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What does an author do?

Part of EnglishFictionYear 3Year 4

Watch: What is an author?

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When you write a story, you are the author. You can choose everything that happens in the story. That's called authorial intent.

Authors write lots of different thing such as letters, explanations, fact books, biographies or adverts.

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What is authorial intent?

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What is authorial intent?

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An author chooses everything about a book:

  • where it is set
  • what happens
  • who the characters are
  • what those characters are like

This is called authorial intent.

Authors also think hard about what they want their readers to feel when they are reading their books.

When someone reads a book and really likes it, they often read other books by the same author. This is because they enjoy how that author writes and how that author makes them feel.

For example: Lots of people enjoy reading Roald Dahl鈥檚 books because they know they鈥檙e usually funny, have interesting characters and will be written in a way that makes them feel happy.

An illustration of a young boy and girl sat on a red sofa.
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Activity 1

Test what you've learned with the quiz below.

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Activity 2

Watch this video of actor Aimee Kelly reading from My Naughty Little Sister by the author Dorothy Edwards.

Listen carefully. Aimee reads some extracts and explains what she loved so much about Dorothy Edward鈥檚 writing when she was younger.

Watch actor Aimee Kelly reading from 'My Naughty Little Sister' by the author Dorothy Edwards.

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You can write your answers down on paper, or discuss them instead.

1. Why does Aimee like the stories in My Naughty Little Sister so much?

2. Do you think Aimee is similar to any of the characters in My Naughty Little Sister?

3. Do you think you would like reading My Naughty Little Sister too? Why?

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Activity 3

An illustration of a young girl thinking with question marks around her.

Now think about a book you鈥檝e enjoyed reading or listening to. You're going to review that book and the author - just like Aimee did in the video.

Write your review on lined paper and split it into five sections, like below.

Aim for each section to be at least three sentences long.

Title

  • Give the title of the book and the author's name.

The plot

  • Write a summary of what happened in the story (but don't give too much away!).

The characters

  • Give an outline of the characters in the book - what are they like?

My opinion

  • Explain why you liked the book, with reasons.

Star rating

  • How many stars would you give the story and why?
    (1 = I would not recommend, 5 = It was amazing!)
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