Promoting his new book “The Tapper Twins Tear Up New York” author Geoff Rodkey, visited the 6th-7th grade students at Hasbrouck Heights this week.  The visit was organized by the Media Specialist, Betty Chiu, in collaboration with Watchung Booksellers, who provided the books for sale after introducing the author to the school for this free promotional visit. To prepare for the visit, Abigail, in the BELS office created promotional materials, including order forms and a large banner. Mrs. Chiu set up an attractive display of Geoff’s books in the media center to incite student interest and then visited all 6th and 7th grade classrooms to talk about the the impending visit and excite the students about the fantastic opportunity they would have to meet an author and screenwriter.

On the day of the event, Geoff started off by telling the students how he began his writing career at age 5, then continued writing in high school and college.  Geoff told the students the first step to becoming a writer is to read a lot, especially books in different genres and various writing styles. Geoff also recommended  to write about life events as they often appear funny to others when you retell them.  He shared with the students that the screenplays he wrote were based on his own life events.  For example, “Daddy Day Care” was based on when he stayed home with his boys and his wife was working, while “Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas!” was based on when he was stuck with his sister in airports for 2 days trying to get back home to Chicago. The students were captivated by his presentation because he could relate to the students with his humor. After the talk concluded, many students purchased his books, which Geoff autographed and personalized.

We hope to collaborate in the future in supporting our independent bookstores and dynamic authors. If you are interested in bringing Geoff or another author from our author program to your school, please contact Abigail.