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Mac alum's face on Cheerios box | cheerios, box, mac - News - Jacksonville Illinois News and Information Jacksonville Journal Courier
For Lori Grusin-Degman, having her picture on a Cheerios box is surreal.
The MacMurray College alumna won Cheerios’ “New Author Contest” for her children’s book “1 Zany Zoo.” Starting in March, her face will run on boxes of Cheerios nationwide along with a paperback copy of her book. She also received a $5,000 prize from Cheerios and a book deal with Simon & Schuster.
She went to MacMurray from 1975 to 1979 and majored in deaf education. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago, teaching deaf and hard of hearing students as an itinerant teacher for the Special Education District of Lake County.
“Working with kids influences my writing because I see what they’re interested in, I know what makes them laugh and I get some story ideas from what they say,” Degman said.
Degman’s book is a rhyming counting book for kids 3 or older about a child who sneaks into a zoo and is accompanied by “one fearless fox” who steals the zookeeper’s keys and lets the animals out. The boy recalls the crazy things he saw the animals do, she said.
The book has a few high-level vocabulary words as the boy meets four anxious elephants, eight pompous peacocks and nine fickle leopards, so 7- or 8-year-olds would probably enjoy it, too, Degman said.
She wrote the book about 20 years ago, though it changed a lot since then. She wrote the first version at home when she read to her two sons all the time.
“I was writing in rhyme and thought, ‘I really like these books and I’m going to try to do that,’ so I did,” Degman said.
Degman heard about the contest on a message board.
“I entered it not thinking I’d really win, but entered it anyway because you can’t win if you don’t enter,” Degman said.
She certainly didn’t expect the attention she was about to receive.
“It was very exciting when I found out I won,” Degman said. “This whole process has been really exciting but very surreal. Ever since the cereal came out, it’s been a whirlwind.”
For homecoming every year, Degman visits MacMurray College to visit some of her best friends.
Her time at MacMurray prepared her not only with the classes she took but with the practical experience she said she got from the Illinois School for the Deaf.
“We could go over there and work with students if we were working on speech training,” Degman said.
She also liked the size of the school as it gave her the opportunity to really get to know the professors.
Degman now has an agent who is working on selling two other manuscripts, she said. More stories are in the works.
“1 Zany Zoo” will be released in hardcover in July.
For Lori Grusin-Degman, having her picture on a Cheerios box is surreal.
The MacMurray College alumna won Cheerios’ “New Author Contest” for her children’s book “1 Zany Zoo.” Starting in March, her face will run on boxes of Cheerios nationwide along with a paperback copy of her book. She also received a $5,000 prize from Cheerios and a book deal with Simon & Schuster.
She went to MacMurray from 1975 to 1979 and majored in deaf education. She lives in the suburbs of Chicago, teaching deaf and hard of hearing students as an itinerant teacher for the Special Education District of Lake County.
“Working with kids influences my writing because I see what they’re interested in, I know what makes them laugh and I get some story ideas from what they say,” Degman said.
Degman’s book is a rhyming counting book for kids 3 or older about a child who sneaks into a zoo and is accompanied by “one fearless fox” who steals the zookeeper’s keys and lets the animals out. The boy recalls the crazy things he saw the animals do, she said.
The book has a few high-level vocabulary words as the boy meets four anxious elephants, eight pompous peacocks and nine fickle leopards, so 7- or 8-year-olds would probably enjoy it, too, Degman said.
She wrote the book about 20 years ago, though it changed a lot since then. She wrote the first version at home when she read to her two sons all the time.
“I was writing in rhyme and thought, ‘I really like these books and I’m going to try to do that,’ so I did,” Degman said.
Degman heard about the contest on a message board.
“I entered it not thinking I’d really win, but entered it anyway because you can’t win if you don’t enter,” Degman said.
She certainly didn’t expect the attention she was about to receive.
“It was very exciting when I found out I won,” Degman said. “This whole process has been really exciting but very surreal. Ever since the cereal came out, it’s been a whirlwind.”
For homecoming every year, Degman visits MacMurray College to visit some of her best friends.
Her time at MacMurray prepared her not only with the classes she took but with the practical experience she said she got from the Illinois School for the Deaf.
“We could go over there and work with students if we were working on speech training,” Degman said.
She also liked the size of the school as it gave her the opportunity to really get to know the professors.
Degman now has an agent who is working on selling two other manuscripts, she said. More stories are in the works.
“1 Zany Zoo” will be released in hardcover in July.