As curator of the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal, Missouri, Henry Sweets knows a lot of “Twainiacs.” But Cindy Oliver (PhD ’99) stands above the rest.

“Cindy seems to live and breathe Mark Twain,” Sweets said. “There’s hardly a conversation you have that she isn’t bringing up something of Mark Twain. She’s one of the most devoted people to Mark Twain that I know.”

Oliver’s love for Mark Twain started when her fourth-grade teacher read a chapter from Tom Sawyer and has grown ever since.

“Twain inspires me like no other writer because he can put you in a time and place with words on a page,” she said. “And he is timeless. Twain is still as relevant as he was when I was ten years old.”

This summer, Oliver, an assistant professor of Teacher Education at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, helped organize the first-ever teachers’ workshop at the Mark Twain Museum.

“Our goal was to make Twain accessible to teachers, so they can make Twain accessible to their students,” Oliver said. “Twain scholars addressed everything from race issues to literary perspectives, and then tied it all together for the classroom.”

Lesson plans, available for teachers all over the world, are posted on the museum’s web site at www.marktwainmuseum.org.

Catherine McCray, one of Oliver’s students at Stetson, attended the workshop and said she wishes every teacher could have the same opportunity.

“I left feeling like, ‘Wow, I can teach literature!’” she said. “We received so many strategies and so much background history that I’m a Twainiac now.”

Oliver has been leading Twain-focused programs since 1996, when she organized a summer program for gifted children focused on Following the Equator. That program grew into what is now known as the HATS, or High Achieving, Talented Students, program at Stetson, which Oliver has directed since 2000.

Oliver also is busy organizing what she calls her ultimate fantasy: a Mark Twain writer’s workshop for young authors to be held in Hannibal, modeled after the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. The first event is planned for the summer of 2007. Children from around the country will be invited to participate.

Margaret Crayne, one of Oliver’s former students and a teacher in Florida, said she has long been amazed at Oliver’s enthusiasm, creativity, and energy—in addition to her tireless efforts celebrating Mark Twain, Oliver manages to be an inspiring teacher at Stetson University as well.

“Cindy embodies all that a great teacher is—she is a never ending source of strength and motivation,” Crayne said. “Her lessons are personal, meaningful, and relevant to each student.”

McCray agrees with Crayne’s assessment.

“She’s so amazing. I wish everybody could have a teacher like her,” she said. “It’s rare to see somebody actually making a difference like she does.”

Oliver Authors Children’s Book In addition to admiring great writers like Mark Twain, Cindy Oliver is an author herself. Her first children’s book, Rachel Mason Hears the Sound, published in 2005, focuses on a fifth grader who deals with alcoholism and domestic violence at home by seeking refuge in her classroom achievements. “I wrote it for the kids who face this particular adversity,” Oliver said. “They will understand Rachel’s dilemma and, I hope, feel that they are not alone. And for the kids who don’t face this issue, I’m hopeful that they will develop a greater understanding.” Professor Nick Colangelo, director of the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, said he’s impressed by the way Oliver captures the essence of a gifted child. “I don’t think anyone has captured the kind of kid that would be behind that label, but Cindy has and in a really good way,” he said. Colangelo’s 12-year-old great niece, Jean, is also a “Rachel Mason” fan. “It is a great book,” said Jean, a seventh grader in Minnesota. “It was about a serious matter, but put in a way that kids could read.” Rachel Mason Hears the Sound is the first in a planned series of books focusing on different students in Rachel’s class, including a boy whose father has been incarcerated and a girl who was paralyzed in a car accident. Oliver said she realizes her books deal with heavy subjects. “But not one of these ‘challenges’ is any way the fault of the child,” Oliver said. “It’s called life, and some kids face it with such dignity that we could all learn a little something from it.”