Tips For An Awesome Author Visit

If you invite me to visit, I promise to do my very best to engage the audience, to get kids excited about reading, and to promote the love of books. In turn, there are a handful of things that you as the host can do to help make the author visit a complete success.
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Kids are even more excited about books and authors they have heard of. There are a lot of ways that you can help your students become more familiar with me and my books before I visit. Some suggestions are:
1) Booktalk my books ahead of time. Display them in the library, print out covers, talk about them during their library time.
2) Enlist the help of your Language Arts teachers! If budget permits, consider purchasing a copy of one of my books for each classroom ahead of time so teachers can show it to and share it with their students.
3) Get students to fill out my Author Scavenger Hunt ahead of time. This is a great curriculum tool readily available on my website. If possible, reward the completion of the scavenger hunt with extra credit or some other appropriate reward.
4) Announce my upcoming author visit on the morning announcements. If your school has video announcements, show book covers if possible. Announcements are also a great place to remind students about pre-visit book order deadlines.
Sometimes the morning of the actual visit can seem busy, but there are a few things you can do ahead of time to help make the morning of the visit run more smoothly. Some suggestions are:
1) Remind teachers the day before about the visit so they are able to prepare to get their students to the visit on time.
2) Check technology! Double check to make sure the screen, projector, and microphone work.
3) Encourage questions ahead of time. Ask teachers to have students write down a question on an index card ahead of time and bring it to the visit such that if there is time for Q&A, they will be prepared.
The day of the actual visit is a super exciting time, and I am so excited to visit your school! There are a few things that be done on the day of the visit that will help everyone get the most out of the visit. Some suggestions are:
1) It can be distracting not only for me but for other students around them when students are talking (especially when it's not related to the presentation). Please ask teachers to be responsible for their students.
2) If there is a known concern about certain students talking to each other, please consider asking teachers to seat these students apart from each other.
3) Water is always much appreciated on the day of the visit!
Thank you so much! It is my honor to visit your school, and I cannot wait!
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