HIT: Author Visits, Northeast

[Susan Aroldi <saroldi@STYX.IOS.COM>]

Many thanks to all who contributed to this hit.  Here are some
great suggestions (minus the names of contributors): I guess that
the best we've ever seen was Marc Brown..  he's really
great.Stephen Kellogg is also wonderful.

Tomi dePaola is great!  I've heard him speak several times and
know he does great things with the kids...at least he used to.  He
lives in New England, so it shouldn't be too far away.

Mary Pope Osborne lives in NYC and is great as a speaker.  I think
she charges about $1000 a day.  Lots of Random House Stepping
Stones books for young readers.

We were thrilled at the visit we had from author Jerry Pallotta.
He lives in Boston and has written many nonfiction alphabet books
like _The icky bug alph. book_, _The extinct alph. book_, _The
dinosaur alph. book_, and many many more.  He gives 100% of
himself - he is a real people person.He travels all over the
country.  I think you would be happy to have him.

Last year we had Peter Catalanotto and he is wonderful.  His books
tend to be primary but his presentation was excellent for all
grade levels.  He is a wonderful crowd handler.  One teacher told
me that she hated to take herjunior high English class out to hear
him but she was so glad she did because he talked about writing in
just the way she would have approached it in class. He was
$1500.00 a day but well worth every cent.  I think he lives in NY
or Penn.  Hope this helps.

Caroline Cooney, who won Illinois's Rebecca Caudill award this
year, spoke to ISLMA in October.  She was great with our adults,
and said that she enjoyed going to schools as well.  She lives in
Hartford, CT.

I saw Gail Gibbons at a conference in Iowa City and she was
wonderful.She uses slides of places and covers of her books to
show thekids where she gets her ideas and how they are
developed.She is very interactive with kids.I have no idea how
much she charges.

Bill Wallace is very good for grades 3 and up.

The best author/illustrator i can remember herewas Steven
Kellogg...he was great!!!!!!

For grades 4-6, you might try Ben Mikaelson, author of Rescue Josh
Mcguire & Sparrow Hawk Red.  He was great with the kids & the
books are good as well.  Ben has a 300 lb. pet bear that the kids
are intruiged by.  He does an excellent presentation, talking
about how he could never spell or write.  Inspiration to those
kinds of kids.

Elvira Woodruff was a great hit in PA.  Grades K-5!

I had mentioned earlier on this Listserve that our school had
avisit from Peter Cantalanotto earlier this semester which was a
WOW.He spoke twice during his half day visit : one hour for grades
1-2 andone hour for grades 3-5.  He held the students in the palm
of his hand duringthose presentations and the staff marveled at
how he re-enforced the writing strategies we had been teaching in
the classroom.Very worth while and he lives in Penn. so he should
be willing to visityour area, particularly if you can work out a
time-share withother schools near you.  Wish I could give you the
address of hisagent but do not have it at hand, so, I suggest you
try thepublisher of his book "The Painter".

I have worked with a statewide conference that has authors come
and speak.Our two all-time favorites were Jack Gantos (very funny)
holds an audiencein the palm of his hand and Jane Yolen, who was
fascinating.  Both workwith children as well.These are "can't go
wrong' authors.

I highly recommend Peg Kehret. Her book Terror At the Zoo was the
YoungReader's Choice winner from our region.

I have a name for you from Wisconsin, if you are interested in
picking up airfare.  Sheri Cooper Sinykin has published several YA
and Middle Reader novels with large publishers.  Recently she has
produced five of the titles in a new series called The Magic Attic
Series geared for 7-11 year-old girls.  The books are of the same
high quality as The American Girls books by Pleasant Company.
Sheri will be visiting my school in Wisconsin.  She keeps her
school fee low to accomodate the tighter budgets, does an
excellent job of presenting to the students, and would be able to
talk on a variety of topics.  She was honored as the Member of the
Year for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
this year and serves as Regional Advisor for the midwest area.
She's a dynamo and highly qualified.  If you wish to email her,
her address is <s.sinykin@genie.com>

We have recently had Janet Stevens from Boulder Colorado and she
was wonderful.

Some ideas I have are Paul Janescsko (spelling is wrong) for older
kids(Maine), Seymour Simon (NY), Paula Danziger (NY).  I have used
all of them.

We have had Marc Brown (MA) and Patricia Reilly Giff (CT) at our
school.  Both were fantastic with kids and both were a bit pricey.
Marc Brown also won the hearts of all our teachers and parents in
attendance.

Potowomut School (K-6) had Lucinda Landon (Meg Macintosh
mysteries) come forthe day - she was wonderful.  She did a
terrific presentation on writingmysteries, and had handouts for
the children.  She did a large grouppresentation and then went to
several classrooms - all for $350 (I think). If you write to her,
she will send you a packet of information.  Her homeaddress is 26A
Tucker Hollow Road, Foster, RI 02825.I've seen Betsy and Giulio
Maestro do a terrific presentation on writing andillustrating
children's non-fiction.  They had a lot of "props" and
reallyexplained the editing process.  They live near Essex, CT and
can be reachedthrough their publisher (whose name I cannot
remember - sorry).Avi and Natalie Babbitt both live in Providence,
RI and do great things withsmall groups of intermediate kids, but
I don't know if they visit schools anymore.

David Wisniewski is a wonderful author/illustrator.  The kids (K-
6) thought he was great, the teachers loved him and I was still
entertained after 5presentations.  He does beautiful, intricate
paper cut illustrations (TheWarrior and the Wiseman, Elfwyn's
Saga, Rain Player, Sundiata, and TheWave of the Sea Wolf).  He
started the presentations with some shadowpuppets and the kids
wanted more.  He talked about writing andillustrating and the need
to revise, revise, revise.  The teachers wereall nodding their
heads when he talked about needing to do draft afterdraft.  Since
we were in a small school, we used one of his presentationtimes to
conduct an artist workshop and we also had a Creative
WritingWorkshop.His manager at Clarion Books is Marjorie Naughton
(212) 420-5883.  She isvery helpful.I can't say enough good things
about his visit with the kids.  Besidesthat, he was great fun to
be with.  His visit was the highlight of myyear last year.

Susan Aroldi
Oradell Public School
350 Prospect Avenue
Oradell, New Jersey 07549

saroldi@ios.styx.com