[ISLMA-Share] Planning an author visit for next year?

Wed May 25 18:15:05 CDT 2016

I would also love to have him at Indian Trail Jr. High in Addison.
Kathie KielminskiIndian Trail Jr. Highkkielminski at asd4.org630-458-2532 

    On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 4:52 PM, Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association <islma at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

 I am interested in sharing the visit with you as well. Email me off list:)
Laura WinterLwinter at barrington220.orgBarrington Middle School Prairie Campus

On Wednesday, May 25, 2016, Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association <islma at list.railslibraries.info> wrote:

I am considering having Jordan Sonnenblick visit my school next year.  Here is the email I just received back from him. Would anyone in northern Illinois be interested in sharing his visit?
Thank you so much for your interest in a visit, and for using my work with so many of your students!
On a typical visit day, I do three presentations, plus lunch with a small group, plus book signing if you choose to sell my books to your students ahead of time (which I hope you do).  The presentations can be all assemblies, or a combination of assemblies and small-group writing workshops of up to 50 students per session.  I like to have an hour with each group, if possible — especially if we are doing a writing workshop.
My assembly program in a school where Drums has been the students’ focus is all about what I learned through becoming an author (because Drums was my first book).  I start off my asking the kids to raise their hands if they think it would be a good idea to be happy when they grow up.  Of course, most of them do so.  Then I talk about how when I was in middle school, I used to worry that I wouldn’t be a happy adult, because I was a miserable kid: my parents were on their way to a divorce; I had undiagnosed ADHD; I was unathletic and severely asthmatic; I was short and chubby, and had huge glasses and braces.  I spend the rest of the assembly talking about the secret of being a happy adult, which in my life has been finding a way to use my talents to make someone else’s life better.  Basically, I grew up, became a middle-school English teacher, and wrote Drums for a student of mine whose little brother had cancer.  The presentation is funny and interactive, because I ask lots of questions, and often joke around with specific kids in the audience.  Generally, there is also time for Q&A at the end.
I charge $2,200 for the day, plus actual travel and hotel expenses.  I live in Pennsylvania, so in your case that would involve flights and a car rental at your end.  This means the trip would probably only be cost-effective if we could find a few other Chicago-area schools that would like me to visit them while I am out there.  If we can line up three or more consecutive visit days, I generally find that the expenses drop to around $425 or $450 per day, including flights.  I am all booked up for September and October, and don’t like to book anything in the North that involves flights in the winter because of potential cancellations, so realistically, we would be looking at November or early spring in terms of dates.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks again -
Jordan
PS - I have a new book about an 8th-grade girl coming out on September 27.  I am trying to remember to tell all the library media specialists who contact me!  Here is the starred review that will appear in BOOKLIST next week:
«Falling over Sideways.Sonnenblick, Jordan (Author)Sep 2016. 272 p. Scholastic, hardcover, $17.99. (9780545863247). Scholastic, e-book, $17.99. (9780545863261).Claire feels left behind when her best ballet-school friends are unexpectedly elevated to a higher class. She spends the first day of eighth grade coping with menstrual cramps, a zit on her nose, and sniping classmates. But the worst is yet to come: her father has a stroke, making speech and movement difficult. After months of looking inward and trying to carry on normally, Claire realizes she’s been avoiding the obvious: she has a role to play in her father’s recovery. Although tentative at first, her response enables her to get beyond paralysis, weather the next storm, and move forward with her life. Sonnenblick has a knack for smart, droll, first-person narration, and that’s as true here as in his earlier books featuring male protagonists. He portrays a diverse group of middle-school kids as interesting individuals, while creating a believable web of relationships among them. From her driven-to-perfection older brother to a vindictive teacher to a mean-girl classmate, the characters and their dialogue are convincing and often entertaining. The book’s beginning sounds so much like other, sunnier novels that readers, like Claire, will feel a jolt when the first crisis comes. But they’ll stay with her every step of the way.

Andrea PerrinLRC DirectorWoodland Middle SchoolGurnee, Illinoisaperrin at dist50.net

-- 
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire - William Butler Yeats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l_dy8wzZuE&feature=youtu.be
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Laura WinterLibrary Information TeacherBarrington Middle School - Prairie Campuslwinter at barrington220.org

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