Yes, I am available for author visits to your school—virtually or in-person for 2022!
Stories are everywhere, you just have to be open to inspiration.
This is my message to students learning to write as well as those who have been writing for years. After my program, their blank pages will magically disappear. My goal is to get your students excited about writing and reading!
I can tailor a program to meet your specific educational needs, or you can choose from these workshops/presentations:
♦ Day in the Life
A humorous look at this pajama-wearing author’s daily kidlit escapades. I suggest a PJ Day for the school and I will visit in mine!
♦ Storystorm
Based upon my popular annual Storystorm writing challenge, these are brainstorming and idea-generating exercises to expand your students’ imaginations and help them create exciting stories.
♦ From Lightbulb to Nightlight
How a picture book is made, from first idea to finished book.
♦ Language Lollapalooza
Explore uncommon, tongue-twisting words (like those from my popular list of 500+ fun, cool & interesting words) and expand vocabulary through word games like “Crashwords!” I will present from my award-winning book ABSURD WORDS!
♦ How-to-Write Fractured Fairytales
I show students how fairytales can serve as the base for their stories and how writers can inject existing stories with their own personal style.
♦ Customondo
I can tailor a program to fit your needs/curriculum–on just about any area related to reading and writing.
Plus…An Author’s Tea!
At every visit, I offer students the opportunity to have lunch or snack with me by winning a contest I create for the school. Since I won’t be there in-person, this can be a small virtual Q&A period with a few lucky students!
Presentations run 40-60 minutes including a Q&A period.
If you’re not doing whole-school or in-person assemblies, I can speak to classes individually. I can offer up to 6 presentations in one day for virtual events—and they can be a mix of any the options in blue above.
My pitch, volume and pace is student-approved!
Recommended grade range for school visits is Pre-K thru 8th grade.
I offer readings of my picture books. Schools can pre-order copies for their students and I’ll sign and personalize each one…or send book plates. I can help with this via my local bookstore, The Bookworm in Bernardsville, NJ.
Please inquire at tarakidlit (at) gmail (dot) com for fees, availability, and to discuss your specific needs.
Educator resources:
- Why Pay Authors for School Visits Anyway?
- Finding Funding for School Visits
- Grants for School Visits
- Scholastic’s Author Visit Planning Tips
Virtual Visits
Yes, I can do Zoom (or other video service) Visits! They can be as short as 15-20 minutes long or a whole day’s program. And…I do them in my JAMMIES! It’s loads of fun! Book me now by emailing tarakidlit (at) gmail (dot) com.
Teacher/Librarian testimonials:
“Wow. We sure enjoyed your Skype. One of our all-time favorites. You were so much fun. Thank you!”
“Thanks from the bottom of our feetie pajamas! Everyone in our school loves Monstore, and it was really cool to have you bring it to life!”
“Wow, I have a tough act to follow the next time I read a story. It was terrific listening to you read. Our fifth graders learned so much about writing and publishing.”
“Our grade 8 class had the joy of having Tara present a session on brainstorming. Tara’s session was engaging, funny and interactive. Our students readily began creating and building their own children’s story with the activities that Tara had provided. As a teacher, I was so impressed with the amount of students sharing their ideas and story writing after our session with Tara. We appreciated Tara’s unique perspective and approach to writing. We are very much looking forward to our 2nd session on story structure.”
“My kids thoroughly enjoyed the visit and have been talking about the day the author came to visit our smartboard ever since.” Read more here.
Author Laura Sassi recaps one of my virtual author visits—take a look!
And remember, I do visits in my jammies! The students can guess which ones!
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Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 
21 comments
March 9, 2009 at 9:00 pm
CA
I look forward to visiting your blog for added inspiration.
April 8, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Taylor Beisler
Nice! 🙂 Keep writing; that’s definitely the key!! 🙂 I just recently became a YA author and that was some hard work right there, but it was truly worth while. 🙂
Hope your writing becomes a success!
God bless,
Taylor J. Beisler
http://www.taylorbeisler.com
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/ArintSaratir-WarriorsLight.html
May 2, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Robin Tyndall
Thanks Taylor! I love your site! (Mine is dull.) I am an aspiring YA and kidlit writer but I love flash fiction (just entered the WOW contest). Your site reaffirms I’m not alone in the journey.
May 13, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Donald Saxman
I found your site when we bid on the same critique on the Bridget Zinn auction. What kind of high tech marketing did you do?
I’ve published about 80 non-fiction technology market reports over the years and my day job is a proposal writer and business analyst. But what I REALLY want to do is publish science fiction. I’ve published a few SF role playing games over the years but (as I bet you already know) none of this is the same if you love fiction writing.
Anyway, I’d be happy to exchange any information on non-fiction writing, especially technology analysis, and can assist in getting this kind of thing published through a non-fiction writer’s co-op (see http://www.stix-market-research.com).
I’m pretty good at this, but am pretty bad at marketing my YA-ish science fiction novels and could use all the help I can get in this area (see http://www.thesestrangeworlds.com).
Maybe there’s somebody out there who is a marvel at YA marketing who badly wants to get into tech analysis (seems unlikely, but I can dream).
June 2, 2009 at 10:47 am
Vicki
Hi Tara
Congrats on all of this! I didn’t realise you wrote. Hope to bump in to you sometime and catch up on the kids.
Vicki
July 6, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Taylor
Hi there! I just now saw your comment! I’m so sorry…life is really busy. 🙂 And, thank you about my site! Yours is not dull at all; it’s clean-cut and nice to look at…believe me: a lot of people get all caught up in a bunch of fancy stuff and it looks crazy. This is nice! That’s so great that you are an aspiring YA author; you’re right: you are definitely not alone out there! Keep writing! I hope to see your name on a book shelf some day!
God bless,
Taylor J. Beisler
July 29, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Nina Aksell
Hi. I just found your blog and want to thank you for this great resource. I’ll be popping by regularly.
September 1, 2009 at 4:29 am
Nicola Morgan
Hi
So sorry to bother you but I notice that you’ve very kindly linked to my publishing blog (Help! I Need a Publisher!) on your blog. I need to tell you that I’ve just moved it to a new address and I’d be really grateful if you could find time to change your link.
The new address is: http://www.helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com
If you want to confirm that this is actually me, do go to the old blog at http://www.need2bpublished.blogspot.com through your existing link, and see the message I have left there.
Thank you!
Best wishes
Nicola
Nicola Morgan, children’s author
http://www.nicolamorgan.co.uk
http://www.helpineedapublublisher.blogspot.com
September 7, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Chris Wilson
Hi Tara —
Came across your blog through a link on someone else’s blog (linda-leftbrainwrite). I just started a website myself a few months ago, on children’s literature. Still not sure where I’m going with it, but was told I should add a page on how to get published.
Like you, I LOVE children’s books and someday hope to write one. Unlike you, I’m not currently working on one. Am still trying to make money doing the stuff I’ve done in the past (writing articles & newsletters, editing, and a little copywriting thrown in now and then).
I’m bookmarking your blog, and will probably mention it in my own blog at my Kids-and-Books site.
Good luck getting published!
November 11, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Jean Reagan
Hi Tara.
Nice to hear from you via Maw’s blog. Yes, I definitely remember meeting you at the Blueboard party before the Rutgers conference. Now I’ve found your blog. Looking forward to checking in regularly.
Jean
November 18, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Debbie Austin
Hi, Tara.
Great blog! Deb Lund recommended your blog on her blog so I’m a little late in arriving. Can I still join in the PiBoIdMo or is it too late? I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo but more just to keep my writing thing a daily habit. I’ve been using it to write (a very rough draft) of a story a day. I’m a little behind on that goal but your blog has injected me with newfound enthusiasm.
Thanks,
Debbie
November 18, 2009 at 1:11 pm
tara
Welcome Debbie! You can jump in at any date. At the end of the month, if you’ve collected 30 ideas (that’s the goal), can you take the PiBoIdMo pledge and qualify for one of the three grand prizes, an agent review. There’s still 12 days left in the month, you can do 2 ideas a day to catch up!
November 28, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Jodi
I am really enjoying your site! I am trying to come up with all my 30 ideas! I started late, so that is an extra challenge! I have enjoed all of the inspiration and information you have to offer here! Do I need to do anything else to join the challenge besides come back on 12.1 to take the pledge?
November 29, 2009 at 4:57 pm
tara
Hi Jodi. You don’t need to do anything else to sign in. Maybe next year I’ll have a sign up AND a pledge at the end, but I didn’t have that foresight for this first year. All you need to do is return on December 1 and sign the “I’ve got 30 ideas” pledge.
December 5, 2009 at 1:58 am
StoryPlease
Hi Tara!
We’re in the same boat you’re in — except working on iPhone publishing on a new platform called StoryPlease!. Thanks so much for your blog… this is incredibly helpful stuff. Actually, we’re doing an open call for authors and illustrators right now if you’re interested, check us out!
Check out our app if you have a chance =) We’d love to get feedback and we’re actively looking for new authors and illustrators to make funny, lighthearted books with strong characters.
Here’s the link to the website:
http://bit.ly/STORYPLEASE
Link to iPhone app: (also works on iPod Touch)
http://bit.ly/getStoryPlease
December 5, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Janice D. Green
Looking over your blog… It’s fantastic. I’ve put in my favorite places and will be back. Hope I can get into your 30 ideas for PBs next year. Guess I missed it this time around.
December 6, 2009 at 2:11 am
tara
Thanks, Janice. Sorry you missed PiBoIdMo! But I will be hosting it again next year. Be sure to visit Paula Yoo’s site for NaPiBoWriWee, the first week in May.
December 22, 2009 at 5:01 pm
darlene Jacobson
I, too am a writer for children and am looking to connect with other writers online. I love your blog and hope you will visit mine. I’ll add you to my list of writer’s if you like. darlenebeckjacobson@blogspot.com. May 2010 be a successful year for us.
March 31, 2010 at 12:57 am
Trent Aitken-Smith
Hey Tara. Just surfed my way onto your blog via tags and really enjoyed the posts I have had time to read. One question that quickly surfaced after a post was, did you create a “dummy” picture book before submitting it to agents and do you think this is the best way to go? I have just decided to do this with my PB purely because I thought just sending a MS looked so plain and boring. Hope to read more of your posts soon.
October 31, 2010 at 1:22 pm
tara
Trent, you shouldn’t submit a manuscript in anything other than the standard format–double-spaced, 12 pt font–unless, of course, the guidelines state otherwise. The dummy is more for the writer’s benefit–to understand where logical page turns happen, to understand scenes, to help the pacing of the story. Submitting a dummy may cause your manuscript to be overlooked or rejected for not conforming to standards.
June 19, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Author School Visit Vlog! In Which I Appear Very Animated and Slightly Ethereal « Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)
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