Bring Neecy Twinem to Your School!

Neecy Twinem is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator of over twenty-five published books. Her rich, brightly colored artwork and simple text invites readers to explore the natural world. Neecy has illustrated for a variety of children’s markets, including book covers, educational books, classroom readers, and magazines. Neecy has given hundreds of presentations and has been a regular speaker at schools, conferences, and literacy festivals across the country for over 13 years. She loves to share the process of creating books with children and adults. She provides presentations, workshops, and artist-in-residence programs.

Home: Sandia Park, NM
Travels to: Neecy travels anywhere she's invited.

Neecy has written and illustrated: Hungry Beasties, Sleepy Beasties, Noisy Beasties, and Playful Beasties (Northword Books); Giggly Wiggly Worms (Smartink Books); Baby Coyote Counts, Baby Gecko's Colors, and Baby Snake's Shapes (Rising Moon); Who's Home, Bug Hunt, and Peek At A Pond (Grosset & Dunlap); High In The Trees, Changing Colors, In The Air, and In The Ocean (Charlesbridge Publications); The Seasons At Our House (American Editions); Aye-Ayes, Bears & Condors: An Abc Of Endangered Animals And Their Babies (Scientific American Books For Young Readers).

Neecy has illustrated: E Is For Enchantment: A New Mexico Alphabet by Helen Foster James (Sleeping Bear Press); Three Hungry Spiders & One Fat Fly by Dawn Bentley, No No No Little Turtles by Sally Doherty, and Gators On The Go by Ann Tabias (Smartink and Backpack Books); Baby Alligator by Ginjer Clarke, and Bear Cub by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso (Penguin Putnam); Edgar Badger's Fix-It Day, Edgar Badger's Fishing Day, and Edgar Badger's Butterfly Day by Monica Kulling (Mondo Publications); World's Strangest Animal Facts by Jocelyn Little (Sterling Publishing Company).

Rates inside New Mexico

One-Day Visit: $650 plus travel and other expenses (4 presentations)
Evening Event: $300 plus travel and other expenses

Rates outside New Mexico

*Available only for "block-booked" appearances at multiple schools during the same trip or at schools within the author's local area.

Click here for more information

Biography

Neecy Twinem is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator of over twenty-five published books. Her rich, brightly colored artwork and simple text invites readers to explore the natural world. Neecy’s newest adorably rendered toddler titles, Hungry Beasties, Sleepy Beasties, Playful Beasties, and Noisy Beasties, are a collection of kids’ favorite animals in various themes. Neecy expresses her admiration for New Mexico with her vibrant illustrations in E is for Enchantment: A New Mexico Alphabet, which received a WILLA Literary Award and was nominated for the Land of Enchantment Book Award. Her other titles embracing the southwest are Baby Coyote Counts, Baby Gecko’s Colors, and Baby Snake’s Shapes (bilingual and English board books). Neecy has illustrated for a variety of children’s markets, including book covers, educational books, classroom readers, and magazines. Her art can also be found on puzzles, posters, greeting cards, T-shirts, public murals, and private collections.

Neecy has given hundreds of presentations and has been a regular speaker at schools, conferences, and literacy festivals across the country for over three years. She loves to share the process of creating books with children and adults. She provides presentations, workshops, and artist-in-residence programs. Neecy has taught private art lessons to children and adults for fourteen years, both in New York and New Mexico. Twinem graduated with a fine arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited her artwork in the US and Europe. Neecy enjoys writing and painting in the inspiring natural surroundings of her new home studio in the Sandia Mountains.

Click here for more information

Event Description

Neecy Twinem will design a program to fit your needs, which may include hands-on workshops and/or her dynamic and interactive PowerPoint presentation that takes students through the creation of a picture book (with some drawing, too!). Her presentations include book making, story building, creative exercises, crafts, and large-scale murals. Neecy combines storytelling, creative writing, and art into an engaging teaching format. Lessons offered include workshops to show children how to write and illustrate their own books, craft projects that tie into Neecy’s books, writing and brainstorming workshops, creating murals, and much more.

Most presentations are forty-five minutes to an hour long. Neecy will speak about most of her books, but will concentrate on the most recent titles. Her books are appropriate for a wide range of ages from birth to eight years old. Because of her experience across age groups, Neecy is prepared to adjust her presentations to meet the needs of the attendees—whether they are young children, high-school students, or adults. She welcomes the opportunity to do both small groups or large group presentations up to five hundred people.

Please note that Neecy prefers that all workshops be preceded by her presentation of her books and creative process.

Her workshops are as follows:

Let’s Brainstorm a Story (all ages, medium-size groups with or without parent involvement)
All stories include the main elements: Together we will create a main character, a setting, a plot, and possibly a problem and resolution. Neecy will show a short PowerPoint presentation and follow with a twenty-five-minute explanation of the elements of a story. Children brainstorm as a group as Neecy draws the characters, setting, etc. for the audience.

Large-Scale Murals (any age)
This project is custom suited for an individual school. Neecy will work directly with the children and teachers throughout the process of creating a large-scale mural. Theme and content are open, but Neecy can direct you. The fee is also dependent on Neecy’s time involved and the number of children working on it. It is important for her to work closely with a teacher for a full experience for all.

*A three-day minimum visit is required with an extra project-planning fee of $150.00.

Squiggly, Wiggly Creatures (pre-school - 1st grade)
Neecy will guide the students through several of her titles. Children will use their imaginations to create insects and reptiles by cutting, gluing, and assembling creatures out of pom-poms, pipe cleaners, etc. When finished, they can have a creature parade!

Make Your Own Books! (1st - 5th grade)
Working in teams of two for writing and illustrating, students create their own class book. Neecy will present her PowerPoint presentation to the whole school and then follow with a selected group for the bookmaking. She will work with teachers directly to plan the book and send materials so research can be done ahead of her visit. Two format choices are nonfiction field guides of your area or your outdoor classroom or themed ABC books for younger grades.

*A two-to-three day minimum visit is required with an extra project-planning fee of $150.00.

Making Desert Mobiles (1st - 5th grade)
Neecy Twinem’s Desert Baby Books, E is for Enchantment, and other titles come to life with her craft project. Kids draw, color, and cut out desert icons. They then attach them to a branch with string. Now you have a colorful mobile that depicts desert life!

Click here for more information

Sample Illustration

© 2004 Neecy Twinem. Reprinted from Baby Coyote Counts, written and illustrated by Neecy Twinem (Rising Moon), also available in a bilingual edition.

Testimonials

"Neecy Twinem was fabulous. We really enjoyed her presentation and the books and pictures she created with our students. We had a very successful author/illustrator-in-residence experience with her."
—Loretta Deierlein, Scenic Hills Elementary, Springville, PA

"Neecy Twinem did a great job. She was both informative and entertaining."
—Michele Halliday, Resource Teacher, APS, Albuquerque, NM

“Neecy presented highly acclaimed workshops for librarians and teachers at two of our annual New Mexico Library Association conferences. She visited our school to make an author/illustrator presentation to 1st and 2nd graders. She returned the same week to conduct a hands-on writer’s/illustrator’s workshop with the 2nd grade students who were making their own ‘New Mexico A-Z’ books just like Neecy’s E is for Enchantment book. The books that they published were extraordinary. Her influence was obvious.”
—Kathy Matter, Librarian, John Baker Elementary, Albuquerque, NM

“Neecy was a part of our Literacy Awareness Campaign in which children’s authors are invited to present and area schools are invited to bring students to come and meet the author. Neecy was our primary author and talked to approximately 2,000 students in K – 3rd grades over a two-day period. She was easy to work with and did a wonderful job with our students.”
—Janice Johnson, Missouri State University, West Plains, MO

If you are interested in booking an event with Neecy Twinem, please fill out the Author Visit Query form or contact our Author Appearance Manager at 1(800)338-2232, ext. 105, or admin@authorsinschools.com. We look forward to working with you.