers in the cemetery are what I have left to hold onto.”

Ronna Faaborg covers business and the arts for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rlawless@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames native Ted Kooser's life story portrayed in new children's book