Author Visit: Sarah Weeks Day at My School!

Sarah Weeks spent the day at my school yesterday and it was a fabulous success. The building was buzzing! You know an assembly is going well when the face of nearly every seventh and eighth grader is focused on the speaker. For anyone uninitiated to life in middle school, this is BIG! Getting their attention for ten minutes, let alone nearly an hour is really hard! Some of the feedback I got from my own sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes today was: "She looked really comfortable talking with us." "She told really funny stories." "I loved how she finds story ideas!" "It was good to hear that she has to revise."

 


Sometime in the middle of last school year, two sixth graders came in looking for the book, So B. It. I had one copy that, surprisingly, was on the shelf. They both grabbed it and had a short tug-of-war over the book before appealing to me to solve the issue for them. I'm no Solomon, but suggested that one take Save Me a Seat and then, they could swap. One of them then asked if I could get Sarah Weeks to come to visit and the other echoed her request, punctuating it with little hops and a pleading face. I thought, "Hm, I haven't had an author in a while. Sarah's a school favorite. I always use her book, Pie, to teach the NoveList database to fifth graders, which usually results in a waiting list for the book. Why not?" 

It couldn't happen last school year because Sarah's schedule was pretty booked. She also teaches and, understandably, needs time to write. When she sent me available dates in September, my birthday happened to be one of them so I gave myself a birthday present and picked that date for the visit.

Let me tell you the most important secret to a successful author visit. You, your teachers and your kids must read at least one book by the author! Believe me, it makes for a better experience for everyone when the kids are invested. They listen more attentively and they ask more thoughtful questions during the Q & A. Now, Sarah Weeks could've walked in off the street any day and had a successful visit because her presentation skills are outstanding. Seriously, if you are looking for an author to inspire your students, check out Sarah Weeks. And because she does a lot of school visits, she's pretty seasoned. There's a fantastically informative page on her web site devoted to school visits that covers every thing you need to do to make it successful. 

Another element to a successful visit is getting the teachers on board, especially the LA teachers. That was absolutely no problem because each and every one of them have books by Sarah in their classroom libraries as well. Each and every face lit up when I proposed having her come for the day. You have to understand that sometimes it is difficult to disrupt the day's schedule for an assembly. No one hesitated. When the LA chair and I were brainstorming what Sarah's three sessions would look like, we thought the teachers might benefit from some PD advice on teaching writing from a pro. So they met with Sarah in the library. (See pics below.) We are so grateful to our principal for making that happen. That was a lot of coverage! We're also grateful to administration for allocating funds for the visit. 

Once we had all the permissions and date set, we promoted Sarah's books like crazy in the last weeks of school last June. We encouraged every student to choose one of her titles for their summer reading. Our teachers do not assign titles for summer reading. We encourage choice whenever possible. We have the expectation that reading will get done over the summer and compliance is pretty high.


I was lucky to receive help from a PTO mom who handled author visits at the elementary school (where they have more visits). It was a relief to hand over the paper work to her and I am forever grateful. The forms went out the first day of school and needed to be back the following Monday to enable Books, Bytes and Beyond time to place and receive the books. In middle school, book sales are always tricky, partly because students have to get that flyer home to mom and dad. Thank you Mrs. B.!

If you ever have the opportunity to host an author, consider Sarah Weeks. Also, if you live in an area where the independent film production of her book, So B. It is releasing, consider attending. Sarah brought some Soof bracelets and everyone wanted one. The stampede of students nearly mowed my poor parent-volunteer down! They were gone in a trice and there were many disappointed students. 

This morning, I decided to raffle off my bracelet and my principal agreed to add his to the raffle. To enter the raffle, the student needs to create his or her own "soof," take a photo, and print it out. I will put them around the school and library and send pics to Sarah. I wish I thought of that as a way to get a bracelet! 

These were two that I created. The Lego Soof is on our Lego makerspace. The glass stones were made on my counter with stones from forcing bulbs last spring.

This is sixth grade LA teacher, Ms. A's teacup soof: 

I stole the following off of Sarah's Facebook page: author Kate DiCamillo's pasta soof and author Barbara O'Connor's mealworm soof.

                                                                         

What are you waiting for? Read the book. See the movie. Make your own "soof!"

Wendy Mass Author Visit

When Trish, from Books, Bytes and Beyond sent an email in early September asking if I'd be interested in hosting Wendy Mass, I flew to my principal's office to ask; prepared to beg if the answer was anything but yes. He said to run the idea by the fifth and sixth grade LA teachers. All five teacher's eyes lit up when they heard, "Wendy Mass." No brainer. Each and every one of them have many Mass titles in their classroom libraries. I have quite a few in mine and they circulate briskly.

I have a sixth grade book club that meets at lunch. We had met to discuss our first book of this school year shortly after the phone call from Trish. While I usually let the kids pick their own next selection, I told them about the visit. After the happy dances and squeals died down, I suggested that our next book be The Candymakers. Agreement was unanimous. We usually meet on Thursdays and Thursday was the day of our visit with Ms. Mass. This club was the brainchild of two friends, who, as fifth graders approached their teacher with the idea. She asked if I could help them and I was happy to. Unlike other years that I tried running book clubs, these girls are just organizational wunderkinds. All I have to do is show up and guide discussion. A large bunch of enthusiastic readers show up. It is so much fun.

Anyway, the girls made a game, for our book club meeting, which was supposed to be the day of Mass' visit. They dropped it off on Tuesday. I should've take a photograph of it because they returned on Wednesday asking if they could take it home to "make sure it works." I said sure and was about to say, "Don't forget to bring it back!" But decided not to.

I should have. They forgot. Thursday morning, they asked if I could postpone our meeting to next week. The bright side? They said the kids could play the game and discuss the author visit along with the book.

They had a point. 

The visit was great! Wendy had a Prezi where she spoke about the 20 books she published since her debut, A Mango-shaped Space, which won The Schneider Family Book Award. Her book, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life was made into a movie so she shared the trailer. Prior to the acceptance of A Mango-shaped Space, she received rejections. She asked for three audience members to help her share the letters of rejection. See below. Impressive! 

That is quite a visual. She also shared a technique she uses in which she "interviews" a main character.

At one point she made the comment that no matter how many drafts she writes, she always finds something to change. I felt a bunch of my students turn to look at me. I told them that I was going to ask her if she felt her writing was ever done. I am teaching a new class this year to sixth graders. They are researching a topic of their choice with the end product being a segment in a class "news hour." Of course, I had two students "finish" pretty quickly. They rejected my suggestions that they add to their paper and so I gave them a variety of jobs in the class. I kept repeating the mantra that, "writing is never done." As we got to the point of practicing with the teleprompter, the two students suddenly realized that their segment was not long enough and went back to their resources. 

The fifth and sixth grades listened respectfully to Wendy's presentation. Then, she opened it up for questions and I panicked when I realized that I forgot to go around to the classes to remind them about the Q & A. How they should really listen to the author and form questions on what they hear; that they should not ask questions like, "Where do you get your ideas?" or "How much do you make?"

Oops! Turns out, they had some really thoughtful and terrific questions! I think it was because many of the students read one or more of Wendy's books, loved them and were interested in finding out more. One student wanted to know if any of the rejection letters really stood out to her. She responded that one editor stated, "I don't even know what to do with this." They thought that was "harsh."

And that is what makes for a great author visit. That sweet spot of great presentation and an audience who is familiar with the author's work.

Skyping with Darren Shan

Today, students in the 7th and 8th grades visited with author, Darren Shan aka O'Shaughnessey, via Skype. It all grew from the enthusiasm of Ms. Levy's BSI students. Several of the boys discovered Mr. Shan's (O'Shaughnessey? I'm so confused!) Zom-B books this school year. 

These are students who don't usually identify as readers but do now, thanks to him. One student read all eleven of the available books and was so-o disappointed to learn that he will have to wait until April for the final volume. 

Ms. Levy and her collaborating teacher, Ms. Finnegan, wanted to capitalize on the excitement and asked me if I knew whether the author Skyped. Remembering that his books are published by Little Brown and recalling that I attended an LB Preview at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia (2013) where Darren was the surprise guest (see pic below), I sent an email to Victoria Stapleton, director of school and library marketing. She forwarded the email to the proper contact person, emails were provided and, after a couple of date changes, we locked in December 17 at 8:45 AM our time, 1:45 PM his. Mr. Shan's Skype requirement called for 50 students, so we invited Ms. Meril's class to join us. A reporter from the local newspaper, the children's librarian from our public library and a variety of administrators joined us as well.

Fearful of glitches, cancelations, etc., Ms. Levy, Ms. Finnegan and Ms. Meril purposely didn't tell their students about the visit until last week. Then, they prepped the students by watching a video interview of the author and visiting his web site. (I love the Internet!) They also read the prologue to Zom-B aloud yesterday. The students generated a list of questions they would ask.

The technology supervisor wanted to test the Skype connection before going live. I arrived at school early this morning to find that only the IT guy was available. We had booked the computer lab thinking that its long length might be better suited to the Skype camera. Well. 

The supervisor wasn't around yet and neither was the author. I hooked my laptop up to the computer lab Smartboard with the IT Guy only to find that the connection to the Smartboard wasn't good. Ms. Levy arrived. We realized that our morning news show, TBN, would be running in the same space, which would complicate things. When the technology supervisor arrived, he and the IT Guy were rearranging wires to fix the Smartboard connection. Then, I noted that the my laptop would be facing the wall instead of the kids. Then IT Guy said that the kids really wouldn't be visible above all the computers in the computer lab anyway, so we made a decision to shift to the library.

Still no Darren Shan to test our connection. I ran a Skype test in the meanwhile and was assured by IT Guy that it should be fine. Thankfully, he was standing by. 

Believe me, I was sweating. I wanted this to go without a hitch. Not because administration and the newspaper were attending, but for the kids. Once the bell rang to start the day, I dashed out to do hall monitoring. The new seventh grade math teacher was wheeling the iPad cart to the elevator and asked me how things were. I told him to pray to the technology gods for a good day. He agreed he would.

The two classes arrived. Darren Shan was online! Phew! We connected! Phew! 

He read the prologue to Zom-B and the kids were riveted. (I wish I could post a picture of them!) Even though their teachers had read the same passage to them the day before, hearing him read his own words with these incredible voices was SO powerful! He very quickly opened the session up to questions and, I must say, that the questions were excellent! No, "Where do you get your ideas from?" They were thoughtful. Of course, the first questioner wanted to know if he watched The Walking Dead. 

Well, it turns out he does and happened to be watching an episode when he was supposed to be testing with me and IT Guy! (hahahahaha!) Several other questions followed and I was so impressed with them. But, strangely, the author's #1 fan remained quiet. His teacher said that he might be afraid to ask his questions because they might contain spoilers. I encouraged him to ask a question. He asked, "Where did you get the idea for Dan Dan?" Darren Shan laughed and laughed. Dan Dan is one of his favorite characters because he is the epitome of evil.

Turns out, Dan Dan is named for a nephew, who is the sweetest of sweet.

What a delight! It is these personal connections that really resonate with students. 

I loved how Darren Shan referred to the students as authors. I also was appreciative of how he hammered home the idea that writing goes through many, many drafts. 

He also let the students know that although the final installment is due out in April, there is a "secret" installment out available only in ebook. Guess who made a beeline to me at the end of the presentation asking if I could get the ebook? 

The time flew right by. Everything was perfect. I love it when that happens. #win! 

Fabulous Author Visit - George Hagen - Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle

Back in late June, I was shopping for my school library in Books, Bytes and Beyond. Mary Brown flashed an arc and said, "I think you'd like this and there might be an author visit opportunity." Well. Mary has almost never steered me wrong when it comes to book recommendations. Each author she has brought to my school has impressed my students and colleagues. You can be sure that I snatched that little sucker up, quick as a wink. 

Once I finally got to Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle by George Hagen, I fell into a world I did not wish to leave and wrote a bit about it here. Other bloggers wrote about it here and here. Kirkus liked it and Booklist, PW and SLJ all gave it stars. I nominated it in the middle grade speculative fiction category when the Cybils nominations opened last week.

Tuesday was THE day! Given the fact that I failed to ask if Mr. Hagen needed any technology until about an hour before his arrival, and sent an email to the staff mis-stating the time, the event went off without a hitch. 

Using a humorously illustrated PowerPoint presentation, George Hagen spoke about his journey to becoming a writer and shared some of the art he drew whenever he got stuck writing Gabriel's story. He's pretty good! I wish I was quick enough with my camera to capture the sketch he made of Aviopolis. 

Mr. Hagen also spoke briefly about the various ideas that were discussed for the cover art. 

Here's a shot of my principal and Mr. Hagen just before the assembly began. My principal does not ordinarily wear a neon vest during the school day. This is Red Ribbon Week at my school and it was wear neon day. 

Visiting speakers often comment on how well behaved our students are. This is not an accident. Frequent discussions are held about "audience mode," what it is and how it looks. It's part of the culture of our school that is modeled and reinforced by my colleagues and administration. They don't sit down and grade papers during presentations. 

The magic of our "audience mode" was shattered when we got to the riddles part of the presentation. Mr. Hagen promised the students that they would get their brains squished a bit at the end. I don't think he banked on how enthusiastically the group would embrace solving his "stinky pinkies." I have a feeling the language arts teachers are going to have some fun extending that activity.

Before Trish squired Mr. Hagen back to the store to sign books, he signed a print of the map of Aviopolis as a gift to the school and posed for a picture with me. I will have it framed pronto and hang it in the library.

Thank you George Hagen, Random House and Books, Bytes and Beyond for this wonderful visit.