Author Visits
I love doing school visits and library events!
I live in Connecticut, so I’m happy to drive to events in southern New England. I can book events in other parts of the country, but I would need to have travel expenses covered.
I’m best suited to talk with students in grades 2-6 about my middle grade graphic novels.
My presentation:
When I talk to kids, I explain how I make my work and how every student can use creativity to overcome challenges in their own lives and tackle their own incredible creative projects!
My talks are usually about 45 minutes, and they consist of a short slideshow, Q&A, and drawing demonstration. If the students have drawing materials on hand, I’m happy to guide them in a “draw-along” where I show how to draw my favorite characters! Although I love in-person visits, I can also do this presentation during a virtual author visit.
Workshops:
My work is all about celebrating children’s creativity, and so I love leading creative workshops with kids! I’m open and flexible to accommodating a number of different ideas, but here are a couple activities that I’ve done before.
Creating Characters
My Cardboard Kingdom books are all about creativity and collaboration, so I love to work with kids to come up with new characters for The Cardboard Kingdom together! Based on student suggestions, I demonstrate how I approach character design and story creation as I bring a whole new character to life! I then encourage the kids to create their own Cardboard Kingdom characters and offer feedback on their ideas.
Photo courtesy of The Bement School in Deerfield, MA
Drawing Doodleville
With small groups of students, I’ve done a collaborative drawing exercise inspired by my book Doodleville. On a giant piece of paper, we all work together to create an expansive city populated by whatever wild creations the kids can come up with!
Minicomic Workshop
I love to show students how fun and easy making comics can be with my minicomic workshop! By just folding and cutting one piece of paper, kids can create a six-page comic by the end of the workshop. And even better, it’s easy to make photocopies of those comics that are then assembled in the same easy way!
Cardboard Crafting
I absolutely love creating costumes, characters, and castles out of cardboard with kids, but this kind of workshop takes a fair bit of planning and a whole lot of boxes! I’m not an expert cardboard crafter, but I’m happy to offer suggestions for supplies and would love to make something magical with your students!
Educational Resources
I have a number of educational resources available for free online! Check out my Youtube channel for some draw-along videos and readings! I also have a number of coloring book pages for The Cardboard Kingdom and Doodleville!