Sarah Maizes

“Nobody embodies the importance of what writers do to a group of second graders better than children's author Sarah Maizes. Sarah is funny and charming, but more importantly she knowledgeable about her craft. She engages little minds and has them believing that they too are capable of anything, especially producing awesome writing. She explains how her tool kit is not so very different from theirs. She encourages them to tell their own stories. Through all of this she allows children to succeed with their own creative thought. Last year was my first year teaching writing through Writers' Workshop. Students had been going through this process for about a month prior to having Sarah come speak to them. Having her confirm that what they were doing during Writers' Workshop is what real published authors do for a living, was very empowering. Having Sarah do this with her humor and magical warmth made my job so much easier. ”