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Phil just before his breakout session Phil Bildner is the author of numerous children’s picture books, including the Margaret Wise Brown Prize-winning Marvelous Cornelius , Martina & Chrissie, Twenty-One Elephants , The Soccer Fence , The Hallelujah Flight , and The Unforgettable Season . He is the author of the Rip & Red middle grade series and he is the co-creator of the New York Times best-selling middle grade chapter book serial, Sluggers . Phil spends much of the year visiting schools around the country conducting writing workshops and talking process with students. ** Phil was a middle school teacher for 11 years, and he says that "I look at my writing as the vehicle that lets me do school visits..." Now, "I look at myself as a traveling teacher." It's a presentation packed (packed!) with tips, including: "You have to bring it every day." Some kids will never meet another author, it's you.  How do you get more school visits? Ask th...

Stacy Innerst ’s picture books have earned numerous honors including the BCCB Blue Ribbon, two Parents’ Choice Gold Medals, and a Smithsonian Notable Book Citation. His illustrations for The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue, written by Suzanne Slade (Boyds Mills), received the 2017 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration. Visit  www.stacyinnerst.com . Stacy Innerst's breakout session at the Los Angeles SCBWI Summer Conference was absolutely packed with information about school visits for illustrators. He walked us through his personal school visit slideshow, beginning with the images he uses to introduce himself. In lieu of a typical biographical slideshow (Here's where I went to school; here are the books I made) , Stacy shares images from home, of his son, of books he loved and read as a kid, and things he did as a kid (like scribble in books when he shouldn't have) -- something almost any kid can relate to. He then explains the...