George Ancona | Children's Books

			It is very gratifying to be invited to speak at schools and conferences around the country and abroad. It warms my heart to see my well-worn books in classrooms and libraries. When teachers praise my books and kids run up to me to tell me my books are "cool," I figure I must be doing something right. My programs consist of a slide talk of about forty minutes in which I show a bit of my story and how I put a children's book together, from the concept to the planning, the photography, the writing, editing and design. Then I open the session to questions from the audience. The most successful presentations are those where teachers prepare the students for my visit by reading some of my books. Then they are prepared to ask pertinent questions. Some Past Talks Partial list of schools and conferences where I have made presentations and workshops: Twenty schools in Southeast Washington State Sponsored by the Literary Connection School of Education University of California, Davis San Francisco Public Library San Francisco Literary Conference Dublin, Ohio American Library Association Washington, D.C. NCTE Conference San Antonio, Texas Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies University of Wisconsin Washington Post / Children's Book Guild Washington, D.C. Festival of the Book Washington, D.C. The American School in London England University of Puebla Mexico Monterey Migrant Headstart Conference San Francisco Salisbury State University Maryland Borders Book Conference Las Cruces, New Mexico Virginia Hamilton Kent State Conference National Council of Teachers of English Boston, MA and Albuquerque, NM Spotlight on Books Bemidji, Minnesota Reforma, Pura Belpre Award Austin, Texas Pratt Institute New York School of Visual Arts New York Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District Alaska Brigham Young University Provo, Utah Woodburn Public Schools Oregon				Presentations cover: How I began to photograph, write, plan stories, put it all together and make books. Workshops: Workshops can be organized with the needs and age of the students in mind. Some workshops have the students write an outline of a story idea. Then they photograph or illustrate the story. They then design a book using photographs or drawings with a hand lettered text.
©2009 George Ancona