Host all the Author Visits!

Author visits are a core service that libraries provide for their communities. They align with our missions to promote literacy, foster lifelong learning, and link texts to creators. Author visits offer so many opportunities for powerful text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections. By meeting creators, young people can imagine themselves within the world of stories, knowing the real person behind the books they love, especially authors who reflect their lived experience and identities. They become empowered to see writing as a craft, vehicle for self-expression, and lifelong practice. 

I’m so into author visits that back in the day I arranged an author visit with Katie Davis as part of my undergraduate Education students’ clinical experiences so they would get an inside view of the benefits (and process of hosting) a virtual author visits. (Reader, this was happening over Skype YEARS ago; we’ve had virtual programs for a long time.) I even did a whole collaborative wiki project in library school about how to host author visits, clearly setting the stage for future me to advocate for this library service. 

Author visits often are part of goals in your library's strategic plans. In my library’s previous strategic plan, for the Strategic Initiative of Lifelong Learning Goal, the objective was to “Create services and programs to satisfy the community’s desire for author visits.” And we absolutely crushed this goal! We should create programs that respond to our communities’ interests - and author visits are a perfect way to connect to pretty much any topic or theme - because, you know, books exist about everything. This service is especially suited for public libraries, who often have funds (and time) to support inviting authors in ways that schools do not, so we help fill an important need. As community connectors, we also can bring community organizations and stakeholders together on author visit initiatives, enabling each organization to spend less and benefit more. And we should pay authors for their time, energy, and art.

I am so passionate about author visits that I collaborated with a wonderful group of other author visit enthusiasts, including Angela Jones, Sally Battle, Bridget Petrites, Brian Wilson, Anny Rusk, and Jarrett Dapier, to present a session about collaborative author visits at the 2022 ILA Reaching Forward conference. We shared our perspectives about author visits, how we collaborated together on events, how we prepared our community, the value of this service, and much more. You can access all of our program materials and resources here and our presentation here. Feel free to reach out if we can help support you. 

You can also check out this video I made for the Recharge Committee about author visits. It doesn’t include this year’s events.

Whether you’ve hosted author visits for years or dream of inviting an author to join your storytime, there’s always something new to learn about this vital community service. I thought I’d share some reflections and advice from my experiences and offer some resources to get started or expand your author visit program. I hope you’ll get something you can use for your own author visit dreams! This is a pretty long post, so feel free to skim - I mean, I would never tell you how to live your life. Most importantly, I highly recommend inviting all of these authors to your community.

Approach Author Visits as Outreach 

I was part of the Core Texts Committee from Coming Together: Journeys to Niles Township, which launched in January 2020, which was chaired by the amazing Brittany Drehobl. As the season description stated, “Our origin stories are as central to who we are as the cultures we are a part of and celebrate.” We selected many incredible books focused on stories of journeys. One of our middle grade core texts was Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. We knew Jasmine was local and dreamed of inviting her to our community. I reached out months ahead of time to the Author Village, who coordinates her visits, to begin discussions to host her and they were an absolute joy to work with. I’ll spare you the many logistical details, but this experience required coordinating with district administrators, school principals, librarians, library workers, Booked in Evanston, and colleagues from our core text committee and around the community. I created an Educator Guide with resources to help prepare the students for the visit since preparation is vital to a successful visit. I also created a detailed day-of guide, with lots of input from the Author Village with information Jasmine would need to know (ex: tech needs, best place to park, how many students, addresses and contact information). This experience taught me so much about coordinating with many community partners, ensuring the lines of communication were clear and plans were shared with everyone. 

We arranged for Jasmine to visit our community on February 5, 2020. She did a presentation at Golf Middle School in the morning, had lunch at Niles-Maine District Library with a small group of middle school students and staff from the schools who had arranged these visits, visited Culver Elementary School in the afternoon, and then hosted a Community Event at East Prairie School. (We also reserved a room at a local hotel (thanks to generous community connections) so she would have a place to rest and chill out before the evening event. It takes a lot of energy to be on all day, so this makes a big difference. And of course, I put together a basket of treats and library swag for her to find in her room. Like if I had a red carpet, I would have rolled it out.) I am grateful that I had the opportunity to attend Jasmine’s visit at Golf Middle School, participate in the lunch at Niles-Maine District Library, and the Community Event at East Prairie School. I absolutely loved seeing the art that students created in response to Other Words for Home around the school and the reading communities they had cultivated around this beautiful book. We partnered with Booked to sell books and help host our book signing with Jasmine. Our timing was pretty magical since Jasmine had just won the Newbery Honor for Other Words for Home (which was announced at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards press conference on January 27) and we were her first school visits after the news broke. It felt so validating to see our community come together to discuss and celebrate Jasmine’s book, knowing the hard work we did on the Core Texts committee and Author Visit team. I’m grateful for the connections I’ve made with the school and library staff that I’ve grown throughout the past years. Jasmine is so kind and lovely; she dynamically engaged the middle schoolers in conversations about being a storyteller, the importance of accurate representation, and the power of empathy. This event is truly a precious memory, especially since libraries and schools shut down soon after it. We are forever connected by our visit with Jasmine Warga. 

Image ID: a gallery of images from Jasmine Warga’s visit, including pictures of art students made based on Other Words for Home, welcome signs, and fan art. There are pictures of Jasmine giving her presentation to middle schoolers with her PPT slides displayed behind her. There is a picture of the staff from Booked tabling at the community event. There is a picture of a crowd at the Community Event. There is a picture of Brittany, Jasmine, and Eti.

Level Up your Book Club by Inviting Authors 

I began my foray into author visits by hosting virtual visits during Books & Bites, our graphic novel book club, which I was only just beginning to host. We Skyped (remember when Skype was the WAY to do virtual things?...) with Vera Brosgol during our Be Prepared book club, which took place during the summer, which was the perfect time to talk about her camp travails. We spent the first half of our session talking about the book and preparing questions on notecards for Vera and then when she joined us, went around the room asking our questions. Our group then wrote Vera thank you cards, which I highly recommend. She was absolutely delightful and our group had a blast! This was a pretty incredible way to build our reading community.  

In March 2019, we had the glorious opportunity to host Jerry Craft during Books & Bites. Our program was full, with a wait-list, and even more kids wanted to join us. It was the largest Books & Bites program we have ever had! We were so grateful for all of the time and effort Jerry put into visiting with our Books & Bites book club! It was such a pleasure and honor for our reading community to meet Jerry and better understand the hard work, creativity, and personal experiences that went into creating New Kid. We will never look at his book the same way again. (We even got to meet his dog, which was pretty exciting!) You can read all about our amazing, unforgettable, and epic Skype visit with Jerry here. Our kids still talk about it! And it felt pretty good to hear that our friend Jerry won the Newbery Award and Coretta Scott King Author Award! 

Celebrate Local Talent 

Thinking local is a great way to begin hosting author visits, which helps support authors in our communities. Seek out your local SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) chapter and they’re sure to have suggestions. Back in the fall of 2019, we hosted a local educator/author, Dahlia Richards, creator of Amoya’s Big Move and Amoya’s Accent for a special weekend storytime. She read her gorgeous book, Amoya’s Big Move, talked about her writing process, led the group in games she taught us, and ensured we all had a blast! She even signed our library copy of Amoya’s Big Move. As an educator herself, Dahlia knew exactly how to engage our multi-age group and make the story come to life. This author visit was also marketed as a special storytime, so keep in mind you can make your author visits part of other kinds of programming - or even have a guest reader join you in addition to your regular storytime. You, of course, want to be mindful about the author’s time and energy and compensate them accordingly.

Image ID: A gallery of pictures from Dahlia Richards’ author visit with a monitor screen behind her sharing her PowerPoint slides about The Writing Process, pictures of her family, and pictures from her book Amoya’s Big Move

Say Yes to Opportunities

I met award-winning author Kyle Lukoff spontaneously at the 2019 ALA ALSC preconference and basically gushed about how much I loved When Aidan Became a Brother, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita, which I had recently reviewed on my friend Dannie’s website for Pride Month. I shared my business card and low and behold, months later, Kyle was coming to Chicago and reached out to see if we’d want to host him at my library. We, of course, said YES. We had selected When Aidan Became a Brother for our Caldecott Club. It eventually received a Caldecott Club Honor - and also a Stonewall Award - and a Caldecott Club Honor! We discussed it in depth in Caldecott Club and during Junior Justice League, our community activism program. Our kids made gorgeous welcome signs for Kyle (which I put in our vestibule and program room) and floating clouds with statements of affirmation, which I affixed to the ceiling in our program room. Our kids were so pumped to meet Kyle! He shared a read aloud of When Aidan Became a Brother, shared about his process creating it, and answered many of their questions. We then did a drawing activity where the kids designed their dream room. We collaborated with our local independent bookstore, Booked in Evanston, to sell books and hosted a signing with Kyle. It was such an honor to host Kyle and it’s a forever memory for our Caldecott Club/Junior Justice League. Smile, it’s Kyle, indeed.

Image ID: A gallery of images from Kyle’s visit including a passive program station with paper clouds with the words “I show love by -” which were then attached to string and hung from the ceiling in our program room. Pictures of welcome signs for Kyle. A picture of Kyle reading from When Aidan Became a Brother. A picture of Kyle and Eti talking to the group.

Grow your Connections 

Sign up for your favorite author’s newsletter so you can be in the know about their upcoming releases, availability for virtual or in-person visits, and news. I signed up for one of my favorite authors, Saadia Faruqi’s newsletter, and forwarded it to my programming coordinator to suggest we host a visit with her. He reached out and it turns out she was coming to Chicagoland in February 2020! (I know; I’m here, too.) We had the absolute honor and pleasure to host Saadia in our library for an evening family program. Our program room was packed full of kids and their families and it was beautiful. People even told us they drove from miles away especially to see Saadia Farqui. She talked about her journey as an author and read from her book, Yasmin the Superhero. She told us about her upcoming middle grade book, A Place at the Table, written with Laura Shovan, which was just as good as we expected. And she patiently answered the kids’ many questions. Booked partnered with us again for this incredible visit - and pretty much sold all of their copies of Saadia’s books! But, wait there’s more! This experience was so fantastic, we decided to host Saadia again virtually when she released her solo middle grade book, A Thousand Questions. You can actually see the recording on our YouTube channel and see how thrilled I am to host Saadia again. It feels like she has become a friend of our library. To this day, people still talk about this event from February 2020, and of course knowing what came afterwards, this experience coming together in person, sharing personal stories and experiences, feels extra special. 

Image ID: A gallery of pictures from author visit with Saadia Faruqi with her seated in front of a large crowd of kids and caregivers with a presentation on the monitor behind her. Pictures of welcome posters afterschool kids made to welcome her. A picture of Eti and Saadia holding copies of her Yasmin books.

Invite Authors to your Festivals/Program Series 

I dreamed of hosting a Comics Fest, a series of comics themed programs with art-making activities, kids tabling to share their zines, the works! We started planning in Winter 2020 - and then … pivoted to a fully virtual Comics Fest for June. I especially wanted to have programs for adults to help validate sequential art and better understand the medium. I had the chance to see Comics Nurse MK Czerwiec during Skokie Library’s Comics Fest in 2019 and knew I wanted to host her in my library. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to host a virtual author visit with MK, in collaboration with our Adult Services department. People joined us from around the community - and the world, even as far as India! MK fascinated us with her discussion about Graphic Medicine, creating her books, especially her new anthology, Menopause: A Comic Treatment, and the work done to archive comics related to COVID-19. It was really powerful to engage in conversations about graphic medicine, especially during this time. Also, it’s pretty cool to say we hosted Eisner-award winning author, MK Czerwiec, who received an Eisner award in 2021 for Menopause: A Comic Treatment. 

We hosted a virtual author visit with Chad Sell, creator of Cardboard Kingdom and Doodleville. Chad excelled at engaging a large group of kids and their caregivers over Zoom. He shared his creative process for developing his characters and stories and kept our group engaged throughout. He led us in a fantastic draw-along activity to learn how to draw the Doodles in Doodleville. Through the magic of zoom, each person could share what they created with the group and we could all see. (This was before I learned about the Spotlight feature… oh, I was so young then…) This program gave us our first inkling about the potential for fully virtual author visits that actively inspire and delight our patrons.

Collaborate with Colleagues at your Local Library/School  

Skokie Public Library 

Collaborating across our community was a game changer. I was so grateful when children’s author and librarian, Jarrett Dapier, suggested the idea of collaborating on author visits with Skokie Library in Fall 2020. Our libraries shared the cost, marketing efforts, and hosting responsibilities to invite these award-winning authors to our communities! In September, we hosted a moving evening with Francisco X. Stork, moderated by Jarrett Dapier, in discussion about his newest book, Illegal. Thankfully, Francisco allowed us to record it, so you can see this brilliant and moving conversation. It’s especially moving knowing how much Francisco X. Stork’s books meant to Jarrett; It is an art to moderate an author's visit. Jarrett expressed so much empathy and vulnerability, an incredible depth of knowledge of Francisco's work, and drew connections to our world from his books. 

We hosted a powerful conversation with Kelly Yang & Jessie Ann Foley, moderated by Laurel Johnson, the Young Adult Services Supervisor at Skokie Public Library. They talked about their books Parachutes and You Know I’m No Good. Through author visits, libraries can provide space to talk about consent, sexual assault and harassment, and speaking and standing up, offering tools for having these conversations ourselves and spotlighting community resources to support young people. I couldn’t possibly try to convey this brilliant conversation, but I’m so grateful that I was part of it. These were truly life list dream authors to host and these conversations were fire! And these experiences showed the powerful potential of working together to bring what we imagine to life.​

Winnetka-Northfield Public Library 

We expanded our reach with our partnership with library partner, Winnetka-Northfield Public Library, led by Library Associate, Anny Rusk. (In fact, we began our partnership by making a wish list and it’s pretty incredible that we were able to actually make these visits happen.) We joined their virtual author visit with author Alicia D. Williams (who had just won a Newbery Honor for Genesis Begins Again!) & illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara (another wonderful local author) to celebrate Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston. This event truly showed how engaging and multimodal virtual author visits can be! Alicia D. Williams regaled us in a compelling read aloud of the beginning of Jump at the Sun that had our group so enthralled and of course, wanting to know what happened next. Jacqueline Alcántara shared a drawing tutorial to learn how to draw the animals in the story, breaking down the many steps into manageable pieces and providing space for kids to share their art, through the magic of Zoom. Alicia D. Williams also showcased her storytelling skills by telling us the story of Brer Rabbit getting thrown in the briar patch. We could have listened for hours! And then they patiently answered all of our pressing questions during the Q&A. We also partnered with our local independent bookstore, The Book Stall, for our Winnetka Library collaborations, which always included a dedicated page on their website to sell books and register for the visit. You can learn more and see our Take Home Kit materials here.

Image ID: A gallery of images from author visit with Alicia D. Williams & Jacqueline Alcántara, including art that participants have made, a page from Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston, a screenshot of participants, and a picture of the Take Home Kit for the visit

We continued our partnership with Winnetka-Northfield Public Library to co-host an unforgettable author visit with Alex Gino, creator of Melissa, Rick, You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!, and Alice Austen Lived Here. Alex was absolutely on our wish list of future authors and we were thrilled to host them virtually. Anny and I collaborated on Take Home Kits that included materials to create welcome signs for Alex (with glitter glue to make it fancy and stickers based on their books). I hosted a Junior Justice League session where we made the signs; attendees then surprised Alex with our signs as we began our program. Alex was a delight, engaged our group with a short discussion of their work, presented a writing activity to get our imaginations going, and then answered all of our many questions. What was extra special was the amazing chat happening at the same time Alex was talking where kids were engaging with each other about their own experiences. What would have been distracting in person worked beautifully in the virtual space, a space that we worked hard to be affirming, supportive and kind. Our Q&A allowed young people to ask their many questions, as well as find community and connections with each other, the patrons noting the “the upbeat, positive vibe.” In their feedback, patrons pointed out how “this program gave students the chance to see an author who writes books which reflect their lives…”Thank you for bringing in an important author for all of us, adults and students, to meet and to share our stories!” (It made me extra happy to share an ARC of Alice Austen Lived Here with one of our attendees this spring and remember this experience together. There may have been a happy dance involved.) We coordinated this visit with The Author Village, who are always wonderful to work with!

Image ID: A gallery of images related to Alex Gino’s visit. A picture from the virtual visit where people shared their welcome signs with Alex and Alex is smiling in reaction. Pictures of book displays promoting the visit with Alex’s books and readalikes and welcome signs. An image of the materials in the Take Home Kit including stickers, glitter glue, discussion guides, book recommendations, and a notebook. A picture of the Great Green Box where take Home Kits were put for people to take.

In early August 2021, we collaborated with Winnetka-Northfield Public Library, along with Deerfield Public Library, Evanston Public Library, Glencoe Public Library, and Wilmette Public Library, to host a virtual visit with Dan Santat, an award-winning popular children’s author and illustrator (shown here excitedly sharing his 2015 Caldecott Medal). It’s no secret that we are Dan Santat superfans. This amazing opportunity would not have been possible without Winnetka-Northfield Library and I was so excited to have co-hosted such an incredible community-wide event. Hosting Mr. Santat was particularly special for us because this past January, our Evanston-Lincolnwood Caldecott Club honored Dan’s most recent illustrated book Lift, written by Minh Lê, with their annual Mock Caldecott Award. Dan is an expert at engaging crowds of kids, including virtual ones. He shared a read aloud of Bear is a Bear, written by Jonathan Stutzman, which was really lovely. Dan shared his many hobbies from cooking to running to video games. He regaled us with stories of his creative process, from art he made as a kid to his work in progress, The Aquanaut! He led us in a fun drawing activity using basic shapes or symbols as inspiration.  One patron said of the event, “Every program has been wonderful; this was one of the best. Thank you!”

Image ID: A gallery of images related to Dan Santat’s visit. A picture of Dan showing his Caldecott medal. A screenshot of the librarians hosting the visit on zoom. Take Home Kits at Winnetka Library for the Dan Santat visit. A book display including a paper mache Humpty Dumpty and books by Dan Santat. A picture of the Lincolnwood Library display and Take Home Kits, including the Kohl’s Cares stuffed Beekle and Humpty Dumpty on paper bricks with books around them.

Evanston Public Library 

I had collaborated with Brian Wilson at Evanston Public Library for our joint Caldecott Club program, so we knew we worked well together. Brian kindly invited us to join him in co-hosting an incredibly powerful community virtual author visit with award-winning author/illustrator (and local Evanston resident) Cozbi A. Cabrera, creator of books such as My Hair Is a Garden, Me & Mama and Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks (written by Suzanne Slade). Me & Mama received a 2021 Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award Honor for illustration. Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks received a 2021 Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor & 2021 Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor. Cozbi talked about her journey as an artist, led a writing activity, and shared her love for quilting and crafts. We were joined by friends, grandparents, grandchildren, & neighbors at this accessible, intergenerational program. We were also supported by Booked, Evanston’s very own independent bookstore, to purchase books by Cozbi A. Cabrera, which we should all own in our homes and libraries. 

During our virtual visit, Cozbi guided us how to reconstruct a meaningful personal memory onto the quilt square. Before the author visit, my colleague Ann and I had met with Brian and Sally at Evanston Public Library to learn how to make the Program Kits and ensure we ordered the necessary materials for our patrons. We also received fabric that Cozbi had donated, which was so generous! We distributed the squares both before the visit and afterwards, encouraging people to return them to add to our community quilt. You can also read more about this project/visit in my previous blog post here. This author visit was truly ambitious to reach people across the community to share their own stories. You can learn more about the community quilt project in our Reaching Forward presentation.

Image ID: A gallery of pictures related to author visit with Cozbi A. Cabrera. A picture of Cozbi, a picture of her directing the memory writing experience with the prompts. A picture of Eti, Ann, Brian, and Sally at Evanston Public Library holding Cozbi’s books. A picture of the book display for Cozbi’s visit. A picture of the completed Lincolnwood quilt display. A picture of Eti, Carey, and Eti holding the Lincolnwood quilt. A screenshot of Saint Mary’s Volunteer Quilting Group from the Reaching Forward presentation.

Evanston Public Library continued building relationships with authors in our community by inviting Dr. Zetta Elliott for a fantastic author visit to discuss her newest Dragons in a Bag book, The Witch’s Apprentice. We were thrilled to learn that A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart by Zetta Elliot and illustrated by Noa Denmon won a Caldecott Honor - and we loved sharing our Evanston connection! Dr. Zetta Elliott writes books across all genres, formats, and ages, so this program appealed truly to all ages and was focused on our K-5 friends. We collaborated on Take Home Kits with Paper Plate Dragon crafts and clothespin dragons, along with vegan marshmallows and hot chocolate. We even created a passive dragon scavenger hunt program or a Dragon Quest to find the dragons, which also helped promote the program. Dragons in a Bag was also selected as a Global Read Aloud program book, so I made sure to promote it to their networks and also seek out materials for Take Home from them. 

Is there a better thing to do on a cold day than cuddle up with a good book and hear from the author? We hosted a cozy Sunday virtual author visit with Zetta Elliott in December 2021. Another benefit of hosting this program virtually was that people didn’t have to leave their warm homes and head into the cold to attend. People had the chance to show off the dragons they made during the author visit and share their creativity. Zetta shared a fantastic presentation about her Dragons in a Bag series, her craft as an author, and took our many questions. I really appreciated her insights about magic, as she said, “When you're writing about magic, you're talking about power.” We got to know more about the The Witch’s Apprentice, which is set right here in Chicago with so many notable landmarks and histories. We partnered again with Booked to promote her books. We received marvelous feedback from caregivers and kids about this experience and how much they loved Zetta’s books, especially during these challenging times, which is why we do these programs. It was soul nourishing for everyone! 

Image ID: A gallery of images related to Dr. Zetta Elliott’s visit including a library display of her books and readalikes, including Take Home Kits, a picture of the Take Home Kit materials, and a picture of me holding Dragons in a Bag at the Morton Arboretum

Traci Sorell

Since we’d built up our partnership, I was able to return the favor and invite Evanston Public Library to join our author visit with Cherokee Nation citizen and award-winning author Traci Sorell to talk about her extraordinary books, which include We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know, At the Mountain's Base, Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer, Powwow Day and many more soon! Traci talked about her writing process, her early life experiences as a reader, and inspiration for telling her stories - and even shared news about her upcoming books. We made a fantastic Take Home Kit to celebrate and promote this event, learning resources, readalikes, and more! We even made a Dial a Story recording of Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer, which I had the pleasure to read aloud. 

 I love how Tracy began our evening by asking our audience for their words to describe books for kids, which sparked an excellent discussion about how books can be “life-changing, eye-opening, formative, good, awesome, and great,” which is especially affirming to hear from young people attending. Traci shared how books for children now are “simply the best writing that’s out there” – and we couldn’t agree more, especially about Traci’s books. It was fascinating to learn about the background process of creating each of her books and why she wrote them. We especially appreciated learning more about Native Sovereignty. As Traci shared, “everyone in this country needs to know this information to be informed community members.” Traci answered our many questions and we all learned so much from our time with her. I loved learning about Traci’s experience casting the narrators and producing the brilliant audiobook of We are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know, which you can even buy from the Cherokee Nation shop! You can also borrow your library’s copy which should include the CD with the book! Or, check it out on Hoopla!

 We were so engaged in our conversation, we didn’t want our visit to end! You can also access all the materials we put in our kit here. 

Image ID: A gallery of images from author visit with Traci Sorell including slides from her presentation, a book display promoting the event, and materials in the Take Home Kit

Give Debut Authors Some Support and Love

How exciting is it when your colleague and friend publishes not one but two picture books in the fall? It’s magic, that’s what it is. I was so excited to celebrate Jarrett Dapier’s debut season by hosting a virtual visit with him focused on Mr. Watson’s Chickens, illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi, which I also selected as a Caldecott Club book - and it eventually won our Caldecott Club award! (Check out the awesome art that they made to celebrate in the gallery below.) To promote this program, inspired by Evanston Public Library’s craft for their visit with Jarrett and illustrator, Andrea Tsurumi, we made chickens from egg cartons and hid them around our youth desk as a scavenger hunt. People could also pick up our Take Home kits to make their own, which also promoted the program. Our author visit was a blast! I absolutely love Mr. Watson’s Chickens and Jarrett’s read aloud took it to the next level with its gorgeous chaos. Jarrett offered personalized attention to our attendees and made the whole experience really fun and joyful. And because it was on Zoom, he was able to invite one of his own chickens to join us! You can’t do that in person! I’ve included some pictures below of Jarrett’s visit with Andrea Tsurumi at Evanston Public Library, which included some amazing behind-the-scenes references in this gorgeous book!

 Invite Artists to Host Drawing Workshops 

I met Jarod Roselló at the ALA Annual conference in 2019 and of course, geeked out about how much I loved Red Panda & Moon Bear. In Fall 2020, we invited him to host a virtual drawing workshop knowing how much our kids loved art and comics programs. I also selected Red Panda & Moon Bear as our Books & Bites selection. We even did a fabulous reader’s theater activity using the book on Hoopla. (This graphic novel is a fantastic and hilarious read aloud!) Jarod kindly surprised our group by visiting to promote this workshop and got the kids super excited to join him. The workshop was engaging, entertaining, informative, and delightful. The imaginative characters he creates sparked our kids’ imaginations. His work truly exudes wonder and joy. Jarod was also so wonderful and supportive of our young artists.

Create Space for the Unexpected Opportunities 

I will forever be grateful and honored by our surprise guest during Books & Bites in February 2021. Green Lantern: Legacy author Minh Lê (illustrated by Andie Tong) kindly offered to join our Zoom discussion and share his process writing this fantastic graphic novel. He brought so much joy that we all especially needed during that winter. I loved doing a deep dive into the research to prepare for our conversation, preparing questions about everyday heroism, legacy, community, strength of will, power, and fear - and anything else our kids want to talk about. However, our discussion leveled up when Minh joined to talk about his inspiration for Green Lantern: Legacy, based on his grandmothers. He answered our kids’ many questions, so curious about many of the details in the story, which also led us to conversations about community care, being upstanders, and true heroism. I dream of the opportunity to host Minh again when Green Lantern: Alliance comes out this fall (save the date: October 18!). 

Spotlight Youth Creators 

I had the unforgettable opportunity to attend the I Am the Night Sky & Other Reflections by Muslim American Youth anthology launch event in Washington, D.C. in 2019 at Busboys and Poets before the ALA conference. It was so powerful to hear from these amazing young people sharing selections from this anthology and revealing the process to create it. I Am the Night Sky & Other Reflections by Muslim American Youth is an essential addition to your home, classroom, and library collections! It received a Starred review in Kirkus and was named a Best Book of 2019. It is highly recommended from the Rich in Color blog. It was included on the 2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List for Ages 0-18. It was also on the In the Margins Book Awards Recommended Non-fiction list. I hoped we’d find a way to invite some of these writers to our virtual community - and was thrilled when Shout Mouse Press shared that they arrange author visits. We hosted Next Wave Muslim Initiative Writers Sasa & Fatima, moderated by Alexa from Shout Mouse Press. As young creators themselves, this event offered an opportunity for young people to see themselves as creatives, gain insight for how to express themselves, and prompts for getting started in writing. Sasa & Fatima also talked about the importance of telling their own stories as Muslim women. We created a special Take Home Kit inspired by I am the Night Sky and also made a digital version here. You can check out the entire conversation above. I highly recommend inviting Shout Mouse authors to a library/school near you! You can learn more and request an author talk here.

Celebrate Creative Young Patrons

Seek out opportunities to showcase local talent and creativity from your own patrons like library superusers or teen volunteers. You can even create a program where they can create and share their own stories - and then celebrate them with the community. One of our teen volunteers, Zahara R. Khoushab, wrote a book about her experiences with Celiac disease called Cake Forever! to raise awareness about food allergies. She produced her first version of the book and shared it at a library program which included her family, which was so lovely. It’s worth noting that she asked to host a library program to share her story - and we created the experience with her. She continued to work on her book, including enlisting an illustrator, Michael Hays, to add illustrations based on her and her family. It also included a gluten-free German chocolate cake recipe and a letter from Dr. Stefano Guandalini, founder of the University of Chiacgo Celiac Disease Center. Zahara joined my Books & Bites session discussion about Guts by Raina Telgemeier to talk about her book with our library tweens. (We, of course, included gluten-free snacks to ensure everyone could enjoy them.) Zahara answered their many questions about celiac disease, creating her book and why she wanted to tell her story. She also graciously gave out copies and signed them for the kids. It was an absolute pleasure working with her and supporting her throughout the years. This powerful book, which absolutely needs to be on library shelves, offers so much insight and affirmation. I’m grateful to have been part of Zahara’s journey - and I know I will be certain to say I knew her back in the day when she’s off changing the world.

Be Creative in your Preparation & Promotion

It’s important to put in work to prepare for the visit, including creating detailed program plans with community partners/fellow staff, testing out your technology, and making sure you have all the correct bio information, including people’s pronouns and name pronunciation. TeachingBooks is your go-to source with their pronunciation guide.

Showcasing how your author visit will be engaging, insightful, and fun is a good way to draw patrons in to register and attend your program. We’ve done this by having passive programs connected to the author visits like scavenger hunts, crafts, and interactive displays. We’ve created Take Home kits with materials for the author visit or extension activities like unimaginary friend kits for our Dan Santat visit. You can create displays of their work and readalikes that can lead to even more reading! We’ve also hosted other programs before the author visit like our Junior Justice League session before our Alex Gino visit or our Exploration Station: Building a Better World with Libenu before our We Move Together visit. Embedding the books within other programs will intrigue patrons and hopefully get them to sign up. I’ve also reached out to community partners I’ve worked with before to invite them to events, so use your network and word of mouth connections, especially people in schools and literacy organizations. I’ve posted about these events on social media that included pictures of the displays that really show the breadth of the creator’s work. I’ve also written reviews in advance of the visit to plant seeds of interest and support. And also reviews are especially helpful for creators. Part of ensuring an author visit is successful is getting the word out and showing that people will get a lot out of the experience.

Collaborate across Departments for Crossover Titles

We know many adults read young adult literature and it has a huge appeal. Leveraging your inter-departmental connections and passions can reach entirely new audiences for your author visits. In 2021, one of my favorite authors, James Kennedy, released his adult debut novel, Dare to Know, which is everything you could hope from a James Kennedy (TM) project: suspense, mystery, thrills, big existential questions about life, the universe, and our place in it, complex relationships, arcane knowledge and thoughtful reflections - all making it impossible to put down and unforgettable. It struck me as an excellent crossover title for teens who love speculative science fiction. I shared an ARC with a teen who loves science fiction and he said, quote, "It was perfect for me. Can I give it to my friend?" What more could you want? Dare to Know has since been named one of The Times‘ Best Books of 2021 and September 2021 Indie Next Pick and garnered praise across the library world. (if you pick up the paperback, you can get an excerpt of his next book, Bride of the Tornado, coming this spring!) I shared an ARC with our Information Services Programmer and suggested we host a virtual event with James. We then collaborated on this event with both our departments. I had the incredible fortune of interviewing James for our virtual author visit, asking my most pressing questions and spotlighting the deep appeal of this unputdownable book. I also had the chance to dig deeper into his influences, hopes for the book, breaking into the adult market, and celebrate this incredible accomplishment. It was especially wonderful to have friends and even one of my former college students join us. I’ll never forget (and neither will my student, who joined us for this visit too) when I invited James to my college Storytelling class and brought the exuberant energy of The Order of Odd-Fish into our classroom. It felt like a coming full circle moment. 

Focus on Accessibility: We Move Together 

My last author visit at my library was a collaborative visit with libraries in Niles Township for Coming Together: Sharing Experiences of Disability, a community wide initiative that “sought to build knowledge and appreciation for the diversity represented in Niles Township through books and programming.” And for the first time, Evanston Public Library participated too! We selected We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch & Anne McGuire, illustrated by Eduardo Trejos as our youth core text.  We created programs and storytimes to engage kids and families around the themes of disability culture and justice - and ways we can work to ensure our communities create spaces and opportunities for everyone. So I knew I wanted to host the creators at our library. (I also had the opportunity to attend the FOLD conference in Canada and see them present a couple events for families and educators and gained so much from this experience.) With the magic of Zoom, we welcomed them all the way from Canada for a family virtual author visit. We also included our wonderful ASL interpreter and captions to ensure the program was accessible. They kindly let us record it so you can watch their presentation and our Q&A. It was such an honor and pleasure to host this program with them and moderate our powerful Q&A.

Join Illinois Libraries Present 

The possibilities are endless when we work together. I was thrilled to learn about the Illinois Libraries Present initiative, working with libraries across the state to co-fund collaborative virtual author visits and leverage this incredible resource to reach more people. "To fulfill our mission to provide high-quality online events at equitable prices for member libraries of all sizes and budgets, Illinois Libraries Present is committed to creating a governance team with diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind." - Founders of Illinois Libraries Present. The work that Illinois Libraries Present is phenomenal, developing collaborative work processes and systems to help libraries across Illinois work together to make dream visits a reality. They’ve hosted authors like Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Michelle Zauner, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chef Kwame Onwuachi, Marlee Matlin, and many other notable creators. I’m excited that there are plans to expand to youth/teen programming in the future. We learned so many things from this pandemic - and we can apply this knowledge about engagement, resource sharing, collaboration, and accessibility into the future. 

Let us continue to dream big

To work together to make author visits accessible and affordable

For people at home and in-building 

To reach more people in our community 

To support creators and their work

To help kids express themselves 

To see themselves reflected in the world of stories

The stories of these author visits connect us. 

If I can help with your author visit dreams, feel free to reach out.