Debra Kempf Shumaker
Twitter Instagram
Debra Kempf Shumaker
dotted line

Experiment Author Visits

Author Visits

I love excit­ing kids about sci­ence and writ­ing! As a for­mer cor­po­rate train­er, I know the impor­tance of bring­ing ener­gy to a pre­sen­ta­tion, espe­cial­ly to an ele­men­tary school audience.

I offer both vir­tu­al and in-per­son author visits.

Down­load­able Author Vis­it PDF

Virtual School Visits

Full Day (three pre­sen­ta­tions from list below and book sale/signing, if desired): $300

Indi­vid­ual Pre­sen­ta­tion (from list below and book sale/signing, if desired): $125

Sim­ple Sto­ry Time with brief Q&A: $75

Storytime at Scrawl Books
Sto­ry­time at Scrawl Books, out­side dur­ing the pandemic

In-Person School Visits

Full Day (three pre­sen­ta­tions from list below and book sale/signing, if desired):

  • Local (with­in 40 miles of Ster­ling, VA): $700
  • Non-local (more than 40 miles from Ster­ling, VA) $900 PLUS trav­el expens­es. Schools are encour­aged to book vis­its togeth­er to share trav­el expenses.

Half Day (two con­sec­u­tive pro­grams and book sale/signing, if desired):

  • Only for schools with­in 20 miles of Ster­ling, VA: $400

Programs Offered

for grades K‑1:

Sim­ple Sto­ry Time:

  • An inter­ac­tive read-aloud of Freaky, Funky Fish or Tell Some­one
  • Q&A from teachers
  • About 20 minutes

Ani­mal Adaptations

  • Brief intro on com­mon fea­tures of fish that help them live in water
  • Inter­ac­tive read­ing of Freaky, Funky Fish: Odd Facts about Fas­ci­nat­ing Fish
  • Spe­cif­ic adap­ta­tion: com­pare the fins
  • Q&A (teacher select­ed ques­tions preferred)
  • About 30 — 45 minutes

for grades 2–3 and 4–5 (programs are similar but go a bit deeper for grades 4–5)

Ani­mal Adaptations

  • Brief intro on com­mon fea­tures of fish that help them live in water
  • Read­ing of Freaky, Funky Fish: Odd Facts about Fas­ci­nat­ing Fish with freaky, funky fish facts woven into reading
  • Spe­cif­ic adap­ta­tions: com­pare the fins
  • High-lev­el dis­cus­sion of research and revi­sion process in writing
  • Q&A with students
  • 45 — 60 minutes

Is It a Book Yet? From Idea to Pub­lished Book:

Fun, Inter­ac­tive Pre­sen­ta­tion on:

  • Brain­storm­ing and record­ing ideas
  • Research for non­fic­tion, his­tor­i­cal, or infor­ma­tion­al fiction
  • Draft­ing
  • Revis­ing and mak­ing your words sing (with exam­ples from my books)
  • Get­ting published
  • Q&A with students
  • 45 — 60 minutes

book signings

For all visits—virtual or in-person—we can do book sign­ings, if desired. There are sev­er­al ways to do this. We can:

  • order books through my local book­store. I will sign them and have them shipped to your school.
  • your class/school can order through a local book­store near your school and I can mail you signed book plates.
  • or we can use authorvisitcentral.com.

Testimonials:

“I love how Debra talked about the sci­ence and research behind mak­ing her book and the writ­ing that goes with it. I am look­ing for­ward to ref­er­enc­ing her vis­it through­out my teaching.”

- Beth Krae­mer, Kinder­garten Teacher, Van Hise Ele­men­tary, Madi­son, WI.

 

“My sec­ond grade stu­dents were engaged in learn­ing odd facts the entire time… on the last day of vir­tu­al school! Thank you for mak­ing learn­ing inter­ac­tive and fun. But most of all, thank you for inspir­ing my stu­dents to keep learn­ing, and to work hard at what­ev­er they are pas­sion­ate about.”

-Con­nie Rabe, 2nd Grade Teacher, Rod Kel­ley School, Gilroy, CA.

Library Programs

I offer sto­ry times for preschool and ele­men­tary school audiences—doing an inter­ac­tive read-aloud, sing a song with the kids, and do a craft of fish or pri­mates. (About 45 min. — 1 hr.)

For adults, I offer a series of writ­ing pro­grams on writ­ing pic­ture books—from pic­ture book basics, to revi­sion strate­gies, to query­ing for tra­di­tion­al pub­li­ca­tion. (About 1 hr.)

Debra Kempf Shumaker
Debra Kempf Shumaker

I am avail­able to present as a mem­ber of a pan­el, at library pro­grams or lit­er­a­cy events, and can cus­tomize my pro­grams for var­i­ous needs. Just reach out to me and we can chat.

Con­tact me with any ques­tions or to book a vis­it! I look for­ward to hear­ing from you!

Debra Shumaker footer
footer dotted line