Announcing our Author!

February brings snowy weather, icy sidewalks, and ... a new theme! This month is Author Study month at Summers-Knoll. Each teacher approaches this a bit differently, but we all enjoy this time dedicated to books, authors, and illustrators. In our class, we are going to be reading lots and lots of books by our author, William Steig.

I started yesterday by reading the first few chapters of Dominic. Dominic is a restless dog who goes off on a great adventure. There's magic, humor, and lots of action (thanks to the notorious Doomsday Gang). Best of all, there is glorious language - Steig is an author who does NOT talk down to children. Even after reading for over 30 minutes, the students begged me to continue. I know they will continue to love this book, and I'm hoping to also read Abel's Island.

Steig was a prolific author, and one of my favorite illustrators as well. In fact, he wrote and illustrated my favorite picture book of all time - Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. We will read as many of his picture books as I can find at the local libraries, including Brave Irene, Shrek, Dr. DeSoto, etc. We will also use this time to learn about story structure, character development, and themes. We will practice writing and illustrating in the style of the author.