Kerry has always had a love of words - she speaks a lot of them! Thankfully, to the relief of her family and friends, this passion for talking has been channeled into writing children's picture books. This has become her new passion.
Kerry's motto is 'Imagination is Magical'.
"Your imagination is a wonderful and powerful thing. It has no limits, expectations or marking key! I'm not saying that spelling and reading aren't important. They are. However we need to encourage a love and fascination of literature within our children. We need to ignite the spark that gives them an appetite for adventure. Once they are immersed in the joy and satisfaction of storytelling, the rest will follow."
Kerry is a qualified primary teacher with a Masters Degree in Education. She has had the privilege to work alongside some of the best imaginations in the country - the children she has taught!
As a classroom teacher, Kerry is able to provide informative and relevant talks and workshops to classes of children that relate directly to curriculum content or a theme. She is able to deliver these specific to her own books and writing or to an objective requested of her, such as preparation towards NAPLAN testing.
Kerry juggles her writing, part-time teaching, studying and being a full-time Mum, on the Gold Coast, where she lives with her husband, children and much-loved Labrador!
Her first book Can I Cuddle the Moon? illustrated by Lisa Stewart, was released in 2010. Her second book Poppy Wash was illustrated by her sister Michelle Pike. These were followed in 2014 by All My Kisses illustrated by Jedda Robaard and the #1 picture book bestseller Lest We Forget illustrated by Isobel Knowles and Benjamin Portas in 2015.
Kerry's latest collaboration The Hole - April 2018 is with fellow Australian picture book creator Lucia Masciullo.
Lower Primary Years
Kerry uses her book Can I Cuddle the Moon? to cover the following concepts:
- Classifying - things you can and cannot cuddle.
- Rhyme - discovering rhyme, recognising and creating rhyming words (auditory and orally).
- Questions and Answers - identifying them in the text and creating their own.
- Collage - discuss, discover and possibly help create their own group collage depending on time available. (If time does not allow for this, Kerry provides teacher packs so that there is an option to continue this activity in the classroom).
Kerry uses a gorgeous (very realistic) owl puppet, large visuals, data projector and introduces interactive group activities during these sessions.
She also adapts well known songs to her themes which the children pick up very quickly!
A look at Kerry's second book Poppy Wash provides an introduction into basic narrative structure and the genre of storytelling.
Middle Primary Years
These sessions are a little different but still use the book Can I Cuddle the Moon? to introduce the concepts of questions / answers and rhyme which are then used to create a class book titled Can I kiss a? The children love this session as they work together as a group to create their very own class book.
Upper Primary Years
Kerry is able to adapt her current published works by deconstructing her stories in detail and discussing the processes involved.
Sessions can be adapted or created based around a learning concept, set of skills or particular objective. Understanding the need for participation and change of pace, sessions are engaging and interactive.
For all age groups, Kerry is eager for the children to have fun, feel relaxed about their input, excited about literature and above all, believe that their imagination is magical!
The Reading Train
Kerry can also offer a new 45 minute presentation titled. Get on Board the Reading Train - a journey of discovery between you and your child.
The importance of early literacy skills, the reluctant reader, the role of parents and reading tips for both the younger and older readers are all explored.
This session is relevant to parents, staff, schools and libraries for staff pd or literacy evenings and events.
Testimonials
Kerry did a fantastic session with the children, she contacted the library before the event to clarify our expectations of the day / event and to gather information on the target audience. She was really great.
Kerry Brown - Wynnum Library, June, 2013.We had a wonderful day with Kerry Brown yesterday. The sessions were great and all the children enjoyed them. Thank you Helen for recommending her a very good choice.
I also appreciated the fact that Kerry was so flexible. One group was late arriving and at one stage we had a class of Year 6 students joining in and Kerry was unfazed.
Kerry Brown - Canterbury College, Book Week, August, 2013.Kerry has just finished her presentations. Very successful. Praise all round. The kids LOVED her. Many thanks for organising the booking.
Kerry Brown - A B Patterson College, May, 2012Kerry’s visit yesterday was an amazing success, sensational and professional. Kerry had the absolute attention of the younger grades which is never easy to do.
I cannot speak highly enough of Kerry and would highly recommend her to any school. I will definitely be using your company again to book authors if they are of the same quality.
Kerry Brown - Jubilee Primary School, September, 2011Kerry Brown is fantastic and very inspirational. Everyone loved her presentations and it is a hard task keeping preps - year 3 entertained.
Kerry Brown - Guardian Angels Primary School, August, 2011
The Hole
Can I Cuddle the Moon
Poppy Wash
All My Kisses
Lest We Forget
Queensland
Speaker type
- Author
- Educational consultant
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Welcome to Term 2
If you haven't already done so, now is the time to book your speakers for Book Week next term.
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New Releases See all books
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Speaker | Location | Tour dates | Book now |
---|---|---|---|
Sunshine Coast | 04 Jun - 06 Jun 2024 | ||
Rockhampton | 11 Jun - 20 Jun 2024 | ||
Brisbane/Gold Coast | 19 Jun - 21 Jun 2024 | ||
Brisbane | 08 Jul - 10 Jul 2024 | ||
Brisbane | 11 Jul - 12 Jul 2024 |
What people are saying
Fantastic professional advice Lots of very relevant information Great learning event Knowledgeable and authentic presenter Very informative and information useful. Presenter did a super job with delivery information. Realistic and very comprehensive but at the same time quite encouraging. Duncan is such a great presenter - he shares his knowledge & experience without seeming pretentious despite the fact that he is quite successful. The presenter was funny, informative and entertaining. He [...]
Once again Speakers Ink provided a wonderful service. You are my first point of call for organising speakers when I need to. Speakers Ink does a great job and your costs are very reasonable given what is delivered. I do look forward to working with you again.
Students had the opportunity to implement their creative writing skills during Matt Porter’s workshop. The students were enthralled and totally engaged during the entire session, which catered to all abilities. His activities and tips achieved immediate results and the kids were soon writing far more descriptive and exciting stories. What a brilliant visit from an up-and-coming young author. We hope to see him back here in the near future.
A.J.’s willingness to adapt on the fly and adjust her schedule was paramount to the success of the session. It was absolutely brilliant in terms of content and was perfectly tailored to their assessment task. As a teacher, I garnered insider tips and tricks to improve young students’ writing and the early feedback from some of my top students was fantastic. In fact, one teacher in the session already shared a writing task to the teaching team based on her presentation today. Thank you, A.J., for [...]
Belinda’s presentation style was very suitable for our students. She connected well with all year levels and understood how to engage them. I was very impressed with her style personable and very approachable for students. I would welcome Belinda again to speak to our students.
Anna had the audience locked on to her presentation from start to finish. She unfolded a fascinating story of literary detective work, tracing the lives of her Polish grandmother and her family, and the audience couldn't wait for a formal question-and-answer period at the end – they threw in questions as the session went along, and she handled them brilliantly and honestly.
I highly recommend Maria as a speaker. Our students found her presentation interesting and engaging, and I was impressed with the way Maria held their attention throughout.
Versatile across all stages Sue captures and holds her audience’s attention from the get-go. As a former teacher, Sue knows how to pitch, pace and present to perfection. Staff and students were equally enthralled and impressed. Five stars from us at Yarrawarrah School. Nailed it!
Just wanted to drop you a line about my Book Week guest speakers this year. They (Peter Carnavas and Richard Newsome) were both fantastic!!!! Peter was - well Peter - just so gentle and so great with the kids. Both authors were so approachable and both just all-round nice blokes. The feedback from teachers and students has been so positive. The kids loved both of them so much. I would highly recommend both speakers to anyone. Thank you so much for recommending them to me. You were on a definite [...]
Our children were fascinated by the methods Chrissy wrote, illustrated and published her magical picture book. At each stage of her journey in her presentation a child opened a surprise sparkly box. They saw first-hand examples of the material she used in her beautiful illustrations. Their interest was captured by an insight into her creativity and her encouragement to work at what they loved to do, no matter what hurdles they met on the way.
Thank you for single-handedly bringing my 10 year old son back to reading.