Authors’ Booking
Service is pleased to announce that children’s author Kristin Butcher is now
scheduling visits to Ontario schools for the first two weeks of May,
2010.
Kristin
would love to plan a visit to schools or libraries within driving
distance of Toronto. Her rate is $250 (plus GST) per session. A
full day (3 sessions) is $650 (plus GST). For travel outside the
greater Toronto area, standard kilometre rates apply.
A former
teacher, Kristin has been writing full-time since 1997 and currently
has fifteen published works, with three more scheduled for 2010. Her
books are aimed at audiences from seven to eighteen and include fiction
as well as non-fiction.
In addition
to writing, Kristin enjoys visiting classrooms/libraries and offering
writing workshops for children and adults.
Kristen is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada, and so schools or
libraries wishing to invite her may be eligible for a travel and fee
subsidy to offset the cost of her visit. Contact us for details of this
program.
Brian
Russell, Librarian at Royal Oak Middle School in Victoria says,
“Kristin’s joy of writing comes
through in her presentations. I believe budding writers are able to
relate to her descriptions of why she loves to write and how that
motivation has been with her since she was a youngster… I have no
hesitation in saying that, when choosing a guest author to make a
presentation to your group, Kristin Butcher is a wise choice, a strong
presenter, and a speaker with a powerful message to share.”
Lynn Johnson
at St. John Bosco School says,
“On behalf of the staff and
students, please accept our thanks and appreciation for your terrific
presentations. Already I have over 7 holds on each title of your
books!... The students have expressed their enthusiasm for you, your
work and the diversity of the writings. The 'visuals' made quite an
impact as well, and clarified some confusion as to the writing process
translating ideas into words. Overall, you made them realize that
writers are real people with real concerns that everyone can identify
with.”
________________________________________________________________
Published
Works:
The
Runaways
(1997)
Nominated
for the 1998 Silver Birch Award
Canadian
Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 1998 selection
The
Gramma War
(2001)
Nominated
for the 2004 Red Cedar Award
Winner of
the 2003 Chocolate Lily Award (3rd place)
2002 OLA
Best Bet Book
Canadian
Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 2002 selection
Canadian
Library Association’s Book of the Year Notable in 2002
Nominated
for the 2002 IODE Violet Downey Book for Children
Cairo
Kelly and the Mann (2002)
Nominated
for the 2004 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award
Nominated
for the 2004 Chocolate Lily Award
Nominated
for the 2003 Canadian Library Association’s Children's Book of the Year
Award
Canadian
Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 2003 selection
2003 OLA
Best Bet Book
The
Hemingway Tradition
(2002)
Canadian
Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 2003 selection
Selected for
Resource Links’
List of Best Books of 2003
Named to the
2002 PSLA YA Top Forty Fiction Titles
The
Trouble with Liberty
(2003)
Canadian
Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 2004 selection
Zee's'
Way
(2004)
Winner of
the 2006 Chocolate Lily Award
Nominated
for the 2005 American Library Association’s Quick Picks
Nominated
for the 2005 Sunshine State Young Reader's Award
Named to the
2004-2005 PSLA YA Top Forty Fiction List
Chat Room
(2006)
Named to the
2006 (VOYA) Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers list.
Selected for
Resource Links’
List of Best Books of 2006
Canadian
Children’s Book Centre Our Choice 2007 selection
Zach
& Zoe and the Bank Robber (2008)
Canadian
Children's Book Centre Best Books List 2009
Zach
& Zoe Bully and the Beagle (2009)
Return to
Bone Tree Hill
(2009)
Pharaohs
and Foot Soldiers: One Hundred Ancient Egyptian Jobs You Might Have
Desired or Dreaded
(2009)
Kristin's
Presentations:
Kristin
Butcher is currently offering a general talk on the writing process, as
well as two specialized presentations, each focusing on a different
book and targeting a different age group.
Pharaohs
and Foot Soldiers
Pharaohs and
Foot Soldiers takes readers from ages 9 to 12 on a walking tour through
the daily lives of ancient Egyptians. The book describes 100 of the
jobs people of the time might have done to earn their daily bread –
literally. After all, they were generally paid in grain.
In her
presentation, Kristin dramatizes some of these jobs with the help of a
mummy, an embalmer, death masks and coffins, brain extractors, and
other interesting items from ancient Egypt. Kids will be enchanted, AND
they'll learn lots of interesting stuff too.
Return to
Bone Tree Hill
Return to
Bone Tree Hill is a murder mystery for readers 12 and up that evolved
from a recurring dream – make that a nightmare – that Kristin
has had several times during her life. The dream forms the first
chapter of the novel, and after reading it to students, Kristin will
escort her audience through the tunnels of her mind to help them see
how a writer crafts a mystery. Without giving away the story, Kristin
will share some of the places her ideas came from and will invite
students to plot the mystery themselves.
This is an
opportunity for young people to see firsthand the inner workings of a
story. Of course, students will have to read the novel afterwards to
check out how closely the mystery they imagined matches the one Kristin
wrote.
Audience
size: 30 - 90 (Smaller groups allow for a more intimate
presentation.)
Workshops
available for grades 4 through to adult.
Maximum
number of participants per workshop: 25 for children; 45 for adults
Venues:
classroom, library, theatre (no gymnasiums, please) See my website for
suggestions on preparing for an author visit
Equipment
and other requirements: table, overhead projector
