APPLY TO HOST TANYA LLOYD KYI (IN PERSON)
Home Location: Vancouver, BC
Creator Type: Author
Genres: Picture books, middle-grade fiction, young adult fiction, non-fiction, hi-lo
Website: www.tanyalloydkyi.com
Tour Region: BC (Kamloops and Thompson Region)
Target Audience: Kindergarten – Grade 12
Cost: $300* (for one 60-minute presentation)
*(The author collects $250 of the fee and $50 of the fee covers The Canadian Children's Book Centre's administration fees for coordinating Book Week).
Taxes charged on presentations: YES
BIOGRAPHY
Tanya Lloyd Kyi is the author of more than 35 books for children and young adults, including the middle-grade novel The City of Lost Cats and the picture book Bompa's Insect Expedition, co-written with David Suzuki and illustrated by Qin Leng. Tanya writes about science, history, pop-culture, and places where the three overlap. She has worked in the past as a graphic designer, an editor, and a dishwasher. (She considers herself entirely qualified for that last one.) Her favourite colour is blue, her favourite food is cheese, and her favourite children's book is A Wrinkle in Time.
PRESENTATION DESCRIPTIONS
Storytelling Goes Green
Target audience: Kindergarten - Grade 3
Group size: as many as will fit in a classroom, library or learning commons; I prefer not to present in the gym
This interactive presentation is based on my picture books When You Meet a Dragon, Our Green City, and Bompa’s Insect Expedition. As a group, we’ll talk about the “what if” questions that often prompt my stories, and we’ll conjure some imaginative scenarios of our own. Then young readers will choose their own green-city jobs, generate forest sound effects, and seek-and-find some sneaky insects. We’ll write our own green story as a group… that is, if a dragon story can be green. Students will leave with new knowledge about the environment and a new understanding of how stories are created.
Required equipment: projector and screen
Writing to Change the World
(ideal for intermediate students)
Target audience: Grades 4-7
Group size: as many as will fit in a classroom, library or learning commons; I prefer not to present in the gym
In both fiction and non-fiction, I love to write about people who take risks and achieve great things. This fast-paced presentation is a look at why people decide to pursue unusual goals, what characteristics help them succeed, and how their actions change the world. Along the way, there are questions and answers, a chance to act out one of the stories, a crime tableau in which the audience serves as jury, and plenty of crowd-sourced sound effects. I work hard to ensure different learning styles are represented and every student is engaged. In the last portion of the presentation, we decide what wisdom we can take from the overachievers in my stories.
Required equipment: projector and screen
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Upcoming:
The City of Lost Cats (middle-grade fiction, Penguin Random House, 2025)
Feeling Your Feelings (middle-grade non-fiction, Kids Can, 2025)
Bompa’s Shoreline Adventure, co-authored by David Suzuki (picture book, Greystone, 2026)
Published:
When You Meet a Dragon (picture book, Orca Books, 2024)
Emily Posts (middle-grade fiction, Penguin Random House, 2024)
Bompa’s Insect Expedition, co-authored by David Suzuki (picture book, Greystone, 2023)
What Will I Discover? (picture book, Greystone, 2023)
The Best Way to Get Your Way (middle-grade non-fiction, Kids Can, 2023)
Better Connected, co-authored by Julia Kyi (middle-grade non-fiction, Orca, 2022)
Our Green City (picture book, Kids Can, 2022)
Snoozefest (middle-grade non-fiction, Kids Can, 2021)
This is Your Brain on Stereotypes (middle-grade non-fiction, Kids Can, 2020)
Me and Banksy (middle-grade fiction, Penguin Random House, 2020)
Under Pressure: The Science of Stress (middle-grade non-fiction, Kids Can, 2019)
Mya’s Strategy to Save the World (middle-grade fiction, Penguin Random
House, 2019)
Prince of Pot (young-adult fiction, Groundwood Books, 2017)
Shadow Warrior (middle-grade fiction, Annick Press, 2017)
Eyes and Spies (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2017)
Extreme Battlefields (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2016)
DNA Detective (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2015)
When the Worst Happens (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2014)
50 Body Questions (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2014)
Anywhere But Here (young-adult fiction, Simon and Schuster, 2013)
Seeing Red (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2012)
The Low-Down on Denim (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2011)
50 Underwear Questions (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2011)
50 Poisonous Questions (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2011)
50 Burning Questions (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2010)
Canadian Girls Who Rocked the World: Revised Edition (middle-grade non-fiction,
Whitecap, 2009)
Canadian Boys Who Rocked the World (middle-grade non-fiction, Whitecap, 2007)
Burn: The Life Story of Fire (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2007)
True Stories from the Edge: Rescues! (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2006)
Jared Lester: Fifth Grade Jester (middle-grade fiction, Annick, 2006)
The Blue Jean Book (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick, 2005)
True Stories from the Edge: Fires! (middle-grade non-fiction, Annick 2004)
My Time as Caz Hazard (young-adult fiction, Orca, 2004)
The Crystal Connection (middle-grade fiction/non-fiction, Whitecap, 2003)
Truth (young-adult fiction, Orca, 2003)
Canadian Girls Who Rocked the World (middle-grade non-fiction, Whitecap, 2001)