Author Study
This month’s challenge project is an author study. You will choose an author
that you are interested in researching. I would prefer that you NOT choose
J.K. Rowling (sorry, everyone will want her!). Your job is as follows:
1. Choose an author. Use this link to help you.
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/authors.asp
2. Bring your author choice to your teacher.
3. Once you have gotten approval from your teacher, you are ready to
begin. If your author has written chapter books, you must read 2 or
more (for shorter chapter books, maybe 3). If your author writes
picture books, you must read at least 4. If you have read some of their
books in the past, those books can count as long as you are
CURRENTLY reading one, too.
Pre-Research
Before researching your author, you will read some of their books. List the
books you read here.
1) __________________________
2) __________________________
3) __________________________
4) __________________________
5) __________________________
After reading 2 or more chapter books (or 4 or more picture books) by your
author, you will make INFERENCES about the author’s life. Some of these
questions may be difficult to answer. Just try your best and do as many as
you can.
1. What do you think the author’s interests are?
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2. Where do you think he/she gets his ideas/inspiration?
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3. Does this author’s work remind you of anything else you have seen
or read? What and how?
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4. Where do you think this author comes from? Why?
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Research
Now it’s time to research your author. You will search for information to
write your own short biography.
1. Use the Author Yellowpages to see if your author has their own website.
http://www.authoryellowpages.com/.
 Click “Browse Authors Alphabetically”
 Select the first letter of your author’s last name
 Search for your author’s last name to see if they have their own
website
2. If your author has their own website, print out any important biographical
information and HIGHLIGHT THE MOST IMPORTANT
INFORMATION IN YELLOW. IN ANOTHER COLOR, HIGHLIGHT
ANYTHING YOU ARE WONDERING ABOUT.
3. You may play any fun games or activities on your author’s site. Print
them out so I know what you did.
4. If your author does not have their own website, you will need to conduct a
Google search. You may want to ask your teacher or parent for assistance
with this. Print out any information you find, and again, highlight
appropriately.
5. YOU MUST FIND AT LEAST TWO SOURCES OF
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON YOUR AUTHOR. One can be
their own website, and the second can be another site, a book, or movie.
Write your two sources below:
Source 1: ___________________________________________________
Source 2: ___________________________________________________
*If your source is a book, please make sure to include the author (unless
it’s an autobiography in which case the author the person you are
researching).
Biography Brainstorming: Write words and phrases in the boxes to help you
brainstorm.
Paragraph 1: Brief history of their life, should answer the “W” questions
(where, when, etc)
Paragraph 2: How their life influenced their writing or what we know about
their lives from reading their books.
Paragraph 3:
What you like about this author/other authors they remind you of/ if they
wrote another book what might it be about/etc
Biography: Transfer your brainstorming ideas into a 3
paragraph biography.
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Bio- Cube
You have now completed the “hard” part. Go to:
http://readwritethink.org/materials/bio_cube/, create a bio
cube and print out. This is fun!
Create a Quiz!
Go to the following link.
http://www.attotron.com/pub/Quizmake.htm
Using information IN YOUR BIOGRAPHY, you will make a quiz for Ms.
DiIeso to take!
1) Give your quiz a title.
2) Type in the question you want to ask.
3) Type in 5 possible answers in the “Answers A, B, C, D, E” cells.
Only one answer is correct.
4) Leave the “Feedback” cells blank.
5) Create 5-10 questions. When you’re done, print the quiz.
6) I will take your quiz and give it back to you to correct 
Name: ___________
Author Study
A project earning a 5 looks like this:
 Thoroughly completed all parts of author
study
 Biography is 3 paragraphs long, well-organized,
full of rich details, and lacking significant
errors
 All information is accurate, but not directly
copied
 Sources of information are cited
 Work is neat
Your score: __________
Teacher Comments: