Melissa Stewart
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Bonus for Massachusetts Schools

Melissa and Doug
Melis­sa, age 7, with her younger brother

As a child grow­ing up in a small west­ern Mass­a­chu­setts town, I nev­er expe­ri­enced the excite­ment of an author vis­it. I had no idea that real, liv­ing peo­ple cre­ate books.

To this day, I’m the only author who has vis­it­ed my home­town ele­men­tary school, and that’s not unusu­al. Many stu­dents in Mass­a­chu­setts have nev­er had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet an author.

Research shows that author vis­its have the pow­er to:

  • Nur­ture a love for reading
  • Enhance lit­er­a­cy skills
  • Fos­ter cre­ativ­i­ty and cul­tur­al understanding
  • Cre­ate a vibrant and immer­sive lit­er­ary environment
  • Build career aspirations.

That’s why I’m launch­ing a cam­paign to vis­it an ele­men­tary school in every town in my beloved home state, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on west­ern and cen­tral Mass­a­chu­setts as well as Cape Cod.

Meet the Mini-Mammals

Since I began vis­it­ing schools in 2003, I’ve offered pro­grams at 89 schools in 63 Mass­a­chu­setts towns. In an effort to reach stu­dents in the remain­ing 229 towns, I’ve designed a low cost, easy to plan, whole-school author event for Meet the Mini-mam­mals: A Night at the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um, illus­trat­ed by Calde­cott Hon­oree Bri­an Lies.

Start­ing in March 2025, I will charge $500 per school and vis­it two schools in neigh­bor­ing towns per day, for a total of $1000. That’s half my nor­mal dai­ly fee. 

Please con­tact me for addi­tion­al details.

Massachusetts map
Melissa Stewart
Melis­sa Stewart

For more infor­ma­tion, read the Plan­ning a Vis­it page, and then please con­tact Melis­sa.

School Visit Slideshow

Watch this School Vis­its Slideshow to see how Melis­sa taps into the delight and fas­ci­na­tion chil­dren have for nature and learn­ing via the tools that nature provides.