Author: Loree Burns

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Nightsong


© Loree Griffin Burns

Did you know that there are birds that sing at night? Me either. But last night I slipped into bed beside my open bedroom window, hoping to hear some frogs, and instead heard a bird. Singing. Incessantly. At 11:30pm!

I listened for a good twenty minutes, head pressed up against the screen, ears stretching out into the front yard. I tried to describe the singing in my notebook, so that I could look into the strangeness come morning, but it seemed there were six (or more?) distinct calls/songs. They all came from the same direction, and I had the feeling it was a single (confused?) bird.

Eventually I fell asleep, and this morning I asked Google who might have been singing outside my window last night. The answer: a Northern Mockingbird.

I’d be tempted to do something silly, like head out tonight and capture some audio for you, but I’m off to the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference for the weekend. You’ll have to use your imagination. Or check out this treasure trove of Northern Mockingbird information from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (including audio and video!). Or, if you’re feeling crazy, stay up late, step out onto your front porch, and listen. Mockingbirds are found pretty much everywhere in the United States … maybe there’s one looking for love outside your window, too?

Happy weekend!

 

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Launched!

Last night the Beaman Memorial Library in West Boylston, Massachusetts helped Ellen Harasimowicz and I launch our new children’s book, THE HIVE DETECTIVES into the world. It was a marvelous event, chock full of book lovers and library supporters and beekeepers and good, good friends from all the many parts of my life.

THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!

My photographers for the evening are not fully grown yet (read: short!), and so my memories of the night will always have a unique point of view. Like this (almost side) view of the snack table:


© Catherine Griffin Burns

and this (definitely side) view of the books for sale:


© Samuel Griffin Burns

But somewhere along the way, folks lifted my little ones up (as good friends tend to do), and they captured images I’ll treasure always, like signed books:


© Catherine Griffin Burns

and the gorgeous floral wishes of my friends the Flaherty’s:


© Samuel Griffin Burns

and smiles shared with Ellen Harasimowicz and Mary Duane, who helped to make this book buzz:


© Benjamin Griffin Burns

Today I have the pleasure of driving back to the library to deliver a check for $379.76, which represents the funds we raised through book sales last night. Thank you, dear friends, for supporting us, and our book, and one of my favorite local libraries!

 

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Runkle School

© Benjamin Griffin Burns

A quick shout out to my sixth-grade friends at the Runkle School in Brookline, Massachusetts. I enjoyed our time talking trash (the book, of course) together earlier this week. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t remember to take my camera out while I was at your school! This means, of course, that I will have to come back one day soon … and that I had to resort to decorating this post with homemade bees from a friend and spurge from my garden.

I enjoyed your thoughtful questions and left inspired by your ideas about trash, beachcombing, and saving the planet. Thank you for having me!

 

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The Great Sunflower Project: Planting!


© Loree Griffin Burns

Remember this post? When I told you all about The Great Sunflower Project and how easy it was to help bees by participating in this important citizen science initiative? Well, it’s time for step three … planting your seeds.

What’s that? You don’t remember the steps? Okay, then, here is a quick review:

1. Register yourself at The Great Sunflower Project website. (You can do this today!)

2. Order some Lemon Queen sunflower seeds. (You can do this today, too! If you don’t want to wait for seeds to arrive by mail, check your local garden center; many carry the Lemon Queen variety.)

3. When the time is right where you live, plant your seeds.

4. When your sunflowers bloom, watch them for fifteen minutes each week, recording how many bees that visit while you do.

5. Send your data to Dr. LeBuhn and her team at The Great Sunflower Project.

I started my seeds a few weeks ago, in a fit of impatience, but you can start them any time now directly in the garden. Today I transplanted our seedlings into the back of my herb garden, right near my office window. With luck, I’ll soon be watching bees from this very desk, reporting to The Great Sunflower Project scientists (and to you) what sorts of bees are stopping by for Lemon Queen nectar and pollen.

Happy planting!

 

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Looking Closely


© Loree Griffin Burns

One of my sons spotted this hole in the tippy top of a snaggy tree in the neighbor’s front yard, and he had a feeling about it. It’s the size and shape of a woodpecker nest hole, and since this boy has got a bit of his mother’s curiousity about birds, he waited at the foot of the tree. When he was sure, he ran for his camera. And his mother.

The two of us sat at together on the neighbor’s lawn as the sun went down and the mama woodpecker flitted around wondering what we were up to. (I suspect the neighbor’s wondered too, though they didn’t ask!) Eventually she got used to us and returned to feeding her nestlings. We couldn’t see them, but every time she went into the hole with a beak full of bug, the little ones squeaked and squawked.

I’ve walked and run and driven by this tree a dozen times in the last couple weeks, and I never once noticed the hole or saw the woodpecker or heard the nestlings. Funny, that. Did you see her? The woodpecker, I mean? She is in that image up there, near to her home, close to her babies. You have to look twice to see her …

 

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Marlborough Intermediate Middle School


© Freaky Films!

One of the things I like most about my job is variety. Some days I sit at my computer and write; on others I take a blanket and a manuscript to the couch and revise. Often I hang out in libraries, and occasionally I visit scientists in their various fields to watch and learn and wonder. And then, as if all this weren’t variety enough, I pop into schools here and there, meeting students of all ages, sharing my stories, hearing theirs.

Last Friday was one of the latter, and I spent it at Marlborough Intermediate School talking to kids about oceans and science. As they did last year, the Marlborough sixth graders inspired me with their thoughtful questions and wowed me with descriptions of their independent researches. These kids are testing bridge designs, studying earthworms, wondering about organic vegetables, and helping people like me know exactly how long a tea bag should steep.

A hearty thank you to all my friends at Marlborough Intermediate Middle School (soon to be Marlborough 4-7 School), most especially my lovely hostess Cathy Rosenstock, for another great visit. I look forward to seeing you all again in 2011. And an extra-special thank you to the C.I.T.Y. Kids, who created the welcome posters (see sample above) decorating my office this week!

 

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A Book is Born!

What does the average children’s book author do on the day her new book is released? This one will be planting strawberries. (The plants arrived last Wednesday and they simply cannot sit in the crisper drawer another day. They can’t!) So, drizzle or not, out to the garden I go. But first, some buzzy delights, in honor of the day ….

These lovely photographs were sent to me by readers over the last few weeks. These readers happen to be my friends and family, but I like to think that complete strangers will soon be getting the same pleasure from holding and reading (and building Lego beehives around!) THE HIVE DETECTIVES.

Also, some happy THE HIVE DETECTIVE review tidbits:

“A fascinating book from the Scientists in the Field series.”
Booklist, Starred Review

“Readers … will be well served by this example of a scientific mystery still unsolved.”
Kirkus, Starred Review

“In yet another excellent entry in the series, Burns tells … a dramatic scientific mystery, carefully leading readers through the unfolding of the crisis and the attempts to solve it”
The Horn Book

“Ellen Harasimowicz’s photographs are vivid and revealing; and Loree Griffin Burns’ text is clear, engrossing, and easy to follow. Given the ease to which the next epidemic of Colony Collapse Disorder might so quickly plunge us all into the midst of a planetary food supply catastrophe, THE HIVE DETECTIVES is certainly the most important children’s book I have so far read this year.”
Richie Partington, Richie’s Picks

And, finally, a flashback to the release of my first book, TRACKING TRASH:

My goodness, a lot changes in three years!

More formal release festivities for THE HIVE DETECTIVES are coming soon to two marvelous central Massachusetts libraries. You can find out more about those celebrations here. I wish every single one of you could join us.

Happy Monday!

Buzz! Buzz!

Edited to add: Just look at what Jama Rattigan has done. Just look! Thank you for all of this lovely buzzy-ness, Jama. You have made my drizzly book release day a smashing success, honey. Thank you!

 

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Trashy Winners (and more prizes!)

Congratulations to Lee (aka Anonymous), Laura Jacques, Anne Marie Pace, and Jane Moore Houghton … you’ve each won a signed copy of TRACKING TRASH in softcover! Zap me a private email at lgb (at) loreeburns (dot) com letting me know where to send your signed copy and to whom you would like it inscribed. I will get them all in the mail by the end of the week.

And if you didn’t win a copy but wanted to, don’t despair. I am giving away two more over at Goodreads. If you’re a Goodreads member, click this link and try again!

I plan to give away some copies of THE HIVE DETECTIVES soon, too, so stay tuned.

In non-book news … it is 85 degrees here today. Ooh la la!

 

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Trashy Announcement (with prizes!)

The softcover edition of TRACKING TRASH is officially released today!

Yes, it took three years. But let’s focus on the positive, shall we? You can finally buy a copy of my first book for under ten bucks! This will please my thrifty friends (I’m looking at you, John McD; go get those kids a copy now, will you?), and will help schools and libraries who want to use the book in a large group setting.

In celebration, I’m going to give away FOUR copies of the softcover edition here, right now, today. Simply post a comment below, either on LiveJournal or on Facebook, before midnight EST tonight*. I will draw four winners at random from all the entrants and mail signed copies out by the end of the week. And if you already own a copy, then send some of your friends over here, would you? Pretty please? It would totally stink to have less than four entrants.

(Although if that happens, John, I’ll send all four copies to you. Ha!)

* Fine print: Entrants must live in the continental United States and be over eighteen years of age. I will contact winners by whatever means of contact are provided in the comment in order to get a mailing address; anonymous commenters, please keep in mind that I will have no way to reach you if you don’t leave me some clue as to who you are!