Schools, and in particular Teacher Librarians, spend a large amount of money and time organising and attending author visits and literature festivals. This is because it is assumed that by doing this the students will benefit by reading more. There has been little research into this field, and the costs are getting higher with authors commanding higher prices for their time and "expertise". My research will be into answering the questions and finding out if these assumptions are correct so that TL's can continue to organise these events safe in the knowledge that they do in fact make a difference.
Assumptions about Author visits and literary festivals:
Meeting the authors will benefit the students in a numbers of ways:-
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Expose the students to an author they may not have read before, and so possibly encourage them to read this author, and as a result read more.
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Expose the students to a genre or style of writing they may not have been exposed to before, encouraging them to read this style and hence read more.
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Make talking about books and literature an accepted topic of conversation between young people - encourage the young people to read more to find out what their friends are talking about.
- Create a rich, powerful connection between students and reading. (Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/inviteanauthor.htm)
- author or illustrator visit introduces students to the processes of writing, developing characters, and expressing one’s creativity (Scholastic - above)
- It gets readers excited about books (Scholastic - above)
- It provides an opportunity to encourage young writers. (Scholastic - above)
- Expands students' knowledge about book writing and publishing. (Beatrice Gormley website - http://beatricegormley.com/events.htm)
- Illustrates reaching a goal through persistence. (Beatrice Gormley website)
- Emphasize working hard to write well (Beatrice Gormley website)
- Kids dig deeply into the design, content, and theme of books when they know that they will have a chance to meet the books’ creator, have an opportunity to ask questions, and engage in dialogue. (Toni Buzzeo http://www.tonibuzzeo.com/visits.html)
- Kids learn that real people, like themselves, make careers of writing or creating art. For many kids, this is the first opportunity they have to connect with someone in the arts who might serve as a role model. (Toni Buzzeo)
- Kids feel a strong attachment to the books of the authors and illustrators with whom they have visited. (Toni Buzzeo)
- Kids connect with all books in a more meaningful way after they have met an author or illustrator and better understand the process of conceiving an idea and bringing it to print. (Toni Buzzeo)
- Children will cherish the memory of an author visit for a long time if not indefinitely.Rukhsana Khan http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/article-authorfunding.htm
- Not only can author visits influence children to seek out and read the books of the author who visited, but they can make kids look at all books in a different light. (Rukhsana Khan)
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