Author study resources for elementary students are great for introducing many authors or diving deep into one author. Great for teachers!
*We use affiliate links and may earn commission from purchases made through those links.
All opinions are our own.
KidLit TV
Why I Love It
KidLit TV is the best! Teachers and librarians can use it for so many things besides author studies! For example, during dismissal, teachers play the read-aloud videos for their students to engage them at the end of the day. The crafts and activities are also fun for homeschool families, as well as for projects in the classroom.
How to Use It for Author Studies
KidLit TV allows teachers, parents, and librarians to show read aloud videos — often read by the authors themselves. KidLit TV also has a great video series called Storymakers, which is all about how the stories are made with the authors/illustrators. Not to mention, the website has great craft and activity ideas to pair with book titles, as well as a podcast all about children’s literature — for kids! Once you know the author/illustrator you want to study, KidLit TV is my go-to resource for finding supplemental resources for building your study.
Author Study Resources
Reading Rockets
Why I Love It
The Reading Rockets website is full of amazing resources for “launching young readers,” as their tag says. Their website is targeted to educators and parents who want to learn more about helping children engage with literature and read well.
How to Use It for Author Studies
Reading Rockets has a page called “Author Study Resources” under their “Author Study Toolkit” page, meaning they have so much information dedicated to creating author studies for students! Their Author Study Toolkit (a free webpage!) includes reasons why you should do author studies, resources for doing author studies, and even a sample author study you can reference as you create your own. This is the most comprehensive resource I’ve found for author studies for elementary students.
Great Websites for Kids by ALA
Why I Love It
Great Websites for Kids (by ALA) is just that – great websites for kids! It has author/illustrator websites, interactive sites for learning to read, sites about learning to read, etc. It has a ton of really fun websites for kids. Keep in mind it’s no longer a maintained website, but it is still full of great information.
How to Use It for Author Studies
As I mentioned, Great Websites for Kids is a no longer maintained website unfortunately. BUT — they do still have a page with authors’ and illustrators’ websites directly linked. This is a great place to not only get ideas for who to study but also to access great author/illustrator websites to use in your studies. Some authors/illustrators have amazing interactive websites, like Mo Willems. Others have tons of fun information, like Dan Gutman.
Creating Your Own Author Studies
As an elementary school librarian, I created lots of author studies from scratch using resources like the ones above. Here’s how I did it:
- I first found an author I wanted to study, using the lists above or finding books the kids were enjoying in the library or I was enjoying on my own.
- Once I found an author I wanted to study, I began gathering resources. Each author has different resources available. Resources I looked for included: official author websites, book readings, book lists, interviews, crafts/activities, biographies/autobiographies/memoirs, etc.
- Then, when I had a list of resources, I started putting it together for lessons. Usually we would start by reading a book or two by the author, then we would explore the author using biographies/autobiographies/memoirs. We would read more books by the author and then look at their website to learn more information about them, as well as find more book ideas together. We would complete crafts/activities, and read even MORE books by the author.
- Finally, I would enjoy the kids’ excitement about authors they fell in love with, as they read their books on their own or with their families. They remembered authors we talked about and asked for more books by them. They engaged in writing autobiographies about themselves, as they had seen modeled in the books we read about the authors we studied. I love author studies!
Author Studies I’ve Done
- Mo Willems
- Dan Gutman
- Eric Carle
- Jory John
More Author Studies Resources
- Check out this list of podcasts for the elementary school setting to find great podcasts about authors – some of the podcasts even have great in-depth interviews with some amazing authors.
- These fifth grade read-aloud books are by some incredible authors – check them out as a starting point for finding authors with picture books that older elementary students will enjoy.
- Many of these nonfiction books for younger elementary students are parts of series and by really cool authors. Check out the list for inspiration on authors to study.
- Jen Bryant has written some awesome picture book biographies. Check out this review to get started on an author study of her!
- Maybe you homeschool and are looking for authors that all ages would enjoy. Check out the authors of these family-friendly books as inspiration.
Did you find any interesting author studies and/or resources to try? Save the image below to your Pinterest page to reference back to later.
