Ways to Celebrate Author's and Illustrator's Week
Posted by Sprout School Supplies on Feb 2nd 2022
This week at Sprout School Supplies, we are excited to be sharing with you some of our favorite ways to celebrate Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week. This special holiday is celebrated each year in the first week of February and is a wonderful opportunity to instill a love for reading in your child. We have even interviewed teachers to hear what their favorite books to read to their classes are so that you can build your home library.
One of the best ways to celebrate Children’s Authors and Illustrators Week is to find time each night to read a book together for at least thirty minutes a day. Read below the responses from classroom teachers explaining their favorite book to read to their classes and why for inspiration on which books to dive into with your child.
Kindergarten teacher Lindsey C. explains her love for this book because “It was one of the first books my mentor teacher introduced to me. No matter how many times we read it, the kids laugh and love it. I think it’s a great break from normal literature and allows for them to connect to a fictional character through humor”.
Former 4th and 5th grade teacher, Emily C. shared with us one of her favorite book series, Percy Jackson. Emily shares that these books “are similar to the memories I had in early elementary with the Magic Treehouse books. They are full of adventure and very captivating to readers, but have more intense vocabulary that is more appropriate for an older reader”.
Speech Pathologist, Kelsie H. recommended these two books as favorites to read with the children she has worked with because “Elmer is a cute story about how being different is fun and should be celebrated” and “Princess and the Pony grabs the kids' attention the whole time. It also has great vocabulary!”.
We are so thankful to the teachers and childcare professionals who shared with us their favorite books to read, and take the time each day to inspire young readers. Thank you teachers!
Play a game of Match the Illustrator
Another way to celebrate Authors and Illustrators week is to incorporate some fun and games. It is easy to forget that it is not only the author that is part of the team to make a book, so this game is to help your child understand the difference between the author and illustrator. A fun way to challenge your child to notice the illustrations in the book is to print off book covers and have your child sort them to “match” them with the correct artist. Eric Carle and Tomie de Paola are wonderful examples who have distinct styles that will easily be identifiable by your child. Spend the week reading books with distinctive illustrators like the ones listed above and end the week with a fun game of match or trivia to see if your children can correctly identify the illustrators that belong with some of these incredible artists.
Make a visit to your Local Library
One of the best ways to encourage children to develop a love for reading is to expose them to many different types of books. Taking them to a library is an easy way to discover what kind of books fascinate your child, and allow them a bit of ownership in their reading life. It is also a great way to show your child just how many books they have to choose from. Make sure to talk to a librarian there and allow your child to ask questions as their suggestions can help your child find the perfect book.
Write a Letter to their Favorite Author or Illustrator
Take some time to have your child write a letter to their favorite author or illustrator asking about their next book or even suggesting their ideas for future projects. Just like everyone else, authors and illustrators love to hear how their work is impacting the children who read them, and these activities empower and embolden your children to use their voice to talk about things that matter to them. Many of these artists also have online forms that you can fill out to send in your child’s letter.
Be on the lookout for Readings at Local Bookstores
Many times around this week, authors will guest read at bookstores so this is a great time to keep an eye out to see if your child’s favorite author might be performing a live reading nearby. If not that, within the last few years, many authors will perform these readings on Facebook or Instagram live during this fun week to connect with their readers.
Share with your Child Your Favorite Books
In addition to reading some of the books mentioned above, take some time during the week to share with your child your favorite books, and allow them to do the same. Consider making this a part of your mealtime routine and allow a different member of the family to present a book at dinner each night. This will build your child’s confidence in their reading life while letting your family learn to be better readers from one another.
Illustrate one of your Child’s Favorite Books
Another way to encourage your child to think about the importance of not only authors, but also illustrators, is to challenge your child to create their own illustration for one of their favorite books. Each night, read a couple pages of one of their favorites without showing them the pictures and let them redesign their own pages to their favorite stories. You can also reverse this and provide pictures to your child, and see what kind of story they write. Then you can compare it to the original to see how close your ideas were.
We hope you enjoyed reading about ways you can celebrate authors and Illustrators week as a family, and would love to hear all about the ways you are inspiring your young readers.At Sprout School Supplies, we are passionate about helping service our schools and families! If you have a question about getting your community involved in our services or have a topic you would like us to tackle in our next blog, please click here to let us know.