• Research where the author you studied spent their childhood and where they live now. Find out all that you can about those places. Do you think those places influenced the author's writing? Be sure to support your argument with references to some of the stories the author wrote. Choose a way to share what you find out with the rest of the class that includes both words and pictures.

Here are some online geographic resources that may help you find out about places your author lived.

• Excite Travel Destinations http://www.excite.com/travel/regions/
• Lonely Planet Destinations http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/
• Yahooligans: Around the World: Countires http://www.yahooligans.com/Around_the_World/Countries/

• Find out if there are any children's book authors that live in your community (your librarian may know some). Use the Author Resources links to find out about them. Get a book they have written from the library and read it. After you have done this background research, contact them and invite them to speak with your class.