Former Columbus School teacher Emma Lucia Ardilla discussed her book En Titiribi te vi with 5th-grade students for the Knowledge Fair literary event in the library on May 6. 

Ardilla emphasized the source of inspiration to write her book came from living in the town of Titiribi and being surrounded by different insects. She observed them and started to develop small stories about them to show the distinct insects that we are surrounded by.

“In Titiribi there’s a huge diversity of insects and all the insects I’ve talked about are from there so it was meant to pay them homage,” Ardilla said.

The event started at 8:30 am with Ms. Ruth Allen, the school’s superintendent, welcoming all 4 authors that were scheduled to participate in the Fair and talk with different grades of students.

“I was a little scared to go back because I used to work here nine years ago, but I was also happy because in the school I worked at for many years and gave much of my life,” Ardilla said.

Ardilla’s main purpose when coming to the Fair was to come and listen to the students talking about her book and answer any questions they had prepared for her.

“The students are the readers and if I don’t listen to them, then what I do doesn’t have any meaning,” Ardilla said. 

The 5th-grade students prepared various questions and a fun poem where they used her name to rhyme a lot of words. 

“It was a very good interaction with the writer because she was able to tell us a little bit of her life and we were able to solve several questions we had about her book,” E. Botero, Grade 5,  said.

En Titiribi te vi was meant to preserve Titiribi as a domestic place for all the insects to live and to educate her readers about the different types of insects that are still unknown to many people, the book targets the young audience and contains several illustrations about the poems.

“The purpose was to show the marvellous insects around us that form part of nature and that not all insects are dangerous,” Ardilla said.

When Ardilla first started to write, when she became interested in finding answers about herself. She was then inspired to write En Titiribi te vi by writing about the things she saw around her, especially insects.

“It’s a way for me to talk about the things I see and find beautiful, because when you write you do it about the things you like,” Ardilla said.