Author Visit

Award-Winning Author Caroline Brewer
Book & Literacy Presentations for Schools

What to expect

Using her award-winning books, Author and Literacy Advocate Caroline Brewer takes your students on highly interactive journeys. It is a communal affair – much like gatherings in villages of old and crowd-pleasing concert performances of today. When Caroline “journeys” her books with your students, she uses rhythm, rhyme, rap, repetition, and relevance to inspire children to sing, chant, clap, toe-tap, and, if the spirit moves, dance across the pages of whatever story she and they have agreed to tell. This moving, meaningful, and magical experience immerses your students into literature in exhilarating and game-changing ways.

 

All of Caroline’s picture books rhyme because Caroline understands that rhymes are a superpower. Literacy experts tell us rhymes build memory, vocabulary, and confidence faster than any other reading technique. Jim Trelease called rhymes the closest things to a mother’s comfortable, reliable heartbeat. Medical students use rhyme to remember complicated medical terms.

 

Caroline has worked with thousands of children across the country, in schools where students are reading and writing at low levels but are HUNGRY to become better readers, writers, and thinkers. She knows that if we want to inspire children, we have to employ radically different approaches that are simple, immediately accessible, and implementable at the same time.

 

What you can expect from an Author Visit with Caroline Brewer is a lively, engaging, and motivating presentation that is sure to help young people fall in love with reading.  She will also share techniques and lesson plans to help you maintain that momentum and feed the hunger that your students have to excel!

 

Harriet Tubman, Force of Nature
Book Reviews by Literary Journals and Scholars

“A picture book biography, beautifully told in rhythmic poetry… Engaging and informative, these compassionate poems will resonate with readers, and together with the exquisitely crafted illustrations, will bring the important story of Harriet Tubman to life. Highly recommended for all school and public libraries."

- School Library Journal (starred review)

"A tour de force among poetic biographies."

- Booklist (starred review)

"Brewer's vivid poems and richly textured collage illustrations plumb Tubman's deep connection to nature."

- Washington Parent

"Elegantly crafted biography... elevates points of quiet, everyday beauty, creating a distinct sense of intimacy to a larger-than-life figure... the unique collage art creates a riveting visual."

- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

5 OUT OF 5 STARS - BEAUTIFUL AND DEEPLY MOVING BOOK!

This book brightened my day in a world turned upside down! The magnificent and inspiring storytelling through poetry is magic and the artwork is stunning. Brewer walked through those landscapes that transformed Harriet Tubman’s life, and it shows, vividly. Children, parents, grandparents and teachers will love this!

- Kate Clifford Larson, Definitive Biographer of Harriet Tubman, Author of Bound for the Promised Land

What educators, librarians, parents and students say about Caroline's visits and "Book Parties"

“The most important strategy I wanted to learn was ways to engage students, and I learned that.  After returning to my classroom, I realized that when I go back to my old ways, out of habit, I get limited results with my students.  When I remember to say the phrases I learned in the training, such as, ‘I need you...,’ I have gotten the desired response.  I recommend the Happy Teacher training because of the helpful tools I have received to be even more effective."

– Lauren Tate, Presidential Excellence Award Winner 2011,
Peabody Elementary School, Washington, D.C.

“Two days after the training, we had the worst day in our school. The kids in my last period were acting up in all their other classes. But by the time our class was over, Ms. Brewer and the Happy Teacher strategies had made a believer out of me. For the first time, every student in class participated in our reading lesson...The Happy Teacher training saved my teaching life.“

- LaQuisha Hall, Middle Alternative Program (MAPAL), Baltimore, MD, now instructional coach

Hope Harrod, D.C. Teacher of the Year, 5th Grade Teacher at Burroughs Elementary

"You have also inspired me in such a way that I have infused your educational philosophy into my teaching practice. This school year has been rough, especially since the students have been learning virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being exposed to the (Paterson Reads Darius Daniels) Book Club has rekindled my love for writing and oral reading. I'm grateful to have known you. I now have a sense of purpose. I will continue to share your vision of literature and literary activism with others--thank you."

Ms. Felicia Beckford Paterson, NJ

"(Your author visit) was absolutely amazing. I knew the kids would love it, but I'm blown away by the enthusiasm you brought out in them. I think this is an experience they will remember forever!"

Kathleen O'Connor, Librarian Woodbridge, VA

"Ms. Brewer and the Happy Teacher strategies made a believer out of me. For the first time, every student in class participated in our reading lesson. The Happy Teacher training saved my teaching life.“

LaQuisha Hall, Teacher Baltimore, MD

"Thank you on behalf of our children in our county who will be touched by the work you created. I look forward to continuing to use your materials."

Marni Barron, Literacy Coach Lansing, MI

"Caroline Brewer provides practical strategies to help struggling readers succeed, not only with reading and writing but with independent learning skills."

Dr. Cheryl Thomas, Ed.D. Indiana

"When I grow up, I want to be an author just like you."

Alisha (Fourth Grade) Bronx, NY