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The Jewish people may be known as the people of the book, but Susan Katz would like to make a name for herself as the lady of the book.

The contributor to a forthcoming children’s book and former teacher has combined her passions and created a new company called, “Katz Connects.” Katz, who lives in Mill Valley, has assembled a stable of children’s authors, illustrators and musicians for school, library and event bookings.

“I really want my life, my work, to be about books,” says the gregarious 30-something woman, who’s been in both worlds — she’s worked as a teacher for 12 years.

And now she’s making it happen. She represents over 40 authors including the famed Laura Numeroff, author of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” and Caryn Yacowitz, whose forthcoming book is “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Menorah.”

“I feel very honored because they are all very prominent,” she says.

And quite a few of them are Jewish. Ira Scott Levin and his wife, Julia Bordenaro are authors and also storytellers and musicians who will put on quite a show. Mike Graf, author of over 70 science books is Jewish, as is Yacowitz.

Authors, she says, want to concentrate on their craft, so she’ll take care of the details of brokering the agreement between schools, for which she accepts a small fee from the author.

So what’s to prevent someone from looking up the impressive array of authors she represents on her website (www.katzconnects.com), and then contacting them on one’s own? Nothing really.

But what Katz does offer is help with vitally needed funding. Authors’ fees can run as high as $1,500, which can put quite a strain on already overburdened school budgets.

Katz works with various nonprofits — including the Bay Area’s Jewish Coalition for Literacy — to bring funding where it is needed. If Katz has her way every school will have author events as a regular part of their programs, and philanthropies will step up to the plate to fund them. “I don’t want schools to have to say, ‘we don’t have the money for this,'” Katz says.

For San Joaquin County’s Reads Week this September, Katz was able to secure corporate funding to bring authors to several county schools that have not been able to afford author visits in the past.

“It’s sort of adopt-an-author, or adopt-a-school,” Katz says.

The county has held its Reads Week for eight years, but hasn’t been able to secure author visits. Katz is bringing Jewish authors Yacowitz, Michael Elsohn Ross and Elissa Haden Guest (author of the Iris and Walter book series), among others.

“We’re only doing about 10 percent of the schools, but it’s still a big thing,” she says. “Authors want to get their books in kids’ hands, they want to inspire them to read and write.”

Katz will also design curriculum to complement the author’s visit. It’s more than one-stop shopping — it’s some very specialized customer service.

Meeting an author can have a profound impact on a child, she says. Bringing accomplished authors into schools is, in effect, creating the authors of tomorrow.

“The authors make a huge impact,” Katz says. “They can influence children in ways you may never know.”