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Mount Hood Oregon
J.N. Courtney

Children's Book Author

Jeanmarie Courtney Children's Book Author

Schedule a Visit

J.N. Courtney talking about crocodiles with first-graders in Pennsylvania
J.N. Court­ney talk­ing about croc­o­diles with first-graders in Pennsylvania

Speaker

J. N. Court­ney has almost 26 years of expe­ri­ence work­ing with stu­dents from preschool through high school age as an Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­pist, in the school sys­tem. She now devotes her “work­ing” time to writ­ing, and shar­ing her sto­ries with chil­dren of all ages. She has pre­sent­ed her sto­ries in pub­lic and pri­vate schools. Since 2016, she has been active in the “Fes­ti­val-to-Go” pro­gram, in which authors share their love of writ­ing and read­ing with stu­dents in the Rochester City School Dis­trict. She has par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Rochester Chil­dren’s Book Fes­ti­val inspir­ing writ­ers and read­ers with her pre­sen­ta­tions and doing book sign­ings since 2018. 

Topics for In-Person or Virtual Visits

Ses­sions are adapt­ed for stu­dents in kinder­garten through grade six and include learn­ing standards.

Pre­sen­ta­tions include oppor­tu­ni­ties for ques­tions and sign­ing books.

RATS With Back­packs: Dr. Don­na Kean and Her Work at APOPO book presentation

Be inspired by intel­li­gent rats who are trained to save peo­ple’s lives with their pow­er­ful sense of smell (a scent super­pow­er)! Dis­cov­er the sto­ry of a Scot­tish girl whose love of ani­mals led her to become an ani­mal behav­ior sci­en­tist, at APOPO, * train­ing African giant pouched rats in Tanzania.

Writer’s Work­shop

Shar­ing exam­ples from the RATS With Back­packs: Dr. Don­na Kean and Her Work at APOPO book, and/or the books in the CLOUDSCAPE series, dis­cussing char­ac­ter­is­tics of the genre(s) and prac­tic­ing writ­ing skills. 

CLOUDSCAPE Char­lie’s Sto­ry and CLOUDSCAPE Matil­da’s Sto­ry presentation

Share in the imag­i­na­tive, fan­tas­ti­cal sto­ry of Char­lie and Matil­da in their adven­tures on CLOUDSCAPE. 

Cre­ate an Imag­i­nary World

Learn how to cre­ate an “imag­i­nary world” ref­er­enc­ing the CLOUDSCAPE series.

For Teen and Adult Audiences

Learn how to write and self-pub­lish a non­fic­tion book: J. N. Court­ney  shares the steps she took in writ­ing RATS with Back­packs: Dr. Don­na Kean and Her Work at APOPO  and how you can go about self-pub­lish­ing your own high-qual­i­ty non­fic­tion book. 

Feedback from Heads of School, Teachers, and Students

“Thank you for all that you do to enable chil­dren to fall in love with books and read­ing!” (Trin­i­ty Montes­sori, Rochester, NY)

“Today, author J.N. Court­ney brought the won­der and curios­i­ty of her new book Rats with Back­packs: Dr. Don­na Kean and Her Work at APOPO to our 1st graders! We were thrilled to host Court­ney as she and our stu­dents dis­cussed her new non-fic­tion book, which tells the sto­ry of intel­li­gent rats who save lives — and the sci­en­tist who stud­ies and trains them.

“At the end of the year we do a reflec­tion with each stu­dent and one of the ques­tions we ask is what their favorite part of the year was. Mul­ti­ple stu­dents said your vis­it was their favorite part of the year!” (Allen­dale Colum­bia School, Rochester, NY)

J.N. Courtney sharing her books with 5th graders
J.N. Court­ney shar­ing her books with 5th graders at “Fes­ti­val-to-Go”
Attending the 2025 American Library Association Conference
Attend­ing the 2025 Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion Conference

Please con­tact J. N. Court­ney at JNCourtneyPublications@gmail.com for an in-per­son or vir­tu­al school, library, muse­um, book­store visit.