How do you go from a kid who likes books to a grown-up who creates books? How does a story idea become a book you can buy in a store or take out of the library? I loved reading and writing when I was growing up, but writers seemed like mysterious, possibly magical figures. In this presentation I'll talk about how I came to do what I do today, my writing process, and how you get a book published. Think you're done when an editor buys your book? Nope! Now it's time to revise AGAIN. Kids will get to see what a manuscript looks like from messy first draft, to typed page covered in notes from critique partners and editors, to final work. They'll even get to see how the pictures get revised! Note: At the end of the presentation I will be happy to answer students' questions. For a large group, consider choosing questions ahead of time.

Kids will visit the sukkah along with Warthog and his friends and learn to wave the lulav in an intertactive read-aloud of Who’s Got the Etrog?, a joyful Sukkot story set in the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda. Presentations can include giving children the opportunity to hold (and sniff!) a real lulav and etrog while learning the blessings, learning more about the Abayudaya and other surprising and diverse Jewish communities around the world, and doing an African animal sukkah decoration craft.

In this workshop, students will be introduced to the contributions of Jewish immigrants to American culture through the many Yiddish words and expressions that have become part of the English language. (Who doesn't know what a bagel is these days?) We'll then take a closer look at the word "mensch" and the concept behind it. Students will end with the "Mensch Challenge" -- coming up with ways they've been mensches in the past, as well as three ways they want to be mensches in the coming months. (Classes can also choose to come up with group goals.)