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

Thu May 26 08:03:42 CDT 2016

I'd be interested if it works out in the lower price range for multiple
visit days. Peotone Junior High School is south of Chicago about 35 miles;
if you think he would travel an hour or so from your area, please keep me
in mind.

Thank you!

Sheri Schubbe
Media Specialist
Peotone CUSD 207U
708-258-3236

Mrs. Schubbe is reading *The Naturals* by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 10:36 AM, 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 Perrin
> LRC Director
> Woodland Middle School
> Gurnee, Illinois
> aperrin 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
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l_dy8wzZuE&feature=youtu.be>*
>
> _______________________________________________
> ISLMA-Share mailing list
> islma at list.railslibraries.info
> For list archives and subscription options, visit:
> http://list.railslibraries.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/islma
> To unsubscribe, send a message to:
> islma-leave at list.railslibraries.info
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.railslibraries.info/pipermail/aisle/attachments/20160526/e3071ecc/attachment-0002.html>