Finding out about authors, who they are as people, what kind of books they make, how they create and tell their stories, and of course experiencing and enjoying their wonderful work, is a big part of what we do when our classes visit the library. While this can look very differently as shown in the two images below from a PK1 class (being engaged in the story read out loud) and a G5 class (independently searching for interesting facts about the author), the ultimate goal is the same: to get the children excited and engaged as readers. Our readers of course also gain insights into the process of making books and writing stories. It is always exciting for me to see how much demand this creates for the books of the respective authors.
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Here are the authors our students in PK1, PK2 and K are currently discovering.
PK1 Roseanne Thong - Our PK1 students love saying the names of authors they already know and are currently working on adding a new name, the one of Roseanne Thong, to their repertoire. Of the stories we have read so far, our students especially enjoy their active participation: identifying shapes (Round is a Mooncake) and colours (Red is a Dragon) in the illustrations of the stories.
PK2 Grace Lin (you might notice in the pictures above that Grace Lin has also illustrated some of Roseanne Thong's books). Our PK2 students have enjoyed the read-alouds very much so far, being attentive listeners and engaged in our conversations about the stories. After reading Flying Kites, there was so much interest for the book and other books on how to build a kite. Lissy's Friends got everybody excited about origami animals. Our young inquirers seemed quite impressed to discover that Grace Lin not only illustrates her own books but at times also the stories of other authors.
K Emily Gravett - Our kindergarteners are intrigued by Emily Gravett's creativity as her books often have special features (the most talked about is the hole at the back of Again! - did the little dragon Cedric really burn that hole into the book?) and open endings, leaving it to the reader's imagination on how to end the story. They enjoy sharing their thoughts and observations with each other. Very popular have also been the two videos in which Emily Gravett demonstrates how she works on her illustrations. I know, our students are keen to find out more about her and to enjoy many more of her stories. Over the next weeks, we will continue to record what we notice, wonder about and find out as well as enjoy more of her stories as read-alouds together.
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