Authors’ Booking Service is pleased to announce that author Heather Hartt-Sussman is now scheduling visits in the Greater Toronto Area. 
 
Heather would be delighted to visit to your school or library. Her rate is $200 per session with no travel charge within the GTA. Heather suggests gearing readings to an age-appropriate audience (JK through 3).

Heather’s picture book, Noni Says No, has been nominated by the Ontario Library Association for a Blue Spruce Award in their Forest of Reading initiative. Her other critically acclaimed picture book, Nana’s Getting Married, can also be read at the same time.

Here’s what Kirkus Review said about Noni Says No: “Here is a fine book that explores how to be a friend without being a doormat… Young readers trying to figure out the challenges of friendship and teachers trying to shore up the timid will find a new friend in Noni." And the Winnipeg Free Press said of Nana’s Getting Married: “Hartt-Sussman…not only captures a child’s feelings of betrayal, but does it in a fun way.”

  
  

Published Works

Noni Says No, Tundra, 2011

Nana’s Getting Married, Tundra, 2010

 

Awards and Nominations

For Noni Says No

• Short-listed for the 2012 Blue Spruce Award

Presentation Details

Grades JK – 3: (approximately 30 minutes) I like not only to read the book in question, but also discuss the theme. In the case of Noni Says No, I ask the kids to become storytellers and describe times in their lives when they found it hard to say no to a friend. We discuss the reasons we all find it hard to say no at times, and we discuss how it really is such a short, seemingly simple word that can, in fact, pack a powerful punch. I like to show the kids how the text and the art came into being and often bring rough sketches as well as the final art to demonstrate the process of creating a picture book. Then I read and encourage further questions.

In my opinion, kids ask the best questions – better than the journalists who have interviewed me. They have a keen sense of observation and are not restricted by formalities. I try to let kids know that we all, each and every one of us, have lives from which to glean a multitude of stories. And finally, I try to make our time together fun and entertaining.

What I need: my books, my art and a microphone only if the audience is over 60 kids. I have no limit to the size of an audience. The more the merrier.