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                          Author study.
   Children are sometimes competent and naive, joyful and sad, talkative and quiet during their activities and learning. Teachers should know their students' development and learning styles as well as parents. One way to do so is by choosing author or books which promotes children's learning and growth. If you have children you have probably heard of Arthur's book or cartoons which children read or watch with lots of joy. The author Marc Brown tells about adventures of Arthur which I would like to discuss.
    Marc Brown was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on November 25, 1946. Marc Brown is the creator of Arthur, the most popular aardvark in the world. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1968 and in the same year married Stephanie Marini, they both have two sons. After Marc's graduation from the Cleveland Institute of Art he worked at various jobs before writing and illustrating children's books. Marc Brown began to work on illustrating books for various authors in 1969. Many of the characters in Marc Brown's books are modeled after one person or a combination of people from his life. Many characters in his stories were inspired by people which he had met in his life. His big accomplishment came one night when his five-year-old son Tolon asked for a bedtime story about a weird animal to tell him. Marc Brown came up with the Arthur story, an aardvark who hated his long nose which is one of the first book of him. In 1976, this story became Arthur's Nose, the first book in the popular series which made him popular author. Marc Brown has received many awards for work in children's literature. Some of his awards include: Children's Books of the Year of the Child Study Association of America, Children's Choice Awards of the Children's Book Council, International Reading Association for his writings of "Arthur".
    After reading numbers of Marc Brown's picture books featuring Arthur I decided to write about him. I have read three books for this project even though I know a lot of his books and cartoons. I would like to discuss about my favorite books of him, which I think has meanings to children and they are useful books to teach children in the classroom. They are "Arthur's Perfect Christmas", "Arthur Turns Green", and "Arthur's Computer Disaster".
"Arthur's Perfect Christmas" starts with the preparation of making the best Christmas ever in Elwood City, but obstacles get in their way which Arthur has to overcome. While at first Arthur thought it was going to be a perfect Christmas, he's not so sure anymore. Because it hasn't snowed, D.W decorated Christmas tree with trolls and unicorns which Arthur hated, his father decided to make an "ancient" Christmas dinner for their family, and Arthur accidentally breaks his gift for his mother which he bought for her. While Francine happily celebrates Hanukkah, and Buster tries to find a holiday of his own to make his mother happy, Arthur starts to think he'll have a terrible Christmas, until an unexpected guest changes everything. Arthur's uncle Fred comes he had broke his car, and helps him to solve the present problem for his mother by handling his own present which he bought for her. After all the obstacles which he went through, Arthur discovers that the real happiness of the Christmas season comes not in the form of holiday parties and expansive gifts, but in the memory of special friends and family being together and celebrating it.
   Also, "Arthur Turns Green" has its importance to every child. In this book Arthur's teacher Mr. Ratburn assigns the class to find ways to take care of the planet, calling the project the 'Big Green Machine.' Arthur and his friends are came up with different ideas to present in the classroom. At home, D.W. notices Arthur taking notes and talking to himself about his project. The next day, Arthur stays late after school to paint his poster and when he return, D.W. notices Arthur's hands are green-colored. She gets scared that Arthur is turning green and shares it with her friends, after D.W. has a nightmare where the Big Green Machine chases her and turns everyone green ahe was scared even more. At a school family night the next night, D.W. and her family saw the poster which Arthur was making, which listed ways to save the planet. When D.W understands why his hand were green she gets more calm and starts to use those tips or suggestions when she returned home. D.W starts to take care of planet on her own ways.
    In the story "Arthur's Computer disaster" children could learn life long lessons. In this adventure story Arthur loves playing games on his mother's computer. Arthur wants to play Deep, Dark Sea on the computer every chance he gets when no one is around. When his mother leaves for work and asks him not to touch the computer, Arthur could not stop himself. While playing Arthur and his friend Buster both reach for the mouse and the computer screen goes blank. He thought that he broke his mother's computer and tries to solve problem before his mother gets home. He could not solve the problem and when his mother gets home he confesses himself to her that he was playing on her computer. Arthur finds that it is not broken while talking with his mother, but he gets into trouble for disobeying his mother's orders to stay off the computer.
    Marc Brown's book has its own similarities in each of those books. Marc Brown in each of his book uses the problems which Arthur has to overcome in order to see the happy ending. In each of those books Arthur solves the problem or gets an adult help to solve it. Sometimes adult or his peers scaffold him to solve the problem. In many of his Arthur books Marc Brown uses colorful illustration of Arthur and others. Also the most important in his books are the ways that Marc Brown uses simple words, small texts or the paragraphs to tell the story and pictures that tells the whole story without reading it to children.
Marc Brown's differences in his book are the way he uses Arthur in the story, the way Arthur gets into the trouble and the help to solve the problems he get from others. In most of Arthur's book Arthur is the one who always gets into the trouble and punishment from his parents most of the time, but at the end he learns his lessons from it. Arthur most of the time goes through problems and learns valuable lessons in different ways. Also Marc Brown uses Arthur and his little sister D.W in most of his stories a lot than other characters or his family members.
     Marc Brown's book are very useful books to teach children in the classroom even at home. Arthur's book teach children to see and learn valuable lessons from Arthur. Those three books of Marc Brown could be useful for children to see the different view of the world and solve the problems more logically or independently. In my view those books are for the first and second grade children at ages seven. I do remember my cousin used to watch Arthur's cartoons and read books at age seven so I think it would not be that hard to read for them.
     Marc Brown uses simple words and simple stories to interest children. The way he introduces Arthur at the beginning of the story makes children to read the book with interest. The most Marc Brown uses colorful pictures, big and short paragraphs to tell the story which makes parents of children or teachers to choose his book and teach. Most of all Arthur's book teaches children to be kind, responsible, love and being passion.
    I think Marc Brown is one of the favorite authors of children. Marc Brown well known to all children by not his name or biography of his life, but by creating one of the favorite children book and cartoons of them Arthur. All the authors have their importance for teachers and parents of children. We all are future teachers should know the best authors and the books which interest children which promotes learning.