Favorite Author Sketch
Please share with classmates a short biographical sketch of one of your favorite authors and list their books that you enjoy.
Here is an example of one of my favorite author:
Biography of Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon. She lived on a farm in Yamhill until she was old enough to attend school. The town she lived in was very small and had no library. Her mother arranged with the State Library to have books sent to Yamhill and acted as librarian in a lodge room upstairs over a bank for Beverly. There Mrs. Cleary learned to love books. Her family moved to Portland, where Mrs. Cleary attended grammar school and high school, she soon found herself in the low reading circle, an experience that has given her sympathy for the problems of struggling readers. By the third grade she had conquered reading and spent much of her childhood either with books or on her way to and from the public library. Before long her school librarian was suggesting that she should write for boys and girls when she grew up. The idea appealed to her, and she decided that someday she would write the books she longed to read but was unable to find on the library shelves, funny stories about her neighborhood and the sort of children she knew. After graduation from junior college in Ontario, California and the University of California at Berkeley, Mrs. Cleary entered the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, Seattle. There she specialized in library work with children. She was Children's Librarian in Yakima, Washington, until she married Clarence Cleary and moved to California. The Clearys are the parents of twins now grown. Mrs. Cleary's hobbies are travel and needlework.
Some of my favorite Beverly Cleary books include:
All Ramona books
Socks
Ribsy
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Strider (the sequel to Dear Mr. Henshaw)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Run Away Ralph
Ralph S. Mouse
Here is an example of one of my favorite author:
Biography of Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon. She lived on a farm in Yamhill until she was old enough to attend school. The town she lived in was very small and had no library. Her mother arranged with the State Library to have books sent to Yamhill and acted as librarian in a lodge room upstairs over a bank for Beverly. There Mrs. Cleary learned to love books. Her family moved to Portland, where Mrs. Cleary attended grammar school and high school, she soon found herself in the low reading circle, an experience that has given her sympathy for the problems of struggling readers. By the third grade she had conquered reading and spent much of her childhood either with books or on her way to and from the public library. Before long her school librarian was suggesting that she should write for boys and girls when she grew up. The idea appealed to her, and she decided that someday she would write the books she longed to read but was unable to find on the library shelves, funny stories about her neighborhood and the sort of children she knew. After graduation from junior college in Ontario, California and the University of California at Berkeley, Mrs. Cleary entered the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, Seattle. There she specialized in library work with children. She was Children's Librarian in Yakima, Washington, until she married Clarence Cleary and moved to California. The Clearys are the parents of twins now grown. Mrs. Cleary's hobbies are travel and needlework.
Some of my favorite Beverly Cleary books include:
All Ramona books
Socks
Ribsy
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Strider (the sequel to Dear Mr. Henshaw)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Run Away Ralph
Ralph S. Mouse
posted by Christi Slowey at 5:44 PM
2 Comments:
The author I chose for my biographical sketch is Louis Sachar. I teach third grade, and the third graders really love his Wayside School books. I also liked Holes and There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom.
Here is a little bit about his life:
Louis Sachar was born in East Meadow, New York in 1954. When he was nine, his family moved to Tustin, California. He was a good student in school but was not an avid reader until high school. His favorite authors were J.D. Salinger, Margaret Atwood, E.B. White, and Richard Price. When he finished high school he went to college in Ohio. His father died when he was there so he moved back to California to be near his mother and went to the University of California at Berkeley. While at college he saw a flier advertising a need for help at a local elementary school. He earned three credits helping out second and third grade classes. He also was a recess teacher at the school and that is where he got the “Louis the Yard Teacher” character from his books. When he graduated from college Louis decided to write a children’s book. He worked on Sideways Stories from Wayside School, writing at night, for nine months while he worked at a sweater factory in Connecticut. Shortly after he finished writing the book, Louis entered law school at Hasting College. In his first week there, a publisher accepted his book. After passing the bar exam Louis worked as a lawyer writing in his spare time. It wasn’t until 1989, 13 years after finishing his first book, did he make enough money off of his writing to quit law. He was married in 1985 to his wife Carla. When he met her she was working at an elementary school and is the inspiration for the counselor in There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom. Today, he lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and dog.
Louis Sachar’s Books
The Marvin Redpost series
Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Wayside School is Falling Down
Wayside School gets a Little Stranger
There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom
Holes
Little Steps
One of my favorite authors is James Carville ("Stickin'" "Buck Up, Suck Up..." etc.), but nobody in grade school should be reading his stuff. I also love Robert Fulghum ("...Kindergarten", "Uh, Oh", "It Was On Fire When I Lay Down on it"). Again, probably not for kids, but the Kindergarten book is an option for our book discussions in my sociology class. My favorite children's author is Donald J. Sobol. He wrote the Encyclopedia Brown books. What great memories of spending hours reading those when I was a kid. Every year when I teach about First and Second Bull Run I bring up the story about the Civil War Sword and many students know about it. I chose the first dozen, but I liked them all (and I also liked Mr. Sobol's 2 minute mysteries):
Book 1, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN: Boy Detective .
Book 2, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN AND THE CASE OF THE SECRET PITCH
Book 3, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN FINDS THE CLUES
Book 4, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN GETS HIS MAN
Book 5, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN SOLVES THEM ALL.
Book 6, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN KEEPS THE PEACE
Book 7, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN SAVES THE DAY
Book 8, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN TRACKS THEM DOWN
Book 9, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN SHOWS THE WAY
Book 10, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN TAKES THE CASE
Book 11, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN LENDS A HAND
Book 12, ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN AND THE CASE OF THE DEAD EAGLES
"Donald J. Sobol is an award-winning author of more than 65 children's books. His Encyclopedia Brown series was first published in 1963 and hasn't been out of print since. In fact, it has been translated into over 12 languages around the world. Like Encyclopedia Brown, Sobol and his wife Rose (also a children's author) live in Florida." (http://www.kidsreads.com/series/series-brown-author.asp)
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