How to Have the Greatest Author Visit in the History of the Universe.

I’ve been writing books and visiting schools for over 20 years. After visiting hundreds of schools and presenting to tens of thousands of students, I know that bringing an author into your school can be an amazing opportunity to inspire even your most reluctant writers.

I will always work my hardest to give your school the best presentation I can, but I can only do so much. Advance preparation by teachers, librarians, and administration will assure that any author visit is a fun, worthwhile experience for everybody. Preparing the students will make the visit an unforgettable experience for your students and staff.

Here are some tips that will help you get the most bang for your buck. 

Make sure that the students know an author is coming!
It sounds simple, but I have visited schools only to find that the students had no idea who I was or why I was at their school.

Decorate your entire lobby!

Make a bulletin board.

Have an art class create a snazzy banner.

Allow students to help make a lovely library display of the author's books.

Give staff and students a chance to become familiar with the author's work.

Introduce students to the author's work!
Students will be much more excited about a visit if they have some sort of connection with the author and some knowledge about what that author does.

•Ask trivia questions during your daily announcements
•Have a school newspaper write a story about the visit
•Share books in classrooms
•Share books in the library
•Write and share reviews of the author's books

Shelf tags in the library.

Get staff and students involved. Make it fun!
Teachers and students are amazingly creative. Include art, music, and PE classes!
Here are some ideas to get you started.

One school offered Marty Kelley bucks as rewards for meeting reading goals.

Door decorating contests are always so much fun to see.

Pro Level: Give students temporary tattoos of the author's name!

Students can work as a class to rewrite, extend, or re-imagine an author's book.

These students each made capes describing their super powers to celebrate my book, A Cape!

Invite the governor to talk about it!

Turn my book into a song!

Have a character parade through the school.

Have staff and students dress up as characters from my books!

Tiny desk displays of my books!

Students decorated hats with favorite scenes from one of my books.

Bake a cake!

And this school gave me a real cape that all the students signed!

Make a shadow play!

Bonus points: Authors LOVE pizza!

It's true:
The more you put into an author visit,
the more your school will get out of an author visit.

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