Appearances » Scheduling a Visit
As a former teacher and an inveterate ham, Melissa is very comfortable talking to children about being an author. She has given dozens of well-received talks to kids between third and sixth grade on topics of writing, and reading, and publishing, and talks to older students about revision. (To see the sort of thing she talks about, click here.) Melissa has spoken with book groups, single classrooms, and groups of up to eighty students at a time, usually from 45 to 90 minutes; she is comfortable doing up to four talks a day. If you would like to schedule a visit or discuss honoraria, please email her at questions@glenhaber.org.
“If you are looking for a program to do with your group of upper elementary, middle school, or early high school patrons, I highly recommend the author, Melissa Glenn Haber. She spoke to the book club I run in conjunction with one of our local middle schools and she was wonderful. She was very engaging with the kids and never spoke down to them. She and the group had a really nice chemistry, and the kids had a lot of questions, which I think she really appreciated.”
—Laura Bernheim, Head Reference Librarian, Waltham Public Library (posted on Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners' Massyac Listserv)
“Melissa Glenn Haber was a guest author at Cambridge Friends School two years in a row—we invited her back this year because her presentation was so inspiring and engaging for our fifth and sixth grade students. They and their teachers appreciated Melissa’s liveliness, directness, and honesty as she told anecdotes from her life, took us through the writing process, related the ups and downs of finding a publisher, shared the painstaking work and decision making that go into editing the final manuscript, and answered many, many questions. After her visit, our students were eager to read The Heroic Adventure of Hercules Amsterdam and Beyond the Dragon Portal, and they brought renewed enthusiasm and thoughtfulness to their own writing. We hope to see Melissa again next year.”
—Librarian at the Cambridge Friends School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Praise from the students of the Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge:
“She’s very inspiring. I write much more since she came cause I know how.”
“She taught me a lot about writing and life in general. She talked about real things like feeling scared and powerless. And she’s very funny.”
“I like both her books because they have moments when you’re thinking, ‘What will happen next?’ And moments when you’re thinking, ‘Ah hah, now I understand.’ And moments when you’re about to burst into tears.”
“I like the idea she talked about of writing about the horrible people from her childhood.”
“She’s not boring like some people who might say, ‘Once many years ago, children, I had a nice tea party.’”
“She talked about things kids are really interested in and anything we wanted to talk about like money and hard things that happened in her life.”
“I liked it when she explained that there are so few grown ups in kids’ books because grown ups are boring.”
“She wouldn’t just talk about herself and her books. She listened to us talk about our writing.”
“I like how she told us she made mistakes because everybody does.”
“I like how she knows so much about Harry Potter and lots of other books kids love.”
“Allow a lot of time cause talking with her is really fun.”
“I like how she talked to us. It was really interesting. When I got back I was like ‘Oh my gosh, I want to write! I want to write!’”