Category: Blog

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Saving the Ghost of the Mountain

 

SAVING THE GHOST OF THE MOUNTAIN
By Sy Montgomery
Photographs by Nic Bishop
Houghton Mifflin, 2009

Category: Middle-grade Nonfiction

My kids like to joke that I could never write the sorts of books Sy Montgomery writes … and they may be right. SNAKE SCIENTIST? Um, no thanks. TARANTULA SCIENTIST? I don’t exactly love hairy spiders. QUEST FOR THE TREE KANGAROO? I thought so for a moment or two, but then I noticed a blood-sucking cloud forest leech attached to a human arm, quite possibly the author’s human arm, in the first chapter. I’m out.

I’m a different sort of adventurer, I guess.

But, oh how I love to imagine Sy and her intrepid partner-in-images, Nic Bishop, as they trek around the planet having crazy exciting and somewhat dangerous adventures, bringing back stories of science and conservation. In SAVING THE GHOST OF THE MOUNTAIN, author and photographer traveled to Mongolia to help track the elusive snow leopard. They climbed up, hiked over, and slid down mountains, searching all the while for leopards and, failing that, leopard scat. The book is irresistible and satisfying, despite the unpredictable nature of those ghostlike cats.

I admire Sy’s moxie, but I also admire her sensibilities, as evidenced in these lines, my favorites in the entire book:

Protecting an animal is like loving someone. It’s not something you do and then finish. It’s a long-term promise, honored over and over, one step at a time.”

Amen to that.

For those who don’t know, Mondays are reserved for celebrating children’s nonfiction in the online kidlit world. You can read more about this celebration here on Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day blog, and you can find a roundup of today’s Nonfiction Monday posts here at the SimplyScience Blog.

 

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A Walk in the Woods

A WALK IN THE WOODS
By Bill Bryson
Broadway Books, 1998

Category: Nonfiction for Grownups

I brought this book to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, thinking a travel book—especially a travel-by-foot book—would be perfect national park vacation reading. It was.

A WALK IN THE WOODS chronicles Bryson’s journey along the Appalachian Trail. The fact that he attempted the AT with little backcountry experience, little physical preparedness, and little help should be appalling. (Hikers die for less.) Somehow, though, the story is riveting, inspiring … and absofreakinlutely hysterical instead. Several times while reading I laughed out loud and once—while on a plane—I actually giggled myself to tears. (For those who have read the book, this fit was induced by the Little Debbie snack food scene.) My kids were mortified, of course, but I just couldn’t help it. Bryson is funny, and his AT partner, Katz, is even funnier.

Perhaps the highest praise I can give is this: when I finished A WALK IN THE WOODS, I closed my eyes and let a few more chuckles out, then flipped back to page one and hit the trail a second time. It’s that good.

 

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These Beans Make Me Happy


© Loree Griffin Burns

Seriously.

The Vermont Cranberry bean may just be the most beautiful vegetable that has ever evolved. I harvested and shelled this bowlful yesterday, alongside my friend and gardening mentor, Karen DiFranza. What do they have to do with writing? Not a thing. Except that this morning, as I sat down to work, I was in need of a splash of inspiration … and these pink and burgundy beauties were it.

Happy writing to all. And don’t forget to eat your veggies …

 

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Back to Work


© Loree Griffin Burns

I saw this fellow in Wyoming, where I recently spent twelve glorious days with my family, hiking and biking and floating through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. In addition to bison, we saw bald eagles, osprey, beaver, moose, antelope, butterflies, ladybugs and all sorts of other creatures. It was heavenly, I tell you; the sort of experience that makes a girl dream about roaming the country’s wild places more often.

Alas, I have got a book to write, and as August has shown me, it is hard to write on the road. So I will settle for watching Ken Burns’ new documentary series, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, which premieres on PBS this month, and working diligently on my citizen science book. If I find a spare moment or two, I’ll linger over the great dilemma of which national park to explore next (recommendations welcomed … do you have a favorite?!) and shout a bit here about the great books I read over vacation.

I hope you are all enjoying the final days of summertime!

 

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What A Girl Wants: Books of Knowledge


© Kelley Connors

I know, I know…. I am supposed to be away from my computer all month. But the truth is that I am working a teeny bit, in between summer adventures, and part of that work this week is participating in another ‘What A Girl Wants’ discussion over at Colleen Mondor’s Chasing Ray blog. This week we’re discussing non-fiction, and I’m officially inviting ALL of you to join the discussion. So, if you are so inclined, head on over, hear what the WAGW panel has to say about nonfiction for teen girls, and let us know what you think about the topic. What great YA nonfiction have you read lately? What inspirational women* would you like to read about? Who and what did you read about when you were a teen? Come on over and have your say.

*Eleanor Roosevelt, whose statue from the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington DC is pictured above, inspires me constantly. I re-read parts of Russell Freedman’s ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: A LIFE OF DISCOVERY while writing up my WAGW response, and I was inspired all over again. Amazing woman, amazing biography.

** I submitted my WAGW response very late, so if you’ve already visited the discussion (ahem, Jeannine), then consider a second trip!

 

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August Wisdom


© Betty Jenewin

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.

William Henry Channing (1810-1884)

I’ve decided to leave these words front and center here on my blog while I spend the final weeks of summer away from my computer, listening to stars and babes, hurrying never …

Happy August to all!

 

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Inspiration


© Loree Griffin Burns

A friend sent me a link to a very cool video earlier in the week, and I have spent two minutes and thirty seconds every day since watching it. If hordes of ladybugs freak you out, I don’t recommend it. But if you are at all interested in visions of awe, or the sort of feeling that is at the fore of my mind as I work out a draft of the citizen science book, this is it.

Enjoy!

 

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Milkweed, Monarchs and More

MILKWEED, MONARCHS AND MORE
A Field Guide to the Invertebrate Community in the Milkweed Patch
By Ba Rea, Karen Oberhauser, and Michael A. Quinn
Bas Relief Publishing Group, 2003

Category: Field Guide

I have spent a good deal of my reading time this summer poring over field guides. Sometimes I am trying to identify a creature I spotted in the field, other times I am reviewing the guide for possible inclusion in the backmatter of my citizen science book. I have found good field guides and not-so-good field guides; MILKWEED, MONARCHS AND MORE is one of my new favorites.

This little guide is the only one you’ll need to identify plants and insects living in a milkweed meadow. The small size is great for carrying into the field, though maybe not so great for old eyes like mine. Nonetheless, it is a cool tool for kid and adults who dig hanging out in the milkweed meadow, or who are interested in insects, particularly the beloved monarch butterfly.

Plus, if you owned one, you could easily identify all these creatures:


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns

(Go ahead, guess. I’ll post the answers in a comment below.)

Two more great reasons to own this field guide:

Buying a copy through MonarchWatch supports monarch butterfly conservation and citizen science.

Owners would make fantastic Monarch Larval Monitoring Project volunteers.

 

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Field Assistants

To follow-up on that last post …

I am also blessed to have kids who never pass up the chance to treck into the woods–or the milkweed meadow, or a snowy field, or the backyard–to look for bugs and stars and book ideas. These three are the most excellent field assistants a writer like me could ever have:


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Ellen Harasimowicz


© Loree Griffin Burns

They are also extremely patient on those occasional summer mornings when Mom gets in a groove and simply can’t leave her desk at the agreed upon hour …