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Finding the Life in Science
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From: Corrinne Fisher <CFisher>
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 14:04:11 -0400
Lisa Peters wrote:
"I did none of this, by the way, for a couple of nonfiction books I wrote early in my career. They were written for two series published by Crestwood House. I was given about a month to write one (a book about condors) and about three months to write the other (a book about the Serengeti). I never saw a condor, and I never visited the Serengeti. The editor gave me the format, I followed it, and that was it. There was no discovery, and in my opinion, no life to the manuscripts."
I am currently working on a project which highlights children's science books and have had to do quite a bit of sleuthing to get to those manuscripts with "life" as Lisa describes. It seems to me that there is no shortage of topical nonfiction books that accurately describe a scientific concept at a child's level. There is a shortage, however, of those books that really engage a young mind to get excited about a topic and want to know more about it - either by finding more literature on the subject or more importantly, connecting it to their own lives. I think the only true way to excite a child is to have an author who is captivated by the topic themselves and feeds that energy into her manuscript. The converse is like a mini-research paper with accompanying illustrations. Books like Lisa Peters' Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up, Claire Ewart's Fossil, Douglas Florian's Insectlopedia, and Nic Bishop's Backyard Detective are just a few of those gems that really inspires that sense of wonder and discovery that a science book should inspire.
I am grateful that Lisa shared her early experience writing nonfiction and how it has evolved (pun intended) to a level where the writing has life. I wish there were more authors similarly inspired to excite themselves as well as children about our natural world. I would also be interested in knowing what other "gems" have engaged and excited young children about science (I have merely mentioned only a couple of my own favorites.)
Corrie Fisher
Received on Wed 06 Jul 2005 01:04:11 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 14:04:11 -0400
Lisa Peters wrote:
"I did none of this, by the way, for a couple of nonfiction books I wrote early in my career. They were written for two series published by Crestwood House. I was given about a month to write one (a book about condors) and about three months to write the other (a book about the Serengeti). I never saw a condor, and I never visited the Serengeti. The editor gave me the format, I followed it, and that was it. There was no discovery, and in my opinion, no life to the manuscripts."
I am currently working on a project which highlights children's science books and have had to do quite a bit of sleuthing to get to those manuscripts with "life" as Lisa describes. It seems to me that there is no shortage of topical nonfiction books that accurately describe a scientific concept at a child's level. There is a shortage, however, of those books that really engage a young mind to get excited about a topic and want to know more about it - either by finding more literature on the subject or more importantly, connecting it to their own lives. I think the only true way to excite a child is to have an author who is captivated by the topic themselves and feeds that energy into her manuscript. The converse is like a mini-research paper with accompanying illustrations. Books like Lisa Peters' Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up, Claire Ewart's Fossil, Douglas Florian's Insectlopedia, and Nic Bishop's Backyard Detective are just a few of those gems that really inspires that sense of wonder and discovery that a science book should inspire.
I am grateful that Lisa shared her early experience writing nonfiction and how it has evolved (pun intended) to a level where the writing has life. I wish there were more authors similarly inspired to excite themselves as well as children about our natural world. I would also be interested in knowing what other "gems" have engaged and excited young children about science (I have merely mentioned only a couple of my own favorites.)
Corrie Fisher
Received on Wed 06 Jul 2005 01:04:11 PM CDT
