What I Wish I'd Known: Gail's First-Ever School Visit

 by Gail Kuhnlein

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 — I was so happy to receive a “real” email through the contact link on my author website. It was from Michelle Cox, a Title I teacher at Brick Elementary School, Ypsilianti, inviting me to participate in their Literacy Night. Her enthusiasm radiated off the computer screen and it was contagious. 

We decided that I would read my book, How Happy Is a Lark?, twice over the course of the evening, which ran from 5 - 6:30 p.m. And that I’d lead the activity from the back of my book with the children. This was my first in-person school visit (I’d done one via Zoom to a school in North Carolina, where my niece is the curriculum coordinator) and I was both nervous and excited. I pushed myself, and it all ended up feeling very natural. Initially, I was in a small classroom just inside the main school entrance. I had a number of parents, grandparents and students stop in. 

We started with the activity: 

1. Think of a simile like “You’re as silly as a goose” or “She’s as cute as a button” (with help, if needed)
2. Turn the simile into a question “How silly is a goose?” “How cute is a button?”
3. Brainstorm and answer the question in a fun way 
4. Draw a picture to illustrate your answer 

One girl, Bella, polished off two so quickly and would have done a third if she’d had more time. Her third idea was “How elegant is a swan?” I would love to see that one!

A fifth grader, Lucas, came up with the sayings, “let the cat out of the bag” and someone who has their “head in the clouds,” both great sayings and while they’re actually metaphors rather than similes, I’m all about flexibility and creativity, so he decided to draw the cat coming out of the bag.

For my first reading, I had about eight to ten people. I try to read with emphasis and emotion and occasionally ask the children questions about something in the book. Some of the things I engaged the children with were: having them laugh along with the hyenas and yell “BUZZ OFF” with me for the angry wasp. I ask if they can find the black cat in the drawing on a dark night, and how many of them have cats or dogs, when I’m reading the pages about cats or dogs. Lots! 

After my first reading, Lucas told me he really liked my book. This made my night, especially since he is older. It’s nice to know that children of different ages enjoy the book. 

Later, a couple of teachers asked if I wanted to move to the cafeteria, where many activities were happening. 

In the cafeteria, there was a tent set up with a paper bonfire out front and lots of pillows inside. My second reading of the night was inside the large tent in the cafeteria. I thought it would be fun to read inside. That seemed to be a popular draw for the kids, who kept on climbing in, to my delight. 

At Brick Elementary School
(Photo credit: Brick Elementary School Teachers.
Shared with permission)

During my readings, I loved to hear laughter, see smiles, and one little girl kind of shrieked and threw herself down on the ground when she heard that the hungry hippo could eat a whole elephant. 

I think that events like these are what it’s all about for authors, introducing more children to our books. If they/their parents like the book enough, they just might purchase one. But that’s sort of a side benefit, a nice one for sure, but not the main point, at least for me. 

Michelle was so kind and appreciative from the beginning — ours was a mutual appreciation club. I donated and signed a book to the Brick Elementary students. Throughout the evening, I met many sweet children and their parents or grandparents and dedicated teachers. 

What I wish I'd known was how comfortable and relatively easy the night would be. As a person who leans toward introversion, I'm accustomed to having a hurdle to get over on occasions like these, especially for the first time. Everyone was kind, and being referred to as "our author" was a bit unreal. 

Michelle invited me to read at two more upcoming events, Reading in the Park and their STEM Career Day. Michelle’s email after the event read, in part: “ … It was a privilege to have you in our school! … I can’t wait to share your book with my students tomorrow!” The following day she told me she’d read my book about 20 times to her reading groups and that the kids love it. Absolutely priceless.

A longer version of this post recently appeared on Gail's Outta' This World blog.

Gail Kuhnlein published her first children’s picture book, How Happy Is a Lark? in late 2022. Gail majored in journalism and public relations at Michigan State University. Most recently, she was the communications specialist for the University of Michigan’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The publication of this book is a dream come true for Gail. She lives with her husband, Tim, just outside Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have two adult sons, Davey and Trevor. Lark is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, at several local libraries and shops, and a Trinidad bookshop. Her next picture book, Into the Thicket, is anticipated fall 2024. 

What I Wish I'd Known is a new series on The Mitten. If you have a kidlit-related "first" that you'd like to share - the good, the bad, the funny - we'd love to hear about it! Please email Sarah.Prusoff.LoCascio@gmail.com if you have one you would like to share. 

The Writer’s Toolbox by Jacquie Sewell

When is a treasure chest not a treasure chest? When it’s a toolbox - a writer’s toolbox, filled with ideas from my fellow Michkidders to help inspire young writers in their writing journey. During March is Reading Month I was asked to speak to the students at Steele Elementary School in Mason, Michigan. Because I’m a fledgling author, whose book is still at the publisher, (look for MIGHTY MAC, THE BRIDGE THAT MICHIGAN BUILT this fall!) I chose to focus on the Joy of Story for my presentation. Together the children and I celebrated the joy and power of story through participatory storytelling.

The older students also got a glimpse into my treasure chest (a.k.a. the writer’s toolbox). It was filled with items representing some of the tools writers and illustrators use to discover, create, and refine their stories. Many thanks to my colleagues (who shall be named at the close of this article) for sharing their great ideas. It gave me so much more street ‘cred to be able to say “Several of my writer friends . . .”

In a blind draw, students chose an item from the chest and shared their idea of what tool it represented. That led to interesting discussions on each of the tools in the chest. For those who are curious, here’s a peek into my Writer’s Toolbox:

• The colorful cards with words represent the brainstorming tool of “What If”. I had the children call out 4 nouns and 4 verbs which I wrote on cards. Then we randomly paired nouns and verbs to jumpstart ideas for stories. What if a Dragon played tag with an author?

• The squishy brain represents our imagination. Need I say more?

• The eyeball represents being observant: watching people; studying nature; reading books. Observing people helps make our writing more realistic, our dialog more natural. Ideas come from all around us, sometimes from another author who mentions, in passing, a cat who rescued a firefighter. . .  A good writer is always on the lookout.

• The heart-shaped tin filled with words represents. . .  Words! Have fun with words! Learn a new word each week. Find a fun-to-say word and use it as often as you can. Would you like a pamplemouse with your breakfast, mon petite pamplemousse? Play with words.

• The pen and notepad sparked a lot of ideas from the kids. Writers could use them to write their story; to record their research. . .  And, as several of my writer friends said, “To capture those elusive ideas that strike when you least expect them (while jogging, drifting off to sleep, waiting in traffic).”

• The crumpled piece of paper represents revision - Not that you should ever throw away your early versions. You never know what nuggets you might mine from them later. But, (as I explained to the kids) do you think The Sorcerer’s Stone you’re reading is the same as the first version J.K. Rowling wrote? Good authors seek input on their work and then they work to make it even better. Revise, revise and then revise again.

• Magnetic Man represents movement. Several of my writer/illustrator friends told me they get their best ideas when they are jogging or using the treadmill or biking. Physical activity gets blood flowing to the brain which brings oxygen to the brain. Brains on oxygen think deeper thoughts. Brains on oxygen think more creative thoughts. So oxygenate your brain!

• I also had a thesaurus in my toolbox and most of the kids knew what is was and how to use it!

I was nervous about speaking to such a large group of children but they were great and it was fun! I think they enjoyed it and hopefully came away encouraged to use their writer’s tools and find joy in creating their own stories.

And now my heartfelt thanks to Ann Finkelstein, Ruth McNally Barshaw, Nancy Frederixon, Nick Adkins, Lori McElrath Eslick, Sandy Carlson, Mary Zychowicz, Kevin Kammeraad, Isabel O’Hagin, Kristin Lenz, Elizabeth McBride, Elizabeth Westra, and Shirley Neitzel for sharing their favorite tools with me.

Keep your tools sharp and write on!

Jacquie Sewell's passion is connecting kids with the amazing world we live in. As a children's librarian she was privileged to do this by introducing children to good books. Her goal as an author is to create books that kids will love to read and that will get them excited to learn more about nature, science, and the arts. Her debut picture book, MIGHTY MAC, THE BRIDGE THAT MICHIGAN BUILT, is coming out this fall.






Coming up on the Mitten blog: take-aways from the SCBWI-MI Marketing Boot Camp, behind the scenes with our Co-Regional Advisors, creating teaching guides, crafting voice, and more MI kidlit advocates.

Happy creating!
Kristin Lenz

School Visit Webinar: So You're Not a Juggler?

Would you love to attend a children's book conference without traveling? Webinars offer an inexpensive and flexible format to interact with speakers and other audience members right from your home computer. Or, if you're unavailable at the scheduled time, you can view the webinar at your leisure on another day.




SCBWI-MI offered a series of webinars this year, and the most recent topic was So You're Not a Juggler: Planning Amazing School Visits with Suzanne Morgan Williams. We asked one of our SCBWI-MI members to tell us about her experience.

Here's Sandy Carlson:

An important take-away I learned from Suzanne’s webinar on school visits is that there is always something more you can be doing as a business person. I look on this advice the same way as I see cleaning my house. There are daily tasks. Each day at home there are dirty dishes, laundry, yard work etc. And there are always big ways you could improve these tasks, like buying a snow blower in addition to your handy, decade-old shovel. In home and house work, there’s always something more I could be doing. So it is with being a writer. Suzanne helped bring out both the details and the big things, for being a writer is so much more than just writing. (Now, wouldn’t that be a fun career? Just writing?)

Another take-away for me from the webinar was Suzanne’s encouragement (guide) to creating an author brochure for school visits. I’ve seen many author brochures. In fact, it has been on my to-do list for quite a while now. Other things always took priority, like shoveling the driveway or raking a forest of leaves from our yard. Besides your business cards, a brochure is a concise way

to present what you’ve written and what you are available to present. Being part of this webinar gave me the confident push to get my own author brochure created and done.

Thank you, Suzanne. And thank you SCBWI-MI RA’s and fellow writers for being always so supportive.

Sandy is a 10 year member of SCBWI. She has spoken at three writers conferences and done many school visits for her MG historical fiction books. A former teacher, she lives in Battle  Creek with her husband. Find out more at www.sandycarlson.com

That author brochure that Sandy mentioned? Done. Check out her quality work on her website.

Learn more about Suzanne Morgan Williams, her books and presentations, at her website.

 For more information about any of the 5 webinars SCBWI-MI has hosted this year, visit the Webinar Library. You can still register and view the webinar for up to 3 months after the live date. That gives you until Feb. 12th to learn all about school visits with Suzanne Morgan Williams. Hop to it!