Our Author Study

     Each month our class studies either a special author or a special type of literature.  Check here each month for information about the study, the books featured, and links for more information.

Our October Author Study:  Tomie DePaola

    Tomie DePaola has written/illustrated over 200 children's books. As well as having tremendous success in writing and illustrating, he has designed posters, greeting cards, and stage sets, and has taught at various colleges both in California and New England. His dream, he says, is that at least one of his books or pictures "will touch the heart of some individual child and change that child's life for the better." (Wikipedia)

   We will be focusing on a good witch during October,  Halloween time,  when we read Tomie DePaola's Strega Nona books.

Log on to Tomie DePaola's website  at http://www.tomie.com/main.html.

Our September Author Study:  Kevin Henkes.

    Kevin Henkes (pronounced HENK-ees) is a rare example of people who actually set out to be a children's author and illustrator. He always assumed he would be a painter until his junior year of high school, when one of his teachers encouraged him in his writing efforts and that is when he discovered that children's books combined both his literary and artistic interests.  Henkes is one of five children and says that many of his storylines stem from his family and the neighborhood he grew up in.
    He is an author/illustrator of children's picture books (they mostly star mice), and also writes young adult novels. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which is his current hometown. He married artist Laura Dronzek in 1985. They are the parents of two children, William and Clara. (Wikipedia)

       We wrote a letter from Lilly's Mom to Mr. Slinger after we read Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and we made graphs of our class's favorite Kevin Henkes books at the end of our September author study.

Log on to Kevin Henkes' website for fun with our favorite mice at http://www.kevinhenkes.com/young.asp.