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Marie Bradby Visit Kit

Author Visit Kit

By Marie Bradby

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Award-winning author Marie Bradby switched from a career as a full-time journalist to writing for children after the birth of her son, now a college student. Even though her days as a journalist are behind her, she uses her sharp investigative skills as she interviews people and researches archives to fill in crucial details and bring her characters to life in her historical fiction. Her new novel, Some Friend (Atheneum, 2004) also is historical fiction, set in the Washington, D.C., suburbs in 1963, at the beginning of integration and the height of the Motown sound. In this work, eleven-year-old Pearl befriends a mysterious girl that nobody likes but her. She has given presentations at schools, writing workshops, and literature conferences all over the country. She has been a staff writer for National Geographic Magazine; and for the Providence Journal, the Lexington Herald, and the Courier-Journal newspapers.

During school appearances, she reads from her works, leads students in discussions about the themes of her books, as well as providing slide presentations on:

• The slave and freedom homes of Booker T. Washington, subject of her picture book, More Than Anything Else.
  
• The growing season, from planting to harvest on a Kentucky farm for the picture book, Once Upon a Farm.
  
• "Can We Be Friends?" — A discussion about her first novel, Some Friend.
  
• The creation process of one of her works from idea to finished product with written drafts and a timeline.
  
• How a book is made, including art sketches, publishing dummies, printer sheets, and slides of a print run.
  
• The elements of story, voice, and genre using one of her works.
  
• Career path - from childhood writing experiences, to journalist, to children's author.

With younger students, Ms. Bradby discusses the importance of reading and her early writing experiences. She explains how a book is made, using art sketches, publishing dummies, and printer sheets.

She will guide middle elementary grade students in a discussion on book themes, what authors do, the creation of a book from idea to finished product, as well as writing elements and techniques. Upper elementary students will learn about writing as a career — from school, to journalist, to author; and the timeline of a book. They may also participate in writing exercises.

Get ready for your Author Visit by buying Marie Bradby's books from the Scholastic Teacher Store. We accept both credit cards and school purchase orders.

Enter the following coupon code at checkout for a 40% discount: AUTHOR
This discount applies to books ordered for Author Visits only.

Author's home: Louisville, Kentucky
Suggested audience: Grades K–6
Maximum number of presentations per day: 3
Author's Honorarium: $700.00 per day for Louisville, KY, $900.00 per day plus expenses for up to 2 hr drive, $1,000.00 per day plus expenses for all other places.

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  The Teacher Store

  Momma, Where Are You From? by Marie Bradby and Chris K. Soentpiet Hear about Momma's experience of growing up as an African American in the South. The lyrical journey takes your child back to a time of peddlers, wagons, icemen, and flat irons that had to be heated on a stove. Beautiful illustrations and engaging text teach an important lesson about America's past, showing how the family gathered and danced as well as how life was segregated. $16.95 Hardcover Book | Grades Pre-K-1

  
  Momma, Where Are You From?
  Grades Pre-K-1 $16.95
  
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  The Teacher Store

  More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby and Chris K. Sontpiet «"A fictionalized story about the life of young Booker T. Washington. Living in a West Virginia settlement after emancipation, nine-year-old Booker travels by lantern light to the salt works, where he labors from dawn till dusk. Although his stomach rumbles, his real hunger is his intense desire to learn to read... [A] moving and inspirational story." - School Library Journal, starred review $15.95 Hardcover Book | Grades K-2

  
  More Than Anything Else
  Grades K-2 $15.95