The Impact of An Author Visit

The school hall is filled with over three hundred children screaming at the stage. There’s hardly any room to move, so little room, in fact, that the author has to stand on the stage in front of a screen depicting illustrations from her books.  She’s using a hairbrush as a makeshift microphone, two teachers are sat in chairs wearing oversized, frilly glasses. They are encouraging the students to yell louder. It’s chaos and it’s really, really wonderful.

This was the scene today when Alex Foulkes, author of the stunning Rules for Vampires and Rules For Vampires: Ghosts Bite Back, visited the school to speak to our Year 7 (age 11) students and students from a local primary school that were ages 9 & 10. 

She gave a stellar performance, depicting her writing journey and life with sharp wit and humour and ending with a game-show style quiz that had them in such a state of excitement that teachers walking past the hall stuck their heads in to see what was going on. It was pure joy. 

When she finished speaking, they roared with applause, they bounced on their heels to meet her in the Library during break time. There were so many students lined up to meet her that I had to email teachers to tell them their students would be late for the lesson after break because they simply kept coming in. They wanted to get a book signed or say hello or just be a part of this event, they wanted to keep this shared experience going for as long as they could. 

When every last student who came in had a chance to meet Alex, she hopped over to another set of chairs and was interviewed by two twelve year olds for our library podcast. The second that finished, Alex sat down with ten of our Year 11 students and played Dungeons and Dragons. They had made a mini adventure for her when they found out she liked to play D&D. They made a character and drew pictures of her, a little owl musician named Ooni. One student asked Alex to sign his copy of the D&D Player’s Handbook, there was a lot of laughing, and then a lot more laughing. It was for me, the perfect ending to an amazing day.

We had teachers come to the library after the event asking for the Rules for Vampires books for their children and their friends’ children, they had heard the lovely chaos in the hall and wanted to be a part of it. 

I’m writing this down because I don’t want to forget this day and also because I want to highlight the impact a visit like this can have. When I was a kid, I never met an author, I assumed they were all millionaires, elite visionaries that sat in gated compounds somewhere. That’s why I get extremely excited to bring authors to the school and I know that a visit like the one I saw Alex deliver will ripple through the school for a long, long time. 

First, I know that Rules for Vampires will be at the top of our circulation stats for ages, probably into next year, I would bet money on it. That in itself means a lot to me, considering the competition that exists in regards to celebrity writers for children. Alex’s books will not only be borrowed more, they will mean something to these kids, these will be the books they read after they actually met the author, some of them walking away with a personalised signature and a little bat drawn in the book by Alex. These will be the books they talk about with their friends. 

Second, there is tangible evidence to show the impact that an author visit can have. The National Literacy Trust states that students who have author visits are:

Twice as likely to read above their expected age level.

More likely to be more confident in their reading and writing.

Much more likely to read daily.

More likely to enjoy reading.

Enjoy reading. That’s huge, that’s every librarian’s dream, to have an entire year group feel better about themselves and their reading, to read daily. 

Third, I know that Alex’s visit will bring new faces to the library, faces of children who felt that the library wasn’t a place they wanted to go. They will hear and feel the excitement from their classmates and they will also want to be a part of this magic that’s been placed here. They might not check the book out, but they will come in, I know they will because I’ve been doing this ten years and I’ve seen it before. They will come in and then they are here, they are in the library and they might find a book that will change their life. 

It’s not just me saying this, there is evidence to show that author visits encourage students labelled as reluctant readers to visit the library more.  I personally do not like the term “reluctant reader,” I think kids put negative stereotypes on themselves or feel that reading isn’t something that certain social labels take part in, like an athlete, for example. Reading, to some, is just something that nerds do, it’s not for them because to be a nerd can mean social exile. However, when everyone sees an author and they all take part in this shared experience, they are all, even if momentarily, swept up in the excitement that an author like Alex Foulkes brings to the echoey school hall. 

Sometimes all they need is to see the motivation behind the creation of the book to get started. Sometimes they just need to see that it’s not impossible for them to write a book one day, to see that authors are real people can be a massive thing to behold. 

“I can be quite down on myself,” said Alex to a room full of 9 and 10 year olds, “who else in this room can be down on themselves?” 

Three quarters of the room put their hands up.

I wondered how many of these kids expected an author to say that. I also wondered how many of them feel down on themselves about reading in general. Not just down, but out, done with reading. Someone like Alex can change that feeling. 

These moments can be powerful, you can see it on their faces and the faces of the adults that were in the room. One of the teachers from the primary school, someone I’ve never met before, nearly hugged me when it was over, “it was amazing, wasn’t it?” she said, “look at them,” she said, motioning to the children, “they’re really buzzing.”

Another teacher wanted a photo of Alex in front of the screen beaming out two giant images of her books. I received an email from the literacy lead of one of the schools, she hadn’t been able to come, but told me staff were absolutely raving about it and that it was clear the children loved it. 

A student who came in the library at break told me Alex’s visit was “the greatest moment she’d ever had.” She came in to just say hello, she wanted to be with her friends and meet the person that made her feel that way. These are the moments that are hard to quantify, you can’t put the looks on the faces of those students in a pie graph. 

What drives me the most is the idea of positive memories. I want the students to leave school and maybe when they’re older think back and at least be able to say they fun in the library, that there was someone there that cared, that they met an author that quite possibly changed their outlook on things. 

I have few positive memories of school. I was an undiagnosed Autistic kid who was perpetually anxious and confused. I was called “backwards” by my grade six teacher and “stupid” by a grade 8 social studies teacher. I got in a lot of fights. If it wasn’t for my older brother I honestly don’t know how I would have survived it. My memories of school are stomach aches and a pounding heartbeat. 

School doesn’t have to be like that, it can be filled with more positive things. An author event can be one of those things.

Downloadable Infographic below!