Information About Elementary School Visits

I thrive on meeting my readers! I enjoy doing school visits with children in grades K-through 6th Grade. My programs are always tailored to fit each audience I speak to. Here, though, are a few topics I cover:

How Do You Get Your Ideas?

I tell children that I don't get ideas--they get me! I get so excited about a line or a phrase or something I feel and see that I MUST write about it. I offer my audiences numerous specific examples about how my books were generated, and show children how they can follow their enthusiasms as well. So far, poems and entire books have been inspired by: spring peepers, cocker spaniels , potato pancakes ,Passover seders, refrigerator magnets, biblical heroines, song writers, my mother making blintzes, button-collecting, yearning to fly,  and being tickled!

How Does A Book Get Published?  What Are The Steps?

There is nothing like a collection of visual aids to show children how something that begins as a glimmer of an idea in someone's head can be nurtured step-by-step until it becomes a finished book. Here are some of the things I show them:

Original written manuscripts: I scribble my first drafts on yellow legal pads in pencil. My handwriting is so awful that children relax right away, knowing that they can certainly do better.

Manuscripts printed out on the computer: I show children revision after revision after revision, demonstrating that I shouldn't be called a writer, but a Rewriter, because I work on my stories until they are just right. This is a comfort to children, who, like me, are always having to do things over. My book, THE MATZAH THAT PAPA BROUGHT HOME, took 37 tries!

Original sketches: I have many of these from the artists of my picture books. Some of the sketches are very close to what the final art looks like. Other sketches are hilariously wrong and needed a lot of fixing! Children will love seeing how the artist as well as the author works and reworks.

Original art: I have original artwork from some of my books. There is nothing like seeing how the artist did her work--the different techniques and mediums she used.

Color proofs: After the artwork is photographed, color proofs are printed to see if everything is working out right.

The press sheet: Few people know that an entire 32-page picture book is printed on one large sheet of paper. I bring these press sheets with me and explain the printing process. I still find it amazing that with only four colors--blue, black, red, and yellow--all the colors can be created.

How Do You Feel When Your Stories Aren't Working?
How Do You Feel When Publishers Reject Them?

My answer to this is, Practice makes perfect! Over the years, I've learned that writing books is a roller-coaster existence. I have happy, high-as-a-cloud days and awful, no-good, very bad ones. My way of dealing with this is to cultivate a joyful stubbornness: I never, never, NEVER, give up. I wrote one story that was rejected fourteen times. It was accepted on the fifteenth try. What if I had given up after fourteen? Children understand stubbornness; they're very good at it.

My fees for school visits are negotiable, depending on distance and the number of talks I give. Please contact me for more info at franm@nyc.rr.com

Special Information For Jewish Educators

My programs for you will be similar to the ones described above, but I will add significant information about my Jewish journey for children, for sisterhoods, and for other adult audiences. I was raised in a Jewish household but was given no formal education. For years I did not go to synagogue, and it was only when I discovered the very musical, egalitarian services at Bnai Jeshurun in New York, that I returned to services. Indeed, I learned Hebrew only five years ago and had my Bat Torah three years ago. I have been enlivened and engrossed by the exciting feminist scholarship of the last twenty years, which has led to my writing MIRIAM'S CUP: A PASSOVER STORY and DAUGHTERS OF FIRE: HEROINES OF THE BIBLE. I have designed special programs for Jewish children that emphasizes these books, with special attention to encouraging today¹s children to feel empowered and active in their Judaism.

Some Comments About My Visits

"Your contribution to our Young Author's Conference was invaluable to the children. We've heard such positive comments from parents, teachers, and children about the connections you were able to make with your audience."
Dr. Nancy Crews, Middle Tennessee State University

"Ms. Manushkin is a pleasure to deal with. She gave the students a valuable and worthwhile experience."
The Thomas Jefferson School, Lakeland, N.Y.

"We were thrilled with your visit to your children. They were totally engaged with your presentation."
P.S. 6, New York

"Thank you for being such an important part of our Unit Day for the Year of Fiction. Your presentation was both interesting and inspiring for all of us!"
The Birch Wathen Lenox School

A List Of Some Places Where I've Done Presentations

• The South Street Seaport Museum
• The Brooklyn Museum
• The Jewish Museum
• The Children's Museum of Manhattan
• Montreal Public Schools
• Young Author's Conference, Middle Tennessee State University
• The Museum of Jewish Heritage
• Keynote Speaker, The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
  (Jewish Writers' Conference)
• The Ramaz School
• Solomon Schecter Schools
• The JCCs of New York City, Nashville, and Savannah
• Numerous public schools and libraries