AUTHORS GO ONLINE
events through his page, facebook.com/matthewjdicks. The workshops are later available on YouTube.
“I started doing this because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Dicks says. “We’re so isolated right now. And this is giving families a way to come together and not kill each other.”
Dicks is one of many Connecticut authors offering online resources to help educate, entertain and support families during this period of quarantine. Many children’s authors are posting videos of themselves reading their own books, along with other educational materials. Some authors are offering virtual book clubs, where they can discuss their works with fans.
All said it’s a way to help make this time more productive and entertaining, and to offer a way for people to connect with one another in a world where loneliness is becoming the norm.
At first, Dicks began offering the storytelling workshops for kids, first for those in grades two through five, and then for those in grades six through 12. But they became popular with children of all ages, and adults, so, starting this week, he will offer two all ages sessions a week.
Other authors offering online resources include Karen Romano Young of Bethel, who has written numerous books for children. She is reading her middle-grade novel “A Girl, a Racoon and the Midnight Moon,” chapter by chapter and posting the videos to YouTube. Not unlike Dicks, she started the effort because she wanted to do something in the midst of this crisis.
“It’s so easy to feel helpless and useless and isolated in your home,” Young says.
She thought reading the book might offer families not just entertainment, but might help parents who are struggling to educate their kids from home while the schools are closed. However, she hesitated to do the online readings because “I wasn’t sure at first if it was special enough, or valuable enough.”
But Young says she quickly learned that her videos were helpful in getting children to connect with books. “People love it,” she says.
Another writer, young adult author Sarah Darer Littman of Greenwich, is getting similar feedback. Her web site, www.SarahDarerLittman.com, offers writing prompts, videos of her reading from her works, and links to other home learning resources.
Like Dicks and Young, Littman wants to offer a way to enhance learning for children without putting too much additional strain on parents. “I feel so much for parents who are at home trying to get their own work done and homeschool their kids,” Littman says.
But not all online author resources are aimed at children and families. Author Amy Oestreicher of Westport ran an online book club through Facebook live on Thursday, and plans to run more such events. The book clubs are linked to her memoir, “My Beautiful Detour: An Unthinkable Journey from Gutless to Grateful,” which details how her life was nearly derailed by a medical crisis and a sexual assault.
Oestreicher says her book, with its message of overcoming adversity, is perfectly suited to these difficult times. “It really can help (readers) cope with any detour,” she says. “Obviously, these are skills that we need now more than ever.”
“I STARTED DOING THIS BECAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. WE’RE SO ISOLATED RIGHT NOW. AND THIS IS GIVING FAMILIES A WAY TO COME TOGETHER AND NOT KILL EACH OTHER.”