LET'S INSPIRE SOME KIDS
An Author Visit Kids Actually Remember
Most authors who visit schools are writers who taught themselves to present. I'm the other way around. I've been a kids magician and ventriloquist for over 30 years, and I've performed in hundreds of classrooms. Writing the books came later.
So here's what happens: I do magic. I make a puppet talk. Kids laugh hard enough that they forget they're sitting still. Then, while they're wide open, we talk about books.
What Actually Happens When I Show Up
The magic isn't decoration. It's how I hold a room full of kids still long enough to talk about reading.
Once I've got them, we get into the real thing: where stories come from, how I come up with a book, and what to do when the writing gets hard. Writing is mostly fixing, and I tell them that straight, because nobody does.
Kids leave with their own character concepts and a start on a story. They also find out how a book actually gets made — idea, drawings, printing, the box that shows up at my house. They're surprised by every step.
Every presentation is built for the grade in front of me. What I do for kindergarten is not what I do for fifth grade.
In Person or Virtual — Your Call
OPTION ONE
In Person Author Visit
There's nothing like doing this in a room. Kids feed off each other — one of them laughs and the whole grade goes. And I can read the room and change what I'm doing on the spot, which is the part video can't replace.
OPTION TWO
Virtual Author Visit
Same material, over video, for schools that can't host a live visit. Kids still get to talk to a real author and ask whatever they want. It works — it's just a different animal than being in the room.
Half Day Visits
I'll split your school into two groups. Each session runs 45 to 60 minutes.
GROUP ONE
K–2nd Grade
Built for short attention spans. Readings from my books, a lot of interactivity, silliness, and things to look at. It's an introduction to storytelling built around characters and show-and-tell.
GROUP TWO
3rd–5th Grade
More detailed and more interactive. I show them how easy it can be to come up with their own story and turn it into a real book using the tools that exist now.
Full Day Visits
Four programs, tuned grade by grade. Each session runs 45 to 60 minutes.
GROUP ONE
Kindergarten
Goofy on purpose. Playful, silly, and built to be a five-year-old's first real taste of stories and characters.
GROUP TWO
1st–2nd Grade
More hands-on. They see how many different jobs it takes to turn an idea into a picture book — writing, drawing, and everything in between.
GROUP THREE
3rd–4th Grade
A closer look at how a book gets built, aimed at kids old enough to try it themselves. The point is that it's simpler and more doable than they think.
GROUP FOUR
5th Grade
For the oldest group, creativity stops being a school subject. I show them it lives in every job there is — advertising, engineering, aerospace — whether or not they think they can draw.
What Does A School Visit Cost?
It depends on whether it's a half day or a full day, in person or virtual, and how many groups I'm presenting to. Tell me what you have in mind and I'll send you a number.
I'll also send my list of ways schools have paid for these. Most schools have no budget line for assemblies, which is why “we can't afford it” is usually the first answer — but a family reading night in the evening often can be funded from a completely different pot. If you're booking with nearby schools, that brings the cost down for everyone too.
Ask me for the standards correlation and I'll send that as well, so you have it when you take this to your principal.
LET'S INSPIRE SOME KIDS
Request A Visit
Tell me about your school and I’ll send a custom quote plus my list of creative ways to get the visit funded.