An Author in Your E-Mail
RSSThere's an easy, inexpensive way to connect kids with their favorite authors
By Galina Golant -- School Library Journal, 06/01/2004
Librarians and teachers know that helping kids develop a life-long love of reading is one of the most important things they can do. But let's face it, it's tough to come up with creative ways to get kids excited about books. One of the easiest ways to transform apathetic students into enthusiastic readers is to invite a children's book creator to your school or library.
But there's a catch: authors and illustrators can charge anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a visit, and most schools don't have deep enough pockets to host more than one or two sessions a year. That's why I recommend a simple, cheap alternative: creating your own online author program.
Of course, communicating with authors by e-mail can never take the place of an actual, live author dropping in on your classroom or library, but it can certainly supplement most visiting-artists' programs. Plus, a virtual program has two undeniable advantages over a more traditional approach: it's absolutely free and kids can communicate with children's book creators worldwide.
How did I first discover this idea? To be perfectly honest, the idea found me. A few months after I had published a picture book, Play Checkers With Me (Writers' Collective, 2003), cowritten with Lisa Grant, I received an e-mail message from Jessica, a first-grade student at Queen of Peace School in Shamokin, PA. Her teacher, Mary Major, had encouraged her class to contact 150 children's book authors during the school year. With Major's help, the students had searched the Internet, looking for the Web sites and e-mail addresses of children's book authors—and found mine.
Of course, I was delighted to hear from my potential readers and gladly answered their questions: Is this your first book? (Yes.) What inspired you? (Watching my older son teaching his younger brother to play checkers.)
Getting started is easy. There are a lot of child-friendly Web sites that provide contact information for popular authors and illustrators. A good place to start is the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' site (www.scbwi.org), which offers a dozen helpful links to assist in your search for picture-book authors. Marilee's Pages (marilee.us/index.html), one of my favorites, features wonderful links to creators of picture books and novels, including Eve Bunting, Sharon Creech, and Lois Ehlert. The Official Eric Carle Web Site (www.eric-carle.com) is a gorgeous site that provides a lot of fascinating information about the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Philomel, 1981). The site offers an especially helpful bulletin board called the Caterpillar Exchange, where children, parents, and teachers can submit their ideas and questions about Carle's books. Plus, the site's "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions" page will give your students some good examples of the types of questions that they may want to ask their own favorite authors.
Since online security is a major concern for educators involved with young children, I suggest that librarians use their own e-mail accounts to submit their students' questions to children's book authors. Younger children can submit their messages to the teacher or librarian, while older kids can type in their own notes before sending them off through an adult-supervised e-mail account. Teachers or librarians should read all of the responses before sharing them with students.
My online visit was such a hit that Major asked me to help her class with another project involving how different countries celebrate Christmas. The children were fascinated to learn that Christmas in my native Russia is celebrated on January 7 and that in addition to our Santa Claus, Grandpa Frost (ded moroz), there's an old lady (babushka) who brings presents to all kids while looking for her own lost children.
Online communication between kids and authors is extremely rewarding for everyone. It brings books and authors closer to children, and encourages them to read—and even perhaps inspires them to one day become writers or illustrators.
| Author Information |
| Galina Golant is a math instructor at Portland Community College in Oregon. |
