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Authors/Illustrators
Authors and illustrators of children's and young adult books are in the
business of imagination. They create worlds, landscapes, characters, dialog--all
to please a child's sense of whimsy, adventure, magic, and humor.
Sample some of the following activities to learn more about authors and
illustrators.
Places To Go | People
To See | Things To Do | Teacher
Resources | Bibliography
Places To Go
The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out
about authors and illustrators.
10 Minute
Bedtime Tour
Go to your school or public library and check out a copy of the delightful
book, 10 Minutes Til Bedtime by Peggy Rathmann and then take this online
tour. Peggy Rathmann also wrote and illustrated the Caldecott Medal winner,
Officer Buckle and Gloria.
 Audrey
Wood Clubhouse
Visit the Audrey Wood Clubhouse. Print out some activity pages for her
books, Silly Sally and Little Penguin's Tale. Read about Audrey and her
illustrator husband, Don Wood or even email them. Find out how long it
took to write and illustrate Heckedy Peg. According to Audrey Wood, she
and her husband actually LIVE in the Napping House! They used their own
house as a model for the book. See if she will reveal what the bad word
was that Elbert said in Elbert's Bad Word. Read about how she used her
father as the model for the king in King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.
Janet Stevens
Spend some time in Janet Steven's art studio. She is the popular illustrator
of the Ansansi books (written by Eric Kimmel), the Caldecott honor book
Tops and Bottoms, and dozens more. Find out how she uses the computer
to complement her imaginative artistic style.
Redwall
Travel to Redwall Abbey and meet all the characters in the Brian Jacques
books. 
People To See
Simms
Taback
Meet Simms Taback. He won the Caldecott Medal on February 21, 2000 for
his book Joseph's Little Overcoat.
Ernest Hemingway
Timeless Hemingway includes a wealth of information about Ernest Hemingway.
 Rick
Walton
Meet local Utah author, Rick Walton. He has written over 35 books and
is a popular speaker at schools around Utah and in children's literature
conferences. His website has curriculum ideas to use with his books.
Jean Craighead
George
Meet prolific writer, Jean Craighead George. Her books reflect her love
of nature. Find out about her family members who are naturalists and how
her early life influenced the topics of her books. Discover how she came
to write Julie of the Wolves. From her website, you can even email her;
she has indicated that she tries to reply to all of her email.
Author
Information
Make the acquaintance of Tomie
DePaola, Chris
Van Allsburg, Dick
King-Smith, Lois
Lowry--there are websites for many popular children's authors
and illustrators. It is great fun for students to learn about the
lives and writing/illustrating habits of the authors of their favorite
books. To find links to many author sites, visit UEN's Activities
page and choose
"Language Arts" from the menu. You can then choose from a long list of
authors/illustrators A-Z.
 Kids'
Corner
Spend some time with Squirrel Nutkin, Jeremy Fisher, Peter Rabbit, and
many other delightful Beatrix Potter characters. Find out more about Beatrix Potter and her fascinating life.
Dav Pilkey
You have GOT to get to know Dav (pronounced Dave) Pilkey! He is the author
of the Dumb Bunny books, the Little Dragon easy reader series, and the
Captain Underpants books. He is also a Caldecott Honor Book winner for
his illustrations in his book, The Paperboy. His website, Dav's Page 'O
Fun will convince you to sample his books if you haven't tried them yet.
Maurice
Sendak
Where the Wilds Things Are is one of the top ten best selling children's
books of all time. Meet the author and illustrator.
Nobel Foundation
Meet all the winners of the Nobel Prize for literature.
Things To Do
Reach Out
and Touch an Author
Send your students on an online author scavenger hunt.
Horn
Book - You Asked For It
From this helpful article written by Jon Scieszka (he's the Stinky Cheeseman
author), find out how to pronounce various author's and illustrator's
names. (Hint: Jon Scieszka's last name is pronounced sheh-ska which rhymes
with Fresca). You will love this hilarious article.
 Eric
Carle
Find out how old the Very Hungry Caterpillar is.
Astrid
Lindgrin
Remember reading and enjoying the Mrs. Piggle books by Betty MacDonald?
They were first published in 1947! Her absolute best story was "The Radish
Cure". Share some of your oldtime favorites with your students. Introduce
them to Pippi Longstockings and her author, Astrid Lindgrin.
Check out From Pictures to Words : A Book About Making a Book by noted
children's literature author/illustrator, Janet Stevens. In it, she describes
how she begins a book with an image in her mind and then creates a problem
for her characters to solve. Also try How Books Are Made by Aliki.
American
Library Association - Caldecott Medal Home Page
Find out who won the Caldecott Medal this year. The award for 2000 was
announced on February 21st. And then see who won the Newbery.
America Writes
4 Kids
From the map, click on a state of your choice to find out about the authors
and illustrators who live and work there.
Fairrosa Cyber Library
Find links for many authors and illustrators.
 Just
for Kids Who Love Books
Spend some time at this fab site. It has great information about authors
and illustrators and different book series.
Jan Brett
Everyone is familiar with Jan Brett's delightful site. But be sure and
check back often because she frequently updates her webpage and adds new
activities, contests, and content.
Teacher Resources
Hotlists from UEN provide internet sites to
visit to find out more about specific topics--in this case, authors and
illustrators! (You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Online activities are a listing of internet
sites with fun, interesting, and educational tasks attached to each one.
(You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Lesson Plans/Webquests
Bibliography
- Christelow, Eileen. What Do Authors Do? New York : Clarion Books,
c1995.
- Christelow, Eileen. What Do Illustrators Do? New York : Clarion
Books, c1999.
- Hunter, Shaun. Writers. New York, NY : Crabtree Pub., c1998.
- Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. How I Came to be a Writer. New York : Aladdin
Books, 1987.
- Sharp, Peggy A. Meet the Author. Book 3 : Betsy Byars, Lorna Balian,
Bernard Most, Denys Cazet. West Linn, OR : Designs for Learning, 1991.
- Sharp, Peggy A. Meet the Author. Book 2 : Brock Cole, Kevin Henkes,
Katherine Paterson, Nadine Bernard Westcott. West Linn, OR : Designs
for Learning, 1991.
- Sharp, Peggy A.Meet the Author. Book 4 : Margery Cuyler, Demi, Mem
Fox, Jean Fritz. West Linn, OR : Designs for Learning, 1992.
- Sharp, Peggy A. Meet the Author. Book 5 : Barbara Berger, Nancy White
Carlstrom, Thomas Locker, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. West Linn, OR : Designs
for Learning, 1992.
- Sharp, Peggy A. Meet the Author. Book 6 : Lois Ehlert, Russell Freedman,
Jon Scieszka, Ed Young. West Linn, OR : Designs for Learning, 1993.
- Sharp, Peggy A.Meet the Author. Book 8 : Trina Schart Hyman, Emily
Arnold McCully, Patricia Polacco, Seymour Simon. West Linn, OR : Designs
for Learning, 1993.
- Sharp, Peggy A. Meet the Author. Book 9 : Tom Birdseye, Barbara Robinson,
Allen Say, Vera B. Williams. West Linn, OR : Designs for Learning, 1993.
- Sharp, Peggy A. Meet the Author. Book 7 : Lisa Campbell Ernest, Lois
Lowry, Gerald McDermott, Joanne Ryder. West Linn, OR : Designs for Learning,
1993.
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