DASHKA SLATER

Ms. Slater 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:

$570 * for 3 one-hour long chats over the course of a day

$370 * for 2 one-hour long chats over the course of a day

$185 * for 1 one-hour long chat

The recipient of a 2004 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as an award-winning journalist, Dashka Slater writes mostly picture books. The Sea Serpent and Me was a Cybil Award finalist and a Junior Library Guild selection and was named to the 2008 Librarians' Choices list of best books for children and young adults. Baby Shoes was earlier included in the Texas 2x2 list. She currently visits about a dozen schools and libraries a year and offers free teacher guides on her website.

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

Grade levels: P-5

Residence: Oakland, CA