Author Visits – What can they bring to schools?

By Jo Franklin, Children’s Author

Author visits can be a great way to give reading and writing a boost in any school. A 2013 survey by the Society of Authors confirmed that author visits can promote reading for pleasure, wider reading for all abilities and inspire creative writing.

Check out the full article here – Author Visits in Schools Survey

I’m an author but I’m not a trained teacher. I don’t know what the restrictions of the literacy curriculum are. I certainly don’t know what a subordinated fronted adverbial preposition is. But I do have a passion for words and stories, especially my own, and I find that my enthusiasm rubs off on classes of confident and reluctant readers.

Author Talks St Alphege

A visit to St Alphege school in Solihull

Children see published authors as celebrities. As someone who has never appeared on television or spoken on the radio. I find it totally amazing that having a name printed on a book cover is enough to give an author kudos in today’s celebrity led culture. Supplement that with a website and maybe even a video or two and any author can be come a celebrity for the day.

Children take notices of celebrities, so listening to an author talk passionately about how they became a writer, were inspired to write a particular book, how many words they write in a day or books they have read in a year or how many unpublished manuscripts they have under their bed will inspire and enthuse their young audience.

In the Society of Authors report above, Malorie Blackman says

Author visits by Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman

‘With over two decades of first-hand experience regarding school visits, I have seen and learnt for myself just how much of a difference author and illustrator visits can truly make. Such visits inspire not just reading and writing, but also fire a child’s imagination and lead to previously reluctant readers actively seeking out stories.’

I love to talk to my readers in schools, libraries and festivals. If you would like me to visit your literary community then please get in touch.

 

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