So you’ve got a kid who likes a book. Awesome! Now go to the library and check out three (or five or ten) more books by the same author. BAM! You are doing an author study. That was easy.
Author studies are great because if you are choosing books by an author your child already likes, so he will probably discover MORE favorite books. You are encouraging a deeper connection attachment to reading. By discussing and comparing the books, you build critical thinking skills. At the very least you are reading and learning an author’s name. 🙂
We chose Eric Carle because we were going to a Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet show. Eric Carle is a familiar author, but I still found lots of books that I had never read before. I think it is a good idea to chose an author/illustrator for preschoolers since it is so easy to see how the pictures are all in the same style. Some other favorite preschool author/illustrators are Lois Ehlert, Donald Crews, David Shannon, and Sandra Boynton.
Obviously an author study for the under 5 set is going to look a little different than with school age kids. You won’t be discussing the author’s use of imagery in his writing style. Well, maybe you can. Here are some preschool-appropriate ideas to try with your author study:
- Talk about the jobs of author and illustrator. Point out the author and illustrator’s names on the cover and title page.
- Go to the author’s website to see a picture or video of the author.
- Talk, talk, talk about books. Which one is your favorite and why? How are the books alike? Are there any characters that appear in multiple books?
- Write a letter or draw a picture to send to the author. (Your preschooler can dictate the letter and you do the writing)
- Act out your favorite book with puppets.
- Write your own book in the author’s style. Use the same characters or setting, or continue the story of a favorite book. (Again, you’ll have to do the actual writing)
- Draw or paint or picture inspired by the illustrations.
- Make a chart to compare the books. We did an easy checklist that asked- Were there people in the story? Animals? Was there a problem in the story? Did you like the book?