Visits

Book a 2026-27 visit today! How Now Booking represents Ali for school and library visits and workshops. Please click here for booking inquiries. Below are example presentation topics ideal for grades 4-8. You can find related activities and lessons on the Resources page.

Use Your Outside Voice! Writing Toward Collective Action for Change

In VOTE FOR THE G.O.A.T., Meg and Jo find that standing up for what they believe illuminates larger-scale problems in their community like how animals are treated on campus, the lack of a safe return to play plan for student athletes, and kids feeling like they have no say in how their own school is run. A major theme of the book is that collective action can lead to solutions when the people in power don’t have everyone’s best interests at heart. In this workshop we’ll discuss how literature can be a tool for intergenerational conversations that ensure student voices are heard, play games that identify shared values as a bridge toward understanding and action, and write our own stories centering social change and equity.

Crafting Change! A Craftivism Workshop

In FREE PERIOD, 8th grade besties Helen and Gracie decorate t-shirts, bake punny sweets, and crochet uteruses with their friends to advocate for maxi-pads in all school bathrooms for all students who menstruate. A major theme of the book is that advocacy doesn’t have to be fancy or formal; it can be fun, and we can use whatever we already love to do in life to create change. In this workshop, we’ll discuss these themes within FREE PERIOD as well as some fun examples of craftivism in history, how art can help people connect to issues beyond facts and figures, chat about how the young readers in attendance can tap into their own interests, and finally MAKE SOME ART to get their messages into the world! Examples include friendship bead bracelets, mini-posters, art postcards, bookmarks, and yarn arts.

Chat! It! Out! A Conflict and Empathy Workshop

In their quest to get maxipads in all bathrooms for all students with menstruate in FREE PERIOD, Helen, Gracie, and their friends face lots of obstacles from people who don’t understand the issue to those working actively against them. In this workshop, we’ll explore how literature can help us identify different types of conflict and tailor solutions to address them, discover how to use a special skill or interest you already enjoy to create change, and learn how embracing empathy can create a path toward building common ground. Get ready for copious amounts of synapse-swirling and glitter-braining as Gracie would say while we learn how sometimes working with people who are different from us can create something better than we could ever accomplish alone.

Dynamic Duos Writing Workshop

Using FREE PERIOD, VOTE FOR THE G.O.A.T., and other middle grade examples on everything from besties to teammates to frenemies, we’ll explore how strong character duos can form a compelling basis for hilarious and heartwarming stories. Students will create character profiles, dynamic duo conflict maps, and a turning point outline that they can use to write a story of their very own!