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Author Study
Meet a Reading A-Z Author: Alyse Sweeney
Alyse's Experience: Alyse Sweeney has been a writer for more than 13 years and has written more than 30 books, stories, and poems for children. More than half of those books were written for Reading A-Z. Prior to freelance writing for Learning A-Z (parent company of Reading A-Z), Alyse worked at Scholastic for 9 years and held the position of Associate Editorial Director in the magazine division. She oversaw seven magazines, including Clifford (a pre-K magazine that she helped launch) and Scholastic News (grades 1-3).

Alyse's Education: Alyse holds a masters degree in elementary education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a licensed reading specialist.

Alyse's Author Packet: Have students read an article about Alyse and explore a list of Alyse's books. Then use the comprehension questions and graphic organizers to see what students have learned about Alyse and what she writes.
     -Meet the Author Packet
     -How the Websites Work Together
"Sometimes I start with just a phrase or a detail or a single action,
and like a seed, it grows into a story." - Alyse

How the Websites Work Together

Alyse's Books
Kindergarten
We Pack a Picnic B
Grow, Vegetables, Grow! D 

1st and 2nd Grade
Grasshopper's Gross Lunch H

Retellings of:
The Three Little Pigs F, I, M
Goldilocks and the Three Bears I, L, P
Goldilocks and the Other Three Bears I, L, P

3rd Grade
Only One Aunt Maggie R

Other Reading A-Z Books by Alyse
Terell's Taste Buds H
Mike's Good Bad Day I
Winter Vacation I
Hannah's Townspeople J
Snow Camping M
SPRAK! Q
Magnificent Meatball Maker (Benchmark) U
The Outburst (Benchmark) V
Chick-a-Dude (Benchmark) W

 Resource Integration

The video interview with Alyse, available for free for a limited time at subscription website Writing A-Z, helps teach kids to compose their own interviews as an extension to the interview genre writing lesson. In fact, a low-cost Writing A-Z license provides several leveled writing lessons in multiple genres and skill areas, so all students can write like the pros.


Vocabulary A-Z enables teachers to build custom lessons that match specific and unique classroom instruction and subjects. The low-cost subscription website also provides weeklong vocabulary lessons featuring glossary terms (Reading A-Z Book Connections) from many of the Reading A-Z books, such as the books penned by Alyse.


Children love to stop, look, listen, and read with the Raz-Kids animated talking versions of favorite Reading A-Z books, like Alyse's Mike's Good Bad Day.


Many students need extra one-on-one help to be successful readers. Reading Tutors.com offers skill-specific tutor packs chock-full of student activities, such as the Mike's Good Bad Day fluency compehension lesson, based on the book by Alyse.