Exciting Book Tour Ends Today At Teena Maureen’s Birthplace

Ronda-Clingman Elementary is where Oleen Norman Tharpe, in the 1960s to early 1970s, taught her young students to love art. I know this for a fact because, in 1971, she was my first art teacher. She inspired me to “make something colorful,” just as Teena Maureen says in the book. Ms.Oleen formed her book using a chipboard cover with art paper pages, markers, paintings, woodcut prints of Teena Maureen, and a fun poem about going with her mother to a tie-dyeing class. Teena Maureen also shares her secret code: how to write in printing and cursive handwriting.

Coach Tharpe and I had a wonderful time today at Ronda-Clingman Elementary, the final stop on our book tour! Thank you so much to the staff and students for supporting this book! After 50 years, Teena Maureen came home to where it all began! Now we are sharing Ms. Oleen’s work with Wilkes County students and beyond.

https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/839592-teena-maureen-and-yellow-and-blue-make-green