Trim Sets Sail
A Letter to My Teacher
Dolly Parton
Lucky's Home for Lost and Hungry Dogs
Titanic Voices from the Disaster
Take Cover
The Great Trouble

Deborah Hopkinson

Award Winning Author of Fiction & Nonfiction for Children & Teens
Facebook Instagram

In Person and Virtual Author Visits

I love speak­ing in libraries and schools about read­ing, writ­ing, and his­to­ry. I offer both vir­tu­al and in-per­son vis­its. Ses­sions fea­ture choral read­ing for younger stu­dents. I focus on research and crit­i­cal think­ing skills for old­er ele­men­tary and mid­dle school stu­dents and incor­po­rate draw­ing or writ­ing activ­i­ties into pre­sen­ta­tions. Times are approx­i­mate; please allow for 10 min­utes between ses­sions to ensure ample time for Q&A. Grade lev­els are flexible.

For in-per­son school, library, and con­fer­ence appear­ances please con­tact Authors Out Loud. (requests@authorsunbound.com)

  • View my Speak­ing Pro­file at Authors Out Loud.
  • For speak­ing about my Knopf and Pen­guin Ran­dom House titles includ­ing Luck­y’s Home for Lost and Hun­gry Dogs and Dol­ly Par­ton Day vis­its with my #1 NYT Best­selling Dol­ly Par­ton Gold­en Book, please con­tact this pub­lish­er.
  • Dol­ly Par­ton Day Vir­tu­al Vis­its: Con­tact me at deborahhopkinson@yahoo.com

All ages

Dol­ly Par­ton Day

Spe­cial vir­tu­al Dol­ly Par­ton pre­sen­ta­tions are pop­u­lar in her birth­day month of Jan­u­ary and around Dol­ly Par­ton Day in Sep­tem­ber. Along with my #1 New York Times best­seller Dol­ly Par­ton, a Gold­en Book Biog­ra­phy, a Baby edi­tion and Ulti­mate Fan edi­tion titles are avail­able. To book a vir­tu­al Dol­ly Par­ton Vir­tu­al Vis­it con­tact me direct­ly at deborahhopkinson@yahoo.com

K‑6

Be a His­to­ry Detec­tive
(all school, 30 min plus Q&A)

For an all school pre­sen­ta­tion, I do a gen­er­al intro­duc­tion and focus pri­mar­i­ly on pic­ture books that will appeal to mul­ti­ple grade lev­els, such as Sky Boys, A Let­ter to My Teacher, and The Sto­ry of a Sto­ry. I designed this for schools with a lim­it­ed bud­get that want to get stu­dents excit­ed about read­ing and writing.

K‑2

What Makes a Writer?  
(30 to 35 min) 

Read­ers make writ­ers! We explore where ideas come from with an empha­sis on read­ing and prac­tice. It includes choral read­ing of pic­ture books such as Girl Won­der or Apples to Ore­gon, as well as my Dol­ly Par­ton Gold­en Book and ear­ly chap­ter series the Adven­tures of Trim. A Trim draw­ing activ­i­ty is a fun way to end our time together.

3–5/6

Imag­ine the Past
(35 to 45 min) 

We explore non­fic­tion, his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, and crit­i­cal think­ing and research skills such as sourc­ing and close read­ing. Fea­tured books include non­fic­tion, his­tor­i­cal fic­tion such as Evi­dence!, The Great Trou­ble, and Lucky’s Home for Lost and Hun­gry Dogs. The focus is on devel­op­ing his­tor­i­cal think­ing skills. I offer a Trim draw­ing activ­i­ty as well as writ­ing activ­i­ties aligned with Apples to Ore­gon, Titan­ic, or A Let­ter to My Teacher, per­fect for Teacher Appre­ci­a­tion Week!

5/6–7/8

Tell Your Sto­ry!
(45–50 min)

I encour­age upper ele­men­tary and mid­dle school stu­dents to be his­to­ry detec­tives and also tell their own sto­ries! We dig into his­tor­i­cal fic­tion with Lucky’s Home for Lost and Hun­gry Dogs, Take Cov­er, and The Great Trou­ble. I talk about research­ing non­fic­tion with my World War II books such as D‑Day: The World War II Inva­sion that Changed His­to­ry and my Sib­ert hon­or title, Titan­ic: Voic­es from the Dis­as­ter. A Titan­ic writ­ing work­shop brings stu­dents face-to-face with a trag­ic event that con­tin­ues to fas­ci­nate us more than a cen­tu­ry later.

Middle/ High School

Unsung Heroes and Hero­ines of World War II
(45–50 min)

This ses­sion intro­duces read­ers to some of the extra­or­di­nary indi­vid­u­als I’ve researched and writ­ten about in my books about D‑Day, the Kinder­trans­port, the Lon­don Blitz, the Holo­caust, and the Pacif­ic the­ater of oper­a­tions, includ­ing submariners.

Be a History Detective
Be a His­to­ry Detective

Writing Workshops and Activities

Writ­ing Work­shops may be stand-alone or incor­po­rat­ed into ses­sions. These usu­al­ly require a bit more coor­di­na­tion, since for a vir­tu­al work­shop I’m not avail­able to walk around to offer encour­age­ment, but it can work well. Here are some of the themed work­shops and activ­i­ties I’ve used, which can be adapt­ed for var­i­ous grade levels.

A Let­ter to My Teacher

A guid­ed thank you let­ter to a teacher, coach, librar­i­an, or any­one stu­dents would like to thank.

Apples to Oregon

Here, we write a let­ter to a per­son of the past. What’s the same in our lives between 1847 and now? What’s different?

Beat­rix Pot­ter and the Unfor­tu­nate Tale of a Bor­rowed Guinea Pig

Oops! Beat­rix bor­rowed a guinea pig from her neigh­bor and it didn’t go so well. Here stu­dents use their imag­i­na­tions to com­pose a let­ter of apology.

Fol­low the Moon Home

In this guid­ed activ­i­ty, we pre­view the book then stu­dents imag­ine writ­ing a let­ter to a local busi­ness to ask for sup­port for their sea tur­tle con­ser­va­tion activities.

The Sto­ry of a Story

There are prompts actu­al­ly includ­ed at the back of this book, which form the basis for a sto­ry about a chickadee.

Titan­ic: Voic­es from the Disaster

One of my favorite work­shops for fourth grade and up, stu­dents learn about the Col­ly­er fam­i­ly on the Titan­ic, then write a let­ter after the event from Char­lotte Col­ly­er to her husband’s par­ents, imag­in­ing what the dis­as­ter was like for her, her hus­band, and their daugh­ter. At the close, we read her actu­al letter.

We Had to be Brave / We Must Not Forget

This activ­i­ty for old­er read­ers is based on the life expe­ri­ences of Ruth David, one of the Holo­caust sur­vivors I was priv­i­leged to get to know dur­ing the research of these books. Ruth escaped on the Kinder­trans­port; this activ­i­ty asks stu­dents to imag­ine her writ­ing to her par­ents and two youngest sib­lings left behind in Germany.

A Letter to My Teacher
Apples to Oregon
Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig
Follow the Moon Home
The Story of a Story
Titanic Voices from the Disaster
We Had to Be Brave
We Must Not Forget