Presentations & Workshops for Students
Judy offers a variety of educational programs for students K-8. All focus on the writing process and can be modified to meet the needs of libraries, young author conferences, children’s literature festivals. Contact Judy to discuss the needs of your event!
What's My Job? I'm A Children's Author!
Presentations for Students K-8
"What's it like to be an author?" is a frequent question students have. Your students will find out when Judy visits your school! Using a cowboy rap, a ballad about butterflies, some hidden creatures, a game played by Roman soldiers and much, much more, Judy will share the behind-the-scene stories of how ideas change to words, and words turn into books. As the wife of one of her illustrators, students will also get a glimpse of the illustration process.
When Judy visits your school, she comes for a full day, usually seeing students by grade level, with up to six presentation sessions. Sessions are 60 minutes long for grades 2-8 and 30-minutes for K-1. For Middle Schools, presentations are often scheduled during English, reading, writing or library class periods.
This program is excellent for schools, libraries, young author events and children's literature festivals.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a presentation, just
Contact Judy Young.
R is For Rhyme
Presentations for Students Grades K-8
From ballads about butterflies, jingles about jellybeans or quatrains about quilts, your students will discover the magic of poetry as author Judy Young presents her book R is for Rhyme, A Poetry Alphabet which received the Mom's Choice Award Gold Recipient: Educators' Choice, a starred Kirkus Review, a National Parenting Publications Honor Award and the Missouri Writers' Guild Best Juvenile Book Award. As Judy reads her poems and shares the stories behind them, students actively enter into the poetry writing process, becoming "poetry detectives" as they search for poetic tools, terms and techniques such as rhythm and rhyme, metaphor and alliteration, and specific poetic structures. Students then get the opportunity to become poets, as Judy leads them through group poetry writing activities.
When Judy visits your school, she comes for a full day, usually seeing students by grade level, with up to six presentation sessions. Sessions are 60 minutes long for grades 2-8 and 30-minutes for K-1.
This program is excellent for schools, libraries, young author events and children's literature festivals.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a presentation, just
Contact Judy Young.
Show Me Missouri
Presentations for Students K-6
Your students will go on an adventure through Missouri with author Judy Young as she presents her popular book S is for Show Me, A Missouri Alphabet, it’s companion book, Show Me the Numbers, A Missouri Number Book and Judy’s newest book about the Show Me State, The Missouri Reader. Students will hear about Missouri’s history, geography, people, events, wildlife and resources. They will get to see some Missouri artifacts such as galena, the state mineral, and a tooth from the state dinosaur, solve Missouri Riddles and find Missouri hidden 
pictures. In addition to her enthusiasm in exploring the gateway to the west, Judy shares the "behind-the-scenes" stories about the writing and publishing processes, including the rare opportunity to see some of the original artwork.
When Judy visits your school, she comes for a full day, usually seeing students by grade level, with up to six presentation sessions. Sessions are 60 minutes long for grades 2-8 and 30-minutes for K-1.
This program is excellent for schools, libraries, young author events and children's literature festivals.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a presentation, just
Contact Judy Young.
The Hidden Bestiary
Presentation for Students Grades K-6
"Basil B. Barnswhitten," (a.k.a author Judy Young) will visit your school, showing students around the world as they discover marvelous, mysterious and maybe even magical creatures hidden in the illustrations and determine whether the creatures are endangered, extinct or never existed! Students will also discover the unique "reversed" writing process of this book, in which Judy wrote to 
illustrations that were created first! Then, in a group writing activity, students will try their hand at writing to illustrations!
When Judy visits your school, she comes for a full day, usually seeing students by grade level, with up to six presentation sessions. Sessions are 60 minutes each for grades 2-6 and 30 minutes for K-1.
This program is excellent for schools, libraries, young author events and children's literature festivals.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a presentation, just
Contact Judy Young.
Fun with Facts in Fiction
Presentations for Students Grades 3-8
When upper elementary and middle school students write fiction, it’s usually picture book “size.” As Judy reads from her award-winning historical fiction books, students actively participate in discovering the process of writing fiction, from what goes in the beginning, middle and end of stories, to how to use research to make fiction seem true. (Judy will gladly provide an age appropriate program to include grades K-2 during her visit to your school.)
When Judy visits your school, she comes for a full day, usually seeing students by grade level, with up to six presentation sessions. Sessions are 60 minutes long for grades 3-8. (If you would like to include K-2nd graders in Judy's visit, she will gladly talk to them about being an author and reading from her books in 30-minute sessions.)
This program is excellent for schools, libraries, young author events and children's literature festivals.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a presentation, just
Contact Judy Young.
Playday with an Author
For grades K-4
Is your school planning a playday, party or special celebration? Make these special activities not only fun but educational as well by inviting Judy Young, author of Lazy Days of Summer. Judy shares poems and unique historical facts about a variety of traditional games described in her book, as well as the writing process of both poetry and nonfiction. Then, the student's have the opportunity to do what kids love: PLAY! as they try out some of the games from the book.
Playday sessions are schedule for groups of up to 60 students, with up to five sessions per day. Each session consists of a 30-minute author presentation followed by a 30-minute playtime with several game stations. Playdays require the use of the school gym or all-purpose room.
This program is excellent for schools, summer school, camps, and libraries.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a playday, just
Contact Judy Young.
Poetry: Write Away!
A Classroom Writing Workshop Residency
For Students Grades 2-8
As your school's writer-in-residence, Judy Young comes into the classrooms to work directly with the students on writing their own poetry. Students explore a variety of poetic tools, techniques and terminology used in poetry such as metaphor, simile, and alliteration as they learn to write a variety of poetic structures. A different poetry writing assignment is given in each classroom. Teachers can then share their classroom’s lessons with their peers, turning the writing workshop into an observational writing workshop inservice for educators as well.
In general, the writing workshop begins with a “large group” introductory session, and then Judy comes into each participating classroom to work directly with students. Because there is an infinite number of ways a writing workshop can be planned, Judy is very flexible, and will work with your school to meet its specific needs. The following will give you some basic information, but please contact Judy for more specific details about tailoring the perfect writing workshop residency for your school or event.
- Writing Workshop Residencies can be booked for 1-5 consecutive days.
- Required Introductory Sessions are 45-minutes long.
- Classroom writing sessions are 75-90 minutes long (preferably 90 minutes).
- Up to five sessions, including an introductory session, can be scheduled in a day.
- You may target only one grade level, several grade levels, or all grades.
- Some schools have Judy working with each classroom only once, others schedule multiple writing sessions per class over several days for an intensive workshop.
- If time allows, Judy will be glad to give grade level "presentation" sessions to grades not participating in the classroom writing workshops.
- For Middle Schools: An introductory session is not required, but may be scheduled. Typically, Judy goes into regularly scheduled middle school English classes. Session length can be based on the school’s regular class length, or middle schools can schedule sessions to accommodate full 90-minute sessions.
This program can be modified for young author conferences, libraries, writing clubs, and educational summer programs.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a workshop, just
Contact Judy Young.
Parent Nights and Special Events: Meet Author Judy Young
Presentation For Mixed Audiences of Students and Adults
Often schools want a special speaker at their parent nights, reading fairs, literature festivals or other special events. In an informal presentation style designed for a mixed audience of both children and adults, the audience will be taken "behind the scenes" to discover the working life of an author. As Judy reads from her books, she shares the publication process, starting with where ideas come from to rough drafts, final manuscripts and galley proofs. She also discusses the illustration process from the author's perspective. To help increase participation at your school's parent night, ask Judy about a student poetry writing contest to be held in conjunction with this event.
This program is excellent for school parent nights, libraries, young author events and children's literature festivals.
It's easy to get more information or to schedule
a presentation, just
Contact Judy Young.