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Mount Hood Oregon
J.N. Courtney

Children's Book Author

Jeanmarie Courtney Children's Book Author

Schedule a Visit

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

J.N. Courtney talking about crocodiles with first-graders in Pennsylvania
J.N. Court­ney shares child­hood expe­ri­ences with stu­dents in upstate New York

Feedback from the Community

“Thank you for all that you do to enable chil­dren to fall in love with books and read­ing!” (Lor­raine E. Scarafile, Head of School, 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.” (Allen­dale-Colum­bia School, Rochester, NY, Face­book page)

“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! We wish you the best and will be on the look­out for any new and excit­ing books you may have in the future.” (Abbi­gail Andolino, First Grade Teacher, Allen­dale-Colum­bia School, Rochester, NY)

” … the kids loved your pre­sen­ta­tions and were excit­ed to have their own copy of the book to add to their per­son­al library.” (Erin Church, Com­mu­ni­ty Schools Direc­tor, Clyde-Savan­nah CSD, Clyde, NY) 

Background

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 shared her sto­ries in pub­lic and pri­vate schools, book­stores, libraries, a bank, to an “over 55” group and to campers at an ani­mal shel­ter. 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. 

Festival-to-Go Authors
Fes­ti­val-to-Go authors share their love of read­ing and writ­ing at the Frances Park­er School (#23) in Rochester, New York: Sal­ly Valen­tine, myself, Vivian Vande Velde, Tess Pad­more, and Eva Zweifler. 

Presentation Fees

For schools, I offer up to three one-hour pre­sen­ta­tions with 15 min­utes between each pre­sen­ta­tion. If the vis­it extends over the lunch hour, I am will­ing to meet with a small group of teach­ers or stu­dents while we eat.

My fee is $700 plus cus­tom­ary trav­el expens­es (lodg­ing, meals, trans­porta­tion or mileage), for which receipts will be pro­vid­ed with­in the week fol­low­ing the appear­ance. These trav­el expens­es will be for loca­tions over 50 miles out­side the Rochester, New York area. For loca­tions over 50 miles of dri­ving, I require a lat­er start in the day or a hotel the night before I present. 

I have pre­sen­ta­tions geared for 1st grade and up. For old­er stu­dents with a writer’s work­shop, I ask that the class size be no larg­er than 25 students. 

Library stipends are $150.00.

Please con­tact J.N. Court­ney to inquire about a school vis­it, library pro­gram, or fes­ti­val presentation.

J.N. Courtney sharing her books with 5th graders
J.N. Court­ney shar­ing her books with 5th graders at “Fes­ti­val-to-Go”
Shar­ing a close­up look at Rats with Back­packs with a stu­dent at a recent school visit.
It’s heart­en­ing to see how excit­ed the stu­dents get by Rats with Back­packs, a book filled with STEM elements.