Loris Lesynski

Authors’ Booking Service is pleased to announce that children’s author/illustrator and poet Loris Lesynski is now scheduling visits to Ontario schools and libraries. Please contact us early for available dates to avoid disappointment.

Loris has spoken at teachers’ conferences, literary events, children’s festivals and who knows what all else all over Canada and the USA. Speaking to teachers about using the powerful tool that rhythm can be in the classroom and how to use rhyme and beat to encourage a love of language and creative writing in students is probably her favourite thing to do, and the best use of all this experience with conferences and with kids.

A half day with Loris:

2 presentations each about an hour,usually spanning lunch hour, each session with time for questions.

I also really enjoy holding an informal (free) writing workshop at lunch with 8-10 interested 3rd graders.

Cost:

$600.00 plus mileage & HST
(includes handouts and 2 free books)

Format open to alterations.

Reading fees for single sessions, special events, Family Reading Nights and workshops

can be discussed.

Loris Lesynski is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, so schools wishing to invite her may be eligible for a travel and fee subsidy to off-set the cost of her visit. For details of this program, please contact us.

“Loris Lesynski’s goal in life must be to make poetry look as much fun as anyone could ever want to have ... A random, manic sense of fun pervades in this collection [Cabbage-head].” The Globe and Mail

Publications

Loris Lesynski has written 6 books of rhythmic, funny (yet deep, she insists) poems for children ages 5-12, and 5 tightly-plotted picture books, illustrating most of them and working with the incredibly funny (in illustration, not in Real Life) Michael Martchenko on the others. 

Currently she’s working on a book of soccer poems, several pages of which will feature selected poems written by actual children, so if you’d like your kids to be part of this, let her know.

MOST RECENTLY...

Reissued edition of the classic BOY SOUP
Written by Loris Lesynski, illustrated incredibly wonderfully by Michael Martchenko; Annick Press

SHOE SHAKES Poems for preschoolers written by Loris Lesynski, illustrated by Michael Martchenko; Annick Press (NOTE: The bookjacket of the hardcover edition is a poster on the reverse side.)

“I DID IT BECAUSE...”: HOW A POEM HAPPENS

64 pages of selected favourite poems by Loris Lesynski

20 pages of writing instruction and inspiration for 8-12-year-olds

illustrated by Michael Martchenko; Annick Press

PICTURE BOOKS WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED BY LORIS LESYNSKI:

Boy Soup Annick Press 1996

Ogre Fun Annick Press, 1997

Catmagic Annick Press, 1998

Night School Annick Press, 2000

Rocksy Annick Press, 2002

COLLECTIONS OF POEMS

Dirty Dog Boogie Annick Press, 1999

Nothing Beats A Pizza Annick Press, 2002

Cabbagehead Annick Press, 2003

Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten Annick Press 2004 

Shoe Shakes Annick Press, 2007

“I Did It Because…”: How A Poem Happens Annick Press, 2006

ILLUSTRATED BY LORIS LESYNSKI

“Brainstorm” by Wendy Ashton Shimkofsky, Pembroke Publishers, 1997

“What a Story!” by Paul Kropp, Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2002

SHORT STORY 

“I Don’t Have To Tell You Everything” in Secrets: Stories Selected by Marthe Jocelyn Tundra Books, 2005

Awards and Nominations

Boy Soup
100 Best Books List, Toronto Public Library

Catmagic 
Ruth Schwartz Award finalist
Resource Links The Year’s Best List

Dirty Dog Boogie
Resource Links The Year’s Best List

Nothing Beats A Pizza
IODE Book Award finalist
ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award finalist
Mr. Christie’s Book Award finalist
Rocky Mountain Book Award finalist

“I Did It Because…”: How A Poem Happens

Silver Birch Award nominee

Presentation Details

• Lively participatory “Echo Reading” of her poems and stories —  CD sampler sent in advance — an excellent way for kids to practise reciting without self-consciousness and with lots of pleasurable awareness of the rhythm of language.

• Love of words and literacy woven into the recitation, pleasure of language and laughter unavoidable.

• Encouragement of children’s own creative  writing, reciting and drawing, with tips on how stick with it. She lets them know in no uncertain terms that frustration, impatience and self-doubt with revision are normal normal normal and every single author, illustrator, rock star or basketball pro has had to go through lots of it with their particular “work.”

• Author’s early childhood writing and drawings shown. 

• How to capture your ideas when they seem to be so fast and so slippery.

• Original art shown from rough thumbnail sketches through to the finished illustrations. “Colour key” shown with acetate layers of the four primary colours used in printing Loris’s book — AND every book in the room — AND every poster, cereal box, CD case and magazine they’ve ever seen (just t-shirts and candy wrappers not always printed this way). 

• Family Reading Night themes and ideas are available on request — Loris has done dozens of these

• Posters sent to school beforehand so the students really know who’s coming

• Library setting is the best, 2-3 classes. Name tags make an enormous positive difference for interaction and questions, if you have time to make them. Grades 2-6 preferred. Writing workshops always possible. 

• Loris often sends a writing project idea or suggestion in advance, optional, possibly something that ties in with her own stories or poems, so the kids know she will read their work, usually displayed on the wall. Always wonderful if her poems can be read as part of morning announcements for a few days or week before she’s coming.

• And here's something interesting that some clever 7th and 8th grade teachers have done: let their students read Zigzag: Zoems for Zindergarten or Shoe Shakes, and then ask them to write poems for little kids. This is actually a writing exercise more welcome than a sonnet, and they'll be astonished at how easy it isn't. Great opportunity to use and have fun with wordplay, awareness of sound, and rhythm.

Grades I will present to: Grades 2-6 preferred, but I'll visit Kindergarten separately if desired.

Maximum number of students per session: The smaller the group (30-60 children), the more they get out of it. I'll do readings to mobs when it's necessary.

Venues you’re comfortable in: Presentations go best in the library, when the students are on the floor and close together. Vast concrete gyms are not easy to give readings in, and half the kids, in my experience, tune out.

Is this flexible? Yes. I'm open to discussing any alternatives necessary for whatever the school is planning.

List any equipment or other requirements you have: A real chair (not a rocker, and a stool would be great if you have it); a long table or two small ones; microphone in a large space; water; chocolate.