Author Study

Author studies are one way a teacher can expose students to a variety of books written by the same author. For this assignment you will create a newspaper built around an author and the books the author has written.

Choose an author who has written a number of children's books. A possible list can be found in Appendix A of Children's Books in Children's Hands.

Create a 2-page brochure or newsletter. The brochure or newsletter may be created in Microsoft® Publisher or Microsoft® Word.

Include the following elements in the newspaper articles: 

• Author's life and background
• Overall description of types of books (genre, series, themes, point of view, and so on)
• List of most well-known books
• Two books summarized according to the literary elements set forth in the textbooks
• Two books evaluated by the criteria found in the genre chapter of the textbooks (may be the same two books used for the summary)
• Connection between one of the two books and the author's life and background
• Description of why the author is a favorite children's author
• Explanation of how an author's study would be developed for a classroom unit on children's literature
• References listed