BookBreak launched in September 2023 with more than 1,500 partner schools and a goal to significantly increase access to children’s book authors for elementary and middle school communities.
Author talks have been shown to increase enthusiasm for reading, inspire a passion for writing, and encourage reluctant readers. Unfortunately, very few schools can regularly afford the $5,000+ speaking fees from bestselling children’s book authors, meaning that most students will never experience these impactful events.
Our vision is to make hearing from inspiring authors a regular part of the student experience and dramatically expand access to these programs by pooling the resources of thousands of schools into a single author talk program.
BookBreak brings 2-3 bestselling children’s author events to our network of elementary schools each month via live stream, including Q&A from students. Events are geared toward specific grade cohorts such as K-1st, 2nd-3rd or 4th-5th. Each grade level has the opportunity to hear from an age-appropriate author at least once per month throughout the school year. Recordings of the talks are also available for future use.
The live events are 10-15 minutes long and designed as a short “brain break” for teachers or librarians to share with their classes. This length offers value while fitting into your busy schedule. Most authors will present two live talks during the school day (e.g., 12 and 1:30 PM) for even more flexibility. Recordings are available for those who cannot be on live.
We are highly committed to offering a diverse mix of perspectives and will ensure that half or more of the featured authors will be women and/or people of color.
BookBreak is a new service offered by the Library Speakers Consortium, which has many years of experience working with authors and publishers to create amazing online programs. Some of the authors who will be participating with elementary schools for the 2023-2024 school year include Kate DiCamillo, Jeff Kinney, Dan Santat, Kate Messner, Matt de la Peña, Shannon Hale, and LeUyen Pham. Confirmed authors for the middle school program include Lois Lowry, Jerry Craft, Sharon Draper and Tamora Pierce. The schedule of author talks will be available at least three months in advance for planning purposes. Please request a demo for the latest list of upcoming authors.
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As part of our vision to give access to the program to as many school communities as possible, every school that joins the BookBreak program will allow us to give a high-poverty school free access to the program. High-poverty schools are those where 80% or more of students qualify for free or reduced meals.
The signup form to join the program for high-poverty schools for the 24'-25' school year will be available in January 2024.
We’re a team of people in love with reading and relentlessly focused on getting kids to feel the same way.
Request a demo and explore how joining the BookBreak program can increase access to amazing authors for your school community.
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