Farm wife uses life experiences to write children’s book

ALEXIS, Ill. — Although Trinette Olin worked on writing a children’s book for many years, it took retirement for her to complete the project.

“In my mid-30s, I thought it would be really cool to write a children’s book, but I didn’t know what it would be about, so it just simmered for a long time on the back burner,” she said.

“When I would get inspiration, I would write things down,” said Olin, who taught fifth grade for 17 years. “One day, I was working in my yard and it just came to me that I needed to find a middle name for grandma.”

As a result, Olin wrote her first book, “The Bicentennial Year and the Forgotten Name: The Story of a Young Girl’s Quest and her Battle Against a Ferocious Dog.”

“I went back to my fifth-grade year, which was the bicentennial, so it was a patriotic time and I started filling in the events of the 1975-1976 era,” she said. “I worked on it on and off for years and then I got really serious when I retired.”

The book is an epistolary novel.

“The story is told through letters exchanged between my fifth-grade self and my grandma who lives on a wheat farm,” Olin said.

Grandma does a lot of reminiscing in the book.

“She helps me overcome my fear of my piano teacher’s dog — a vicious, evil dog,” Olin said. “It’s sharing our daily lives in a patriotic time and all the festivities that went on throughout that year.”

The book is about family, patriotism, American history and 1970s pop culture.

“And hopefully the lost art of letter writing will make a comeback,” the author said.

While writing the book, Olin received help from her students at Immaculate Conception.

“They added so much to it by being really good listeners and asking so many questions,” she said.

“The kids asked me if I was going to write another book and I had not even thought of that,” she added. “I have ideas coming all the time, so I think I will.”

Olin has done several book-signing events in western Illinois, as well as presentations at schools and libraries, since her book has been published.

“I really love talking to the kids about the book — it has been fun,” she said.

“Adults that lived through the ‘70s say it is a nostalgic trip down memory lane for them because they forgot a lot of stuff or it brings back memories,” said Olin, who farms with her husband and son near Alexis, where they grow corn, soybeans and raise a few feeder cattle.

It was important for her to include farming in the story.

“There is so much to be learned from farm life and hard work,” she said. “You have to depend on your faith to help you get through some of those hard times and there is so much unknown with the markets and the weather.”

Olin was hesitant to write a book because she did not know if kids would like it or if she would be able to handle the criticism.

“Then I came across a book that helped me,” she said.

“It said we all have God-given talents and we are meant to use them for the greater good,” she noted. “If we don’t, that is disobedience.”

Another message in the book asks, “What if what you have to offer is what someone else really needs?”

“Kids need to know about the past and maybe they need a little inspiration to take them to a happy place or another place in time,” Olin said.

“I like sharing that we are meant to answer our calling and we should not ignore that and be courageous,” she said.

Olin’s book is available to purchase on Amazon.

For more information about the author, go to trinetteolin.com or send an email to tolin6294@gmail.com.