Author: Loree Burns

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Dirty Check In


© Loree Griffin Burns

Saturday, and Sunday were the loveliest spring days ever. EVER! I spent a good part of them in the yard, raking leaves (found the garlic I planted last fall), turning soil (oh, so many earthworms), planting lettuce, and generally getting filthy. It was heavenly.

The flipside of that, of course, is sitting at my desk this morning and wondering where to begin. Bills? Business paperwork? That challenging and long-ignored work-in-progress? Adding baseball and softball team schedules to the family calendar? Book launch planning? A grocery list? Egads … the laundry?

Deep. Breath.

I eventually decided to start here, at my e-home. Things are tidier here, and there is less that needs doing. I’ve got two posts for today. First, this dirty check in. Next, a trashy announcement. Stay tuned.

Happy Monday!

 

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Buzz and Snap


© Loree Griffin Burns

In a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece, scientists Marcelo Aizen and Lawrence Harder called for clear thinking about honey bee population declines:

”It’s true that some crops like raspberries, cashews, cranberries and mangoes cannot reproduce without pollinators. But crops like sugar cane and potatoes, grown for their stems or tubers, can be propagated without pollination. And the crops that provide our staple carbohydrates — wheat, rice and corn — are either wind-pollinated or self-pollinated. These don’t need bees at all.”

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t worry about honey bee decline, of course, just that we should worry about the right things, like what is causing them. You can read the entire article here.

In related news, THE HIVE DETECTIVES, my look at honey bee population decline through the eyes of four scientists scrambling to understand it, releases in five weeks. Five weeks! When you’ve been working on a project for three years, five weeks seems like a snap of the fingers.

 

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Lights Out

Got any plans tomorrow night between 8:30 and 9:30pm? How does a candlelit dinner sound? or maybe Monopoly by flashlight? On Saturday, March 27, 2010, the hour between 8:30 and 9:30pm has been designated Earth Hour. Across the world, individual citizens, entire communities, and even municipal governments will unite in a simple and symbolic act of global camaraderie: turning off the lights.

Check out the video below or visit the Earth Hour website to learn more.

 

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What A Girl Wants: Sporty Books

EHS Field Hockey, circa 1987

We’re talking books for girls again over at Chasing Ray this month. What books can you think of about famous female athletes in history? Do we honor them on the same level as male athletes? And what about game playing girls in Middle Grade & Young Adult novels? Can you think of some great ones and do familiar teen girl tropes (like mean girls and romance) play into those novels? In other words, is a book about boys playing ball crafted the same as one about girls playing ball? Is the sport enough when selling a book about girl athletes?

Check out what the panel had to say … and tell us what YOU think.

 

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A Wet and Froggy Night


© Benjamin Griffin Burns

It’s raining here, and 39F … perfect conditions for a Big Night migration. The kids and I ventured out to make sure this wood frog—and sixteen of his pals—made it safely across our street. We counted four casualties as we worked, and I’m sure there will be more by morning. But from the edge of the safe side of the road, staring off into the dark woods at a vernal pool we couldn’t see, we were treated to a chorus of wood frogs celebrating spring. It was pretty spectacular.

We’ll surely be sleepy in the morning. But who cares?!?!

 

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Out in our Woods

DSC_0180
© Loree Griffin Burns

This is my favorite photograph from this weekend. It tells an interesting story, but only if I fill in some blanks …

The hand belongs to my Number Three Field Assistant. As you can see, she is young (small, pudgy fingers) and not-so-totally tomboy (dirty fingernails sporting cherry red polish).

The tool, an old-school wooden collapsible yardstick, belongs to my Number Two Field Assistant. (He found it at the Recycle Resource Center—where you bring your junk hoping it will, indeed, become someone else’s treasure—and asked “Why the heck would someone throw this away?” It’s been one of his treasures ever since.)

The holes were found in a dead-but-standing pine tree stump … and they looked suspicious to us. We live in central Massachusetts, where people have become acutely sensitive to holes in trees, especially perfectly-round holes with a half-inch in diameter. Why? Because such holes are the tell-tale sign of an Asian Longhorned Beetle infestation. If you don’t live around here—or in one of the other five places in North America where this dreaded beetle has taken hold—let me just tell you that they are Bad News. You don’t want to find them in the trees on your property.

So, we collected some data. We recorded the size of the holes with the ruler and on film, and we inserted a pencil to measure their depths and angles. We scoured the surrounding area for similar holes in other trees and anything else that seemed relevant. Then we came home and did some research. We checked out the US Department of Agriculture’s ALB website, and this helpful Beetlebuster website. We also consulted a slew of handouts collected at recent community meetings about the beetle and plans to eradicate it.

The good news: although our holes were the right size and shape, they were in the wrong sort of tree. Asian Longhorned beetles prefer hardwood trees; this stump was a soft pine.

The bad news: the beetles have been found in other places in our town, and eradicating them is not going to be easy.

The news that keeps us going: something made those holes. We want to know what!

And this: the ALB story is pulling at me. I’ve been following it for a while. I feel a book taking shape.


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Ship-to-Shore Education


© Gerry Burns

Oh, my. How did it get to be Friday? I’ve had my head focused on other things, I guess. Like water in the basement (uggh) and butterflies in the yard (a mourning cloak, I think!). I’m stopping in to share a few quick notes of interest for teachers using TRACKING TRASH in the classroom.

The Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), founded by Captain Charles Moore (star of TRACKING TRASH) is gearing up for a new ocean research voyage, this time to the Indian Ocean. Teachers and students are invited to tag along virtually via the Ship-to-Shore program. Here’s a blurb from the AMRF newsletter:

This week AMRF’S Anna Cummins And Dr. Marcus Eriksen will embark on a voyage from Perth, Australia to Port Louis, Mauritius aboard the 250ft Clipper, Stad Amsterdam, crossing the Indian Ocean. They will be joining the “Beagle Project”, re-tracing the path of Charles Darwin famous voyage 178 years ago. Anna and Marcus will collect samples along the way to investigate change in the state of the ocean since Darwin’s voyage.

You and your students are invited to join the expedition online through the Ship-2-Shore Education Program. The research crew will be sending images, videos and descriptions of their experiences while they are at sea conducting research. Students will be able to communicate with the crew by sending questions and comments through the Internet. This opportunity to participate will be during the voyage from:

Indian Ocean: Australia to Mauritius (Mar. 16 – Apr. 4, 2010)

If you are not a student or a teacher we invite you to follow the voyage through our public blog which can be located through our home page at http://algalita.org/

If you are a student or a teacher, the Ship-2-Shore Education Program is free and signing up is easy. Simply send an email to [email protected] and include:

1. Name and location of school
2. # of students participating
3. Grade level

When we receive your registration we will send you more information about this voyage. For more general information about the program please visit Ship-2-Shore Education Program.

In related news, Captain Moore appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday night. Did anyone catch it? Here’s a clip from the AMRF website. Moore has now sparred with Colbert and chatted with Letterman; I wonder what Leno is waiting for?

Okay, back to spring. Have a great weekend!

 

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Big Night in Harvard


© Ellen Harasimowicz

In 1891, a man named Henry L. Warner bequeathed $10,000 to his hometown, Harvard, Massachusetts. His hope was that the funds be used to initiate an educational lecture series to keep residents informed of happenings in “scientific, literary, biographical, historic, patriotic, national, educational and moral” spheres. Tomorrow night, Ellen and I will be at the Harvard Public Library to give our very first presentation on THE HIVE DETECTIVES as part of the free lecture series established in Warner’s name. If you live in the area, we’d love to see you there!

To Bee or Not to Bee
A Warner Free Lecture
Friday, March 12, 8pm
Harvard Public Library
4 Pond Road
Harvard, MA
978-456-4114

Why on earth have I illustrated this post with a photo of my cell phone in a bee hive? Well, that photo is in THE HIVE DETECTIVES. (You’ll have to read the book to see why.) And also because I will have that very phone on the podium with me tomorrow night in Harvard, set to vibrate of course, in order that my friend Kris can reach me and let me know if the temperatures after dark stay warm enough to launch Big Night.

What’s Big Night?

Well, around these parts, Big Night is usually the first warm and rainy night of the season. These sure signs of spring can induce hundreds and hundreds of spotted salamanders (and other amphibians) to migrate to their seasonal breeding pools. It is going to pour tomorrow night, and if temperatures stay warm enough, the salamanders will move. In other words, if that phone on the podium starts to vibrate, then yours truly will be doing some late-night salamander watching after the lecture!

* The quote above is from Henry S. Nourse’s HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF HARVARD MASSACHUSETTS, 1732-1893.

** My friend Sarah Lamstein has a brand new book on the salamander migration. You can learn more about BIG NIGHT (the book!) at Sarah’s website.

Edited to Add: The fabulous Jeannine Atkins posted a review of BIG NIGHT, by Sarah Lamstein, right here. Enjoy!

Edited Further to Add: Sarah Lamstein tells me that all things Big Night are monitored over at the Vernal Pool Association website. Check it out!

 

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Some Writerly Links

I can’t even bear to mention what project I am working on this week, because I have worked on it for years, because I have mentioned it two-hundred-and-forty-two times before and, most importantly, because it is still not done.

Big. Fat. Sigh.

Rather than dwell on all that negativity, I’ve decided to share some writerly inspiration. These particular links of motivation spoke to me because of the very project I did NOT just mention …

First, an article from the October 2009 issue of BookLinks (Talking with Jonah Winter by Sonja Cole), in which one can learn how to write a picture book biography … or, at least, how Jonah Winter writes a picture book biography. In answer to the question “What is your process for researching and writing your books?” we get a sense of Winter’s sense of humor (“I read a bunch of books, sometimes do online research, then just haul off and write the darn things.”) and, more importantly, his simple, powerful approach to the form. Do check it out.

Next up, an interview of author M.T. Anderson over at Cynsations. His answer to the question “What have you learned from writing in a variety of formats?” delves deep into the heart of what makes a picture book biography sing. Great stuff.

Finally, some good, old-fashioned writing classes. Well, not exactly old-fashioned, because they’re all offered online—but they are very, very good. I know because I took one myself back in 2004. It was called Write a Successful Book Proposal, and my homework became the book TRACKING TRASH. ( I kid you not!.) Patricia Fry is a knowledgeable and inspiring teacher; I highly recommend her online writing courses.

Happy writing!