Author Study Meet a Reading A-Z Author: Francis Morgan
"I also try to include interesting facts so that the readers will learn something while they are having fun reading."
Francis's Experience: Francis Morgan grew up hearing many delightful stories from his grandfather, Joe Slade, who sparked Francis's desire to be a storyteller. Francis has written more than 70 books for Learning A–Z, including the popular Tommy Tales series. Francis travels to many of the places he writes about and brings his readers along through his books. He began his career in educational publishing as a graphic designer for Transworld Publishers (Corgi Books) but eventually started his own business (Morgan-Cain & Associates) and helped lead development of websites that would become part of the Learning A-Z family.
Francis's Education: Francis holds a bachelor's degree in graphic design from Newport College of Art and Design, Wales. He has led creative teams for Addison-Wesley, BBC English, BBC Educational Publications, Price/Stern/Sloan, and the University of Arizona.
Francis's Author Packet: Have students read an article about Francis and explore a list of Francis's books. Then use the comprehension questions and graphic organizers to see what students have learned about Francis and what he writes.
The video interview with Francis by a special guest, 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 Francis.
Children love to stop, look, listen, and read with the Raz-Kids animated talking versions of favorite Reading A-Z books, like Francis's Playful Puppy (B).
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 Families (I) or Jessica Loves Soccer (L) compehension lessons, based on the books by Francis.
