The biggest problem you and your students may face is the overload of information available about authors, both in print and online. This is a good time to have students do a class on research skills and information literacy in the media center. The librarian can help you by showing students how and where to find credible information about an author and how to take source their research without plagiarizing.
When researching authors, it can be especially interesting to see how they have integrated their own life and experiences into their books. Remind students to look out for these connections and record them in their journals.
It’s always good to begin with basics, so check to see what the author has written about his/herself. Has he/she written an autobiography? Do they have a website? If they have won a major award (Caldecott or Newbery Medal, etc.), check The Horn Book, which annually publishes authors’ acceptance speeches. While you’ll want your students to gather further perspective from outside sources, getting an author’s own insights into his/her life is a great place to start.
Now it’s time to check with other basic sources of information. These include: biographies of the author; encyclopedias (both in print and online); and databases that include author biographies, such as the Children’s Literature database. In addition, check Children’s Books and Their Creators by Anita Silvey, which has alphabetically listed entries on hundreds of authors as well as websites maintained by publishers. Google has a great aggregate site of author information, the Google Directory of Authors.
Other websites to visit include:
- Authors & Illustrators on the web
- Scholastic Author Studies
- Rutgers University’s Author & Illustrator Pages
- Bank Street College resource pages
Check our bibliography/resources page for many other sources of information.
If students have access to databases that include newspaper and magazine articles, that’s also a good source of information. Students also could check Google News to see if there have been any recent articles written about the author. Teachers can check education journal databases to find articles about authors in professional journals like The Reading Teacher, Language Arts or the Journal of Children’s Literature.
Don’t forget to check the web for audio and video clips: