A huge thanks to all the librarians, teachers, parents, and great students who made the Children’s Literature Festival of the Ozarks such a special event.
Quotes: “My class really enjoyed your presentation today! Your story touched a few of my kiddos who are afraid of making mistakes in their writing. Hopefully hearing your experience will help them fight that fear in the future. Thank you!” Ashley Harris
“One of my teachers came in this morning to tell me how much her students enjoyed your presentation… She said they listened very intently when you spoke of losing your mom and how difficult that was and how your poured all of that into your writing. That was powerful stuff for her kids! That was great, but even better was that you chose one of her students and called him to the front of the group. That engaged all of those students immediately and she said they were intent on every word for the rest of your presentation. Thank you.”
Karen Martin
“Mary Amato kept her student audiences engaged through every session of our Children’s Literature Festival. With a brief personal account she taught them the value of learning to write in school—without the children even realizing they’d had a lesson! The importance of each part of story development and also editing was shown through the fun of audience involvement. There was no formulaic “when I got published”, etc., but the students became authors, acting out and improving on their own stories. Most enjoyed was her singing (and guitar accompaniment) of one of her original songs from Guitar Notes. Mrs. Amato was warm, affirming and enthusiastic and the audience reacted in the same way.” Ruth Spargo