Winner of Skype visit with Anne Ursu!

Jasmine, 5th grade teacher

Jasmine, a 5th grade teacher and a blogger at The Bookish Mama is the lucky winner of the Skype visit with Anne Ursu, the wonderful author of Breadcrumbs. Congratulations Jasmine, and thank you to all who entered!

I'm hoping that Jasmine will come back here to Great Kid Books after your class Skype visit to talk about her experience. I'm very interested in the possibilities of connecting kids with authors through a Skype visit.

Our 3rd graders at Emerson are in the middle of reading Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary, and are fascinated by the idea of connecting to an author who means a lot to them. It can be a very powerful experience for a child to meet an author who inspires them. I've helped arrange some amazing author visits with students - Jennifer Holm rocked our socks off last year at Emerson, starting an all-out Babymouse craze at our school, but also hooking some advanced readers on her wonderful historical fiction.

In this time of constrained budgets, a Skype visit could be a win-win all around. Children will be able to connect with authors they admire and learn about what goes into writing a novel. Authors will be able to connect with broader audiences, without having to invest large amounts of time and energy in travel.

Have you had a chance to connect with an author through Skype? Were children really able to get a sense that this was a real person on the computer monitor directly speaking with them? I'd love to hear more direct experiences from classroom teachers and school librarians.

Congratulations, Jasmine! Stop by to let us know how you're planning on using the Skype visit.