creative author study

[malllover]

Hi!!! I am in need of creative ideas for an author study for second grades. I don't want it to contain much writing on the kids part. My mind is blank, any suggestions?

[lhenders]

I have been discussing Jan Brett books with my first graders( She has a wondeful; site www.janbrett.com) I can hold up a book and they notice her artwork. They have also pointed out to me, that most of her stories have the same setting. " very cold place a long time ago". Another really good author, is the one ) I can't
think of her name I'm sitting at HOme doing this, Who writes If you give a Moose a Muffin, .... a pig a pancake, or I f you take a mouse to the movies....etc. Second grade just finished a study of Eric CArle books, they borrowed some of mine and divided the books up not every child read the same one , First they studend one book together, then diviided into groups and read 4 different books, then, they compared "notes " and each student wrote about his/her book .AS a class they noted comparisons and contrasts between the stories, the author's purpose and the authors art medium.
I'm a big fan of Leo Linoin ( that is badly mispelled), ( Fredrick, Swimmy, etc.) I plan to do an authors study with my first graders in a few months. We'll discuss the author's purpose, the artwork, main characters used ( animal or real people) specific things that help us identify his books from other authors. Hope this helps Lyra in NC