“Becoming an author, illustrator, editor, designer, printer” Week 27 Fourth Grade

How I Met Einstein – A Character Comes to Life (Non-fiction, Level 14, Stage 3) by Alan Trussell-Cullens

Last week we met Einstein – a rather unique cat character in the book Einstein-Champion of the World, and this week through How I Met Einstein we were able to read about what it took for that book to become a reality from the perspective of the author, illustrator, editor, designer, and printer. This was a huge treat to my fourth grader, who just happens to love reading and is always looking for his favorite authors at the library and bookstore, and it was also a huge treat for this homeschooling Mama who has aspirations for publishing her own work one day.

Although this book contains barely 30 little pages, it is full of new information for fourth graders about the writing and publication process (even Mama learned something brand new with this one!), and the Guided Lesson provides guidance for several different activities such as the following: using a Knowledge Chart to record his/her prior knowledge about writing, illustrating, and publishing a book, his/her new knowledge, where he/she found the information, what he/she would still like to know, and where he/she might find the information; thinking and writing about what it really means to be an author and illustrator; exploring new vocabulary words and concepts; and researching online or in the library at least one thing he/she would still like to know about writing, illustrating, editing, designing, or publishing a book. Also, since I happen to be writing a non-fiction publication right now for work, we were able to contrast fiction with non-fiction, and self-publication, design and editing with the process described in the book. I love it when we’re able to learn with a book that really encourages my little dreamer to dream!

As you can tell, this book was one of Elijah’s favorite this year. The only complaint he had was that he hasn’t had the chance to get a hold of the third book from this author that is pictured on the back cover, but I assured him that if it’s out there I bet we can find it. For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.