Shaye,
I have had dozens of author/illustrator visits and all
have been very positive experiences and very
benificial for our students.
Preparation is indeed a lot of work -- but it is all
work that we, I believe, should be doing to build a
literacy environment in any case. The author visit
justs lends frosting to the cake. The writers I have
had definitely inspire readers and I find their
influence lingers for several years.
Too many of my colleagues, IMHO, spend too much time
with the arrangements and not enough time focusing on
the literature and what they are left with is all the
arrangement work and little in the way of having had a
lot of fun with the author/illustrator's work.
If you really want some good help in knowing just when
and how to arrange an author visit you might be
interested in ABC's of an AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR VISIT. I
found it at the Linworth booth at an AASL meeting a
couple years ago so I would think it is still
available. It's got a lot of very practical
suggestiosn and provides a checklist and so forth.
Not a lot of philosophical stuff to wade through but
very practical and to the point. Great checklists and
ideas. Also a lot of side anecdotes from both sides
of the fence in terms of things that are good and
things that go awry.
The author of that book, Sharon McElmeel has started a
service to schools and libraries (costs schools and
libraries nothing for the service) to book authors.
It's great as they will make all the arrangements,
send photo master, bookmark masters, information about
ordering books -- anything you might need and if they
haven't thought of it and you want something just ask
and they will send it. The site for that service is
http://www.mcelmeel.com/bookauthor. I've used them
twice now and both times the author visit has been so
easy to arrange -- and I was able to spend my time
collaborating with teachers, actually working on the
literacy angle of the visit.
Our Parent group funds the visit each of the years and
we do try to vary the type of author illustrator
visit. But in the past before I was in this position
with such a supportive and involved parent group our
visits were funded with a combination of grant money
and budgeted funds. One year the local newspaper
contributed funds and we have gotten funds from the
friends of the public library by scheduling a session
with the author in their facility. One year we had an
illustrator, Jeni Reeves, and that was fantastic.
I've had friends who have had Katie Davis and Janie
Bynum and said they are also wonderful.
Other times we have had primary authors (often there
books lend much in the way of modeling for
intermediate readers) and authors for older readers.
Our area (and the midwest where I was for a dozen or
so years prior) has had wonderful experiences with
Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Snowflake Bentley), Tanya
Stone (non-fiction), Jane Kurtz (Storyteller's Beads),
Carol Gorman (Dork books) and many others.
In general look to spend around $1000 on the
honorarium -- sometimes less and sometimes a little
more. Seldom more than $1500 which I would consider
high.
Then there is transportation and hotel expenses.
If I can answer any other questions please let me know
or if you would like some recommendations for some
great author visits.
Claire P. Hanson
Librarian/Administrator
Clairisse Academy
West Palm Beach, FL 33407
At 10:10 PM -0600 3/20/04, Shaye Miller wrote:
I am interested in your thoughts on (and experiences
with) visiting authors. How much have you paid (or
would you be willing to pay) for a visiting author?
Have you had positive/negative experiences? Any other
=
information you could provide is welcome!
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