Cover, Title, and Author

Core Idea

Every book has a title, which is the name of the story, and an author, which is the person who wrote the words. The front cover shows the title, the author's name, and usually a picture that gives you a clue about what the story is about. Knowing these parts helps you find and talk about the books you love.

How It's Best Learned

Pick up several books and find the title and the author's name on each cover. Talk about what the cover picture might tell you about the story inside. Try to remember the names of authors whose stories you enjoy.

Common Misconceptions

• Thinking the title is the same as the whole story; the title is just the name, like a person's name.
• Confusing the author with the illustrator; the author writes the words and the illustrator draws the pictures.
• Believing that every book is written by the same person; many different people write books.

Explainer

Every book has important information on its front cover. The title is the name of the story -- just like you have a name, every story has a name too. You might see a title like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" or "Where the Wild Things Are." The author is the person who wrote the words of the story. The author is the writer! You can find the author's name on the front cover, usually near the title.

The front cover also shows a picture that gives you a clue about what the story is about. If you see animals on the cover, the story might have animals in it. If you see a castle, there might be a castle in the story. The picture is like a hint that helps you know if you want to read the story.

Here is something important: the author and the illustrator have different jobs. The author writes all the words. The illustrator is the artist who draws all the pictures. Sometimes the author and illustrator are the same person, but usually they are different people working together. That is why sometimes you see two names on a book!

When you learn the titles and authors of stories you love, you can talk about them with your friends and find more books by the same author. You might say, "I loved that book by [author's name]. Do you know if they wrote other stories?" It is a fun way to discover more books you will enjoy. Different people write different kinds of stories, so there are lots of different authors to discover!