KELLY, Wyo. — Local teacher and author Brianna Gretsinger has taken all her adventures in the area and put them into children’s books to inspire kids to connect with the landscape they live in.
Gretsinger’s seven-book series follows Teton the elk calf as she goes on adventures around the valley. In each book, Teton goes to a different area and finds an animal that lives there; in one book, Teton goes to Jackson Peak and finds a pika.
“I’m a special education teacher and do reading, math and behavioral interventions,” Gretsinger tells Buckrail, who works in Kelly and has been with the Teton County School District for nine years. “I want to keep all readers engaged. I added a lot of different facts about the area that Teton goes to in each book for adults. For non-readers, I hid animals all throughout the pages. For more excelled readers, I added different high-thinking vocabulary.”
According to Gretsinger, when she first moved to Jackson in 2016, she kept a journal where she wrote down all of her adventures. All of her books are based on her own experiences, told through Teton.
“I’ve always had a hidden passion for the natural world and the surroundings out here,” Gretsinger says. “That’s what drew me to stay in the area. I then wanted to combine my love of learning and being able to give back to the kids with books they can relate to.”
Local kids can read about Teton and then go out to connect with the places in the book, like the National Elk Refuge or Jenny Lake, with a lens of both adventure and conservation.
Gretsinger’s books can be found around town at the Jackson Trading Company, Penny Lane, Made and the National Elk Refuge Visitor Center. She tells Buckrail she hopes to have copies available for purchase in Grand Teton National Park soon.
