Brief Bio:

Jean Marzollo is the award-winning author of I SPY, Help Me Learn Addition, Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, Pierre the Penguin, The Little Plant Doctor, Soccer Sam, Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Close Your Eyes, Mama Mama/Papa Papa, the Shanna Show books, In 1492 and many other children's books as well as books for parents and teachers. She is the author/illustrator of Ten Little Christmas Presents, Ten Little Eggs, Bible stories, and Greek myths. Jean Marzollo is also the author/illustrator of online interactive ebooks for children, Monsters for Sale and Castle Crash featuring Teddy Bear and Greenie the Troll. Her website has many free stories, songs, and games for children to play on computers, SMART boards, and various handheld devices.

Presentation Description:

Suggested Audience: Grades Pre-K – 6

Teachers who are interested in having a 15-minute Skype Author Visit with Jean Marzollo should contact Donna Cotennec to set a date and time for the session. During the author visit, she will answer the following questions that children like to ask her:

1. How did you come up with the I SPY books?

2..How do you write the riddles?

3. How does Walter Wick make the pictures?

4. Do you forget where things are in I SPY?

5. Do you have any help?

6. What are your latest books?

7. What are you working on now?

8. Where do you get your ideas?

9. Do you like being an author?

10. Do you have any advice for people who want to become authors or illustrators?

To help your students get the most out the online visit, please do the following in advance:

1. Invite the class to watch the I SPY Movie.

2. Arrange to have Jean’s latest books for the children to see in your classroom. See full book list below.

I am happy to offer on Skype a free review of your students' classroom I SPY riddle writing projects. I've done this before very successfully. Here's how it works. With your help (and possibly the art teacher's help, too), your students create their own original beautiful I SPY pictures and write their own fantastic I SPY riddles. To make their pictures, children use various materials: crayons, markers, stickers, and perhaps even the stickers in the I SPY STICKER BOOK AND PICTURE RIDDLES.

Please tell the children that if they do the best job they can possibly do, you will submit their work to me online.

I will look at it ahead of time and, if it's good enough (has correct rhythm and rhyme, and has correct spelling and punctuation), then I will review it with them during a 15-30 minute Skype session. I will praise top quality work and offer gentle pointers where students might want to improve their work. The children's experience will be somewhat like the professional experience I have when I submit my work to an editor in a publishing company. Click here to see outstanding work by 5th graders!

Note: Making I SPY pictures and writing I SPY riddles is harder than it looks, and it takes time. Teachers have incorporated this project into poetry units, creative writing units, and technology units. Other suggestions are: math units and rhythm & rhyme units. Younger children can work in groups and write short rhymes. Older children, like the 5th graders, can write longer I SPY riddles. In both cases, the riddles need to fit the I SPY format. Your students can study the format by reading the I SPY books and also by going to http://www.jeanmarzollo.com/ISPY/riddle_writing.html.

If your students do excellent work and I have permission, I might post examples of their work on my website!

If you are interested in having a 15-30 minute Skype I SPY RIDDLE REVIEW with me, please contact my assistant Donna at jeanmarzollo@jeanmarzollo.com to set a date and time for the session. The session will be confirmed after I have received and approved of your children's I SPY RIDDLES. The Skype session may not be videotaped.

Last of all, please don't have your Skype session with me be your first Skype session! Please practice Skype-ing ahead of time with someone else.

Thanks and Best Wishes, Jean Marzollo

Ordering Books:

Schools and libraries may order books at a discounted rate by visiting the Scholastic Teacher Store or by calling 1-800-SCHOLASTIC.

Book list:

Pub Year	ISBN	Title	Price
4/1/1992	9780590450874	I SPY A BOOK OF PICTURE RIDDLES (HC )	13.99
10/1/1992	9780590458467	I SPY CHRISTMAS: A BOOK OF PICTURE RIDDLES (HC)	13.99
3/1/1993	9780590462938	I SPY FUN HOUSE: A BOOK OF PICTURE RIDDLES (HC)	13.99
10/1/1993	9780590462945	I SPY MYSTERY: A BOOK OF PICTURE RIDDLES (HC)	13.99
10/1/1994	9780590462952	I SPY FANTASY (HC)	13.99
9/1/1995	9780590481359	I SPY SCHOOL DAYS (POB)	13.99
7/1/1996	9780590265874	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I AM WATER	3.99
9/1/1996	9780590481373	I SPY SPOOKY NIGHT (POB)           #7	13.99
4/1/1997	9780590847797	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I'M A CATERPILLAR	3.99
10/1/1997	9780590341295	I SPY LITTLE BOOK (BOARD BOOK)	6.99
10/1/1997	9780590341288	I SPY SUPER CHALLENGER	13.99
3/1/1998	9780590117111	I SPY LITTLE ANIMALS BOARD BOOK	6.99
10/1/1998	9780590042963	I SPY GOLD CHALLENGER	13.99
10/1/1998	9780590047067	I SPY LITTLE WHEELS (BOARD BOOK)	6.99
4/1/1999	9780590687140	I SPY LITTLE NUMBERS (BOARDBOOK)	6.99
10/1/1999	9780439083317	I SPY LITTLE CHRISTMAS (BRD W/ FOIL)	6.99
10/1/1999	9780439042444	I SPY TREASURE HUNT	13.99
3/1/2000	9780439114967	I SPY LITTLE LETTERS (BRD BOOK)	6.99
10/1/2000	9780439199001	I SPY EXTREME CHALLENGER	13.99
11/1/2001	9780439316347	I SPY YEAR-ROUND CHALLENGER	13.99
5/1/2003	9780439454018	I SPY ULTIMATE CHALLENGER	13.99
5/1/2003	9780439524711	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A DINOSAUR'S EYE	3.99
5/1/2003	9780439524728	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY FUNNY TEETH	3.99
8/1/2003	9780439524735	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A SCHOOL BUS	3.99
10/1/2004	9780439524742	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A CANDY CANE	3.99
3/1/2005	9780439680523	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY LIGHTNING IN THE SKY	3.99
6/1/2005	9780439763097	SCHOL RDR COLLECTION LVL 1: I SPY: 4 PICTURE RIDDLE BOOKS	6.99
8/1/2005	9780439680547	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A SCARY MONSTER	3.99
11/1/2005	9780439738620	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A PENGUIN	3.99
1/1/2006	9780439782241	HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (BKSHELF)	6.99
2/1/2006	9780439785358	I SPY LITTLE BUNNIES W/FOIL	6.99
3/1/2006	9780439738644	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A BALLOON	3.99
8/1/2006	9780439738637	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A PUMPKIN	3.99
10/1/2006	9780439784146	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY SANTA CLAUS	3.99
3/1/2007	9780439738651	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A BUTTERFLY	3.99
9/1/2007	9780439910903	I SPY PHONICS FUN BOXSET	12.99
10/1/2007	9780545039451	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY MERRY CHRISTMAS	5.99
10/1/2008	9780545027915	TEN LITTLE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS	9.99
1/1/2009	9780545089173	I SPY LITTLE HEARTS W/FOIL	6.99
5/1/2009	9780545110730	IN 1776 (BKSHELF)	6.99
6/1/2009	9780545107822	I SPY A TO Z	13.99
12/1/2009	9780545125130	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY I LOVE YOU	3.99
7/1/2010	9780545175395	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY A SKELETON	3.99
9/1/2010	9780545220927	I SPY A CHRISTMAS TREE	9.99
1/1/2011	9780545220934	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY AN EGG IN A NEST	3.99
4/1/2011	9780545222785	I SPY SPECTACULAR	13.99
7/1/2011	9780545220958	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY AN APPLE	3.99
9/1/2011	9780545220965	I SPY LITTLE TOYS	6.99
9/1/2011	9780545220941	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY THANKSGIVING	3.99
1/1/2012	9780545415811	I SPY A FUNNY FROG	3.99
1/1/2012	9780545415835	I SPY ANIMALS (PB)	3.99
1/1/2012	9780545415842	I SPY LETTERS (PB)	3.99
1/1/2012	9780545415859	I SPY NUMBERS (PB)	3.99
1/1/2012	9780545390743	I SPY STICKER BOOK AND PICTURE RIDDLES	10.99
7/1/2012	9780545402811	SCHOL RDR LVL 1: I SPY SCHOOL	3.99