Westminster College will host children's author and poet J. Patrick Lewis Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. in the Witherspoon Rooms of the McKelvey Campus Center.

Lewis, who earned his Ph.D. in economics at Ohio State University in 1974, taught at Otterbein College and published extensively in the field of economics. It wasn't until he was in his 40s that he began to write children's books and poetry. Lewis has published 15 children's picture books, and 12 more children's books have been accepted and are now in production. Several of these books are children's poetry and nonsense verse.

Books by Lewis include: The Tsar and the Amazing Co; A Hippopotamusn't; Two-Legged, Four-Legged, No-Legged Rhymes; The Frog Princess; Black Swan/White Crow; Ridicholas Nicholas; Riddle-icious; and The La-Di-Da Hare.

Some of his children's works have appeared in Ranger Rick, Cricket, Highlights for Children, and Chickadee. He was also commissioned to write the 1992 National Children's Book Week poem, which was printed on 1,000,000 bookmarks and distributed nationally.

In 1991, he was awarded the Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant for his adult poetry.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Westminster College Department of Education, Kappa Delta Pi, and Phi Delta Kappa. Books will be available for signing. Contact Dr. Amy Camardese at (724) 946-7183 or e-mail camardah@westminster.edu for more information.

J. Patrick Lewis