Category: Blog

Posted on

That Book Woman

THAT BOOK WOMAN
By Heather Henson
Pictures by David Small
Atheneum, 2008

Category: Picture book

This is hands-down the most enjoyable picture book I have read in a very long time. I hesitate to say another single word until you go and read it for yourself.

::considers ending the post here::

Bah. I can’t do it. I have to say just a little more …

THAT BOOK WOMAN is the story of a young boy in Appalachia, a boy with little to look forward to but hard work, a boy with nothing but disdain for schooling, a boy who never learned to read and doesn’t care a whit for staring at chicken scratch anyway … until he is drawn in by the bravery and persistence of a pack horse librarian.

The author made a brave and wonderful choice, I think, when she decided to tell this particular bit of history (FDR’s Pack Horse Library Project of the 1930s) as picture book fiction. And she nailed it. The language is perfect, the voice is honest, the imagery melds brilliantly with David Small’s illustrations. The story beats … what I mean is, it has great heart. I am smitten.

 

Posted on

Pine Hill School

A huge shout out to the students and staff at Pine Hill School in Sherborn, Massachusetts. I enjoyed my time in your school yesterday!

Fist things first: I promised the Pine Hill Schoolers a look at the Great Burns Sneaker Pile. These are the sneakers my family and I recycled on America Recycles Day. If this is what one household turns out, can you imagine the pile the entire Pine Hill School will collect and recycle?

Here is a mosaic from the school foyer …

some art from the hallway …

and me with three Pine Hill students.

My visit was sponsored by the Sherborn Recycling Committee, a forward-thinking group that takes its role as an educational resource very seriously. Kudos to Ardys Flavelle and the entire Recycling Committee, and a hearty Thank You! to Kim Gregory, who organized my visit. Extra special thanks to the Pine Hill students who listened so intently and participated so willingly in yesterday’s festivities. May all your green dreams come true!

 

Posted on

Weekend Highlights: Sunday

After a couple days of downright sultry weather, winter finally arrived in Massachusetts on Sunday. My family and I took a blustery hike on Wachusett Mountain, during which my daughter collected this leaf for her first grade Show-And-Tell. I know, leaves in fall are not exactly Big News … but when was the last time you saw a leaf as big as a seven-year-old’s head?

Today, Monday, is all about the Pine Hill School in Sherborn, Massachusetts. I”ve been invited to speak with the entire school about science and writing and TRACKING TRASH, and I am very excited. Highlights soon …

 

Posted on

Weekend Highlights: Friday


© Holly Lombardo
Posted with permission

“Walk This Way” is a watercolor painting by my friend Holly Lombardo, and it will soon be hanging on my office wall. Holly and I met decades ago when we were both training to be scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Now she is a scientist, a teacher, and a talented painter. I attended a gallery showing of her work on Friday, and I fell in love with this crab. Can you blame me?

You can see more of Holly’s art at her painting blog or her photography blog.

You are amazing, Holly. I am so very proud to own one of your paintings!

 

Posted on

Peace, Love, and Butterflies

My kids and I spent yesterday at the Museum of Science in Boston. Sadly, the library was closed. The library wing is where the honey bee observation hive lives, and this meant that we couldn’t check out the honey bees. (Was that joy I saw on the faces of my children? Could they be sick to death of my honey bee mania?)

But, the butterfly garden was open:


© Loree Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns

I spent a long time setting up the shot below and waiting for a butterfly to flutter by. No luck. But isn’t the Boston skyline an interesting backdrop for a South American butterfly?


© Loree Griffin Burns

Later, in the gift shop, I came across a T-shirt emblazoned with the title of this post:

PEACE, LOVE, AND BUTTERFLIES

I didn’t buy one, because I have too much stuff as it is. But I am sitting here now thinking about peace and love and butterflies … and I have decided that these are good thoughts with which to begin a busy day.

 

Posted on

Grumpy

No worries, I’m not grumpy today. The title of this post refers to Grumpy, with a capital G. He was my grandfather.

Grumpy’s real name was Richard William Dorman, and he once told me that he had planned to be “Grampy” or “Gramps”. But when I was two and experimenting with the whole word thing, I had trouble with short vowels. “Grampy” came out “Grumpy” and that, as they say, was that. Eventually there were eight of us grandkids, and we all knew our grandfather as Grumpy. When we were older, one of us bought him a “Grumpy” hat at a Disney store, and he wore it with pride for the rest of his life.


Grumpy, in Germany after WWII

On this Veterans Day, a day for honoring the men and women who have served this country, I’d like to honor him. Grumpy was a good soldier, and the most perfect grandfather that ever was. I miss him very much.

 

Posted on

Manfish

MANFISH,A Story of Jacques Cousteau
By Jennifer Berne
Illustrated by Éric Puybaret
Chronicle Books, 2008

Category: Picture book biography

Now that the bee book is off my desk for a while, I have turned my attention to a little book that I have been working on for years. It’s a biography, in picture book format, of a great naturalist: Jean Henri Fabre. This book has been through many revisions, has been read by many-an editor, has even seen the bright promise of an acquisitions meeting.

Alas, it is still a manuscript. And a “quiet” manuscript at that. (How quiet can it be if it keeps me awake, slips into my daydreams, won’t let go?) No matter. As a reward for completing the bee book, I am giving myself a week to play, once more, with this quiet book that I adore.

For inspiration, I am letting myself linger over some new picture book biographies. MANFISH was nominated for a 2008 Cybils Award in the Nonfiction Picture Books category. With it, Berne and Puybaret tell the story of Jacques Cousteau in fine style. Puybaret’s long lines and palette choices remind me of Barbara Cooney, and Berne’s text manages to convey Cousteau’s wonder for the world beneath the ocean, his genius for sharing that world with others, and his passion for protecting it.

MANFISH is a quiet book, but the quiet resonates. It is the quiet of the deep sea, the quiet of a watery place without cell phones and traffic jams and road rage, the stirring quiet of a man who “dreamed that someday it would be you, exploring worlds never seen, never imagined.”

It’s official. I like quiet books.

 

Posted on

Later, Pollinator!

Actually, what I mean to say is, “Later, pollinator manuscript!”

That’s right, today is the day I drive to Boston and hand the first draft* of my new book over to an editor. Not just any editor, mind you, but a talented editor who I trust completely.

Here’s a look at my baby all dressed up and ready for the trip**:

Isn’t she cute? She is fifty-five pages long and contains 12,009 glorious words. I call her THE HIVE DETECTIVES; here is a sneak peek at the bee scientists she is named for:

I’m rather smitten with this new baby of mine!

* It feels ridiculous to call this a first draft. In reality, what I’m handing in is the 1,311,292nd draft. But as this is the first draft my editor will see, and because ‘first draft’ sounds so much better than ‘1,311,292nd draft’, I’m going with it.

** Please note than my desk is never this clean. If you are at all familiar with the term ‘nesting’ in relation to the arrival of human babies, however, you will understand why it looks so pristine today. I’ve been tidying up all morning!

*** Please excuse the poor quality of my photographs. New moms often lose their ability to perform the most basic of functions. At least for a few days.