Details
I'm an autistic author-illustrator with school presentation, radio interview, and TV experience. I can present on topics including: writing and illustrating children's books, neurodiversity, and, based on my popular Urban Wildlife Explorer books, the wonderful wildlife we can all discover right on our doorsteps in the city! I've written and illustrated award-winning non-fiction children's books – Let's Explore Hedgehogs, Let's Explore Pigeons, Let's Explore Ducks (Catch a Leaf Publishing), as well as fiction in Gertie is Not All Dogs (Clavis Publishing). I'm also the illustrator of Kite Day by Lisa Varchol Perron (Moon+Bird Publishing) which explores the issues of living with mental health issues in a tender helpful manner.
I can create workshops around the topics of neurodiversity (based on my book Gertie is Not All Dogs), or around my non-fiction wildlife titles, focusing on the science (KS1 or KS2) within those books in relation to classification and/or food webs, for example, as well as biodiversity and ecology. As an author and illustrator, I'm happy to lead workshops on both writing and/or illustration; to talk about how a picture book is put together, how I illustrate a story, how I create my characters, and how I learn to draw new things, too.
Although I'm based in London, I'm happy to travel (within UK and beyond) – I may need to organise more than one event in the area to make it work, though.
“Siski’s visit was truly fantastic from start to finish. The children were completely engaged and inspired by the perfect blend of real-life nature learning, humour and storytelling. It was such a memorable experience for them, they were buzzing with excitement afterwards and continued talking about it long after the day. A brilliant, enriching experience that brought learning to life.” Rebekkah Howlett, John Wood school, Croydon
"Siski Kalla was very popular with our Year 2, 3 and 4 pupils. She inspired them with her fascinating knowledge of urban animals and spoke about her journey as a neurodiverse author and illustrator. The pupils were eagerly lined up for an autograph after her talk and so many of them came away with aspirations to be an author or illustrator in the future. The event was straightforward to organise with Ms Kalla and she adapted it well to our pupils and Neurodiversity Week." Anna Stringer, Head of Year 3, Thomas's Clapham
