TEXTS:

Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and Writing Workshops 4-12 by Heather Lattimer, published by Stenhouse Publishers 2003.

When Kids Can't Read What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers, published by Heinemann 2003.

(These books can be purchased through Amazon.com)

WEB SITES:

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site http://carolhurst.com/toc.html - Great links to books, authors and their web sites, themes, and professional development materials

Children's Literature Web Guide: Authors and Illustrators on the Web http://acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/authors.html - Alphabetical listing of links for more author information

Yahoo's Children's Authors list http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Children_s/

Have the children type their author's name into the search box in http://google.com .  Tell them to use only the first few results, as one will usually be the link the author's homepage.