Tabatha Jean D'Agata
Events
Celebrate The Joy of Reading, February 23rd, 2008 The Mall at Rockingham Park
Kids of all ages are invited to join children's author Tabatha Jean D'Agata for lively stories, engaging activities and giveaways on Saturday, February 23rd 2008 at The Mall at Rockingham Park for the 2008 BOOK BLAST Celebration from 11:00am to 1:00pm! The annual event, hosted by Simon Kidgits Club, is free and open to all kids and their parents.
“Meet & Greet” with D’Agata before the event from 10:00am to 11:00am and enjoy snacks, refreshments, handouts, keepsakes & more! During the “Meet & Greet” enter the “YES, I CAN READ” giveaway and one lucky guest will receive a literacy basket valued at $100.00! In addition, guests will welcome the opportunity to browse and purchase a variety of children's books, including books by Tabatha Jean D'Agata, at a convenient book table operated by the mall's own Borders Express Bookstore!
*Help instill a love of reading in others by bringing a new or gently used book for donation to a host of charities.
*Some giveaways are limited to Kidgit members only. If you are not a member, please visit your mall’s Guest Services for more information or visit http://www.simon.com/kidgits
*Keepsakes and handouts while supplies last.
The Mall at Rockingham Park
Upper level former Macy's Court
99 Rockingham Park Blvd
Salem, NH
603) 894-5526
Contact: Kimberly M. Plourde, Guest Services Manager
http://www.simon.com
Borders Express
99 Rockingham Park Blvd
Salem, NH 03079
Phone: 603.893.2370
SPOOK-tacular, October 20th 2007Barnes and Noble Booksellers
1741 South Willow Street
Manchester, NH 03103
603-668-5557
Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Details: SPOOK-tacular book release celebration for the "YES, I CAN READ! NATURE SERIES", story-hour and booksigning. All of D'Agata's newest books will be on-sale!
HARDLY HAUNTED HALLOWEEN FUN!AT FRIGHT FEST -- Sunday afternoon's are for kids! Join Children's Author Tabatha Jean D'Agata for the "Hardly Haunted" Matinee as she welcomes guests to Fright Fest with a spooktacular story before their venture into two "lights on" haunted houses for some tricks and treats. Candy and bags will be provided by Fright Fest at no extra charge. Costumes are encouraged. Kids will also welcome the reptile display and a walk through the tarantula tunnel! D'Agata's books will be on-sale too!
WHERE:
Fright Fest
12 Simon St.
Nashua, NH
603-689-6602
DATES:
Sunday, October 21st 1:00-4:00
Sunday, October 28th 1:00-4:00
PRICE:
Adult Admission: $9.00
Kid’s Admission: $6.00
Website:
www.frightfestnh.com
BOOK 'EM 2007 - BUY A BOOK and STOP A CROOK! Saturday, October 27, 20072007 Lebanon, New Hampshire Book 'Em Event
10:00am - 3:00pm
Lebanon High School
195 Hanover Street
Lebanon NH 03766
Phone: 603-448-2055
Web: www.bookemfoundation.org
Details: Tabatha Jean D'Agata will be entertaining kids as well as autographing books throughout the event. Come browse author tables, enjoy presentations, meet local police officers, and buy a book and stop a crook!
Book Blast - Celebrate The Joy of Reading, February 23rd, 2008
BOOK BLAST 2008, a free annual event hosted by Kidget, at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, NH was a welcoming success. Children of all ages and their parents enjoyed stories, a family grab-bag project, raffles, voting games, free gifts and more. Children's author Tabatha Jean D'Agata was the presenter of the event and her theatrics and love for books easily engaged the crowd.
November 14, 2007
Author Shares Stories with Children
by Robyn Hatch
On November 14 author Tabatha Jean D’Agata entertained the children from Salem’s Haigh School with her colorful stories. Over the years, D’Agata has written many books for children. She is also a member of New Hampshire Writers Project. D’Agata enjoys sharing her story-planning workshops with schools and libraries. She lives in Hooksett with her husband and their son and daughter. The children were excited about her presentation and she won them over with presents of crayons and papers.
Chesterfield School kicks off six-week celebration of literacy
http://www.sentinelsource.com/main.asp?SectionID=63&subsectionID=623&articleID=142628Web Posted 3/16/2007
NICOLE S. COLSON
Article :
CHESTERFIELD — When Tabatha D’Agata’s elementary school teacher told her she could “taste” the tomatoes in her grandmother’s garden, her path to becoming a writer was paved.
D’Agata, who writes children’s books, spoke to students at Chesterfield School last week as part of the kickoff to a six-week literacy celebration. Her appearance was also in observance of TV-Turnoff Week, a program created by TV-Turnoff Network in 1994 to encourage children and their families to watch less television and live healthier lifestyles.
Other activities at the school that recognized TV-Turnoff Week were an evening with illusionist Jason Purdy, a board game night and candy bar bingo.
Fifth-grader Ivy Pepin, who doesn’t watch much television, said she didn’t do anything differently during the week. “I played with my sisters,” she said, adding that she enjoys reading and writing.
Whether or not kids watch television, the literacy celebration is intended to instill in them a love of sitting down with a good book.
Things started off the very first night with a read-a-thon. Laurie Brantley, a reading specialist at Chesterfield School, has planned events through the middle of next month — from creating skits to playing book trivia games.
A school-wide goal is to raise $5,000 by the end of the six weeks for the Read to Feed campaign, a fundraising program of Heifer International Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving global hunger and poverty by donating livestock and plants, and providing education in sustainable agriculture. Money is raised through sponsors who donate according to the number of books a child intends to read throughout the campaign.
To help children identify with the significance of the campaign, Chesterfield School will also host a fundraising drive and collect donations to the local food shelf in exchange for every book read. And as an added incentive to keep kids reading, the school is also hosting a book drop and swap this month for which kids can take a book from the donation bin in exchange for each one they donate.
D’Agata, who has written books for beginning readers, used some of them as examples during several writing workshops she led for each grade level to illustrate how a story is structured.
D’Agata explained to a 3rd-grade class that an author doesn’t have to write a novel to tell a story. A setting and an introduction to characters and the events they experience can be accomplished in 150 words or less.
For a story to be complete, she told them, five story events are need to be defined by the main character’s attempts at solving a problem — and failing.
“Every problem you encounter is the opportunity for a story,” she said. But in order to leave the reader satisfied, she added, the problem must be solved.
To help students see for themselves how a story is born, D’Agata asked them to participate in a 10-minute writing exercise to produce the main elements for a beginning, middle and end to their own stories. She started them off by having them choose their main characters, then asking them to think of a problem associated with that character. By the time the students were finished, they had sequenced their ideas into an outline for a story.
Whatever their story, D’Agata urged the students to check over their work and to never feel bad if the teacher asks them to redo a writing assignment.
To drive her point home, she told them about an experience she had in English class. A poor student, she always got her papers back from her teacher — marked up with a red pen pointing out her many mistakes. But, after some careful proofreading, she turned in a story she had written about the sight, smell and taste of her grandmother’s tomatoes — and it paid off.
“From that moment on, I wanted to be a writer,” she said. Because she began to check over her work, she told the class, she began to see a lot less of that red pen.
And it’s not only children who might have to redo their work, D’Agata said. Ed Newmann, the artist who illustrated her latest book, “Marvin Monster’s Teacher Jitters,” has done some widely recognizable work — from characters in the recent animated film “Over the Hedge” to the Keebler elf.
Newman had to create a third version of the monster after D’Agata sent back the first two attempts because they just weren’t what she was looking for.
“Sometimes even when you’re famous you have to go back to your desk and do it again,” she said.
Sixth-grader Aegean Cordell, who wrote the solid beginnings of a ghost story during D’Agata’s workshop, now understands the importance of editing.
“I found out you can’t just write something and send it to a publishing company,” she said.
For 5th-grader Keeley Rivera, D’Agata’s workshop helped her see creating a story doesn’t have to be a chore.
“Writing is a lot more fun than I thought,” she said.
November 30, 2007
Children’s Author Teaches kids to Write Stories at Nesmith Library
by Lauren Danzi
Mark, age 6, shares his story to the group of home schoolers with the help of Children’s Author D’Agata.
Children’s author Tabatha Jean D’Agata visited the Nesmith Library in Windham and led a story-planning workshop for home schooled children age 6 to 12. D’Agata shows her two newest books made for kids who are just learning how to read. She showed the inside and explained that font is bold and large making it easy to read. D’Agata explained that she uses a word bank with special words that are designed for kids who are beginning to read.
Then she read her first published children’s story Silent Sam, which is her only book to be offered in both English and Spanish. She got the kids to brain storm who the characters might be in the story and asked them questions after reading each page. The story is about a young boy named Gus who tries to get his pet parrot to talk. “What would you do to teach your parrot to talk?” D’Agata asks the kids after reading the first page. They give her ideas like talking to the parrot and coming up with vocabulary words and then she reads the story to find out what happens in her story.
Gus repeats his name over and over again and tries many things to get the parrot to talk including chanting and cheering his name for the parrot. D’Agata got the kids involved in the story by helping Gus to cheer. D’Agata asked them to get to their feet and she led them in a chant saying “Go Gus Go!” Unfortunately when she flips the page they learn that even with all that cheering Sam still does not talk. Only when Gus tries to blame Sam for making a mess does the parrot speak saying, “Gus Gus Gus” and tattling on Sam. At the end Gus he wishes he could teach Sam be quiet. The kids all laughed at this ending.
After the story D’Agata gave the kids an Authors challenge and asked them to write their own stories. She explained that she has to come up with a plan before she starts writing and must think of story problems. “Every single problem through out your day is an opportunity for a story,” said D’Agata. She provided them with paper separated with three boxes for them to write the beginning, middle and end. Each sheet of paper had a picture of one of four different characters a baker, a clown, a bear, or a turtle. She helps the kid’s brain storm as a group different places each character would be, what kinds of problems they might have, and how they might solve them. As they work individually she goes around to each of the kids and sees how they are coming along. D’Agata offers one boy a tip on how to hold his pencil so his arm does not hurt. She says a good idea is to imagine the paper is a balloon and if he presses to hard it will pop and then his arm will not hurt.
After all the kids had finished each of them read their stories to the group. D’Agata asked each child to tell her their name and introduce them saying, “Please welcome the famous author,” and then said their name. Megan, age 9, told a story about a snowman living in an igloo. He got caught in a bad storm, his head blew off, and rolled into a polar bear cave. A Penguin rescued the head and brought it back to the poor confused snowman. Abby told a story about a turtle who got rolled on to his back and his rabbit friend helped him up. D’Agata encouraged excitement about each of the stories by saying after they were done. “How many of us need to buy that book?” Hands always flew into the air.
After the kids read their books to the group, D’Agata gave out prizes for a job well done including smile face key chains and rings. She answered questions from both kids and parents. She gave them all an opportunity to purchase her books and she would sign them for the kids. One parent asked the author to explain what a publisher was to their kids and D’Agata explained the processes of how to get a story published. She explained the challenges as well as the joys but felt that if it is something some one really wants to do then they will be patient and not give up. “The job picked me, I didn’t pick the job,” said D’Agata. She asked the kids if any of them wanted to become authors or illustrators and encourage those who did. She told them about her own illustrator Ed Newmann who worked creating icons like the Keebler Elves had to go back and draw the Monster three times before he got the drawing just right. “Never ever get frustrated,” said D’Agata. She explained that even people who have been working on stories for over 30 years, like Newmann, do not always get it right the first time.
