Local author wins national award for ‘Bernice’

Fairgrounds — Rob Adamowski gives all the credit for the Independent Publisher’s national silver medal he won for his children’s book “Bernice” to his chocolate brown Newfoundland of the same name. Adamowski got the idea for the story after many people remarked how much Bernice looked like a bear. The book uses the story of his dog to talk about hurtful name-calling of others because they look different — and accepting those differences. He created his own publishing company for the book and used local artist Kellee Beaudry as illustrator. “Bernice” is available through http://www.octiram.com and at Amazon.com.