Jan Brett is an incredible author and artist. Her books have filled the shelves of our homes and libraries and bookstores for decades. She is a wonderful choice for an author study – especially in the chilly Winter months.
If you are joining us for the 2020 Author Study Challenge then she is also our first author! (Learn more about this free and fun challenge –> HERE )
Jan Brett works great for an author study for all ages (toddler and up) or for multi-aged groups or families. There are board book versions of many of her most famous titles for littles and her popular animal books are appealing to toddlers. Her books also still appeal to kids in elementary school who will be able to make comparisons, imitate her style of illustration, and talk about predictions in stories.
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Jan Brett Author Study
Meet Jan Brett
Jan Brett is an author and illustrator of over 40 books. Her most beloved tale is probably The Mitten, but she has a whole host of beautiful stories from animal stories to seasonal favorites to fairy tale retellings.
You can learn more about Jan here.
Visit Jan Brett’s Website
Books by Jan Brett
Jan Brett has a wonderful collection of Christmas books, but for the purposes of this author study we set those aside. We are focusing on books about animals (which include many wonderful Winter stories) and re-tellings of traditional tales.
Books about Animals
- The First Dog
- Annie and the Wild Animals
- Hedgie’s Surprise
- The Umbrella
- The Hat
- The Mitten
- The Snowy Nap
- The Turnip
- Cozy
Books that Re-Tell Traditional Tales
- Beauty and the Beast
- The 3 Little Dassies
- The Three Snow Bears
- On Noah’s Ark
- Town Mouse, Country Mouse
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
You can find her full list of children’s books here.
Respond to Books / Activities about Books
Jan Brett’s website is literally a gold mine of activities. Normally for author studies I have to work my creative mind a lot or search the internet far and wide, but she has already done so much of the work for you. Make sure to visit her Activities Page for the full list of printable activities, but our favorites for first through third grade are below.
Note: If you have a younger child there is a HUGE array of activities for you on her website as well – probably even more than for the older grades. Please check them out for animal and alphabet and color activities and more for your little one if you’re joining us for this author study.
Literacy
- Re-enact The Umbrella with Jan Brett’s script
- Sight Word lists for themed spelling words
- Talk about Beginning, Middle, and End while reading her fairy tales.
- Learn about characters, setting and plot with a story like The Mitten or The Umbrella.
Math
- Vote on your favorites and practice counting numbers or tallies.
- Practice counting on as the animals are added in The Mitten
- Multiplication Flashcards for Jan Brett’s website.
Science
- Tie in a study of Winter with many of her animal stories, like The Snowy Nap
- Learning to draw animals (a scientific skill) – like hedgie
Culminating projects
Culminating projects give students an opportunity to respond to what they’ve learned about an author. You may want to:
- Create your own book using her style about a different favorite animal.
- Become animal illustrators and make a gallery of all of your work to share with others.
- What else could you think of to share what you’ve learned?
