Tulsa World: red-letter day

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red-letter day
Author of Tulsa book thanks students for help

Author Robin Segal talks about her book "ABC in Tulsa" with Park Elementary School fifth-graders, who were among the students who helped her brainstorm ideas for the book. JAMES GIBBARD/Tulsa World

By ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer
Published: 11/7/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 11/7/2009 4:46 AM

Seeing your name in print is a close second to seeing it in lights.

Just ask the students at Tulsa's Park Elementary School, who are credited as co-authors of a new alphabet book about Tulsa.

Robin Segal, author of the "All 'Bout Cities" book series, came to share "ABC in Tulsa" with the students who helped her brainstorm ideas for words and pictures for the book a year ago. Groups of students from Whitman Elementary School and Holland Hall also helped.

"I put your ideas in a notebook and then went out and walked around," Segal told a class of fifth-graders in Park's library media center this week. "If I had known more about Tulsa, I would have just made it myself. I think the Tulsa book is one of the best ones I've made because I had your help."

Tulsa's ABCs include the Admiral Twin Drive-In, the Brady Theater and chicken-fried steak.

Segal said her Tulsa book is the first to feature two pages of words or names beginning with the letter "A," mostly because a collage of the city's art deco architecture landmarks took up the better part of one page.

She also explained the shades of yellow, green and blue she chose for the title on the book's glossy cover.

"This gold brings out the color of the Golden Driller," she said, pointing to a photo of the giant figure that stands watch over midtown. "And your city, it's very green, full of trees, and nice. And you have a river, so I used natural shades of blue and green."

When it came time for questions, the Park students had plenty for Segal including where she's from, why she chose to create a book about Tulsa and whether she had considered creating one about a city in Hawaii.

Segal told the students she is from Montreal but now lives in Woodstock, N.Y. She said she chose Tulsa as a book subject after a friend of hers who lives in Broken Arrow suggested it. And no, she hadn't considered doing a book in Hawaii, but she likes the idea.

"Then you would get a free vacation from trying to work," 10-year-old Brandon Rudluff said of his suggestion.

Segal chuckled, replying, "That's a pretty good strategy."

Next, she told the students about the process of printing her ABC books, which she recently learned about firsthand during a trip to the printing plant in China. She unfurled the two large sheets of heavy paper that, once cut, become the 32 pages sewn inside each book binding.

"ABC in Tulsa" was published by Murray Hill Books and is available for sale at local stores including Steve's Sundry Books and Magazines, Apple Tree and GaGa-A-GoGo, as well as online at Amazon.com.

Segal's other "All 'Bout Cities" titles include Boston; Chicago; Miami, Fla.; New York; San Antonio, Texas; San Francisco, and "the City," which has general words about city life.

Book signings

What: Robin Segal will sign copies of her new alphabet book, “ABC in Tulsa.”

When and where: 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, Steve’s Sundry Books and Magazines, 2612 S. Harvard Ave.; 2-4 p.m. Saturday, at Barnes and Noble Booksellers, 5231 E. 41st St.; 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Borders Bookstore, 8015 S. Yale Ave.

Andrea Eger 581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com By ANDREA EGER World Staff Writer

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