Previous Author Visits
The following authors and illustrators have visited Elmsford through the Elmsford Authors Fund:
November, 2006: Dr. Jeff Gilbert, author, and Regina Farrell, illustrator of Milton's Moment. Milton's Moment is currently out of print.
October, 2007: Patricia Polacco. Find her on the web at www.patriciapolacco.com.
June, 2008: Ina and Jack Polack, authors of Steal a Pencil for me, from which the film of the same name was made. www.stealapencil.com.
October, 2008: Phyllis Shalant, author of When Pirates Came to Brooklyn and the "Bartelby" books. www.phyllisshalant.com.
February, 2009: Doreen Rappaport, author of Martin's Big Words, Nobody Gonna Turn Me 'Round, and many other noteworthy non-fiction and historical fiction works, visited with grades 2 - 10 to teach them about research and writing skills. She also did a writer's workshop with the Young Writers of America group and AP English and Comp and Lit students, in which they read and critiqued some chapters from her unfinished manuscript about resisters during the Holocaust. For more information about Doreen, see www.doreenrappaport.com.
March, 2009: Daniel Mahoney visited with the students at Dixson and with the second-graders at Grady. He encouraged students to create a story as he illustrated their words. To visit Daniel's website, enter: www.www.danieljmahoney.com.
November, 2009: Award-winning celebrated author-illustrator Brian Pinkney visited Grady school where he presented to students from grades 1 through 6, and also the high school where he met with the junior high school students and AP English and Comp and Lit students. The presentations varied to meet the specific interests and needs of each particular group. Primarily an illustrator, Mr. Pinkney spoke about the creative process as well as how an illustrator collaborates with an author to create illustrations to match the story line. Please see www.brianpinkney.net. for his bio, works, and more.
April, 2010: Clara Knopfler, a Holocaust survivor and the author of I Am Still Here: My Mother's Voice, spoke to students at Alexander Hamilton High School, recounting her story about her experiences, including imprisonment in Auschwitz and Riga concentration camps. Ms Knopfler, a member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center's Speaker's Bureau, touches high school students in a special way: she was their age during the Holocaust and her perspective is that of a teenage girl. Special thanks to Principal Marc Baiocco for his generous donation to the HHREC. For information about the Center, see www.holocausteducationctr.org.
