My Favourite Author

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You are the Press Agent for a very successful author. Because your author's work is so well received, he/she receives hundreds of messages a day from fans asking all kinds of questions and requesting information about the many books that he/she has published. If the author answered all the fan mail received in one day, there would be no time left to write the next best selling novel. So the author has asked you to design a web site that his/her fans can access which will give them the answers to the many questions that they have been asking.

The Task

To satisfy his/her many readers, you design a web page which contains everything that anyone would ever want to know about the author and his/her works. You will write an introduction for visitors to the site explaining the purpose of the site. You will tell your readers' about the author's background and create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list of the most common questions asked about the author and his or her work. You may list the novels published by your author, or link to a site containing a list of the author's works. You will write at least one review of the author's novels. You include a picture of the author on the site and, a poster that you create advertising one of the author's books.

The Process

1. Choose your favourite author. This author is someone whose books you have read and really enjoyed. Using the resources listed below, research your author to find out the details of his/her life that would interest you and other fans. Some of the information that you are looking for should include:

   - his/her early background such as where the author is from and how he/she grew up.

   - information about his/her works.

   - how his/her work has been received and any awards that the author has won.

   - any other area of the author's life that readers would be interested in.

2. Write a welcoming introduction which will be displayed at the top of your web page. Greet the readers, thank them for coming to your site, and explain what he/she can find on your site. Try to generate interest so that your reader will explore the rest of your site and not move on immediately to another one.
3. Create a FAQ list about your author and his/her books. Try to think of all the questions that a reader might want to ask of the author. Supply accurate answers to the questions.
4. Write at least one review of the author's work with the aim of creating interest without giving away the ending of the story. Take a look at a sample book review at A Good Read to get an idea of how a book review should be written.
5. In art class, create a book poster about one of the authors books. If possible, scan the poster and include it on your site.

Resources

• Examples of FAQ http://www.ipl.org/youth/AskAuthor/Biographies.html
• Yahooligans! - Authors http://www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell/Language_Arts/Authors/
• Internet Public Library Youth Division: Authors http://www.ipl.org/youth/AskAuthor/Biographies.html
• IPL Youth Division: Author Links http://www.ipl.org/youth/AskAuthor/AuthorLinks.html
• Authors & Illustrators on the Web http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/authors.html
• Children's Literature http://www.execpc.com/~tekk/Literature.html
• Books for Kids http://www.booksforkidsfoundation.org/authors.htm
• Just For Kids Who Love Books http://www3.sympatico.ca/alanbrown/kids.htm
• Popular Authors and Illustrators ~ Brief Bios and Direct Links to Their Own Web Sites!
  http://teacher.scholastic.com/authorsandbooks/index.htm
• Childrens Authors http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/Pioneer/ppc/pages/authors.html
• Author's and Illustrators http://www.orion.lib.mi.us/childrens/authors.htm
• Author and Illustrator Websites http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Childrens/authors.html
• Children's and Young Adults' Authors & Illustrators http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/biochildhome.htm#BIR
• AUTHORS & ILLUSTRATORS http://www.dalton.org/libraries/fairrosa/cl.authors.html
• Celebrate Children's Authors http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~tbushey/author.html
• CHILDREN'S LITERATURE : AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS WEB SITES http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/authill.htm

Evaluation

Students will be graded on the quality of their writing as well as the content of their web site. Have you revised your writing so that your finished product is reflective of your best effort? Is the welcome message informative and does it create, in the reader, a curiosity to further explore the site. Does your book review generate interest in the novel without giving away too many details of the plot which would destroy the story? Is the FAQ list interesting and accurate? Is your book poster visually appealing?

A Student Self Evaluation Assessment is a good way to have students become responsible for their own learning.

While some students may choose to work in groups of two or more on this webquest, keep in mind that the content of the finished product must demonstrate the efforts of two students.

Conclusion

After completing this project, you will have learned a lot more about an author and his/her work than you knew at the beginning. In addition, your web site will create interest in the author's work and encourage others to read his/her works.

Notes To The Teacher

While this WebQuest calls for the creation of a webpage, this technology or expertise may not be available in your school. A newsletter could be an alternate format for this quest. For those teachers who would like to follow the webpage format, there are FREE web authoring tools available on the Internet. Two of the most popular ones are Netscape Composer which comes as part of Netscape Communicator and FrontPage Express which is a component of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. Both tools function in the same way as word processing software and are very easy to use. A FREE website to host your "Author's Corner"can be obtained from Geocities.