Emilie’s School Visits
Contact Emilie here for information and to schedule a visit.
In-Person Presentation
Ella & Monkey at Sea – The Story Behind the Story
Presentation adapted for Grades pre-K–3
Emilie’s presentations are interactive and her book Ella & Monkey at Sea is the focus of this presentation. Ella & Monkey at Sea was inspired by Emilie’s own childhood experience leaving Holland for America by passenger ship. After reading the book, she shares photos from her journey and tells students about what really happened when she left home for a new country and the ship encountered a hurricane along the way. Then Emilie talks at grade level, about the creative process of creating a book including, inspiration, where ideas come from, writing, re-writing, making mistakes, editing and working with an editor. Samples of her original sketches and final artwork are shown along the way. She emphasizes that both writing and illustrating a book is a long process. The first half of the program ends with a painting demonstration in which Emilie uses her favorite crayon and watercolor technique. The finished product is given to the class to keep.
Hands-On Project for In-Person Visits
Finally it’s time for the hands-on project where students can try Emilie’s signature crayon and watercolor technique for themselves. Emilie supplies all materials and students are given a simple pre-printed accordion book to illustrate. The booklets for each grade are different yet complementary.
45-60 minutes depending on grade level
Virtual Presentation
Ella & Monkey at Sea – Emotions & Resilience
Presentation for Grades pre-K–3
Using the book Ella & Monkey at Sea, Emilie keeps the core of her popular “The Story Behind the Story” presentation (see above) on the writing and editing process while adding a new focus on emotional resilience. Main characters, Ella and Monkey, find themselves in difficult circumstances when they leave their home in Holland to immigrate to America by passenger ship and encounter a hurricane along the way. The book encourages emotional awareness and helps show students the skills with which to build resilience. Ella reflects many of these skills such as: solving a problem on her own by expressing emotions through drawing, finding an optimistic outlook, helping others, and accepting change. Also, as a coping strategy, Ella projects her emotions onto her toy, Monkey. This makes it easier for young readers to notice, empathize and label Ella’s emotions which we will do together. The program also includes a drawing demonstration and a grade appropriate, Zoom friendly hands-on project requiring only pencil and paper.
45-60 minutes depending on grade level
Other Presentations
Emilie has a variety of presentations based on other books. She also works with students in longer workshops and residencies.
Emilie is available for speaking engagements and would be delighted to speak to groups of librarians, teachers, aspiring writers and illustrators, or teenagers about the process of writing and illustrating children’s books. As a former teacher at RISD (CE), she has years of experience teaching adults.
Contact Emilie here for more information.
