Category: Blog

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Chasing Monarchs

CHASING MONARCHS
By Robert Michael Pyle
Mariner Books, 1999

Category: Nonfiction for Grownups

Robert Michael Pyle wrote another book—which I haven’t read yet—that bears the greatest subtitle ever: LIFE AS FIELD TRIP. Increasingly, I see my life this way … a series of very excellent field trips punctuated with quiet time for recording those trips in words. It is a good way to live.

In the Pyle book I read over this holiday weekend, CHASING MONARCHS, Pyle takes an incredible field trip with one of my favorite insects, the monarch butterfly. He packed some snacks, his trusty butterfly net (he calls her Martha), and headed for the northwesternmost monarch breeding sites, which happen to be in British Columbia. There he scoured milkweed patches for monarchs, captured and tagged as many as he could, and paid careful attention to the direction his subjects flew off in when released. Then he hopped back in his car and followed them.

Now that is a field trip.

Pyle ended up in Mexico, which is surprising because popular opinion has long held that western monarchs migrate not to Mexico but to southern California. (A field trip with scientific implications … can this get any better? I think not.) This is not a book for the faint of heart, but anyone with a sincere interest in monarch butterflies and their annual migration will enjoy the trip.

Speaking of field trips, tonight the kids and I stepped onto the back deck about an hour after sunset and spotted a celestial triangle of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter. Many thanks to Uncle Brendan, who not only bought us the telescope you see here, but also called to remind us to bring it outside tonight!


© Benjamin Griffin Burns


© Loree Griffin Burns

Jupiter is the easier-to-see bright spot to the right of the crescent moon. Venus is harder to see, but if you squint at the above photo just south of the area between the moon and Jupiter, you’ll see it. Pretty cool!

 

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Back to Work

Yesterday, on the way here:

I hiked past this most brilliant green frog pond of duckweed:

It actually made me think of spring. Alas, this morning it snowed. Just a bit, but enough to snap me back to reality. And so, after a weekend of good food, good friends, a touch of stomach bug (the kids, not me), and some time in the enchanted forest, I’m ready to get back to work … how about you?

 

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Major Edwards Elementary School

On Monday morning I visited with the fifth graders at Major Edwards Elementary School in West Boylston, Massachusetts. This was an extra-special visit because I happen to live in West Boylston, Massachusetts. And although most of the schools I visit want me to talk about the science of TRACKING TRASH, this time I was asked to talk about the process of researching and writing a book of nonfiction. There were quite a few cool moments …

When I asked the kids how long they thought it took me to write TRACKING TRASH, the initial guesses were flattering: four months, six months, one year. I let them guess until someone finally guessed a timeframe longer than I actually needed, then I said, “Ten years? Come on, I’m not that slow … it only took me four years!” They thought this was hysterical. (I am not often mistaken for funny.)

After talking about revision and showing the students some horrifying editor-marked pages from my first draft, I hauled out my stack o’ drafts … all six inches (see photo above). The kids actually looked pained on my behalf!

I showed some early cover designs for the book and, as usual, the students all chose the cover I liked least as their favorite … just as the smart designers at Houghton Mifflin had said they would. That cover, with some tweaking, became the cover I now adore.

The best part of yesterday’s hometown visit, however, actually happened today, when I bumped into one of the Major Edwards fifth graders on the soccer field. She gave me a shy smile, and when I said hello, she lit up. I like to think she realized in that moment that what I told her in class yesterday was true: writers are just regular people. We’re regular neighbors, regular soccer moms, regular women who were once girls with a passion for reading and writing … just like her.

 

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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.

 

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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!

 

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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 …

 

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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!

 

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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.