Authors’ Booking Service is pleased to announce that
Toronto children’s author Tim Beiser, is now scheduling
visits to Ontario schools for the coming school year.
This author can arrange his schedule to appear any weekday.
Tim would love to plan a visit to your school or
library. His rate is $250 per session. There is no travel charge
within Toronto city limits. For travel outside Toronto the standard
kilometrage applies.
Tim is a member of The Writers' Union of Canada, and so
schools wishing to invite him may be eligible for a travel and fee
subsidy to offset the cost of his visit. Contact us for details of this
program.
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Published Works:
Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog, Tundra
Press 2009
The Politics of Bones, McClelland
& Stewart, 2005 (under the name J. Timothy Hunt)
Awards and Nominations
For Bradley McGogg:
Governor General’s Award Nomination, 2009 (Children’s Fiction
– Illustration)
Blue Spruce Fiction Nomination, 2009
CBA Libris Award Nomination,
2010 (Children’s Picture Book of the Year)
Canadian Toy Testing Council
Top 10 Books of the Year
For Politics of Bones:
Globe and Mail 100 Best Books of the Year,
2005
Canada Council for the Arts Creative Writing Grant
For Magazine Journalism:
Four Canadian National Magazine
Awards
James H. Carter Award
Mark Bastien Award
AJEMC Award (silver)
Gordon Sinclair Award
Chinese Community Award
Women’s Press Club of Toronto Award
Tim’s Presentation Details:
My presentations are often extemporaneous, based on the time
allowed, the size of the audience, and the venue – and they’re
always fun.
Here’s an example of a 45 minute presentation I often give:
- I started by telling the children the story of how Bradley
McGogg the Very Fine Frog came about, then I recite for them the
original comic poem that the book was based on.
- I read Bradley McGogg the Very Fine Frog aloud
while showing enlargements of the illustrations, and then we discuss
the differences between the original poem and the finished story.
- To further illustrate the amount of re-writing a manuscript
has to go through, I show a karaoke-style video and sing an original
song I crafted from several funny stanzas that were deleted from the
book with music by CBC radio producer David Carroll. I sing
fairly well.
- We discuss the basics of storytelling and identify the major
building blocks of narrative fiction, then I lead the entire group in
an audience participation improv where we create a new children’s story
from scratch.
- The presentation concludes with a puppet theatre production
of The Frog Prince with the aid of six children chosen from the
audience.
I would certainly be interested in creating other kinds of
entertaining presentations to fit the specific audience size, venue
size, or time limit desired.
Grades I will present to: Nursery to Grade 3
Is this flexible? Yes. Older children seem
to enjoy the process as much as the younger ones.
Number of students per session: 20-50
Is this flexible? Yes, I will consider a
larger group. Please discuss this with me.
Venues I am comfortable in: (classroom,
library, auditorium, gymnasium)
I am comfortable in all settings but I prefer to work in a
library or classroom. Gymnasiums are challenging both visually and
acoustically.
Equipment and other requirements:
- I use two Windows Media Player video files in my
presentation. I bring my own laptop and small computer projector, but
my projector isn’t very powerful. If a regular computer projector or tv
screen (or SmartBoard) is available, I would appreacite it.
- An amplified sound system (microphone for me) if the venue is
a gymnasium or auditorium.
