Author of the Month
This Month’s featured author for the month of March is Elizabeth Auer. This remarkable teacher and artist has published three books with Waldorf Publications.
Creative Pathways, Elizabeth’s first book, is rich with information about the stimulation in brain development that comes from creating art. Many projects are described in the book with information about age-appropriateness. The book is generously illustrated to make clear what the offerings are asking of those doing the projects with the young. The developmental benefits are abundant in this beautiful and intelligent offering.
Learning to See the World through Drawing is Elizabeth’s second book, and brings the reader through a carefully designed and described methodology for helping children learn to draw. Elizabeth uses the Main Lesson Book medium as a guide for children’s work illustrating stories, history, geography, and illustrating life. One section of the book is devoted to the assessment tool of the “House-Tree-Person” drawing, used extensively in Waldorf schools to understand a child’s physical development, emotional development, and spiritual situation. This book is also lavishly illustrated using both teacher’s drawings and students’ work to offer examples of the effectiveness and approach in leading children through drawing techniques.
Helping Children on Their Way is Elizabeth’s third book published with Waldorf Publications. This book is the equivalent of two books in one and is a feast for the heart, the intellect, and the eyes of all who read it! Auer collected 31 essays from 27 authors with extensive experience in class teaching and remedial work with the young. Enhancing all the essays, and as if in proof of the power of artistic work in deepening understanding, the author added wood block cut pictures resplendent with color to help the reader digest the information more richly. Elizabeth Auer’s decades of experience at the Pine Hill Waldorf School, as teacher and parent, and decades of work on the Child Care committee, in addition to her own Waldorf education in Norway, inform everything that makes this book a treasure trove of help in understanding the many tools available for teachers and parents in the Waldorf approach. The sensitivity in the author’s descriptions is enhanced by the illustrations, which are carefully and colorfully wrought to match the content of each essay and combine to make the book extraordinary.
These three books are not the only jewels of help for children touched by Elizabeth! She has also illustrated books for other authors as well. Arthur Auer, Elizabeth’s husband and another exemplary teacher, has published two books on modeling, offering a specific guide to a year-by-year curriculum for modeling with clay, Learning about the World through Modeling. His second book expands on the original book, Exploring Shapes Creatively through Pure Form Modeling. Both illustrated by Elizabeth. Bare Hand Knitting, and Bare Hand Crafting by Alishanee Aikin hold literally hundreds of Elizabeth’s drawings designed to make clear the instructions for how to knit and crochet with no tools but the hands. All these books are available from WaldorfPublications.org. And a children’s book by Andrew Linnell, The Dance of the Elves, with gorgeous illustrations evoking a marvelous mood of fairy life, can also be found on the Waldorf Publication’s online store.
Just last September Elizabeth passed suddenly, far too soon for all of us left behind. We shall miss her dearly. For the staff at Waldorf Publications, it enhances all the books we carry to include Elizabeth Auer’s. They are shining examples of this author's excellence and skill in writing and illustrating. It also stands in tribute to Elizabeth’s tireless devotion to children and finding ways to clear the path for every child to succeed and flourish. She is missed, and helping the stars shine brighter. No doubt.
