Craig McFarland Brown spends several days a year sharing his love of art and writing with young readers and with adults.
He is available in Colorado and throughout the United States. He
has also visited Department of Defense (DOD) schools at overseas
locations.
Whether or not you are able to invite Craig Brown to your school you
may wish to search out his books and focus on Brown and his work.
- Introduce students to Craig Brown's
work by featuring the author
on a bulletin board.
A poster-sized enlargement of the author's
picture can serve as the focal point.
Surround the photo with book jackets (or color copies)
from the books he has illustrated.
- A farm theme might also be included on the board by
enlarging a barn and some of the animals from
Brown's books.
- Craig Brown illustrates most of his books with a
technique called stippling.
Investigate this technique and solicit the
cooperation of the art teacher to share
this technique with students.
- Read and reread Brown's books.
If the entire school is involved in the focus it
works well to have at least two copies of each title,
in the library media center.
One copy should remain in the library for student
reading throughout each day.
The second copy can be put on reserve for
teachers to check out to their classrooms for a day.
This allows for access to all the titles by students and
teachers.
- To culminate the focus on the author arrange a celebration of some type: plan a "read-in" with a
partner class, create a video booktalk segment featuring the author's books, or create original stippling
illustrations to illustrate a student-written book.
- For more information about Craig Brown,
visit the
"author visit" web page
developed by Harrison Elementary Students after his visit to
their school.
- Locate and read the article "Author & Illustrator Profile: Craig Brown" by Sharron L. McElmeel in Library Talk,
Mar/Apr 94, Vol. 7, Issue 2, p 15+.
- For more suggestions on how to prepare for an
in-person visit by an author you may wish to
refer to ABCs of an Author/Illustrator Visit
by Sharron L. McElmeel
(2001) Linworth.
- If an author visit is cost prohibitive consider
a more modest "author visit" via
telephone or e-mail. The honorarium
is significantly less and other than the cost of
a long-distance call or Internet time there are no
expenses involved with the visit.
(Be sure to contact the author in advance to arrange a
convenient time, and finalize arrangements,
for the interview, by phone or e-mail.)
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