Visiting Author of the Day: TONI BUZZEO!

I usually upload an image of an author's website when I select them as Visiting Author of the Day, but I wanted to share a new podcast in praise of Toni Buzzeo's wonderful book, Fired Up With Reading. After you listen to the podcast on Just One More Book, (and have probably listened to a few others; that's such a great collection of children's book related podcasts, I can never stop at just one!) you can pop over to Toni's incredibly informative site by clicking HERE.

Kim Norman

Visiting Author of the Day:

I'm happy to say that New Jersey author Lisa Mullarkey recently booked a visit as a direct result of a school finding her on this website. Yay!! That's exactly why I created the site -- to help schools & libraries make connections with nearby authors and illustrators.

Lisa also generously went online and bought a copy of my book to donate to the school, which she'll be visiting in June. What a sweetie! I mailed her a bookplate inscribed to the students.

To learn more about an author visit from Lisa, (she's comfortably close to other eastern states, as well), visit her website HERE.

Kim Norman

Visiting Author of the Day:

It's still poetry month for a few more days, right? So today my Visiting Author of the Day is Karen Jo Shapiro. She's not only a visiting author, she's a visiting poet. Her spot-on parodies of famous classic poems are brilliant! Karen is in North Carolina. To learn more about her books and an author visit, click THIS LINK. (Or scroll down to North Carolina, in the left-hand column.)

Kim Norman

Visiting Author of the Day:

Can't promise I'll add a new featured visiting author every day... in fact, I can guarantee I'll be very undisciplined about it. So maybe this should be called "Visiting Author of the Week"... or maybe even "of the MONTH!"

Regardless of what it's called, Sandra Friend's enticing new page outlining her author visits seemed like the perfect kick-off to this feature. I mean, who WOULDN'T want to know more about flesh-eating plants or "haboobs?" (I'm such a 3rd grader at heart. I've looked up the word, and it STILL makes me giggle!)

Sandra lives in Florida. Visit her school visit page HERE.
Kim Norman

Thanks, Kevin!

I'm so proud to share this fabulous drawing Kevin O'Malley did for me! Long story, but the short version is, I bought an extra copy of GIMME CRACKED CORN & I WILL SHARE, a book he had dedicated to me. (I had helped with the title.) Scheduling complications kept him from being able to autograph it at the Va. State Reading Assoc. conference, so -- LUCKY ME! -- he did a drawing for me instead. How cool is that?!

I'm terrible about getting around to framing things, so I'm resolved to do that before it gets dusty, which happens with most of our family photos.

Kim Norman

Author visit with enthusiastic 5th graders!

Is that a great photo, or what? These are the wrists of 5th graders from Sedgefield Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Yesterday I spoke to them about writing, touching on skills they can incorporate into their SOLs (Standards of Learning tests) which are coming up next week. Susan Quenville, Sedgefield's reading specialist, was a gracious hostess. I also enjoyed meeting other staff members as well as Principal Patricia Tilghman, who was warm and welcoming.

While I love the sweetness of younger students, I also like working with older students like this because we can really get into details. So we did my "Verbal-loons" activity, (lots of laughs there while -- I HOPE -- learning the importance of choosing exciting verbs). They also enjoyed a peek at my Evil Inner Editor, and then they created wrist bands with the initials "WCTW," which stands for "Writers Choose Their Words."

I first put together this lesson plan for John B. Cary Elementary in Hampton, Virginia, a couple of weeks ago. Blogged about that HERE. Librarian Mel Black says the slogan ("Writers Choose Their Words") seems to have really stuck with her students -- although it probably doesn't hurt that she has reinforced it since my visit, using her cool SmartBoard. Sedgefield has one, too. What a marvelous teaching device!

All I can say is, I love my new part-time job!

Kim

Hope this helps!

I've visited innumerable schools where teachers have told me their search to hire an author would have been greatly simplified if there were a state-by-state list somewhere. Well, here it is!

This is a work in progress, so I hope you'll forgive me as I add to the list. If you are an author with a traditionally published children's book, please contact me and I'll see about adding your listing under the state in which you live.

Likewise, if you are a teacher or librarian who has hired a great author and you don't see them listed here, please let me know about them and I'll add them as well.

No charge to ANYONE to be listed on this site, by the way. Just trying to simplify the process for everyone.

Email me with additions/corrections at:

kimnorman (insert @ sign) charter.net
Or visit my website and email me from there.
Thanks for stopping by!

Kim Norman