2021 Author Study Challenge

Let’s try this again, shall we?

At the beginning of 2020 I announced a new challenge. An author study challenge. We started off great. You all seemed excited. There were lots of great shares and messages and I was delighted to share all this enthusiasm with other book fans.

And then Covid 19 hit.

With libraries closing for months, I didn’t feel like everyone would have the same access to borrowing books that they would in a normal month. It seemed unfair to share stacks of books that you couldn’t access and I know I don’t like to buy a ton of books by an author I’ve never heard of before.

So I hit pause.

It’s a new year though. Not a perfect year, because unlike what naive little me expected in March, Covid19 is still restricting life in a lot of ways. But books we have! Libraries we have!

So, let’s try this again.

12 Months of Author Study Ideas - part of the A Read A Day family reading challenge on My Storytime Corner

2021 Author Challenge List

For 2021, we are going to focus on one children’s book author each month. My hope is that you’ll discover some new favorite authors because while finding great books is good, having a trusted author you can turn to, count on, look forward to is a wonderful thing. I’ll share a book list each month although with some fun activity ideas to go with their books or to learn more about the author.

Excited? I am!

Curious who we’ll be reading? That was SO hard to decide.

Below is the list of 2021 Children’s Book Authors we will be exploring. This is NOT a comprehensive list of authors you should know (You can find 50 Children’s Book Authors I think everyone should know here and that’s just the tip of the amazing writer iceberg.) There are too many amazing children’s book authors to truly make such a list.

#2021authorstudies.

Below I will share the list of 12 Authors that Create Amazing Children’s Books that:

have written at least 4 books – at least one for each week of a month was my minimum.
do NOT appear on every best author’s list. I mainly avoided people like Mo Willems and Eric Carle who I adore but who I feel like most people are aware of – however there are some likely familiar names, some award winners and some people with lengthy careers included.
attempt to span the range of gender, age, and ethnicity. This was hard – especially with my 4 books rule (which speaks once again to the need for more diverse voices in publishing!) but I did my best to consider these things to make the list well rounded.
appeal to multiple ages. There are some authors who write a span of ages. There are some more geared more towards board books or picture books. I tried to offer a variety so some months may work better for you than others.
represent a variety of genres and types of books – nonfiction, picture book biographies, stories about animals, funny books, etc.

I am sure that many of you will read this list and immediately have more ideas of authors that should have / could have been included – tell me about them in the comments! That way we’ll all leave with a growing list of authors to discover and who knows, if we do this again next year, they might appear on another list in the future!

My hope is that this year you will discover at least a couple new-to-you authors to love. Authors that when a new book pops up you say ‘YES! I can’t wait to read that!’ Because you know the author like an old friend and trust that their newest book will be a great fit for you too.

Download Printable Author Study List

What do you need to do?

Simple – download the list above and starting hunting down books written by the first author. If you’re joining us later in the year, just skip to the current month.

In January look for a post of books and activity ideas to hit your email. I’ll share on Instagram as well! And start sharing all of your related ideas to #2021AuthorStudies or tag me on Facebook at @mystorytimecorner.

If you don’t want to share that’s completely fine too! Feel free to just download the free list and read with your kiddos. At the end of the day that’s all this is about – reading every day with kids!