Welcome to KidLit Cares, an online talent auction to benefit the Red Cross relief effort to help communities recover from Hurricane Harvey and related flooding. Agents, editors, authors, and illustrators have donated various services to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with donations being made directly to the Red Cross disaster relief fund. You can read more about KidLit Cares here. Now, on to the auction!
Anne Nesbet is the author of THE CABINET OF EARTHS, A BOX OF GARGOYLES,and THE WRINKLED CROWN (middle-grade fantasy), as well as a pair of
historical novels for children: CLOUD AND WALLFISH, about an unlikely
friendship in East Berlin in 1989, and the forthcoming THE ORPHAN BAND OF
SPRINGDALE, about music and family during hard times, set in Maine in
1941. CLOUD AND WALLFISH was a Junior Library Guild selection, an ALSC
Notable Book, and the winner of the 2017 California Book Award.
For schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Manhattan, in the Boston
area, in either of the Portlands (Oregon or Maine), or the Washington,
D.C. area: Anne is offering an in-person school visit with up to three
presentations for grades four through seven. She can talk about the
thrills of research, the fun of building new worlds, and ways to sharpen
our eyes as we study history and the present day. We will schedule a time
for this visit that works for all concerned!
Opening bid: $100
Auction ends: Wednesday, September 6, 2017 at 9pm EST.
Any bids submitted in comments after that time will be void. (Please note: bidding at the last second isn’t a good idea. Websites get overloaded & there’s always a chance that your bid might not post on time. So please bid your best offer with plenty of time to spare.)
If you’d like to bid on this auction, check the current high bid and place a higher bid by leaving your name and bid amount in the comments, along with some way to contact you (email, FB or Twitter…I’m not fussy.) Winners will be notified when the auction ends and should be prepared to make an online donation to the Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief fund in the amount of the high bid at that time. After you’ve made your donation, you’ll forward your receipt to me, and I’ll put you in touch with the person who donated the service you won so that the two of you can work out the details about how and when. All services will be provided at the convenience of both the person making the donation and the auction winner, but this should happen within three months of the auction’s end unless something else is agreed upon by both parties.
Good luck, and thanks for bidding!
Jody Feldman, award-winning author of THE GOLLYWHOPPER GAMES and three-time Missouri/Kansas SCBWI mentor, is offering to critique the first 50 pages, one-page synopsis, and cover letter of your MG or YA novel.
Lola Schaefer will offer a 30-minute Skype visit with a group of 20-60 students (Grades 2, 3, 4, or 5) in a library or classroom. Students and author will discuss how to add accuracy, voice, and excitement to creative or narrative nonfiction. Lola will also send signed copies of LIFETIME and HIDDEN DANGERS to the winning school. Bids begin at $30.
Sarah Aronson is the author of books like The Wish List series, Beyond Lucky, and the forthcoming Just Like Rube Goldberg. She teaches for the Highlights Foundation and 
Author Alison McGhee is offering one Skype visit with a book club, classroom, other group or individual, plus the following middle-grade novels in both print and audio editions (print editions signed and inscribed as you wish): Firefly Hollow, Maybe a Fox (co-written with Kathi Appelt), and Pablo and Birdy.
Author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich is offering a 30-minute Skype visit (in December/January) and signed copy of Two Naomis. Olugbemisola is the author of 
Offering 10 Raisin, the Littlest Cow picture books (ages 4-9), signed by both Miriam Busch and Larry Day, and a 25 minute Skype visit with Miriam Busch.
Nancy Churnin, theater critic for The Dallas Morning News and the award-winning author of five non-fiction picture book biographies is offering a 30-minute Skype chat with your library, classroom, or book club. Nancy’s first book, The William Hoy Story, How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game, is on the 2016 NYPL Best Books for Kids; the 2017 TLA’s 2X2 and Topaz lists and the 2018 Monarch Award Master List. Her newest book, Manjhi Moves a Mountain, the true story of a man who moved a mountain for love, using only a hammer, chisel and his own persistence, is a 2017 Junior Library Guild Fall selection and comes out Sept. 1. Date & time will be mutually agreed upon by the winner and Nancy after the auction ends.
Laura Shovan’s middle grade novel-in-verse, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, is a NCTE 2017 Notable Verse Novel and won CYBILS and Nerdy Book Club awards for poetry. She is a longtime poet-in-the-schools and the author and editor of three books of poetry for adults. Laura is offering a full manuscript critique of your middle grade novel or YA novel-in-verse.