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Nonfiction Monday: Pamela Turner’s Next Big Thing

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THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY

by Pamela S. Turner

Houghton Mifflin Company, 2013

Category: Middle-grade nonfiction

One of the many rewarding aspects of my career as a writer of science and nature books for young people is meeting other writers who share my passion for these topics. For the most part, these are men and women whose work I read and admired for a long time before I actually had a chance to meet them in person. That is certainly true for my colleague Pamela Turner.

If you are a fan of Houghton Mifflin’s ‘Scientists in the Field’ series, then you know Pamela’s books. THE GORILLA DOCTORS, THE FROG SCIENTIST and PROJECT SEAHORSE won many accolades for the series, including starred reviews, an SB&F Prize and more. What you may not know is that Pam is a wife, mother of three grown children, a passionate scuba diver, and even dabbles in Japanese swordfighting. (I am not kidding! Learn more at her website.)

Today, I’m happy to host Pam as she answers a few questions about her upcoming Scientists in the Field book, THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY. It’ll be out this fall, and it is Pam’s Next Big Thing. Here’s a peek:

1. What is the working title of your book?

The title is The Dolphins of Shark Bay, and it already appears on Amazon with a release date of November 5, 2013. I should get a final proof of the layout in the next week or so.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference a few years ago to receive an award for The Frog Scientist. In a presentation on the ethical implications of dolphin intelligence the speaker casually mentioned that some wild bottlenose dolphins in Western Australia use tools. Are you kidding me? I thought. I MUST find out more…

3. What genre does your book come under?

The Dolphins of Shark Bay is a nonfiction science book for children age ten and up. It’s illustrated with amazing color photographs by Scott Tuason, who also shot the photographs for my book Project Seahorse.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

The dolphins would play themselves, and cheesy computer-generated scenes would be banned. I would cast Sandra Bullock as Dr. Janet Mann. Eric Patterson could play himself because he’s already ridiculously good-looking. I would be played by Steven Colbert in drag.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Everyone knows dolphins are smart. The Dolphins of Shark Bay seeks to answer the question: Why are dolphins smart? (Okay, two sentences).

6. Who is publishing your book?

The Dolphins of Shark Bay will be published by Houghton Mifflin this fall.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About six months.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Surprisingly, there are very few books on bottlenose dolphins for middle grade children and young adults–mostly “factoid” books. In format Dolphins is much like other “Scientists in the Field” titles.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve been a scuba diver for twenty-eight years, and each time I’ve seen wild dolphins underwater it was like a visitation from an angel. (Not that dolphins are actually angelic, as you’ll discover in The Dolphins of Shark Bay.)

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Many of the female dolphins in Shark Bay are incredible innovators and amazing athletes. The lives of adult male dolphins, on the other hand, perpetually resemble a sixth-grade slumber party where everybody is talking about everybody else and trying desperately to wiggle into the “cool” crowd. I would not want to be a male bottlenose dolphin!

Check out the Scientists in the Field blog for news and updates on all the Scientists in the field titles, their authors, and their subjects.

And be sure to catch this week’s roundup of Nonfiction Monday posts over at Perogies & Gyoza today.

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And the winner is …

OceanSunlight

Sue Heavenrich!

Sue has won a copy of Ocean Sunlight, signed by co-author Penny Chisholm. I didn’t mention this in my original raffle post, but Penny is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she and her lab study marine phytoplankton. (Of course!) She is a wonderful woman and an excellent scientist and I was lucky to meet her at the AAAS meeting in Boston a few weeks ago, where she signed this raffle book.

So … congratulations, Sue! I think you are really going to enjoy this read. Please send your mailing address to me at lgb (at) loreeburns (dot) com and I’ll get it in the mail first thing Monday.

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Nonfiction Monday Giveaway: Ocean Sunlight

OceanSunlight

OCEAN SUNLIGHT:

HOW TINY PLANTS FEED THE SEAS

by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm

The Blue Sky Press, 2012

Category: Picture book

If you were reading this blog back in 2010, you might remember my love for LIVING SUNLIGHT, the brilliant picture book, also by Bang and Chisholm, that introduced young readers to the process of photosynthesis and the chemistry of life on our planet. I still recommend that book to kids, teachers, and strangers on the street; it is simply the most accessible look at the topic I’ve ever seen.

And now, a sequel to sing about!

OCEAN SUNLIGHT furthers the story, sharing with readers the tale of a “billion billion billion” tiny plants floating in the ocean’s surface layer, turning sunlight into energy that further fuels life on Earth. With only 781 words spread across forty-four beautifully illustrated pages, Bang and Chisholm have created another masterpiece. This is a book everyone can read and learn from. This is a book everyone should read and learn from.

So, would you like a copy? Signed by Penny Chisholm?

Great! Just leave a comment on this post by 5pm EST on Thursday, March 14, 2013.  If you spread the word about the contest on your social media outlets, leave me a second comment telling me so and I’ll add your name to the raffle drawing a second time. On Thursday night I’ll hold the raffle and on Friday morning I’ll post the winner.  A couple rules:

1. Winners must live in the continental United States. I’ll send the book to the winner by USPS Media Mail next Monday.

2. Please remember to check back on Friday to see if you’ve won; I’ll post instructions then for how to get me your mailing address.

3. If you already won a giveaway this month (I’m looking at you, Mary Laughton and Laura Purdie Salas) you can’t enter again.

4. Good luck, and happy reading!

A few last links before you go:

For a peek at the other SB&F Prize-winning titles raffled off here lately, check out this post about Sy Montgomery’s TEMPLE GRANDIN and this post about Terrie Williams’ THE ODYSSEY OF KP2.

And for a the weekly lode of great children’s nonfiction, check out this week’s round-up of Nonfiction Monday posts over at Sally’s Bookshelf.

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And the winner is …

TempleGrandin

It’s raffle time!

I printed the names of all the entrants in my TEMPLE GRANDIN giveaway on strips of paper, folded them up, mixed them into a vase (the favorite mug I used for last week’s giveaway was too small this week!) and had one of the Burns kids draw a winner.

Congratulations, Laura Salas!

Please send your mailing address to me at lgb (at) loreeburns (dot) com, Laura, and I’ll get your book in the mail first thing Monday.

I’ll be raffling one last signed SB&F Prize winning book (OCEAN SUNLIGHT, by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm) next Monday, so please come back and check it out.

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Neary School

© Loree Griffin Burns
© Loree Griffin Burns

This was Book Week at the Neary School in Massachusetts, and I was thrilled to help the staff and students celebrate by talking with fourth and fifth graders about citizen science. As is always the case during my time with students, special moments were everywhere. One of the sweetest was writing this dedication, dictated by a student buying a copy of Tracking Trash for her older sister.

Sort of makes you want to go buy someone you love a book, doesn’t it?

Thank you, Neary School, for a great day. Long live books, the people who celebrate them, and the people who share them!

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March Public Events

MicStudents
Courtesy Carol Gordon Ekster

Attention Massachusetts teachers, librarians, writers, and readers! I’m participating in a couple free local events in the coming month, and one or both may be interesting to you. Here are the details …

Educator Appreciation Week

March 8-12, 2013

Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester

65 James Street, Worcester, MA

Events are held each evening at 7pm and include local authors and shopping discounts for teachers. I’ll be at Annie’s on Monday night to talk to teachers and librarians (and whoever else pops in!) about science in the classroom and my books, but there are authors scheduled every night. Check out the full lineup of speakers and topics at the Annie’s Book Stop blog.

Groton READS & WRITES Author Panel

March 19, 2013 at 7pm

Groton Public Library

99 Main Street, Groton, MA

This event is part of Groton’s super-cool townwide celebration of reading and writing. The entire town is reading Steven King’s ON WRITING (!) and then gathering for a series of panel discussions, writing workshops, open mic nights, and author visits. Check out the full details on the official Groton READS & WRITES webpage.

A word on the photo: Linda Coviello and I both graduated from Everett High School and were both inspired by our biology teacher there, Mr. James Micarelli. We met this past Monday at the Massachsuetts State Library Association conference and had a grand old time praising our teacher-hero.
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My Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing is a blog meme designed to get authors and illustrators talking about their works-in-progress My friend Kathy Erskine blogged about her Next Big Things last week (yes, Kathy has TWO books on the horizon) and then tagged me so that I could join the fun. Thank you, Kathy!

So, here we go …

1.  What is the working title of your book?

The working title has been Special Delivery: A Butterfly Story for years, and I am really, really, REALLY attached to it. Unfortunately, there has recently been talk of changing it.  Apparently someone else is working on a children’s book with the same title, and that someone may beat me to publication. Bah! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

2.  Where did the idea come from for the book?

I wrote about the genesis of this book a while ago, in a post on my blog. The short version is this: in 2008 I took my kids to the Butterfly Garden at the Museum of Science in Boston; I found the idea for this book just hanging out there, on a ficus tree.

3.  What genre does your book come under?

Special Delivery will be my first picture book. It’s nonfiction, of course, and illustrated with full color photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz.

4.  Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a move rendition?

The main characters in Special Delivery are tropical caterpillars, pupae, and butterflies. There are a few cameos by the farmers who live and work at El Bosque Nuevo, a butterfly farm in Costa Rica, and by Lea Morgan, the Assistant Curator of the Butterfly Garden at the Museum of Science in Boston. These folks are super cool, interesting people and I think they should play themselves.

5.  What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Special Delivery shares the surprising and far-flung life story of the tropical butterflies on exhibit at your local museum or zoo. Did you know that most of these butterflies spend their caterpillar lives on farms thousands of miles away? Where they are raised en masse like a crop of carrots? It’s true!

(I know. I know. Four sentences. I couldn’t help it.)

6.  Who is publishing your book?

Special Delivery will be published by Millbrook Press in spring 2014.

7.  How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Because this is a work of nonfiction, and because I originally envisioned it as a longer book, my first draft was actually a 20-plus page book proposal. I started writing it while I was still in Costa Rica, living and researching at El Bosque Nuevo. (You can see my ‘office’ in the righthand photo above.) I finished it about three months later in my boring, old home office. (No photo necessary; it doesn’t compare.)

8.  What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’m sort of stumped on this question …

The imagery reminds me of books like Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden, by George Levenson and Shmuel Thaler and Nic Bishop’s visually stunning Frogs. The text, however, is more personal, a true-life story along the  lines of Owen and Mzee, by Isabella & Craig Hatkoff or Tara & Bella, by Carol Buckley.

9.  Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Plainly and simply: curiosity. Once I realized the butterflies in that museum exhibit were ‘born’ in Central America, and that they’d been shipped to the museum in the belly of a jumbo jet, I was hooked. I had to tell their story.

10.  What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Ellen and I traveled to Costa Rica twice to research this book. Both times we lived at El Bosque Nuevo, where we were able to embed ourselves in the work of raising a crop of butterfly pupae. I will never, ever forget those trips. Especially the little bat who lived in the shower!

Thank you for reading about my Next Big Thing. Now I get to tag a couple writer pals to share their Next Big Things. I’ve got two amazing nonfiction writers in mind, and since neither of them keeps a blog, they’ve agreed to let me host their Next Big Thing posts here at A Life in Books. As if that weren’t cool enough: their new books involve dolphins and spiders. Stay tuned!

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Nonfiction Monday Giveaway: Temple Grandin

TempleGrandin

TEMPLE GRANDIN:

HOW THE GIRL WHO LOVED COWS EMBRACED AUTISM AND CHANGED THE WORLD

By Sy Montgomery

Houghton Mifflin, 2012

Category: Middle Grade Biography (148 pages)

Welcome to week two of my very own science book lovefest …

After a smashing weekend celebrating science books at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) two weeks ago, I was inspired to share some amazing science books via raffles here at my blog. I bought extra copies of three SB&F Prize winning titles and asked the authors to sign them; last week I raffled a signed copy of The Odyssey of KP2, by Terrie Williams and next week I’ll raffle a signed copy of Ocean Sunlight, by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. This week, though, is all about Sy Montgomery and her astonishing biography of Temple Grandin.

Temple Grandin is a scientist and a professor of animal science at Colorado State University. She has revolutionized the meat packing industry by designing and implementing humane meat processing facilities. And she is autistic.

Temple’s life story is inspiring, and Sy shares it beautifully. With a window into Temple’s growing up years, readers begin to understand the behaviors that so confused and scared Temple’s classmates. By watching Temple put her mind to work on problems that vexed her–the cruel way animals are sometimes treated in captivity–readers embrace Temple’s unusual and extraordinary way of thinking. By hearing Temple say, “If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I wouldn’t … It’s part of who I am,” readers come to appreciate that this world of ours needs all kinds of minds. Theirs. Yours. Mine. Temple Grandin’s. All of them.

Of the books I’ve read this year, this is the one that changed me the most. I wish I could give every person I know a copy. But since I can’t, I’d like to give YOU a copy. Leave me a comment below before 5pm EST on Thursday (March 7, 2013) and I’ll add your name to my raffle. If you spread the word via your blog or your social media outlets and let me know that you have done so in a second comment, I’ll add your name to the raffle a second time.

Ground rules:

1. Winners must live in the continental United States. I will send the book to the winner by USPS Media Mail next Monday.

2. Please remember to check back on Friday to see if you’ve won; I’ll post instructions then for how to get me your mailing address.

3. If you won last week (I’m looking at you, Mary Laughton) you can’t enter this week.

4. Good luck, and happy reading!

And don’t forget to catch this week’s full Nonfiction Monday roundup at the Supratentorial blog!

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And the winner is …

KP2Winner
© Loree Griffin Burns

Last night I printed the names of all seven entrants in my Odyssey of KP2 giveaway on strips of paper, folded them up, mixed them into my favorite mug, and had Mr. Burns draw one out.

He didn’t even know my Auntie Mary’s name was in there, I swear.

!!!!!

I was going to add these instructions: “Please email me at lgb (at) loreeburns (dot) com with your mailing address and I will get your book in the mail.” But I know where this particular winner lives. Your book is on it’s way, Mary Laughton!

I’ll be raffling another SB&F Prize winning book on Monday, so please come back and check it out. Auntie Mary won’t be eligible to enter again, so unless I get a crush of new readers over the weekend, your chances of winning are very, very good. What’s the book? You’ll see on Monday, but here are a few clues: it’s on this list, it’s not something I’ve already raffled, and I didn’t write it.

Happy Reading!