From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:52:47 -0500

In response to Lisa Peters' message about inspired writing in science books, Corrinne Fisher wrote: "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." This is an excellent point. And good writing makes all the difference, too. Byron Barton's picture book "I Want to Be an Astronaut," read repeatedly (by request) to a two-year old I know has led to this child's life-long interest in astronomy and aeronautics. Specifically, the line "...and live in zero gravity..." captured his imagination, making him want to find out more about what that meant. This led the child and his parents to the library to find more books on space science so that they could find out exactly what zero gravity meant, and these additional books raised more questions in the child's mind. The quest continues for this child. KTH Kathleen T. Horning, Director Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 horning at education.wisc.edu Voice: 608&3721 Fax: 608&2I33 www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Wed 06 Jul 2005 02:52:47 PM CDT