Author: Loree Burns

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Beelining, An Addendum

Today I interviewed two experienced monarch-taggers about their work; in the process I stumbled on a useful method for finding wild beehives. It is much easier than the process I outlined yesterday:

1. Visit your local Audubon Sanctuary (I happened to be at this one today);

2. Ask the staff naturalist if she knows of any feral hives on the property;

3. Follow her directions to the tree.


© Loree Griffin Burns

I don’t actually know if this is a bee tree. I watched the holes for ten or fifteen minutes and didn’t see any bees enter or exit … but the temperature was hovering just under fifty degrees outside, which is cold for flying. Maybe the bees were huddled up inside?

::rubbing hands and remembering this commercial::

It will be fun to find out!

 

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Beelining


© Ellen Harasimowicz

THE HIVE DETECTIVES manuscript is shaping up. Last night—after hours and hours and hours and hours of polishing—I gave my tired elbows a rest and played with the Endmatter. For eighteen months I have compiled lists of bee books, movies, and websites that might interest my readers and finally I sifted through them in search of the goodies I’d most like to share in the back of the book.

My favorite treat comes from the fine folks at The Feral Bee Project, who are teaching people how to beeline in hopes that they will use the knowledge to locate and report feral bee colonies.

What the heck is beelining? Well, I’m glad you asked, because there won’t be enough room to explain it all in the Endmatter and it’s pretty cool stuff:

1. Collect a few bees in a box;

2. Let them fill up on honey (bees with a full honey stomach will head directly back to the nest to unload the goods);

3. Release a single bee and take note of your location and the precise direction the bee flies (its beeline);

4. Walk to a new location several yards from the first release site and let a second bee loose, noting your new location and the new beeline;

5. Since both bees are likely heading to the same hive, the spot where their beelines intersect will be the location of their nest … go find it!

Why beeline? I’m glad you asked that, too, because I really only have room to list the link and, well, you should know more:

1. Old-timers beelined in order to find a good source of yummy wild honey;

2. These days citizen scientists hope that finding colonies in the wild will help protect honey bees.

You see, feral honey bees, like all pollinators, have been in a pretty serious decline recently. If colonies are actually making it in the wild, they may represent survivor colonies that have figured out a way to overcome pesticide exposure, habitat destruction, viral infections, invertebrate pests and Colony Collapse Disorder. These super bees are worth finding and studying!

Okay, back to polishing. But before I leave the Endmatter completely, I’ll just dowload instructions on how to build this beeline box. I sense a field trip in the making …

 

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Visualization Challenge

The National Science Foundation and Science magazine sponsored the sixth annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge this year, and the winners have been compiled in this slideshow.

Are those not AMAZING?

What? You didn’t look? Go back. Go back this minute and click on that link. This minute.

Okay. I can’t make you. But you are missing photographs of a diatom forest and toothy squid suckers, an incredible illustration of the human circulatory system, an eye-popping vision of Alice’s Wonderland (complete with Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse beetles sipping tea from a butterfly wing table … in a field of chrystallized vitamin C), a thought-provoking representation of the Bible, and interactive/non-interactive media presentations that let you see things human eyes will never see. You really should give it a look.

The science connections here make me happy, but there are children’s literature connections that I find equally thrilling:

Firstly, the Mad Hatter’s Tea infographic uses micrographs by scientist and children’s book creator Dennis Kunkel. Kunkel has several great books to his name already—including HIDDEN WORLDS (a “Scientists in the Field” book written by Stephen Kramer), MOSQUITO BITE! and SNEEZE! (both written by Alexandra Siy)—and has plans to develop a series of children’s books based on this image. Should they come to pass, these books have no choice but to bend genres.

Secondly, Marc Aronson has written on his SLJ blog, Nonfiction Matters, about digital media and how it can—and does—affect the way new generations of kids absorb information and, by definition, how new generations of authors and illustrators must present information to them. I think these images are a concrete example of what Marc means when he says “cross-media big thinking”. A picture no longer represents a mere thousand words … it coalesces decades of scientific study, popular culture and technological breakthrough into a single digital learning experience!

Now will you look at that slideshow?

 

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Celebrating My Freedom to Read

It’s the last week of September, and you know what that means …


Actually, click here.

From now until Saturday, October 4 the American Library Association and a slew of other bibliophilic organizations are celebrating books and our right to read them. I’m celebrating by re-reading an old favorite, number 23 on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books in 2000-2007, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee.

I’m also celebrating by re-running banned book blog posts from the past couple years. These first two were written with the help of my sons, who are avid readers of banned books:

In this first rerun, one of my son’s talked to me about Harry Potter books (number one on the Top 100 list above).

In the second rerun, my other son shared his thoughts on Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series (number ten on the Top 100 list above).

How will you be celebrating your freedom to read this week?

 

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Support Your Indies!

indiebound

On Saturday I attended the first New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Salon. It was a fabulous event and I have to start my recap by encouraging published New England SCBWI members to consider attending future Salons. (Find more information here.)

The forty writers and illustrators in attendance were treated to an overview of “Working with Independent Booksellers” by Carol Stoltz of Porter Square Books, Alison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith and Carol Chittendon of Eight Cousins Bookstore.

These women are passionate about books and experienced in the art of connecting books to readers in their community. They freely shared their wisdom with us and I left inspired to find more ways to support independent booksellers … even though I live in an area without one.

So, how can we writers and readers support independent booksellers and other retailers in our communities? It’s actually pretty easy, thanks to IndieBound. Check out this IndieBound Declaration:

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for individuals to denounce the corporate bands which threaten to homogenize our cities and our souls, we must celebrate the powers that make us unique and declare the causes which compel us to remain independent.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all stores are not created equal, that some are endowed by their owners, their staff, and their communities with certain incomparable heights, that among these are Personality, Purpose and Passion. The history of the present indies is a history of experiences and excitement, which we will continue to establish as we set our sights on a more unconstrained state. To prove this, let’s bring each other along and submit our own experiences to an unchained world.

We, therefore, the Kindred Spirits of IndieBound, in the name of our convictions, do publish and declare that these united minds are, and darn well ought to be, Free Thinkers and Independent Souls. That we are linked by the passions that differentiate us. That we seek out soul mates to share our excitement. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the strength of our identities, we respectively and mutually pledge to lead the way as we all declare that we are IndieBound!

As writers, we can support this movement by becoming IndieBound Affiliates (much like you can with other online bookstores) and encouraging our readers to buy our books through local, independent bookstores. You can add an IndieBound button to your website and give readers the option to support their own local booksellers at the same time that they support you. I plan to do that as soon as humanly possible. (Read: As soon as my web guy can do it!)

In the meantime, if you need a copy of TRACKING TRASH, just click the link below. You’ll be taken to an IndieBound webpage; simply punch in your zipcode and you are hooked up with a bookstore near you that carries my book. Go ahead, test it out!

BUY TRACKING TRASH NOW!

 

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How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird

HOW TO PAINT THE PORTRAIT OF A BIRD
Poem by Jacques Prévert
Translation and Illustration by Mordicai Gerstein
Roaring Brook Press, 2008

Category: Picture book

“First paint a cage with an open door.”

So begins Mordicai Gerstein’s translation of Jacques Prévert’s 1949 poem Pour faire le portrait d’un oiseau. From this simple beginning, Gerstein and Prévert bring readers through the creative process in all its frustrating, finicky, heart-stopping and spirit-soaring glory.

Frustrating? “If the bird doesn’t come right away, don’t be discouraged. Wait.”

Finicky? “When the bird comes, if it comes, remain absolutely silent.”

Heart-stopping? “If it doesn’t sing, don’t be sad.”

Spirit-soaring? “But if the bird sings, it’s a very good sign.”

Oh, I adore this poem, these illustrations, this gem of a meditation on art. This is the perfect book for creative people. I’ve been reading it every morning to remind myself to embrace the process, my process … and I’ve been reading it again every night just to hear Gerstein and Prévert assure me, “Tomorrow you can paint another one.”

Happy reading! Happy creating!

(Those who read this post last week will now understand why I am so in love with this painting. It was created by Mordicai Gerstein, based on the art from HOW TO PAINT THE PORTRAIT OF A BIRD, to raise funds for The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Sigh.)

 

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Ranger Rick

My neighbor called me on Monday and said to my answering machine: “Hi Loree. I’m thumbing through the new issue of Ranger Rick and found an article called ‘Trash Tracker’ by a Loree Griffin Burns. Is that you?”

Tee hee. Can you imagine another Loree Griffin Burns out there writing about trash for young people?!

Anyway, if you have the October issue handy, check out the feature article on page 31. It’s me!

 

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Busy as a Bee … and a Butterfly


© Loree Griffin Burns

I took this image a couple weeks ago at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Princeton, Massachusetts. It strikes me now as the perfect illustration of my writing life these days: tagged butterflies on one side, honey bees on the other, succulent goodness in between.

Up until recently, I have always worked on one project at a time. This month, however, I have been working to finish the manuscript of THE HIVE DETECTIVES, which is due later in the fall, at the same time that I begin working in earnest on the CITIZEN SCIENTISTS book. There are moments of panic, of course. In those moments I look at the calendar and see its pages flipping fasterFasterFASTER and my deadlines comingComingCOMING.

But there are moments when the dichotomy is invigorating, too, when the two projects play off eachother in my brain and I feel as if each will be better because of what I am learning and putting into the other. Today I am celebrating these moments.

So here’s to monarchs winging toward Mexico, honey bees storing up for winter, and writers working on a deadline. Go! Go! Go!

 

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Coastsweep Recap


© Gerry Burns

That’s a photo of the gaggle of ten-year-olds that came with me to the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) on Saturday. The boys chose to clean the rocks under the breakwall and I am happy to report that none of them got stuck … though there were a few close calls. In our two hours of cleaning we collected bottles, cans, bits of fishing line, pieces of styrofoam, food wrappers, toys, and a whole lot of bottle caps. Trumping all of these things, however, were the 237 cigarette butts we cleaned up. Gross.

Our scariest find was a knife. It was old and rusty and looked as if it should be shipped directly to the nearest CSI unit for closer study. Event organizers took photos of it and will be entering it in the ICC Weirdest Find contest, which made our boys very happy. (They are still talking about this find and wondering if their prize, should they win the contest, might be the knife itself. Boys!)

ICC events will continue in Massachusetts until the end of October; you can find more details here.

 

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If I Had $1,000,000.00 …

this is one of the things I would buy.

Be sure to click on the “View Image” link to see the work in all its glory. Next week I’ll tell you what this painting moves me so. For now I must prepare for the Big Double Ten Year Old Birthday Bash…

Happy Friday, one and all!