web1_TTL030516fire2.jpg

Fire causes severe damage to Lehman Township home

web1_nanticokewa02.jpg

Trojanettes trusting teamwork to take them on a state playoff run

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; When librarian Elaine Rash and I agreed I would read a children&#8217;s book my father wrote and illustrated &#8212; it&#8217;s called &#8220;The Mallard Family&#8221; &#8212; to youngsters at the Osterhout Free Library on the last Saturday in February, I felt happy and confident. After all, I&#8217;ve read many books to kids, under many circumstances.</p><p>When she suggested we top off the event with some sort of arts-and-crafts activity, I plunged forward with bravado. &#8220;I know! I&#8217;ll show them how to sketch some animals!&#8221;</p><p>Though my circular cats and horses with uneven legs can be somewhat ungainly, I figured sketching was appropriate because what&#8217;s really special about &#8220;The Mallard Family&#8221; are its highly-detailed pictures.</p><p>My 85-year-old father &#8212; Wilkes-Barre resident William R. Biebel, known as Bill, also known as Papa to my 7-year-old niece and 12-year-old nephew &#8212; wrote the little saga in rhyming couplets and spent more than a year sketching katydids, a butterfly&#8217;s chrysalis, hemlock branches, frogs and fallen trees to help tell the story of a whimsical family of mallard ducks.</p><p>Elaine knew about Dad&#8217;s labor of love because her husband, Don, is a professional bookbinder who bound a few hard-cover copies for my dad to give to his grandchildren and other relatives. She wanted my dad to read the book at the library, but he didn&#8217;t feel up to it.</p><p>So there I was in <em>loco parentis</em>, telling a dozen kids how my dad always loved hiking in the woods and got the idea for the story when he spotted a young duck coming in for a landing by a lake &#8212; only to go skidding across it because the lake was frozen.</p><p>When we got to the part in the story about ducks eating frogs and vegetables, the kids told me they like to eat broccoli, green beans and carrots, but not frogs. I loved the way they joined in, and I felt proud showing off the book, which is likely to go the self-publication route.</p><p>I also felt grateful to two youngsters &#8212; two-thirds of a set of triplets &#8212; who came forward to draw a fish and a dog at the easel where I&#8217;d been crafting elephants and butterflies. Thanks for the help, kids! I also was grateful to Times Leader Features Editor Sarah Haase who, knowing I&#8217;d been fretting about my rudimentary sketching skills, gamely showed up with craft supplies so the kids could make and wear animal masks. That was quite a hit.</p><p>Before the event, deep down, I may have felt a little sad, guilty even, thinking about how my dad supported our family for decades with a job that probably didn&#8217;t involve as much drawing or drafting as he would have wished. His workplace was filled with grease and metal; a generation later, my sister, the teacher, and I, the newspaper reporter, get to work with ideas and words.</p><p>But, during the library event, my negative thoughts subsided. Art is for everyone, I realized, and it&#8217;s something to cherish, whether it&#8217;s your job or your hobby or simply the fun of cutting out the eye holes in an animal mask.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime01.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Times Leader features writer Mary Therese Biebel reads her father&#8217;s book to youngsters in the children&#8217;s wing of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime01.jpg</photo0><caption0>Times Leader features writer Mary Therese Biebel reads her father&#8217;s book to youngsters in the children&#8217;s wing of the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The illustrations by the reporter&#8217;s father, William R. Biebel, of Wilkes-Barre, show butterflies, acorns, oak leaves, a black-eyed Susan and other natural elements a family of mallard ducks encounters. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime02.jpg</photo1><caption1>The illustrations by the reporter&#8217;s father, William R. Biebel, of Wilkes-Barre, show butterflies, acorns, oak leaves, a black-eyed Susan and other natural elements a family of mallard ducks encounters. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime03.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Luke Zeneski, 6, of Mountaintop, joins in the sketching of animals at an easel during storytime at the Osterhout Library. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime03.jpg</photo2><caption2>Luke Zeneski, 6, of Mountaintop, joins in the sketching of animals at an easel during storytime at the Osterhout Library. </caption2><photoCredit2>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime05.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">After storytime, youngsters color paper animal masks in the children&#8217;s wing of the Osterhout Free Library. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime05.jpg</photo3><caption3>After storytime, youngsters color paper animal masks in the children&#8217;s wing of the Osterhout Free Library. </caption3><photoCredit3>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime04.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Amishi Amit, 6, of Wilkes-Barre, tries on a paper cat mask she made with supplies Times Leader Features Editor Sarah Haase brought to the library. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/web1_storytime04.jpg</photo4><caption4>Amishi Amit, 6, of Wilkes-Barre, tries on a paper cat mask she made with supplies Times Leader Features Editor Sarah Haase brought to the library. </caption4><photoCredit4>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

web1_storytime04.jpg

web1_storytime01.jpg

web1_storytime02.jpg

web1_storytime03.jpg

web1_storytime05.jpg

Reporter shares her father’s children’s book with youngsters at Osterhout Free Library