Author Study Intro- Bill Peet

One Man’s Thoughtful Contributions to Our World



Bill Peet

An Author Study
By: Elizabeth Brown







Introduction
I was walking through the children’s section of the library and was trying to think of an author that I knew from childhood that I remembered creating several books. I was just looking at the rows of books when I saw one authors name repeatedly so I picked up one of the books even though the name of the author was not one I remembered. By the time, I picked up the second book I realized I read this author as a child. That author was Bill Peet and I had actually read several of his books. I chose this author because I wanted to reacquaint myself with his works. He was an extremely talented author and illustrator that left the world with wonderful literary treasures. I think that his books would appeal to both the children and the parents reading them to their children. The intended audience for my lesson plan would be a second grade class. I will spend four days on the unit. The times I have included take into account transition times, activities time, and discussion times. The first day the students will spend one hour and fifteen minutes working on the lesson one. The second day the students will spend two hours on the second lesson plan. The third day the class will spend two hours on the lesson number three. The fourth day the students will spend 20 minutes on the unit.

Guiding Questions
What inspires Bill Peet to write the stories he writes?
Why does he create books mainly with animals?

About the Author
Bill Peet was born on January 29, 1915, in Grandview, Indiana. When he was three years old, his family moved from Indiana to Indianapolis. As a child, he found inspiration on his grandfather’s old farm. Animals were all around and he has said that they have always seen them as being special. He dreamed about becoming an illustrator of animal stories at an early age. By the time, he got to high school he was not drawing much anymore but was failing all of his classes but one. On the advice of a friend, he started to take some art classes and did very well in the classes. Bill Peet attended the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis on a scholarship. He was at the Art Institute for three years studying design, drawing, and painting for three years. Upon leaving school, he went to work for Walt Disney as a sketch artist. He married a woman named Margaret that he meet while attending John Herron Art Institute. His sons have said that he relied on her heavily. He used the bedtime stories he told his sons Bill and Steve as story ideas that he passed on to Disney but always did this with illustrations. He became Walt's top writer-illustrator. Bill was the only person working for Disney that ever created the entire storyboard for one of their feature films. Even more remarkable was that he did this for two of them. The Sword in the Stone and One Hundred and One Dalmatians were the two movies that he created entirely but also worked on eight others. Along with the animated feature films, he created five animated shorts and received two awards for his contributions to film. He stayed on at Disney for twenty-seven years but left to write and illustrate his own stories. The first book he wrote was Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure, in the 1959. Bill wrote 35 stories all of which are still in print today with the exception of one. He was the author and illustrator on all of them. He has received thirteen awards one of which was the Caldecott Honor Book in 1990. Bill Peet died May 2002. He was 87 years old.
Websites for further research on Bill Peet.

· Bill Peet. Retrieved on July 4, 2008, from http://billpeet.net/PAGES/index.htm
· Bill Peet. Retrieved on July 5, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Peet
· Bill Peet - Author, Illustrator, Animator. Retrieved on July 4, 2008, from http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111400/index.htm
Introductory Lesson Plan
The teacher will direct the student’s attention towards the front of the classroom. The students will see 10 books by the author Bill Peet. The name of the author will be covered over by paper but the rest of the cover of the book will be visible. The book will also have a number taped to the upper right hand corner. Each book will be numbered starting at one and ending at ten. The students will be told that they are going to be taking a poll to see if they have read any of the displayed books. The teacher will instruct the class that when they hear their table number called that they are to walk along the front of the room and take a good look at each book to see if they have ever read it or seen it before. After all the tables have gone through the line, the teacher will ask the students to participate in the poll. The teacher will ask the students if they think that all of the books are created by the same author or by different authors by raising their hands. The students can vote one time for either one author or multiple authors. The teacher will count the number of hands both times and record the information on the board. The teacher will then ask one of the students that voted for multiple authors why they thought the books were created by various authors and if they have want to share how many authors they think wrote the books. There can be a discussion on why students think one author and why some students think multiple authors wrote the books. The teacher can ask the students that think it is one author who they believe it to be. The teacher will then hold up each book and ask the students that have read the story to raise their hands. Make sure that the students know that it is all right if have never read any of the books before. Record the responses. Then have different students remove the paper covering the names and read the name aloud.