I will no longer be making in person school visits. I will- with great pleasure- respond to letters and emails from teachers and students at: akiak3@yahoo.com.
Although I enjoy painting outside, I also like to go inside and meet the the people who read my books.
I like to visit with schools because I get to meet my readers and talk to them. I also show lots of pictures and explain how I make my books- which can be very interesting when your subjects include the Iditarod, amusement parks, and Tasmanian Devils.
I also like to sign books for my readers
MY SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS
When I go to a school, I usually make three different forty-five minute presentations about the creation of three different books. Because I get to travel to interesting places to make my books, I like to show the process visually with a PowerPoint presentation. I talk about the research I do on location, about making sketches on the spot, about writing with a beginning-middle-end, rewriting (and rewriting and rewriting), and making the finished painting. I often make a drawing with markers that I leave to the school. And I like to answer questions!
Going to schools and speaking with my readers is one of my favorite parts of being a writer and and illustrator and I am very enthusiastic about my visits!
I also like it when, after a school visit, my readers send me lots of letters, e-mails, and drawings. Here are a bunch of portraits the kids did of me.....
Some of my best school tours have been in Alaska. I have visited the villages of Koyuk, Shaktoolik, Golovin, and Elim, as well Nome and Anchorage. The kids in Alaska are great!
Musher Martin Buser took me to my book signing at the Big Lake Library in the best Alaskan way- he took me on his sled. He did some crazy maneuvers on the frozen lake!
I enjoy my school visits. But it is always good to get home, where my family and my dogs miss me.