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Authors’
Booking Service is pleased to announce that children’s author Raquel Rivera
is now scheduling visits to Ontario schools for the
coming school year.
Raquel will
be in Toronto on January 28, 29, 30 and May 13, 14, 15, 2009.
For inquiries from northern Ontario communities, please contact for
any date and she will do her best to accommodate.
She would love to plan a visit to your
school or library. Her rate is $250 per session (with a sliding
fee for multiple workshops/presentations in one location), plus travel
from Toronto city centre.
Raquel loves
to
travel and meet people from different cultures and backgrounds. She’s
lived in Malaysia, Singapore, Spain and the United States. She and
her family now make their home in Montreal, Quebec. Raquel’s
most recent trip was to the Nahanni region of the Northwest
Territories. There she met people of many small communities, who
generously shared with her their time, knowledge, food and homes.
Here’s
what Paula Brauer-Shuster, Grade Three
English Teacher, FACE School, Montrealhosts
had to say about this author:
“[The children] learned how to be creative
writers and how to improve their writing through editing and revision.
It was a wonderful and stimulating experience for all of us.”
Jeannette Lambert, Advanced
English Committee, Classe Orange, École Arc-En-Ciel, Montreal, says:
“Her reading of Arctic Adventures was
lively and successful in engaging the entire group—quite an
accomplishment considering the wide range of [English] fluency
among the children… Afterwards, Raquel led a short workshop among the
bilingual students in which they invented their own story ideas and
made illustrations to accompany them. This made a great impression with
the children and many of them continued the project at home.”
Raquel is a
member of The Writers' Union of Canada, and so schools wishing to
invite her may be eligible for a travel and fee subsidy to off-set
the cost of her visit. Contact us for details of this program.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Published
Works
Tuk and the
Whale, young readers’ chapter book, historical fiction.
Toronto: Groundwood Books, May 2008.
Orphan Ahwak,
young readers’ novel, historical fiction. Victoria: Orca Book
Publishers, November 2007.
Arctic
Adventures: Tales from the Lives of Inuit Artists,
non-fiction
picture book. Toronto: Groundwood Books, June 2007.
Awards and
Nominations
Tuk and
The
Whale: Shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation
Awards,
Children’s and Young Adults literature, 2008. Nominated for the
Silver Birch Express award, 2009.
Orphan Ahwak:
Winner of
QWF Prize for Children's and YA literature, 2008. Shortlisted for
the Rocky Mountain Book Award, 2009.
Arctic
Adventures: Tales from the Lives of Inuit Artists: Received CCBC
Best
Books for Kids & Teens (Starred Selection) 2008. USBBY
Outstanding International Books (Grades 3-5), 2008. ResourceLinks
Best of 2007 (Grades K-6). Quill & Quire’s “Best of
2007”(Children’s).
Raquel’s Presentation Details
One of the
delightful perks of being an author of children’s lit is that I get to
connect with young readers and writers. It means a great deal to me
when we can discuss, work and play together on a subject of mutual
interest—great stories, and what goes into making them.
When I am booked
for a school visit, I like to have a brief consultation with the
teacher or librarian. If there are any themes that they are currently
emphasizing in their own curriculum, I may be able to tweak the
direction of a presentation or a workshop to reinforce these, or even
design a new program. Readings may include up to an auditorium’s worth
of students, if a sound system is provided. Workshops are designed for
a smaller group of students; a maximum of 40 participants can be
comfortably accommodated. Each participant needs a workspace, paper and
pen/pencil (for the younger groups, markers are also recommended) and I
require a blackboard/whiteboard. I also request a large enough common
space that we may gather together for the group work. A free space on
the classroom floor works well, for example.
Workshops may be
one- or two-sessions long (up to 50 minutes per session). For a
two-session workshop, I request a good size break in between
sessions—at least a lunch, if not a day or a week.
Here are some of
the general themes of workshops I do with primary school children:
Authors &
Illustrators: the fine art of story-making (grades 1 and 2)
What Happens Next?
Great Ideas and The First Draft (grades 3-6)
Be The Editor:
revision is easy and fun (grades 3-6)
Write What You
Don’t Know: Research in Writing (grades 5-6)
Analysing &
Reviewing: is it Great, Bad, or Somewhere in Between? (grades 5-6)
In all workshops,
I like to leave plenty of room for questions and contributions from the
participants. I also make sure to work in lots of personal anecdotes
about my work process and my experiences as a professional writer. From
grade 3 and up, I treat workshop participants as young colleagues who
are beginning their own writing careers (which they are).
In all workshops I
will introduce one or more of my books. It is not necessary that the
children have read my books to participate. I will bring information
about buying my books that they may take home with them.
With some
organization, it is possible for parents to place book orders before
the school visit. I can help arrange for this, if required. In this
case, the children may take home signed copies.
Grades I
will
present to: Grades one to six
Is this
flexible? Yes, I have presented to children as young as preschoolers
and would be happy to present to secondary school students, as a
*children’s* book author, if there was interest. I am also
happy to give readings to mixed-age groups, whenever necessary.
Maximum number of
students per session: 40, for workshops; larger groups, for readings.
Is this
flexible? No, not really.
Workshops
available? Yes, for grades one through six
Maximum
participants for workshop: 40 participants
Venues
you’re
comfortable in: Comfortable in most venues, including outdoor
venues.
Equipment
requirements: I keep my presentations
low-tech: blackboard/whiteboard, writing/drawing materials. I provide
samples and souvenirs for in-class handling.
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