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Nurturing the young homeschooling writer
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What Do Authors Do? by Eileen Christelow
Following a child's interest and incorporating them into the child's studies can be one of the greatest joys of homeschooling. Children who love to read and write might express an interest in becoming an author. Most children are fascinated with how authors become published. They want to know the process that published authors go through from start to finish. There are several books available to answer a young writer's questions.
For a nice overview of the process there is the book What Do Authors Do? by Eileen Christelow. The book follows two neighbors who are both authors and they get their inspiration from witnessing the same event. One decides to write a juvenile chapter book and one decides to write and illustrate a picture book. The book describes the entire process from inspiration to after printing marketing.
Many children are curious about writers. Where do they live? How do they get their ideas? What is a day in the life of an author like? A nice author study can be accomplished by reading a few books by the author and a corresponding Meet the Author book. There are six books in the Meet the Author series:
- A Bookworm Who Hatched by Verna Aardema who is the author of Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plan: A Nandi Tale and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale
- Surprising Myself by Jean Fritz who wrote George Washington's Breakfast and Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?
- The Writing Bug by Lee Bennett Hopkins who is a poet and editor of anthologies of poetry.
- A Storyteller's Story by Rafe Martin who is the writer of Birdwing and The Rough-Face Girl.
- Best Wishes by Cynthia Rylant who has written over 100 children's books including the Henry and Mudge series and the Mr Putter and Tabby Series.
- A Letter from Phoenix Farm by Jane Yolen who wrote How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and Owl Moon.
Older students might enjoy memoirs such as Beveerly Cleary's life story, Beverly Cleary's My Own Two Feet: A Memoir. She is the author of such children's classics Romona Quimby and Her Father, Henry Huggins and Dear Mr. Henshaw (which just happens to have a character who writes to his favorite author for advice with his writing).
For students who love illustrations as much as the text, Bill Peet is an interesting author and illustrator. Many Orlando homeschooling children might be interested in his history of employment during the early years of Walt Disney Studios and how that led to his writing career. He wrote his life story in Bill Peet: An Autobiography.
For a role model of a homeschooling student who actually wrote a book at 15 years old see Christopher Paoli's website to read the interesting story of his journey to become a published author and how his first book, Eragon, was made into a movie.
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