Author Reading Expedition

Where do story ideas come from? How are books made? Find out by meeting the wizard behind the words at an author reading at your local library or bookstore. If you're lucky, the author or illustrator will do a presentation as well as a reading, showing kids how a book is created from manuscript to sketches to bound book. Best of all, an author's creativity is inspiring...and contagious! Your kids will leave wanted to learn to read and to write because it's fun, not because it's homework. What to Pack

• Questions for the author (see below)

Now Get Exploring!

• Scout out an author appearance. Check your local bookstore and library to get a list of scheduled author visits. Also, look up your favorite authors' websites to see if they'll be visiting a school, conference, or library near you.
• Choose your time. Be sure to go when your child is well-rested, well-fed and ready to listen.
• Do your homework. Check out the author's backlist books and read them with your child ahead of time so he's familiar with the author's work.
• Compare the author's books. What do they have in common? How are they different? Does the author write a lot about the same subject? Are they illustrated by the same person or a variety of artists? Does he write in rhyme or in prose? Are the books storybooks? Concept books? Information books? Beginning readers? Chapter books? Or some of each?
• Find out more. Check the author's website to see the author's photograph, read a bio or interview, play a game.
• Make up questions. Brainstorm what questions you and your child would like to ask the author. Write them down and bring them with you.
• Sit up close. Encourage your child to sit close enough to the author to hear the story and to see the pictures.
• Buy an autographed book. Ask the author to sign and personalize a book for your child as a special treat.
• Investigate. Ask your child open-ended questions:
  • What is an author's job?
  • What does an illustrator do?
  • How do you think their work days differ from other workers?
  • Where do authors get ideas for their books?
  • Do authors change or revise what they write or does it come out perfectly the first time?
  • If you wrote a book, what would it be about?
  • What illustrator would you choose to do the art?
• Read all about it. Check out Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One by Kate Duke, If You Were a Writer by Joan Lowery Nixon, Show; Don't Tell! by Josephine Nobisso, and What Do Authors Do? by Eileen Chistelow. Older kids might be interested in Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children about Their Art and Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make their Mark by Leonard S. Marcus.

Educational Perks Meeting the person behind the pages can encourage your child's own reading and writing skills and engage his imagination and creativity. Bonus Explorer Activity Hold your own author reading. Have child write a story, illustrate it, and read it aloud to the family. If your child is a pre-reader, have him dictate his story to you, draw pictures to go with each page, and tell your family all about it.

For more exploring, play Dora's Great Big World game, find do-together Dora crafts, recipes, and activities, and print a personalized Explorer Kit for your child at DoraTheExplorer.com.

Thanks to Susan Hood

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