Lori Jordan-Rice

A University of North Texas alumna and former teacher who is now writing children’s books hopes to encourage future teachers graduating from UNT this semester.

Lori Jordan-Rice will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the ballroom at UNT’s Gateway Center, 801 North Texas Blvd.

She previously taught elementary-age children in the Lake Dallas and Lewisville school districts.

While teaching, Jordan-Rice said, she noticed a need for a more creative way to teach history, so she decided to try to fill that need.

Her books center on a boy named Tyler who struggles in school and is sent to a quiet place to work.

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There, he finds a trapdoor and meets a dog named Barnabas Bailey, who guides him through history.

The first book, Miss Trimble’s Trapdoor, is mostly an introduction to the characters.

The second book, Miss Trimble’s Trapdoor: The Perseverance of Christopher Columbus, offers lessons about morals as well as history, Jordan-Rice said.

The author has three more books in the works, The Courage of the Pilgrims, The Independence of the Founding Fathers and The Adventurous Spirit of Lewis and Clark. She said she hopes to continue to reach students through her books.

In next week’s talk, Jordan-Rice said she hopes to encourage the student teachers who will be graduating and give them a pat on the back for their choice of career.

“We really need some wonderful people in education,” she said.

For more information, visit www.misstrimblestrapdoor.com.

—Rachel Mehlhaff