This Month’s Featured Article

Photo above: Donna with Lindsey when she was in third grade, 2010-2011.

Since she was young, Donna Fazzino always had a knack for reading and writing. Drawing upon her passion for the language arts, she pursued a career as a teacher in Connecticut’s Region #1 School District, teaching elementary grade levels and talented and gifted programs at Sharon Center School and Salisbury Central School. “I loved reading aloud to my students, as well as teaching the craft of writing,” Donna explains. “There were such wonderful authors whose works were shared as mentor texts through all subject areas.”

Indeed, in addition to these valuable stories, she cites the Empowering Writers model as a pivotal part of her time at Salisbury in particular, where she taught specific writing approaches that showed students how to capture their ideas on paper. “So many of my students, like you, were able to implement the strategies to create wonderful narratives,” Donna reminisces. “I believe they influenced me as a writer. Their young, creative minds were always ready to try a strategy and elaborate upon it. I would often do the same with my writing.”

After teaching for 39 years, Donna decided to pivot in her career. A year after her retirement, she embarked on a new adventure: having taught her students about so many other amazing authors throughout the decades, she decided to finally become one herself.

Beginning the writing journey

Through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UConn Waterbury, Donna enrolled in a course called “Learn How to Write/Perfect/Publish Your Own Story” in 2019. “The instructor and other participants were very encouraging as we practiced telling stories on many topics,” she describes. “Writing everyday was the most helpful homework assignment given.”

While the inspiration behind The Miracle on Barn Hill originated when the actual event on which the story is based took place, Donna recalls that as she was living the moment in real time – when her son’s guinea pig gave birth on Christmas Eve – she never considered turning it into a book. “However, as I continued to teach and learn more about writing from personal experiences, this event would always come to the forefront of my mind,” she points out. “That’s when I knew it might make a story others would enjoy.”

As she began writing the story chronologically in a document, Donna considered how the events would be ordered, imagining the layout of the story page-by-page. “Then,” she explains, “I would print hard copies and rework the sentences to create more imagery and action. Rereading and rewriting was the ‘technique’ that I implemented most.”

The logistics of the authorial process

When it comes to creating the vibrant and warm visuals for the story, Donna was actually able to use online graphic design tool Canva, with the help of her son, to generate images with artificial intelligence. “For many years, my publishing project was at a standstill because I didn’t have an illustrator,” she notes. “I had a vision of what I wanted the cover to look like, and how the main character needed to look, and through the wonderful world of technology, it was able to come to fruition.”

When the book was finalized, she was able to self-publish The Miracle on Barn Hill with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, giving readers both a paperback format and digital Kindle download option. When it was finally time to see the published version of her story, Donna recounts that it was thrilling to see a long-held dream attained while putting her book out in the world for all to enjoy.

“Giving the book to family members this past Christmas was very special,” Donna muses. “Most had witnessed the actual events in 1994, and their reaction to having the story read aloud was heartwarming.”

The power of engaging with meaningful, uplifting stories

Through the book’s uplifting plot, which revolves around the true story of Donna’s son, Michael, receiving a guinea pig for his sixth birthday, Donna aims to share the magic of the holidays, as what ensued later that year could only be described as a miracle. “It is my hope that young readers are impacted by the love that this story tells: the love of a first pet, the love of a family unit, and the joy of the Christmas season,” she says.

Donna’s aspirations for the story’s message are perfectly encapsulated by the book’s epigraph, a quote by Willa Cather: “Where there is great love, there are always miracles.”

Donna explains, “The unexpected outcomes of life are often a result of having a deep love for someone or something. If young and old readers are open to the possibilities that stories can create, they, too, may find the unexpected joys and happiness in many things that life has in store.”

In the future, Donna hopes to release more children’s books, and is currently working on one such story, which follows a young girl named Margaret as she learns about idioms through rhyming text! “My hope is to create a tool for teachers to use in their classrooms,” she says.

And sure enough, as she was writing the book, Donna adds that she found herself drawing upon the same strategies she once used in her classroom. This full-circle moment couldn’t be more fitting considering the significance of reading and sharing these special stories with people of all ages.

“Stories like these capture the pure joy and innocence of growing up. I believe that children who read, and are read to, develop so many skills,” Donna observes. “Their imaginations are ripe with possibilities, and they can relate to characters and events based on their personal experiences. Our little ones grow up so fast in today’s world that it is sometimes nice for them to sit back and dream of a place or time that is different from their own by reading.”

Donna continues writing as a practice each day and is sure to take note of inspiration wherever and whenever it strikes – normally, she encounters story ideas when she’s spending time with her grandchildren! “I have written special, one-of-a-kind stories for them.”

To support Donna and get your own copy of The Miracle on Barn Hill, go to amazon.com/Miracle-Barn-Hill-Donna-Fazzino/dp/B0DQ4FZZQL/