YONA ZELDIS McDONOUGH

Ms. McDonough has access to Skype.

Please have the students prepare in advance a list of questions for her to answer. She will first give a brief presentation, perhaps showing her latest book or talking about an upcoming project, and will then take questions. If you prefer, the Q&A can come first, depending on your students' needs. How you handle the Q&A is up to you. Sometimes students come up to the screen individually to ask questions and then the next student comes up. Sometimes the students gather around the screen to ask questions. The format will depend on your needs and what kind of equipment you have. If you have an activboard or some other means to project the images onto a larger screen, for example, the format might be somewhat different. In any case, students must be familiar with some of her books.

If you would like a different kind of program, please let us know before setting up the program and please provide a general idea of what you would like. Further details will be needed at least a week before the chat so she can prepare.

She'll also be happy to autograph bookplates in advance of the chat, but be sure to send them to her in a timely manner so she can sign them and get them back to you before the chat.

Honorarium:

$500 * for 3 one-hour long chats over the course of a day

$350 * for 2 one-hour long chats over the course of a day

$175 * for 1 one-hour long chat

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of a number of books, including The Doll with the Yellow Star, which was the 2006 winner of the Once Upon A World Award, presented by the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott, which was on the 2010 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List; and The Doll Shop Downstairs, which was on the 2012 NYSRA Charlotte Award Suggested Reading List. The author of adult novels as well as books for children, she has spoken to numerous school groups in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Los Angeles, and Wisconsin, and would love to speak to school groups electronically as well. Her presentation includes a discussion of genre and the creative process from inception of idea, through the various drafts and revisions as well as working with an illustrator.

Please visit her website for more information. Her books are available from a variety of soures including Booksource, Barnesandnoble.com, and Amazon.

Grade levels: 3-6

Residence: Brooklyn, NY