One of my favorite authors is Patricia Polacco. Her illustrated books have always amazed me with their details and moving illustrations, as well as the deep and realistic characters. I noticed many of her stories have actual people from her own life in them.
While reading her book, Thundercake, I noticed that the culture of her characters are similar book-to-book, and are obviously part of her heritage. This got me curious about Patricia Pollaco. I wanted to know more about her life, where she was from, some of the experiences she had growing up, and so on. So, instead of reading another Patricia Pollaco book, I decided to read about the author. I wanted to know the real stories behind her stories.
Have you ever looked up your favorite author? Have you ever wanted to know more about the stories they write and why they create certain characters and plots? Have you ever wanted to know more about the author's own life?
Look up the author of your book-club book. Search them on Google (you can use SafeSearch) and you will find that he/she most likely has a homepage. Read about the author. Usually they have a bio included. What do you notice about them? What do you find interesting about their life? What about their life makes you better understand the book? Take time exploring your author's website and reading about them. Then comment on the blog about what you found interesting about the author. It can be anything.
This should be a well-written entry, with lots of great thinking. One sentence answers will not be published. Really stretch yourself. Use your best writing.
25 comments:
I loved reading about Patricia Polacco. Her website had a biography section which told many fascinating details about her life. One part of her life I find very interesting is that she comes from a family of Jewish heritage. In her books, you can tell that her Jewish heritage is important to her. I noticed from the long book list that she has written over 100 books! Many of these books appear to be about family. It seems as though her family is the main inspiration for her stories. I wonder if her brother, Richy, is the inspiration for the book, My Rotten Red-Head Older Brother.
I was suprised that Mike was the youngest person to host a show on ESPN. At 23 he hosted THE MIKE LUPICA SHOW. I was also soprised thet he has so many children, he has three boys and one girl.
One thing I learned about Sharron Creech, was that many of her inspirations to write books came from many different things. Her inspiration for Walk Two Moons, which is the book I'm reading, came from her previous book Absolutely Normal Chaos. As she was writing it she came up with the idea to write Walk Two Moons, and made it a follow up to Absolutely Normal Chaos. Another thing I learned about Sharron Creech, was that she always likes for her books to connect somehow. She usually will make the setting or characters the same in some of her books sometimes even her dialogue is the same. Something I found interresting about Sharron Creech, was that she most of the time stayed home and just wrote her stories even though she came from a crazy family of six.(That's how she came up with Absolutely Normal Chaos)
One thing that I learned about Mike Lupica, was that he does a lot of programs and shows about his books. Now I understand the book better because I found some information about that Mike used to be a baseball player which helped me understand it, because now I know that he writes stories about some of his experiences with some other little things added on. Like in The Million Dollar Throw (the book I am reading he used to play football. That's what I found out from his website.
My author was Cressida Cowell and here are some facts about her:
She grew up on a small island that no one lived on. There was no houses, (besides theirs) electricity, roads and no shops. I thought that life would be tough. Her inspiration was her father used to tell her stories about vikings who fought there and there were supposed to be dragons who lived in caves there.
I learned that when Christopher Paolini was three he was as smart as a 1st grader but he couldn't read. His mom was a teacher so that is the main reason he was so smart but once he could read his mom took him to a library where he checked out a dragon book. When he read it some thing hit him and from that day on he loved fantasy. He often found himself daydreaming about dragons and magical places sometimes he wrote them down on a piece of paper and kept it. When he got to high school he started to put it altogether and that how he came to writing Eragon.
Cressida Cowell is most famous for writing the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock The 3rd series. She has written 16 books. 8 of whom are in the Hiccup H. Haddock The 3rd series. She is now writing the 9th book of the series.
I was surprised that Mrs.Cowell lived both in London, and on an uninhabited English island off the west coast of Scotland. The island had no houses, no roads, and no electricity. Whenever she was on the island she would either be fishing, or being told Viking and Dragon stories by her father. When she was 8 or 9 Cressida began to write about Viking and Dragon stories. I wonder how Cressida Cowell thought of the odd names in her books such as: Hiccup, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Gobber The Belch, Stoik The Vast, Valhallarama, etc.
It was very interesting to read about Suzanne Collins. Some things I learned were that her Career began in 1991 as a writer for children's television. She worked on a lot of shows on Nickelodeon including, Clarrisa Explains It All,Little Bear,Oswald,The Mystery Files Of Shelby Woo,and many more. She was also the head writer for Scholastic Entertainment's Clifford's Puppy Days.She also received a Writers Guild Of America in animation for Santa Baby. After meeting James Proimos,Suzanne Collins was inspired to write childrens books.Her inspiration for Gregor the Overlander, one book out of five in the Underland Chronicals, came from Alice in Wonderland.When she wrote the Underland Chronicals she also wrote a rhyming picture book called When Charlie McButton Lost Power in 2005.In September 2008 The Hunger Games was published by the Scholastic Press. The Hunger Games was inspired by the Greek Myths of Theseus and Minotaur. One other inspiration was when her father was in the air force she got to have a better understanding of starvation,poverty,and the effects of war. The two sequals to the hunger games, Catching Fire, which came out in September 2009,and Mockingjay,which came out in August 2010. In only 14 months there were 1.5 million copies sold in North America. The Hunger Games was on the New York Times best seller list 60 weeks in a row. She was also named one of the Time's Magazines most inspiring people of 2010. Suzanne Collins is now 47 and she lives in Connecticut. I hope to find out more.
I loved reading Jeff Kinney, and hear are some facts I found out: Jeff was born in 1971 in Maryland. He went to University of Maryland is where he went to college. 70,000 kids read diary of a wimpy kid a day, and 80 million kids read the online version. On April of 2007, Diary of a wimpy kid became the New York times bestseller.
But get this he (Jeff Kinney) was not good at all on comic strips.
I now understand why Harry Potter’s name is Harry Potter. He is called Harry, because J.K. Rowling’s brother’s name is Harry and his last name is Potter because J.K. Rowling’s neighbors used to be the Potters. J.K Rowling is the 2nd most rich woman entertainer in the world. I am surprised that J.K. Rowling went to 6 colleges. I notice that J.K. Rowling takes a lot of stuff in her life and puts it in her books.
Christopher Paolini was born in California but spent most of his life in Montana. The Bear Tooth Mountains were on one side of his house. He also uses that name in the first book he wrote, Eragon. I like that he wrote Eragon when he was only in high school. I didn’t know about him at all until one day when I was looking around the library at school and I looked on a cart to see if there was anything good on it. And I found Eragon. I took it back to the classroom and I ended up liking it.
The book I'm reading is called The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket. Lemony Snicket rarely is seen in public, but when he does try to avoid him because he's not very social. I thought it was really interesting that his family roots are in part of the country which is now underwater! I also thought it was interesting that where he grew up, The Snicket Villa, has been a factory, a fortress, and a pharmacy. This is just a really weird fact that Lemony's "representative" ,Daniel Handeler, and Lemony Snicket are the same person! I LOVE reading Lemony's books, and I can't wait to read all of Lemony's books!!
For my book club I'm reading the thirty nine clues books that Rick Riordon wrote. The website that I found on the internet told me many things, but I found it interesting that Rick Riordan started out as a teacher who taught English and History at private and also public middle schools. While he was teaching, Rick Riordon wrote mysteries for adults to read. He ended up writing fiction books when he started writing The Lightning Theif for his son to read in bed. Now he is writig books for a living. All of that is very interesting because he went from a teacher to an amazing author.
Mike Lupica is defiantly one of my favorite authors. I have read a lot of his books and loved them all. It was interesting reading about him and learning so much more than he’s a writer, he’s a man, and I like his books. I never really put any thought in to it I guess I kind of just assumed that he was single and doesn't have any kids, but he is married and has four kids. Also he lives in Connecticut of all places. (You would probably think he would live in a big town, after all he is a famous author.) Did you know that he is a sports commentator, writer (obviously), and a newspaper columnist, not just a writer? Right now he is a columnist for the New York Daily News. He started his job as a columnist when he was 23. Mike was the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper. He has written novels (young adult and adult), sports biographies, other non-fiction books, and he has co-written autobiographies. Hero, The Batboy, Million-Dollar-Throw*, The Big Field*, Summer Ball, Miracle on 49th Street*, Heat*, Travel Team, and the Comeback Kids Series are just some of his kids books. I put a * after the ones that I have read. I would like to read all of his books. I really enjoyed learning about Mike Lupica and more of his books.
Some things i leaned about Sharen Creech, are she has written Love That Dog, Hate That Cat, Walk Two Moons, and many more. She was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and grew up there with her three brothers, her sister, and her parents. I was suprised when on her biography it said that she used to mostly write books for adults but after she wrote Absolutely Normal Chaos she started writing more books for kids. Another thing i found interesting was that she used to visit Quincy, Kentucky, where her cousins lived ( and still live) on a beautiful farm, with hills,trees, lakes, and barns to play on! At night they would gather on the porch and tell stories. Sharon loved Quincy so much that she put the town quincy in some of her books but, she transformed Quincy into Bybanks.
My author is a man named Jim Benton. I was surprised when I saw in his bio that he lives in Michagain and operates his own studio. I thought he lived in New York or in Hollywood because he was in the "New York Times" so much. I was also very suprised when it said that he won 9 awards for his writing and illustrating. Though the bio didn't say, I am assuming that he wrote the "DEAR DUMB DIARY" sieres based on a girl he knew.
Rebecca Stead is a great new author that I just learned about browsing through the libary a few weeks ago. Although she has only written two books-First Light and When You Reach Me, she is an amazing author! Here are some things about her life. As a former attorney who lives in New York City, she is also busy taking care of her husband and two children. She still has the memories of her childhood as being on the look out for magic. Sometimes she even tested to see if she had magical powers by trying to make her pool have a twisty slide and bright colors on the sides. She loves to read books but does not like anyone talking about a book that she is reading. She wants to be the only one to be inside of the book.
My author is Mike Lupica and learned a lot of things about him. A couple things I learned are he lives in Connecticut, is married, and has four kids. I relized too that he is a sport book writer which means he writes all about sports ( baseball, soccer, football, and many more). Suprisingly i have only read 1 of his books but hope to read more but the book I have read is Million Dollar Throw and is my favorite book. I hope to learn more about Mike Lupica and read all of his books (That is what my goal is). I hope Mike Lupica writes more books.
And last but not least Mike wrote the book heat which in 2007 was New Yorks best time selling books, so I hope to read that one.
I learned that Mike Lupica hosted his own show called The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2. He also was the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the New York Daily News. He received many honors, including the 2003 Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation. I didn't know that Mike lived in Connecticut with three sons and a daughter. I always assumed that he didn't have any children, I had never really thought about it. Mike Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells. Some of the kid books he has written are Hero, The Batboy, Million-Dollar-Throw, The Big Field, Summer Ball, Miracle on 49th Street, Heat, and Travel Team. I am in the middle of reading Miracle on 49th Street and I haven't read any other books that he has written yet. I learned a lot about Mike Lupica and I hope to read more of his books.
What moved me about Cressida Cowell is that she grew up on a island that was off the coast of Scotland with nothing electric. She started to write when she was 9 or 10. I found it interesting when they made the movie from How To Train Your Dragon some things had to be changed to make the movie work, such as Toothless was big in the movie and small in the book. She got the idea of vikings and dragons from her father. I wonder why she named some dragons like Grunkle and Electrosquirm, and how she named them like Venomous Vorpent.
Mrs. Suzanne Collins is my book club author. Mrs. Collins wrote the series The Hunger Games. I was surprised when it said that Mrs. Collins has been busy writing children television shows including Nickelodeon. She currently lives with her family in Connecticut. She has two pet kittens that she adopted from her backyard. The biography was kind of short so this is all I have but I did learn a lot about Suzanne Collins.
Rick Riordan is the number one best selling author for the New York Times? Rick riordan wrote the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and has also written the first book of the Thirty-Nine clues.Wich happens to be my book!For fifteen years Rick Riordan tought English and History at publiic and private middle schools in the San Fransisco bay aera and in Texas. In 2002 St. Marys Hall honored Rick the schools first Master Teacher Award! While Rick was teaching full time, Rick began writing Mystery novels for grown-ups. Rick Riordan Tres Navrre series went to the top three National Awards for the mystery genre! Over twenty-million coppies were sold for the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians series wich includes the Kane Chronicles!
Sharron Creech has many different inspirations for her writing. Sharron Creech grew up in a family of six. I wonder one of her inspirations are from her family. Sharron Creech was born in Euclid, Ohio. She wrote walk two moons and it won a newbery award! Normal chaos was in inspiration from her family. I hope she writes more books.
I looked up Cynthia Willis. I learned that she lives in Branchburg, New Jersey. She was born in Mount Vernon, New York. When she was growing up, her family included her mom, her dad, and her sister, Carey. When she was growing up, she liked to horseback ride and spend time with her friends. Her favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird.
suzanne collins met an authour james pronies who talked her into give childrens books a try. Thinking about alice in wonderland she thought of new york were she lived and thought your mutch more lkely to fall down a man hole than a rabbit hole and if you fall in one your not going to find a tea party your going to find.... well that is the story of Gregor the overlander then after that she created the hunger series that was inspired by greek myths of Theseus and minotaur another inspirnation was her dad that was in the air force so she knew the hunger and poverty and how it was a big deal to her.there are two sequals catching fire september 2009 and mocking jay august 2010 i hope to find out more about her.
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