My School Visit Stats!

Filed under: Coolness, Events, For Teachers, Growing Up Reading, School Visits • May 23, 2023

YOU DID IT! (or you’re reeeeally close)

Look at you! You made it through another school year and so did I! I’m definitely ready for a break from early bed times and early wake times.

My girls are finishing up their last week of 3rd and 7th grades (7th almost killed me but that’s another story) but I had my biggest, busiest school visiting year yet thanks to all the wonderful people who invited me to their schools so I could share my love of stories! I know it takes extra effort to organize an author visit, so I am deeply appreciative of those who went that extra mile for their students and for me.

Visiting schools is one of the best parts of my work. It’s just so cool to connect with so many different people in various places … all because of a book. 

Here are my stats for the year…

“Our staff and teachers felt like you did an amazing job keeping the kids engaged and were an amazing presenter. It was so enjoyable to have you visit! All parts of the presentations were amazing and very well planned to keep the students focused and excited about writing and illustrating. Thank you.” – Sandy, Media Specialist, Canton, GA

“I loved how you were able to bring the presentation down to a level that even the Pre-K and Kindergarten were engaged. I also loved the way you encouraged the students to look at the illustrations and explained that many times the illustrations have an effect on the meaning of the text. Our students and teachers alike loved the presentations.” – Angelia, Media Specialist, Demorest, GA.

“We loved the presentation! Our students loved drawing along with you! I really enjoyed working with you from our first email until the last session was over today. You have thought through every aspect of your visit to make it as smooth as possible. Thank you!” – Jennifer, Media Specialist, Canton, GA

I’m booking for the 2023-2024 school year now! If you’re interested, take a look at my presentations, pricing, and availability calendar here and let’s get something set up!

H.A.G.S. (Have a good summer :) – Shanda

9 LIT + STEM ideas to explore in the classroom

Filed under: For Teachers • March 15, 2023

Here are 9 ideas to integrate literacy, my books, and STEM / STEAM into your curriculum BEYOND the science classroom…

Write a Book Review printable

Little Red Educator’s Guide

Design A Robot printable

My Robot printable

T-Bone the Drone story time kit

STEM/STEAM Video Lessons

Balancing Robot printable

Making and Literacy With Makey Makey, Scratch, and Doll-E 1.0

Little Red Educator’s Guide

I hope you enjoyed this list (which was taken from a presentation I did with 2 other authors)!

High Schoolers Dig Author Visits Too!

Filed under: Art Lessons, Events, Growing Up Artsy, Growing Up Reading, Growing Up Writing, Illustration, School Visits • February 1, 2023
While they didn’t laugh (as much) at my cornball jokes or appreciate my robot-voice-changer as much as the elementary kids I typically visit do, we had a fantastic time anyway–making CHEESY COMICS at Union County High School!
This 2-day writing/illustrating workshop began with cheese drawing lessons and students created their own “cheesy” character (a literal slice of cheese). This worked well because a slice of cheese is basically a square and is drawable at any skill level. Then, we interviewed our characters to find out their wants, fears, strengths, weaknesses, personality, best friend, etc.
On the second day, we wrote a cheesy story (based loosely on 7-step storytelling) for our cheese character by putting them up against their greatest fears or biggest enemies! Last, we folded zines and filled them with our cheesy comic stories and shared them aloud :)
I was impressed by many of the concepts that came thru in the students’ short comics. There were silly stories, love stories, and even tragedies (which circled back to funny because it was cheese :)I love how Jae (below) barely used any text at all and told her story mostly through pictures.
Awww!
An Author’s Valentine…If you loved one of my books, would you pleeease write a short (seriously, it can be super short) review on Amazon?

Three Printable Activities to go along with reading Nubby by Dan Richards and Shanda McCloskey

Filed under: A Picture Book & A Project, For Teachers, Free Stuff, Growing Up Artsy, Growing Up Reading, Illustration, My Books, Printable Activities • January 7, 2023

A book that fits in a stocking!

Filed under: Gifting Books, My Books, Printable Activities • November 28, 2022

What gift fits in a stocking but arrives after the holidays??

NUBBY of course!

I hope you’ll consider pre-ordering NUBBY written by Dan Richards and illustrated by me (Shanda McCloskey) as a gift for your littles :)

BONUS: Print out the foldable card above to slip it into a gift bag or stocking!

Warmest wishes!

-Shanda

Shanda’s Books + Fun Holiday Gift Guide 2022

Filed under: Gifting Books, My Books • November 16, 2022

Yay–It’s gift giving season! I hope you’ll take a look at my 2022 holiday gift guide, get ideas, and grab some kids’ & teachers’ gifts too! (Some links in the guide are affiliate links that help support my work.)

Peek into the art process for NUBBY

Filed under: Illustration, My Books • October 11, 2022

NUBBY (written by Dan Richards) is my next illustrated book! It comes out January 3, 2023. It’s about an under appreciated stuffed bunny who sets out on a long journey (just around the culdesac) to find a better life. It’s a sweet story about home and family (even though they can be maddening at times).

I related well to this story because my family (especially my kids) drive me insane half the time, but there’s really no where else I’d rather be! Truth be told, I drive them nuts too :) And I’m so grateful they take me back after I lose my marbles, over and over again.

or these illustrations, I drew the line art on Procreate on my iPad.

Then, I printed the line art onto watercolor paper and traditionally painted the values (lights and darks) using only black.

Last, I scanned in the black and white painting and brought it back into Procreate on my iPad to colorize the brush strokes using a “color” layer. Finishing touches were added in Photoshop.

I think this book might be my prettiest yet. I really enjoyed drawing and coloring digitally while still being able to do some traditional painting too. The lines seems sharper and the colors less “muddy” than some of my illustrations in previous books.

How Did I Get Published?

Filed under: Lessons of an Artist, Shanda's Journey • October 7, 2022

I got asked this question several times at the Decatur Book Festival this past weekend. And I have such empathy because I once asked this question too.

Let’s back up to 2006. I was a new high school art teacher, and I wasn’t all that happy. It had nothing to do with the kids, the facility, money, or the administration. It was just me. I felt very stupid, ungrateful, and spoiled, but I was not being fulfilled. I knew deep down it was because my real dream was to make kids books. I even felt like a fraud, telling some of my artsy teen students that it was possible to follow their dreams in a creative field after graduation (when I wasn’t doing the same).

The truth is, having a creative career isn’t a straight line. You don’t typically graduate with a “job” waiting for you like many other careers do. It’s a risky venture of your heart and your finances. This choice isn’t for everyone, but I think you just KNOW if it is … because you just can’t shake it.

If this is you and your dream is to publish children’s books, do these 3 (not so easy) steps:

  1. Join (SCBWI.org) The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators
  2. Go to their conferences and practice what you learn
  3. Expect a long road but an absolutely awesome one with incredible people and adventures

This is exactly what illustrator Michael Austin told me when I cold-emailed him in 2007 and asked, “How does one publish a children’s book?” He simply said to join SCBWI. So I did, and it worked :)

-Shanda

Welcome to the World, Little Red!

Filed under: Uncategorized • September 7, 2022

Today is the book birthday (release day) of LITTLE RED AND THE BIG BAD EDITOR, and I can’t wait for you to see it! In fact, I’d like to see it myself- I haven’t received my illustrator copy yet. So, let me know what you think when you get yours on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or by leaving a review on Amazon.

Spread Thanks by Writing a Letter (and actually delivering it)!

LITTLE RED AND THE BIG BAD EDITOR is a wonderful model about how to write a thank you letter (and edit it). Below is a printable page to make this activity easy-peasy!

It took three years to publish this book

Filed under: Events, Gifting Books, My Books, On My Mind, Shanda's Journey • September 1, 2022

It takes sooo long for a book to go from deal to release day. I signed the contract to illustrate this book in March of 2019. At that time, we had never heard of covid, and we still wouldn’t be affected by it for another year! And when it did hit the US, I was in the middle of working on this book. The world shut down in March 2020.

It was weird. All of a sudden, I couldn’t get in contact with the publisher. Months and months went by in silence. But I just kept working. I didn’t know what else to do.

Eventually, the publisher reached out and said that Little Red would need to publish later than originally expected, which was fine with me. And here we are!

LITTLE RED AND THE BIG BAD EDITOR releases on Tuesday, Sept 6th! I hope you consider ordering a copy (or two) from my favorite indie bookstores below.

If you order at least two books, Little Shop of Stories will ship for FREE! And with the holidays coming up, consider purchasing 2 copies of LITTLE RED AND THE BIG BAD EDITOR (one for your family and one for your child’s teacher/classroom).

If you fancy SIGNED (by me) copies, then definitely place your order of LITTLE RED AND THE BIG BAD EDITOR with Read It Again Books! Be sure to request that it be “signed by Shanda” in the notes section of the order.

If you’d like to come see me in person (because I sure want to see you) I’ll be at the Decatur Book Festival on October 1st with Little Shop of Stories and then with Read It Again Books for a fun family launch event on October 8th!

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Shanda McCloskey, Children's Illustrator & Author