Plan Your Visit

Yes, and you have two options. If you have a local independent bookstore, we encourage you to support them: we’ll work with the store and provide an order form for pre-orders. Or Liesl can handle book sales herself: she’ll send you a link to her online school store and a pre-order discount code, along with an email template you can adjust however you like. All you do is send that email to your families. Every book is signed and personalized, then shipped together to your school, with no shipping charge.

Post-orders (after the visit) always come through Liesl’s online store, since that’s the only way she can sign them: she ships them from her home.

Virtual visits too: just send families the link to Liesl’s online store, so every student has the chance to get a signed book. Signed books ship together to one address you choose (for a virtual school or homeschool co-op, that can be any one address). Liesl can only ship books within the United States. Schools outside the U.S. booking a paid virtual visit can get signed bookplates for books they buy locally.

Offering books is required because a signed book is a wonderful keepsake from meeting a real author, and Liesl wants every child to have that chance. Buying is completely optional: there’s no minimum order, and no family should feel any pressure.

In-person visits: A 30% deposit secures your date (for out-of-area visits, it’s used to book travel). The balance is due on the day of the visit, unless other arrangements are made in advance. Liesl accepts checks, Zelle and Venmo. Schools may also pay by purchase order; the deposit is still due up front.

Virtual visits: To book a virtual visit, email Liesl’s assistant, Jessica, with your preferred dates. She’ll confirm the details and send an invoice. Payment (check, Zelle or Venmo) is due two weeks before your virtual visit, and that’s what locks in your date. If payment hasn’t arrived by then, the date is no longer guaranteed and may be offered to another school. Public schools paying by purchase order: a signed PO received two weeks before the visit locks in your date, and payment is due within 30 days after the visit.

Yes. Please request it at least two weeks before your visit date so there’s time to process it.

In-person visits: If your school needs to cancel, the deposit is non-refundable, but it can be applied to a rescheduled visit within 12 months, subject to availability. If travel has already been booked, the school is responsible for any non-recoverable travel costs. If school is closed for severe weather or other circumstances beyond anyone’s control, we’ll reschedule at a mutually agreeable time, or your deposit will be refunded. If Liesl has to cancel because of illness or an emergency, we’ll reschedule as soon as possible, or your deposit will be refunded.

Virtual visits: Once your payment is received, your date is reserved just for you, so payments are non-refundable. If your visit can’t happen because of illness or a school closure, we’ll gladly reschedule at a mutually convenient time within 12 months.

Yes! Order 20 or more copies of one title, signed, at 15% off the list price, and the price includes shipping: about $7.65 a copy for the Fairly True Tales and about $8.50 for Time Castaways (U.S. only). For whole-school orders of 100+ books, see One School, One Book. To order, email Jessica at assistant@lieslshurtliff.com.

The schedule is up to your school. Liesl usually arrives as the school day begins to set up, and the first presentation starts 30 minutes to an hour later. A typical day is two presentations in the morning, lunch with students, one presentation in the afternoon, and the book signing. Liesl can sign the pre-ordered books on her own, or students can bring their books to the signing to meet her and have them signed in person.

Travel costs depend on the destination, the time of year and current airfare. As a rough guide, a one-day out-of-area visit usually runs about $650–$800 in travel: airfare $300–$400, a hotel night $150–$200, a rental car about $100, and transportation to and from the Chicago airport about $100. To save the rental car, your school is welcome to pick Liesl up at the airport and drive her during her stay instead. We'll give you an estimate at the time of booking, but we can't guarantee those prices. Travel is billed at cost, and we book it only after we receive the 30% deposit. If your school is more than a two-hour drive from Liesl’s home, she usually needs one hotel night per school visit day.

Out-of-area visits: a second visit day is 20% off that day's honorarium. If two schools in the same area book Liesl for the same trip, each school gets 10% off its honorarium, and the travel costs are shared. (Discounts apply to the honorarium, not travel.)

As many as you like. Pack them in! Liesl just asks that enough staff be on hand to help with crowd control.

A projector, a screen and a microphone. There’s no audio, so you don’t need speakers. If the technology doesn’t cooperate, no problem: the presentation goes on without slides.

Virtual visits: Liesl can send a Google Meet link, or your school can send a link from your own platform (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet). Most schools prefer to send their own. If you do, please make Liesl a co-host so she can share her screen.

Free Q&As: When you book, you'll get a Zoom or Google Meet link with your confirmation. If your school uses Teams or prefers its own link, just send it to Liesl.

Put the visit on your school calendar, send the book-order email to families, and share a little about Liesl and her books with students beforehand. The book trailers are a quick, fun way to do that. About two weeks before the visit, send a proposed schedule.

The school usually provides Liesl’s lunch on the visit day (many order in), but she’s happy to bring her own.

Yes, always, whether or not you order books from Liesl. If you have another vendor, like a local independent bookstore, we encourage it! If your school is reading RUMP, we recommend ordering through Read to Them, a nonprofit that supports One School, One Book programs. Otherwise, Liesl is happy to provide books for your program: $6.75 per book, any title, with a 100-book minimum and shipping included (she ships them by media mail directly to your school). Please place your final order at least one month before you plan to start reading.