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A student practices her writing at the Belden Boy Writing Camp.

The year was 2004.

P.J. HarteNaus was beginning her third decade of teaching social studies and literacy to elementary students in Glen Ellyn School District 41 when she and about 30 colleagues enrolled in an NIU College of Education master’s degree program.

“Different professors met us at different schools on our campus,” she says. “It was perfect for us because we taught all day and didn’t need to travel to DeKalb.”

HarteNaus appreciated the flexibility of one class session each week. She also enjoyed the innovative coursework that the M.S.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction offered, prompting creativity and thinking “outside the box,” she says. These classes led to discoveries of what teachers could accomplish for children.

It was her final professor in 2005, however, who would prove to be the most memorable. “She made us realize that the possibilities were endless,” HarteNaus said.

“Our last assignment at NIU was to go out in the field and create something educational for children, whatever it might be. Questions flew and ideas were tossed around in class,” she said. “For myself, however, I thought of heading to Galena in the upper Midwest area, creating something of educational value for children out in a rural setting. I needed to think long and hard about what it could be, and I was not sure of where to begin at first.”

What happened next would alter the course of her life, turning the local educator into the award-winning author of the acclaimed “Belden Boy,” a series of children’s books set over 100 years ago that explores anti-bullying themes.

Those books led her to speaking engagements, to creating Whistleslick Press, to writing more children’s books and to creating the Belden Boy Writing Camp inside the 1859 Belden School, the school she helped to save—and home to the book series.

As the books sold, won awards and became integrated into the curriculum of many elementary school districts from coast to coast, HarteNaus began traveling across the Midwest to talk about bullying and her journey in writing. She has addressed numerous conferences for the Country School Association of America and given radio interviews.

HarteNaus and her husband, Dave, also are the proud owners of the Belden Boy Mobile, a 1953 Chevy farm truck.

She credits it all to that one challenge.

“There’s so much more that I can do, as I still have the passion to teach children and adults, write children’s books and rescue animals,” she says. “That one class at NIU redirected my entire life, setting me on a journey I never expected!”

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