Author Visits
In 2019, K-Fai Steele and I visited over 30 schools, bookstores, libraries and gallery spaces on the West Coast. We had the opportunity to present Noodlephant to both large assemblies and intimate classrooms, and developed engaging activities to spark conversations about creativity, change and justice. Students leapt at the chance to grapple with big ideas, and generated artistic responses to the book, making their own drawings, zines, and even an opera!
Now that schools are reopening, I’m thrilled to be able to offer in-person visits in addition to Zoom visits.
Visits can include:
An interactive reading of Noodlephant or Okapi Tale
An activity related to the stories and their messages
Author Q&A
Activities will be tailored to the grade (as these books appeal to a broad age range) and can be integrated into the curriculum in advance. Noodlephant and Okapi Tale pair well with Language Arts, Social Studies, and History curricula, and Looking Up is more related to STEM.
Visit Rates:*
Zoom visit (1 hr) : $250
In-person (half day): $500
In-person (full day): $850
*(sliding scale available)
Praise for school visits:
Everyone was blown away with how captivated the students were when you were on camera . . . I felt that you were very prepared and you handled the
"children-on-Zoom" landscape remarkably well!
-Amber Baker, San Francisco Day School
Noodlephant is a child-friendly book helping students consider issues of equity and fairness, sparking important discussion among students on an appropriate level. Jacob’s activities to accompany his visit to our school were energetic and engaging. Students were talking about the visit for days, and I could not keep Noodlephant on my library shelves. I recommend Jacob’s presentation for smaller intimate groups of 100 or less.
-Heather Jones, Teacher Librarian/Media Specialist, Redmond Elementary
Request an Author Visit!
The Menu: Conversations and Activities
Power Mapping
We start by asking, How do the kangaroos maintain and exercise power over the other animals? What institutions do they control? Then we analyze what other, latent forms of social power Noodlephant and her friends have access to. We then discuss about how social bonds can be reconfigured into political power.
Drawing connections
Students connect movements of nonviolent resistance to figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and Gandhi as well as connections to contemporary community actions like BLM sit-ins, and the Climate Strike.
Community budgeting
We analyze where community resources are currently spent, and how that might be changed with more democracy. We take the city budget and simplify it by expenditure area (schools, police, parks, etc) and represent the budget using Noodle Bucks. We then give them the opportunity to reallocate the funds based on a democratic process.
Student Advocacy
In the book, Noodlephant’s friends write letters to the Kangaroos to advocate change. Students pick a local issue they feel passionately about, and write to their government representatives demanding action. This can take the form of individual letters or a class letter signed by everyone.
Outreach to incarcerated people
In the book, Noodlephant’s liberation is facilitated by a letter from her friends. Penpal relationships are lifelines to incarcerated people, giving them a window to the outside world, and much-needed emotional support. We are donating 10% of Noodlephant’s proceeds to Black and Pink, and organization that makes connections between LGBTQ prisoners and people in the free world. In the past we have worked with B&P to color holiday cards, which is a great arts activity during our discussion about restorative justice.
Noodley Arms at Franklin Avenue Elementary!
Past visits include: Redmond Elementary (Redmond, WA), Leschi Elementary (Seattle, WA), Woodlawn Elementary (Portland, OR), Raleigh Hills Elementary (Beaverton, OR), Kelly Elementary (Portland, OR), Portland Jewish Academy (Portland, OR), Irvington Elementary (Portland, OR), Creston Elementary (Portland, OR), Markham Elementary (Portland, OR), McKinley Elementary (San Francisco, CA), St. Phillip School (San Francisco, CA), West Portal Elementary (San Francisco, CA), San Francisco Day School, Two Rock Elementary (Petaluma, CA), St. Vincent Elementary (Petaluma, CA), Meadow Elementary (Petaluma, CA), Annelise Schools (Laguna Beach, CA). Franklin Ave Elementary (Los Angeles, CA), Gallego Primary Fine Arts (Tucson, AZ), Pima County Juvenile Court Detention Center (Tucson, AZ), City and Country School (New York, NY), Brooklyn International School (Brooklyn, NY), The Ashford School (Ashford, CT), Angier School (Newton, MA), Burr School (Newton, MA).