Want me to visit your school, library, classroom, book club, whatever?
Just reach out! I’d love to come chat! You can shoot me a message through the Contact Form on this website!
I love visiting with students, book groups, and fellow readers. Talking about books, writing, and the things that inspire me always makes me happy and energized.
Testimonials
Our class of 6th graders had an amazing experience with a virtual visit from debut author Kerelyn Smith. She was very engaging with the students and it was so easy to tell that she was comfortable with the students in this format. Kerelyn had a powerpoint prepared that was interactive and informative with a correlation to her debut, Mulrox and the Malcognitos. Kerelyn Smith’s debut is a Must Read and a virtual visit from her is a Must Do.
– Kelly Farnsworth, 6th Grade Teacher in AZ
Kerelyn was personable and so engaged with my fifth graders. Her presentation was fun, informative and interactive. We learned so much and can’t wait to meet with her again. Mulrox and the Malcognitos will be flying off my classroom shelf!
Stacy Alfano, 5th Grade Teacher in PA
What to Expect?
First of all, Fun! Secondly, lots of book talk. I’m open to doing longer or shorter visits, but most I have done so far have been about 30 minutes and followed this format.
30 Minute Visit Outline
- Introductions (5 minutes)Â
- Kerelyn introduces herself and Mulrox,Â
- Teacher to introduce the class Â
- Talk about some of our favorite books/tv shows/ movies/ stories (3 minutes)
- Activity* (12 minutes)
- Read a passage from Mulrox ( 3- 5 minutes)
- Questions (5-10 minutes)Â
* Pick one or two activities from below
Activities
By far my most popular activity has been The Ogre Garden/ The Real Plants of Mulrox and the Malcognitos, but pick one that interests you and your students. If your students have read my book, we can spend more time talking about the book and answering any questions they might have.
- Ogre Garden/ Real Plants of Mulrox and the Malcognitos: Most of the plants in the book are real and very unusual. The presentation first takes the students through a tour of the Woods Mercurial, with quotes from the book. Then we do a garden showdown between Yahgurkin (a wild ogre garden) and Tabiyeh (a beautiful and perfect garden) where the kids will vote across 7 rounds, about which garden does it better. Option to assign a take home activity to design their own garden, looking up the plants they would put in it.
- Make a Character: Often the characters that are most interesting to us are ones with dichotomies. Explain this idea and then make a character as a class. If we have time we can figure out what that characters wants, and what the problem is that is stopping them from getting it.
- Discuss Parts of a story: Learn about story structure and how stories are put together. We would discuss component pieces of stories like : character, desire, need, problem. opponent, dilemma, battle, resolution. We can look at other books and stories and see how those components.
- 10 Worst ways: Brainstorm some terrible ways to do things, like make a pizza, or win a race, or put on a play, or go to the moon. Explain about the importance of just starting and spitballing in order to be creative. How a concrete bad idea is often better than no idea at all. It’s easier to come up with 10 bad ideas than 10 good ones, and you’ll likely have some good ideas mixed in there.
- Terrible Poetry: write a poem about school lunch, a bad ode to your school, a terrible love poem etc.
- Make a Malcognito: Explain what malcognitos are (bad ideas come to life), give examples from book, give some real life examples, brainstorm a few more from the class. Discuss the importance of failure, mistakes and bad ideas for growing and learning. Talk about how laughing about your mistakes and being able to forgive yourself makes it easier to keep trying.
Virtual Visits
With the way things are right now, there are no in-person visits happening. But there’s tech for that! I’m happy to do Skype, Gooogle Meet, or Zoom visits, record videos, or participate in other virtual events!
In-Person Visits
When things calm down, please reach out for in-person events. I live in the Seattle metro area, so anything in that region is easy. But I have friends and family all along the West Coast, so may be able to make other events farther afield.
Book an Event!
If you are interested in having me come speak, reach out! Kerelyn @ Kerelynsmith.com
Photo Credit Burnt redwood trees Tomwsulcer / CC0, Photo by Kevin Wolf on Unsplash, Foxfire image – Ylem / Public domain, foxfire image – Noah Siegel (Amanita virosa) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), Ylem / Public domain
Illustrations by Matt Rockefeller