2011-12 Author Visits
Sunita Jain - February 17
Click here to see the vido chat with author Sunita Jain
Victoria Marini - December 21
Click here to see the video chat with Torie Marini (Part 1)
Click here to see the video chat with Torie Marini (Part 2)
(Note: there are two video links here--the system crashed in the middle of the chat, but we both logged right back on and picked where we left off)
A graduate of Unionville High School and Patton Middle School, Marini is now a literary agent in New York City...and her specialty is YA literature.
I directed Torie in the middle school plays and then she volunteered to be a student director of the middle school plays when she went through our high school. After she graduated, we lost touch with each other but then reunited on Twitter of all places--I follow lots of authors, agents, and magazines focusing on publishing and saw her Tweet one day.
She spoke to our students about what an agent does as well as the common mistakes she sees authors make. The question and answer session was especially interesting as our kids started right off by asking, "Who is the youngest author you know of, and how did they do it?"
This was simply a terrific chat for so many reasons!
Irene Latham - December 8
Click here to see the video chat with Irene Latham (Google Apps login required)
Mitali Perkins - December 7
Click here to see the video chat with Mitali Perkins (Google Apps login required)
Mitali was the first author who chatted with my classes last year, and returns again this year to share her ideas on using strong nouns and verbs. She set the bar high last year--with an engaging personality and one who truly enjoys working with young people we have received a lot of information from Mitali. She is especially at her best when she takes questions from our kids!
Her award-winning and starred-review YA novels provide a taste of other cultures to young readers. For example, Monsoon Summer is centered on the protagonist Jasmine "Jazz" Gardner, a fifteen year old Indian girl. Because Jazz's mother wants to return and volunteer at the orphanage that cared for her when she was young, the family trip is to India--which Jazz wants no part of, especially her mother's do-good endeavors.
Bamboo People thrusts 15-year-old Chiko pressed into military service by the Burmese government. He finds himself involved in an ongoing war with the Karenni people, one of the many ethnic minorities in modern Burma. This is a story that invites discussion of the realities of warfare rooted in long-standing antagonism and unreasoning hatred of “the other.”
Sarah Albee - October 25
Click here to see the video chat with Sarah Albee (Google Apps login required)
We found Sarah Albee through an experience at one of our library book fairs--last year a student pulled one of her books for sale at the fair because of its title, Poop Happens. It is a history of how the world has managed going to the bathroom through the centuries. Overcoming obstacles of clothing, armor, and landscape, Albee's book brough us our first author who wrote nonfiction.
After my students pleaded for me to contact her for an author, we were all pleasantly surprised. The kids are fascinated by the fact that someone would write a book about that...and then imagine their faces when they also learns that she writes Elmo books for Sesame Street as well as Dora the Explorer books.
Albee proved to be a really interesting personality who has a lot to offer our kids--I will say, unequivocally, that my two experiences with her in my classroom helped to improve the perceptions of non-fiction among my classes.
Carrie Hagen - January 27
Will be at school for an in-person visit during Periods 1, 2 and 3
Christina Gonzalez - January 31
Will speak to Periods 2 and 3
Kathi Appelt - February (TBD)
2010-11 Author Visits
Christina Gonzalez - March 8
Sunita Jain - February 17
Click here to see the vido chat with author Sunita Jain
Victoria Marini - December 21
Click here to see the video chat with Torie Marini (Part 1)
Click here to see the video chat with Torie Marini (Part 2)
(Note: there are two video links here--the system crashed in the middle of the chat, but we both logged right back on and picked where we left off)
A graduate of Unionville High School and Patton Middle School, Marini is now a literary agent in New York City...and her specialty is YA literature.
I directed Torie in the middle school plays and then she volunteered to be a student director of the middle school plays when she went through our high school. After she graduated, we lost touch with each other but then reunited on Twitter of all places--I follow lots of authors, agents, and magazines focusing on publishing and saw her Tweet one day.
She spoke to our students about what an agent does as well as the common mistakes she sees authors make. The question and answer session was especially interesting as our kids started right off by asking, "Who is the youngest author you know of, and how did they do it?"
This was simply a terrific chat for so many reasons!
Irene Latham - December 8
Click here to see the video chat with Irene Latham (Google Apps login required)
Irene has chatted with my creative writing classes for the last two years.
Her YA historical fiction Leaving Gee's Bend is set in rural Alabama in 1932. The reader follows the journey of Ludelphia Bennett who has to travel forty miles from her very poor community to the big city to convince a doctor to come back with her to treat her mother.
Irene has been so positive and encouraging with our kids. Here, she presents her thoughts on revision and then takes questions about writing from our students for about 20 minutes.
Mitali Perkins - December 7
Click here to see the video chat with Mitali Perkins (Google Apps login required)
Mitali was the first author who chatted with my classes last year, and returns again this year to share her ideas on using strong nouns and verbs. She set the bar high last year--with an engaging personality and one who truly enjoys working with young people we have received a lot of information from Mitali. She is especially at her best when she takes questions from our kids!
Her award-winning and starred-review YA novels provide a taste of other cultures to young readers. For example, Monsoon Summer is centered on the protagonist Jasmine "Jazz" Gardner, a fifteen year old Indian girl. Because Jazz's mother wants to return and volunteer at the orphanage that cared for her when she was young, the family trip is to India--which Jazz wants no part of, especially her mother's do-good endeavors.
Bamboo People thrusts 15-year-old Chiko pressed into military service by the Burmese government. He finds himself involved in an ongoing war with the Karenni people, one of the many ethnic minorities in modern Burma. This is a story that invites discussion of the realities of warfare rooted in long-standing antagonism and unreasoning hatred of “the other.”
Sarah Albee - October 25
Click here to see the video chat with Sarah Albee (Google Apps login required)
We found Sarah Albee through an experience at one of our library book fairs--last year a student pulled one of her books for sale at the fair because of its title, Poop Happens. It is a history of how the world has managed going to the bathroom through the centuries. Overcoming obstacles of clothing, armor, and landscape, Albee's book brough us our first author who wrote nonfiction.
After my students pleaded for me to contact her for an author, we were all pleasantly surprised. The kids are fascinated by the fact that someone would write a book about that...and then imagine their faces when they also learns that she writes Elmo books for Sesame Street as well as Dora the Explorer books.
Albee proved to be a really interesting personality who has a lot to offer our kids--I will say, unequivocally, that my two experiences with her in my classroom helped to improve the perceptions of non-fiction among my classes.
Carrie Hagen - January 27
Will be at school for an in-person visit during Periods 1, 2 and 3
Christina Gonzalez - January 31
Will speak to Periods 2 and 3
Kathi Appelt - February (TBD)
Will speak to 3rd, 6th, and 8th period
Comedic actress Michele Ammon (Jean Ann Wharton) from The Onion News Network will speak to a class about writing comedy, lampooning, etc. (Date/Time TBD)
2010-11 Author Visits
Christina Gonzalez - March 8
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| Christina Gonzalez |
Click here to see the video chat with Christina Gonzalez (Google Apps login required)
Mark Bowden - February 7
Journalist Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down delivers a strikingly detailed account of the 1993 nightmare operation in Mogadishu that left 18 American soldiers dead and many more wounded. It is a moment-by-moment chronicle of what happened in the air and on the ground. His gritty narrative tells of how Rangers and elite Delta Force troops embarked on a mission to capture a pair of high-ranking deputies to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid only to find themselves surrounded in a hostile African city.
Irene Latham - February 2
Her debut midgrade historical novel LEAVING GEE'S BEND is set in Alabama during the Great Depression and was an IndieNext pick and has been hailed as “authentic and memorable” by Booklist and “a tale that will stay with the reader forever” by Book Page. Irene didn't take a single writing course in college. In 2000 Irene pulled her poems and stories out of drawers and began to pursue publication of her work
Megan Crewe - January 24
http://www.megancrewe.com
I finished my first (very bad) novel when I was 14, and started submitting short stories to magazines around the same time. I was lucky to have teachers who encouraged me, and resources to draw on getting started in the publishing industry. I kept writing, and I kept submitting, and around the time I was finishing up my degree in psychology at York University, I'd had several short story sales to ezines, print magazines, and anthologies. But all along I knew novels were what I really wanted to focus on, so I could not have been more excited when an agent offered to represent Give Up the Ghost and my book publishing journey really began
Lizabeth Zindel - December 13
http://www.megancrewe.com
I finished my first (very bad) novel when I was 14, and started submitting short stories to magazines around the same time. I was lucky to have teachers who encouraged me, and resources to draw on getting started in the publishing industry. I kept writing, and I kept submitting, and around the time I was finishing up my degree in psychology at York University, I'd had several short story sales to ezines, print magazines, and anthologies. But all along I knew novels were what I really wanted to focus on, so I could not have been more excited when an agent offered to represent Give Up the Ghost and my book publishing journey really began
Lizabeth Zindel - December 13
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| Lizabeth Zindel |
Click here to see the video chat with Lizabeth Zindel (Google Apps login required)
Gayle Forman - December 8
Forman won the 2009 NAIBA Book of the Year Awards and is a 2010 Indie Choice Honor Award winner for If I Stay. In 2002, she and her husband Nick took a trip around the world. From her journeys, she garnered a wealth of experiences and information which later served as a basis for her first book a travelogue You Can't Get There From Here: A Year On The Fringes Of A Shrinking World.
Click here to see the video chat with Gayle Forman (Google Apps login required)
Kathi Appelt - December 2
Kathi Applet spoke to three of Mr. Kelley's classes on December 2. Her book, "The Underneath" is a Newberry Honor Winner, National Book Award Finalist, NY Times Bestseller, ALA Notable Book, Amazon.com #1 Book of the Year.
Click here to see the video chat with Kathi Applet (Google Apps login required)
Jessica Burkhart - November 17
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| Jessica Burkhart |
Click here to see the video chat with Jessica Burkhart (Google Apps login required)
Mitali Perkins - October 27
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| Mitali Perkins |
Click here to see the video chat with Mitali Perkins (Google Apps login required)
Here is a list the upcoming authors speaking to our Creative Writing classes through Skype and in person:.
3/21 or 4/14 Pam Bachorz (Candor)
http://www.pambachorz.com/
In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town’s founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause. But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar’s built a business sabotaging his father’s scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they’re turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks? Then he meets Nia, the girl he can’t stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more.
4/4 or 4/11 Jacqueline Kelly (The Evolution of Calpernia Tate)
http://www.jacquelinekelly.com/
A charming and inventive story of a child struggling to find her identity at the turn of the 20th century. As the only girl in an uppercrust Texas family of seven children, Calpurnia, 11, is expected to enter young womanhood with all its trappings of tight corsets, cookery, and handiwork. Unlike other girls her age, Callie is most content when observing and collecting scientific specimens with her grandfather. Bemoaning her lack of formal knowledge, he surreptitiously gives her a copy of The Origin of Species and Callie begins her exploration of the scientific method and evolution, eventually happening upon the possible discovery of a new plant species.
5/4 Kimberly Willis Holt (The Water Seeker)
http://www.kimberlywillisholt.com/
Stretched over 20 years and 2,000 miles, award-winning author Holt's latest novel is a sweeping story of westward expansion. It is a coming-of-age story, shaped by the trials a father and son face and the influences of friends, relatives, and loves, is a well-developed character study.
5/25 Christina Meldrum (Madapple)
Christina Meldrum received her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and political science from the University of Michigan. After working in grassroots development in Africa, she earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She interned with the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked as a litigator for the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and is on the advisory board of WOW, an organization that helps grow women-led businesses in West Africa.
Read the book critics have called "spellbinding," "mesmerizing," "exquisite," "and "extraordinary." Madapple tells the story of Maren Hellig and her 16-year-old daughter Aslaug, who live off the land in rural Maine, foraging for wild plants that nourish them physically and spiritually. The pair's mysterious existence is laid bare when Aslaug has to stand trial for her mother's murder.
Addictive, thought-provoking, and shocking, Madapple is a page-turning exploration of human nature and divine intervention--and of the darkest corners of the human soul.
3/21 or 4/14 Pam Bachorz (Candor)
http://www.pambachorz.com/
In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town’s founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause. But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar’s built a business sabotaging his father’s scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they’re turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks? Then he meets Nia, the girl he can’t stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more.
4/4 or 4/11 Jacqueline Kelly (The Evolution of Calpernia Tate)
http://www.jacquelinekelly.com/
A charming and inventive story of a child struggling to find her identity at the turn of the 20th century. As the only girl in an uppercrust Texas family of seven children, Calpurnia, 11, is expected to enter young womanhood with all its trappings of tight corsets, cookery, and handiwork. Unlike other girls her age, Callie is most content when observing and collecting scientific specimens with her grandfather. Bemoaning her lack of formal knowledge, he surreptitiously gives her a copy of The Origin of Species and Callie begins her exploration of the scientific method and evolution, eventually happening upon the possible discovery of a new plant species.
5/4 Kimberly Willis Holt (The Water Seeker)
http://www.kimberlywillisholt.com/
Stretched over 20 years and 2,000 miles, award-winning author Holt's latest novel is a sweeping story of westward expansion. It is a coming-of-age story, shaped by the trials a father and son face and the influences of friends, relatives, and loves, is a well-developed character study.
5/25 Christina Meldrum (Madapple)
Christina Meldrum received her Bachelor of Arts in religious studies and political science from the University of Michigan. After working in grassroots development in Africa, she earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She interned with the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked as a litigator for the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and is on the advisory board of WOW, an organization that helps grow women-led businesses in West Africa.
Read the book critics have called "spellbinding," "mesmerizing," "exquisite," "and "extraordinary." Madapple tells the story of Maren Hellig and her 16-year-old daughter Aslaug, who live off the land in rural Maine, foraging for wild plants that nourish them physically and spiritually. The pair's mysterious existence is laid bare when Aslaug has to stand trial for her mother's murder.
Addictive, thought-provoking, and shocking, Madapple is a page-turning exploration of human nature and divine intervention--and of the darkest corners of the human soul.
