Award winning author Lydia Lukidis, recipient of a Silver Birch Express honor (Forest of Reading) Award, SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the North American division, and multiple Cybils Award nominations.
Rates:For in-person workshops (Montreal and surrounding areas)- $300 for one sixty-minute session, $450 for two, $600 for three, $750 for four, plus a travel fee of $0.50/km.
For virtual workshops- $200 for a session of up to sixty minutes, $100 for each additional session on the same day, up to four sessions in one day. Flexible and able to accommodate schedules in a range of time zones.
Lydia Lukidis is an award-winning author of 60+ trade and educational books for children. Her titles include UP, UP HIGH: The Secret Poetry of Earth’s Atmosphere (Capstone, 2025), DANCING THROUGH SPACE: Dr. Mae Jemison Soars to New Heights (Albert Whitman, 2024), and DEEP, DEEP, DOWN: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench (Capstone, 2023) which was a Crystal Kite winner for the Canada and North America division, Forest of Reading Silver Birch Express Honor, a Cybils Award nominee, and winner of the Dogwood Readers Award. A science enthusiast from a young age, Lydia now incorporates her studies in science and her everlasting curiosity into her books. She also enjoys writing books with social emotional learning (SEL) themes such as friendship, empathy, and gratitude.
Workshops:
Lydia has 15 years experience working with children in elementary schools. She’s passionate about spreading the love for literacy and her presentations are dynamic and lively. The goal is to entertain and educate in a way that illuminates the magic of the written word.
Lydia offers writing workshops that tie in with educational curriculum for students from kindergarten to grade six. Each workshop begins with an initial presentation where she discusses her writing process giving particular attention to the art of editing. This will include some fun literacy games. Lydia will then help students brainstorm and start their own writing process. These workshops are an excellent opportunity for students to develop good writing and cognitive skills, improve literacy, and tap into creative self-expression. Study guides and follow up activities will be provided.
The workshops are tailored for each grade, here are the various options:
- Story Making 101 (1-6)
- Character Development (K-6)
- Fairy Tale Magic (1-4)
- The Power of Mythology (4-6)
- Persuasive Writing (2-6)
- The Art of Poetry (2-6)
- Personal Narratives (2-6)
- Crafting Nonfiction (2-6)
- Let’s Write a Book (2-6, a special 3-part workshop where students communally write and illustrate a book that Lydia will print)
- Author Reading with Puppetry Workshop (K-3)
- Advanced Narrative Building (6)
(35 students maximum for in-person, 100 for virtual)
Presentations:
- Sparking Interest through STEM: This presentation will show children that STEM is not only all around us, but it’s also fun and exciting! (K-3)
- Dream Big and Take the Leap: This presentation will highlight the perseverance required to achieve your dreams and how seeming “failures” can help you carve your path to success. The goal is to inspire students to dream big! (3-6)
(100 students maximum)
Suggested Reading:
Grades 2-5:
DEEP, DEEP, DOWN: The Secret Underwater Poetry of the Mariana Trench is a lyrical spare-text STEM picture book that takes readers on a journey to where few humans have ever been. The narrative debunks scary myths about this mysterious place with surprising and beautiful truths about life at Earth’s deepest point.
(Themes: STEM, deep sea, biodiversity, conservation, oceanography, biology, geology)
Kindergarten-3:
Grades 2-5:
UP, UP HIGH: The Secret Poetry of Earth’s Atmosphere: Look up–into the blue and beyond. What do you see? The sky–our atmosphere–may seem empty or invisible. But is it? Using spare, lyrical language, author Lydia Lukidis takes readers on an imagined journey up, up high to discover the surprising and wondrous things flying, floating, and happening between the treetops and the stars in this STEM-based picture book.
Themes: STEM, weather, atmospheres, clouds
Grades 2-5:
DANCING THROUGH SPACE: Dr. Mae Jemison Soars to New Heights is the true story of Dr. Mae Jemison, whose lifelong passions of science and dance prepared her to become a trailblazing astronaut, making her the first Black woman to travel into outer space. Throughout it all, she pursued her love of dance.
Themes: STEM, space, perseverance, breaking barriers, art meets science
Requirements:
Lydia will require a smart board with functional speakers for a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation. Students will need pencils, erasers, loose-leaf paper, and sometimes pencil crayons and markers. In order to ensure a successful workshop, it is essential that at least one educator/librarian remain in class for the duration of the workshop. For larger presentations in-person, she will require a table, microphone, and a proper PA system.
Lydia also provides manuscript critiques for fiction and nonfiction.