Lauren would love to visit your school!
Lauren has been presenting to kids since 2014 and has done hundreds of school visits… more than she can possibly count. Her warm, outgoing personality shows in her presentation style. Her assemblies are interactive, engaging, and impassioned.
Through her time in schools and due to her background working on language arts educational magazines, Lauren understands how to reinforce the craft lessons educators are teaching. Her presentations focus on equipping students with tools and tricks of the trade that they can take back to the classroom, to apply to their own writing. Her goal is to get every kid inspired to read and write, to bolster their confidence, and to emphasize that any skill worth having takes practice, patience, and perseverance.
Her in-person school visits include:
- Two assemblies
- Q&A sessions for students
- Optional writing workshop
- Lunch with students
- Bookmarks for the entire school
- Signed/personalized books for every student and staff member who orders
- Two hardcover books donated to your school library
Lauren is available for 20-minute virtual visit sessions for libraries, classrooms, and book groups. This includes a 5-minute short reading and a 15-minute Q&A. For more details or to set up a visit, please contact me.
To request an in-person or virtual speaking engagement, please contact Authors Out Loud, or view my Speaking Profile.
Presentations
The Writing Process
(for elementary and middle school)
When a writer finishes their first draft… it’s only the beginning! In this interactive talk for young readers, we’ll trace a book through the idea stage, plotting/planning, writing, and finally revision. With a heavy emphasis on revision, we’ll discuss how writers start with big improvements (character, plot, setting, pacing) before working their way to smaller ones, through multiple rounds. Kids will peek at my editorial letters, and we’ll discuss revision tips and tricks they can apply to their own writing.
Cracking the Case
(for elementary and middle school)
Sometimes mystery books can leave you feeling clueless. In this talk for young readers, we discuss different elements of a mystery and how to approach one as both a reader and a writer. Breaking down how I wrote my own bestselling pick-your-own-path mystery series, I demystify the genre by sharing my whiteboard and providing craft tips to deliver on that perfect twist. Your master sleuths will leave the assembly ready to solve mysteries and write their own.
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
(for elementary and middle school)
One of the hardest parts of writing is coming up with an idea in the first place. In this interactive assembly for young readers, we’ll walk through idea generation: how to take a seedling of a thought and get it to blossom into a full-grown story. I’ll share pages from my writers notebooks and teach kids an exercise that is perfect for individual use and/or the classroom. We’ll also discuss what to do when you get stuck—and how to keep inspiration and ideas flowing throughout the entire writing process.
Engaging Young Readers
(for grown-ups)
A lifelong love of literacy is something we want for every kid. However, sometimes kids don’t share that same passion for reading and writing. In this talk for grown-ups, we’ll discuss ways to engage young readers, including patterns and behaviors that adults can model, strategies to use either at home or in the classroom, and different ways to make books more accessible to all kids.
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