HOW TO HOST A SAWEET
SALTWATER TAFFY SCHOOL VISIT
Meeting an author in person can be an experience many children will remember for the rest of their lives. To help you with the upcoming visit, here are some SAWEET tips! To view some of my past visits, click HERE.
PREPARE:
The most important element to an author visit is the preparation. Spread the word to your kids and parents alike. Parents often love to see their kids enjoying books, so don’t cut them out. We love parents.
SHARE:
Share the www.WHATaGREATbook.COM website with the kids and their parents so they can learn about the author and perhaps, prepare questions in advance. Teachers might also want to integrate ideas from the author visit into future classroom lessons, so ask me ahead of time and I will provide materials or ideas for some awesome classroom activities.
BOOKS:
An author visit is often more meaningful to a student if he or she can take a book home afterwards, so make books available whenever possible. Your local bookstore is always interested in handling all of your orders, but planning is essential so books can arrive in time for the visit. A signed copy of a book is special thing to a young reader.
DURING THE VISIT:
Students should sit with their own teachers. Make sure that the author is not in the position of having to act as disciplinarian…this is very important! Nobody likes an author who has to lay down the law, but I will and have done so in the past, but would rather NOT be the bad guy. ;-)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT SALTWATER TAFFY SCHOOL VISITS
What can I expect on a school visit? My visits are flexible, but plan on my visit lasting a full hour. While afternoon visits are cool, I find a ‘before lunch’ visit is best because the “food coma” isn’t working against us. The program includes a short reading, giveaways, prizes, signed books, and a little discussion about life and how to get the most out of it.
What age group is your program right for? The target audience for Saltwater Taffy is best suited for kids in 3rd grade through 7th grade.
Will you travel for school visits? Yes! I love to meet students all over the world.
Do you do Skype sessions? Yes. I love to do Skype Author visits, so please don’t hesitate to ask for this option. This can be great for schools that cannot afford to bring me in for an in-person visit, or for schools who are in a far, far away land. All you need is your own Skype Account here. Once we decide on a date, your students or book club should have questions ready! To set up, email Riley at seven@sevenpublishing.com
What are your rates and availability? For more information on the possibility of having me come to your school, please email my office at seven@sevenpublishing.com
I understand you are coming to Lakeridge Elementary on Nov. 30. We are discussing with Lakeridge’s coordinator the idea of tagging on an afternoon visit at West Mercer, down the road. 11:10 is our latest morning option if that would work better. But before we decide, we are interested in the content of the visit. All our intermediate classes are working hard on becoming authors, and so to us the best use of the time would be your perspective as a published author on how you tell a story, choose a small moment within your story and elaborate with emotion, showing rather than telling, using action verbs, etc and how you establish turning points in your stories. Is this in the ballpark of what you do with author’s visits?