MU Student Support Specialist Shares Her Perceptions of Urbanization Through Children’s Book

Beth Roberts, student support specialist in the Registrar Office, did not particularly like to write when she was a student in school. Years later, as an adult, she began to write poetry and daily devotionals for her own enjoyment and to give as gifts.

She recently took a leap of faith and wrote her first children's book, "The Tails of Thorngate." "It was a long-time desire of mine," she says, "and I have had many ideas over the years."

Her motivation came from what she was witnessing as she took walks on her street, which is named Thorngate. "The book is really about urbanization," Roberts says. "It's about the quiet tails that lived in my own neighborhood, like the squirrels and deer I saw when I walked along my street. Those tails were scared away by the noisy tails - the construction equipment that was building a new development near me."

Roberts' own beloved dogs, Hobbs and Archer, are the stars of the latter part of her book, as they take walks through the neighborhood and discover some of the original tails have returned.

"The Tails of Thorngate" is self-published, and the illustrations were created by Amazon Publishing, according to Roberts. The company is also marketing and distributing the book, which will appear at upcoming book fairs in London and Jacksonville, Florida.

While it's exciting for Roberts to see her book being shared so widely, the expenses associated with the process - including copyrighting and other fees - were more than she expected.

Undaunted, she has written the first in what she hopes will be a series of books called "The Adventures of Hobbs," which will be released in January through Amazon Publishing. Those books will include a QR code through which readers can meet the real Hobbs, who was rehomed by her and her husband when they responded to a Facebook ad.

Her books are available for purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Roberts has worked at Millersville for 14 years. She is currently a student support specialist for online students, helping them with registration, entering transcripts and making academic major and minor changes. She came to the University when her daughter began her college search. Her son, Austin '22, graduated with a business administration major, and her sister, Donna Peters, is a faculty processes coordinator in the Provost Office.