Speaking

LOOK CLOSER! A Signature Learning Experience for Grades K-3

Focus: Close observation, discovery, nonfiction, and author craft

Time:
K–1st: 20–30 minutes, including Q&A (best if prepped in advance)
2nd–3rd: 30–45 minutes, including Q&A

What can we discover when we look again?

Young children are natural noticers. When encouraged to look again, they often spot something unexpected, and one discovery can lead to another. In this energetic, interactive ELA + STEM program, early childhood educator and award-winning author Carrie Pearson invites students to investigate alongside her. Using intriguing images, props, playful prompts, and examples from her published books, Carrie guides students to notice closely, ask questions, make connections, and share what they discover.

Look Closer is a complete author experience drawing from Carrie’s published books, research, and writing process. However, schools may pair the visit with a particular authored title. Strong pairings for this presentation include Stretch to the Sun, A Warm Winter Tail, and A Cool Summer Tail. A book pairing can support classroom learning, build excitement around a school-wide read, connect with student interests, or deepen students’ experience with a book they already know.

Carrie would love to visit your community. For more on this presentation including curriculum benchmarks, fees, and logistics, please contact How Now Booking. 

“Your talk was informative and engaging. You had the students attention, even the kindergarteners who had just returned from a field trip!” L. Beird, Library/Media Assistant
Saginaw Township Community Schools, Saginaw, Michigan

A Signature Learning Experience for Grades 4–5

Focus: Reading, researching, nonfiction writing, and author craft

Time: 40–60 minutes, including Q&A

How do facts become understanding?

Facts are only the beginning. In this energetic, interactive ELA + STEM program, award-winning author and early childhood educator, Carrie Pearson takes students behind the scenes of her published work to explore how nonfiction writers use reliable information and craft to build true stories. Images, research materials, and examples from Carrie’s books reveal the questions, connections, and choices involved in shaping a true story from the facts.

Connect Ideas is a complete author experience drawing from Carrie’s published books, research, and writing process. However, schools may pair the visit with a particular authored title. Strong pairings include Stretch to the Sun, Virginia Wouldn’t Slow Down!, and Real Princesses Change the World. A book pairing can support classroom learning, connect with student interests, build excitement around a school-wide read, or deepen students’ experience with a book they already know.

Carrie would love to visit your community. For more on this presentation including curriculum benchmarks, fees, and logistics, please contact How Now Booking. 

SEE DIFFERENTLY: A Signature Learning Experience for Grades 6–8

Focus: Inquiry, interpretation, nonfiction, and author craft

Time: 45–60 minutes, including Q&A

What changes when we understand more?

New knowledge and unexpected connections can broaden, deepen, and sometimes change our understanding. In this energetic, interactive ELA + STEM program, award-winning author Carrie Pearson takes students behind the scenes of her published work to explore how research shapes a nonfiction writing project. A new fact can reveal a pattern. A connection can provide context. Evidence can change the way we see a familiar subject—or lead a writer somewhere unexpected.

See Differently is a complete author experience drawing from Carrie’s published books, research, and writing process. However, schools may pair the visit with a particular authored title. Strong pairings include Virginia Wouldn’t Slow Down!, Real Princesses Change the World, Stretch to the Sun, and Watch Them Grow: The Fascinating Science of Animal Beginnings. A book pairing can support classroom learning, connect with student interests, build excitement around a school-wide read, or deepen students’ experience with a book they already know.

Carrie would love to visit your community. For more on this presentation including curriculum benchmarks, fees, and logistics, please contact How Now Booking. 

Are you a librarian who has always wanted to write and traditionally publish a picture book? Have any of these internal messages created a roadblock?

• “It’s too daunting” “I don’t have time” “I’m a librarian, not a writer”
• “I don’t know how to [insert appropriate phrase] come up with a good idea, format a manuscript, get good feedback, pick a publisher”
• “I have a draft but it sits on my computer/in my drawer because I don’t know what to do next”

In this workshop, Carrie will take you through the process of creating a first draft of a picture book including: idea generation (with an eye toward market sensibilities),  parts of a picture book and why understanding picture book format is important for the writing process, page turns and PB forms, creating a book dummy for non-artists, loglines and how they can keep you on track throughout the writing process.  Along the way, we’ll take time to apply what we discuss so attendees will leave the breakout having made solid steps forward toward an outline, first draft, or better draft.

Finding the right agent has often been compared to finding a spouse–hopefully, they will be your lifelong business partner, a creative collaborator, your negotiations champion, and eventually the go-between for difficult conversations with your publisher. But finding an agent can be overwhelming. Where do you start? Join Carrie Pearson for a presentation focused on preparing for and finding the right agent fit for you and your work. It’s not enough to find an agent; the important work is to find your agent match. Carrie’s experience spans 15 years in the children’s book industry. She’ll share why she’s had three agents (third one’s the charm!) and help you think differently about how to find your agent match.

A one-hour, fast paced, nuts and bolts session for children’s literature writers and writer/illustrators who want to be published — and sooner rather than later. Like every industry, children’s book publishing has conventions. If we follow them, we are one step closer to being part of the in-crowd. Participants will learn necessary standards for traditional publishing (formatting, important terms, word counts for categories, what’s pushy, what’s polite), how the industry works (role of agent vs. editor, types of publishing houses, large house vs. small vs. regional), and how creators get paid (advance, royalties). Lecture format with visuals, a take-away, and Q & A.

This is a session for writers wanting to break into today’s exciting and growing nonfiction market. The rise in innovative and engaging nonfiction has opened a world of possibilities but also confusion. For instance, how do we label manuscripts that blend true information with fictional characters or settings or invented dialogue? Participants will walk away with a clear definition of different types of nonfiction and identify what type they might like to write or what they’ve drafted already.  Lecture format with visuals, a take-away, and Q & A.