By Stephanie Hartman, Logistics & Special Projects Manager at Bookelicious
Picture this: students log into a live, virtual presentation with a favorite children’s author. They’re leaning forward, eyes wide, awaiting the magic. The author reads aloud, answers questions, and offers behind-the-scenes stories about characters the students already adore. They even mentor students through an interactive activity on their writing or illustration process. Excitement is in the air.
Now imagine that when the event ends, the learning doesn’t. Each student leaves school for break with a Bookelicious Lit & Learn Pack – a carefully curated bundle of fiction, nonfiction activity books, and even fidget toys, paired with an engaging activity guide connected to the author’s work. Suddenly, the event isn’t a one-time spark – it’s the start of a fire.
Why Author Events Matter
Author events bring books to life in a way few other experiences can. They transform an author from a name on a cover to a real person with passions, challenges, and a love for storytelling. When students meet an author, whether in person or virtually, they see the human side of writing, and research consistently shows that this can:
- Increase students’ reading enjoyment at school (59.0% vs. 40.7%) and during free time (58.6% vs. 39.3%) (Clark and Picton, 2023)
- Increase students’ writing enjoyment at school (52.8% vs. 31.5%) and during free time (43.2% vs. 32.2%) (Clark and Picton, 2023)
- Increase students’ perception of themselves as highly skilled readers (43.1% vs. 28.6%) and writers (24.4% vs. 17.1%) (Clark and Picton, 2023)
- Students are encouraged to read more and from different genres (Hoiseth, 2018)
- Students create connections with the authors’ and their works (Hoiseth, 2018)
Why Take-Home Packs Keep the Momentum Going
While an author visit can ignite curiosity, take-home packs extend the story. They create opportunities for students to share what they’ve learned, explore related topics, and engage with reading outside the school day and with their family. By including both fiction and nonfiction, students make connections between story worlds and real-world knowledge. The activity guides offer prompts for discussion, hands-on projects, and ways for family members to get involved in the learning. Related take-home packs bridge the learning that happens in school and at home in a meaningful way, especially during school breaks. As research shows even with short breaks, such as winter break, schools can see 1 in 3 students lose reading proficiency. (Lewis and Kuhfeld, 2023)
Lit & Learn Pack
The Power of Connection: How Lit & Learn Makes It Happen
Individually, author events and take-home packs are powerful. Together, they’re transformational. The live event builds excitement and a personal connection to books; the take-home pack channels that excitement into ongoing exploration. It’s a one-two punch for creating lifelong readers:
- Inspire with the author event.
- Equip with the take-home pack.
- Sustain with activities that keep the learning alive at home.
“Providing children with a physical copy of the book and then meeting the author through Zoom helped to provide really good connections for the children and helped them engage and relate to the author’s work.” – Teacher testimony (Clark and Picton, 2023)
By bringing these elements together, schools can cultivate a reading culture that lives not only in the classroom but in students’ homes, families, and communities. Lit & Learn Packs create an encompassing experience where authors inspire, educators build knowledge, and families extend learning into everyday life. Through it all kids see reading as both exciting and accessible, making them far more likely to carry it forward—turning today’s event into tomorrow’s habit.
About Bookelicious
Bookelicious is an award-winning discovery tool that helps children build strong reading identities by leveraging innovative technology, expert curation, and fun to match kids with books they truly want to read.
We offer books, programs, and events for students, educators and families to engage and energize readers. Our approach is research-based, and we’ve curated a diverse collection of more than 40,000 titles. To date, our cutting-edge platform has been used in more than 4,500 schools nationwide.
Hoiseth, Linda. “Are Author Visits Beneficial to Students? An Action Research Study.” School Library Connection, April 2018, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2143890.
Lewis, Karyn, and Megan Kuhfeld. “Recovery still elusive: 2023-24 student achievement highlights persistent achievement gaps and a long road ahead.” NWEA Research, July 2024. https://www.nwea.org/uploads/recovery-still-elusive-2023-24-student-achievement-highlights-persistent-achievement-gaps-and-a-long-road-ahead_NWEA_researchBrief.pdf
Clark, Christina, and Irene Picton. “Author visits in schools, and children and young people’s reading and writing engagement in 2023.” National Literacy Trust, June 2023, https://nlt.cdn.ngo/media/documents/Author_visits_in_2023_-_Final_VWGN1Kd.pdf
