Episode #38- School Visits!
Join the Book Friends Forever this week as they’re back to catch up on each other’s lives and talk about school visits! That is what Grace has been busy with lately. She’s been traveling quite a bit all over the country and Alvina asked Grace some great questions about the mystery of school visits.
First, what has Alvina been up to? She’s visiting one of her best friends from childhood in Texas! It’s started out with an exciting moment at the airport when she was stopped at security because of her hand-held recorder! The security thought it was a taser! At the end of her trip, the excitement continued with a local tornado warning! Fortunately for them, they were too far from where the tornado was going to touch ground.
Grace has been busy with the school visits and that is the main conversation topic for today’s episode. Some people are not aware of what exactly is involved when it comes to booking a school visit. As Grace mentioned in an earlier episode, school visits are how she makes a living aside from writing and selling her books.
Grace on a school visit!
School visit activities with Grace!
Grace talked about getting started with school visits and how it took many years to get them down. She has been doing them for 18 years! She had to learn about what to charge and how best to organize the hour that she typically spends with large groups of children, The beginning typically involves the story reading, then she’ll do an interactive piece, then finish up with a Q & A.
An interactive portion of Grace’s visit!
“What is the difference between a book tour and a school visit?” Alvina asks. Find out the difference between the two as Grace gets into some of those details. For starters, a book tour is a little more promotional based and the school visits are more educational and a little more in depth.
As usual, they end this episode with announcing what they are grateful for. Alvina is grateful for every day a tragedy does not strike. (Having been in the land of tornados recently!) Grace is so thankful for all the schools and librarians that have hired her to do her school visits.
2-Minute Book Review With Alison Morris:
Book: All Our Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Illustrated by Suzanne Kaufmann.
Alison Morris is a nationally recognized children's book buyer with an infectious enthusiasm for reading and 20 years' experience matching books to readers. As the Senior Director of Title Selection for nonprofit First Book, she oversees the curation of children’s and young adult books on the First Book Marketplace, hand-selecting a diverse range of titles that speak to and address the needs of kids in underserved communities, with a keen eye to inclusion, authenticity, and kid-appeal. She previously served as Senior Editor at Scholastic Book Clubs, Children's Book Buyer for Wellesley Booksmith and The Dartmouth Bookstore, and was the founding blogger of the ShelfTalker children’s book blog for Publishers Weekly. She'll be joining us from her home near Washington, DC where she spends LOTS of time discussing books with her husband, illustrator and graphic novelist Gareth Hinds.
Other books and media mentioned in this podcast:
