Virtual Author Visits

Kimberly Senf

There were no packed gymnasiums, auditoriums or classes brought together in the library for in-person author visits this year. While those moments were certainly missed in the different year that we all had in our schools and libraries, the restrictions on gatherings afforded us the chance to re-examine how we envision author visits in our schools. We have been constrained by geography most years, but this year our options were opened wide as we invited authors from across the country to speak to students at our school. The move to virtual author visits has opened exciting new possibilities for school libraries to invite both international authors and Canadian authors from across the country to speak to students, an opportunity that many schools likely had not fully realized before this year.

At Elmwood School in Ottawa, we welcomed authors and visiting speakers into our schools virtually instead of in-person, which was a shift that allowed our students to speak to authors that we would not have been able to bring in person. To celebrate I Read Canadian Day in February, we invited three Canadian authors to share their insights and perspectives with different grade groups at our school.

Erica Eades, the Junior School librarian at Elmwood School, organized the virtual visit with Ruth Ohi. Known for her popular picture book series, Fox and Squirrel, Ms. Ohi thrilled students with a fun and engaging presentation that combined reading, art, and storytelling during her virtual session. Our students particularly enjoyed hearing about Ms. Ohi’s creative process and learning how to draw some cute critters as well.

David A. Robertson spoke to students about the teachable elements that are included in his latest novel, The Barren Grounds. These moments include representation of different cultures in the characters he creates within his narrative and directly commenting on the state of our environment with the setting of eternal winter in his portal story. The students were ready with their questions after his presentation, and he was content to answer as many questions as we could fit into the time allotted for his session. It is definitely a little bit clunkier having students ask questions across different classrooms on a virtual platform, but we made it work. Elmwood has a partnership with the Ottawa Public Library and they offered our students several other opportunities to have virtual author visits at our school. Maika and Maritza Moulite, authors of One of the Good Ones, spoke to our Grade 9 and 10 English classes during Black History Month in February. Our Grade 11 and 12 French language students had the chance to attend a session with Dïana Bélice, a French-Canadian author of several young adult novels. To highlight poetry and spoken word in April, classes across our middle and senior school were able to attend virtual sessions with Toronto spoken word artist Britta B. Her talk was invigorating and fun – it definitely kept all the students on their toes!

This year was an anomaly in many ways, but it will be remembered as a year where there was a noticeable shift with the planning and timing of our author visits. Our school community is much more open to the idea of virtual sessions with speakers that align with the work we are doing and the learning that is happening in the classroom. This shift will allow us to bring in our local authors alongside the authors from farther afield, creating engaging and diverse library programming for our students. z