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Easy Peasy Bookshelves

Did I say bookshelves? I meant birdfeeders. (I could really use a new bookshelf, though, and all this woodworking—if you can you call drilling holes into a log woodworking—has got my subconscious thinking it can make one. Ha.)

Anyhoo …

As I mentioned yesterday, I am making birdfeeders for the fourth-graders participating in my birding class this winter. The class is a short and simple two-week introduction to birds followed by a weekend field event during which we’ll count birds for MassAudubon’s Focus on Feeders citizen science project. The class starts soon and I’ve been a’practicing my feeder-making.

I wanted something simple so that kids could make additional birdfeeders at home with their families. And I wanted something natural-looking, because we’ll be placing our feeders along a nature trail behind a school; anything too shiny and new is quickly (sadly) vandalized. The feeders I settled on were described in the book THE CURIOUS NATURALIST, A Handbook of Crafts, Games, Activities, and Ideas for Teaching Children about the Magical World of Nature, by John Mitchell and The Massachusetts Audubon Society (Prentice Hall, 1980). And I wasn’t kidding when I called them easy peasy.

Supplies:

1. a log (size is up to you; I found logs 1.5 to 3 inches in diameter and about a foot long to be ideal)

2. a drill (I tried gauging holes with an array of tools I dug up in the basement, but nothing worked as well as an electric drill fit with the largest bit we had)

3. suet (you can make your own, but I used store-bought suet I had on hand)

4. a spoon (unless you prefer to get sticky!)

Procedure:

1. Drill or sculpt a few holes on one side of your log.

2. Stuff the holes full of suet.

3. Set your feeder outside somewhere, and keep your eyes on it!

It took the dark-eyed junco pictured above about twenty-four hours to find the feeder I set out on our back deck. Then again, we’ve got a pretty large bird population in the yard due to our obsessive feeding practices. Be patient. The birds will find your feeder eventually.

Now, if only building a bookcase could be so simple!

One last reminder: I am raffling off a copy of the magnificent picture book LIVING SUNLIGHT: HOW PLANTS BRING THE EARTH TO LIFE, by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. The deadline for entering is tonight at midnight; check out the details in this post.

 

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Grab your ‘nocs, Get set … Go!


© Ellen Harasimowicz

It’s that time of year again, folks: time to count birds in the name of science. I’ll be participating in MassAudubon’s Focus on Feeders event, along with a gaggle of fourth graders from our local elementary school. Got feeders in your backyard? Looking for an excuse to get ouside? Well then, by all means, join us …

If you live in Massachusetts, you can participate in MassAudubon’s Focus on Feeders event on February 6 and/or 7.

For those outside of Massachusetts, Audubon’s Great Backyard Bird Count will take place the weekend of February 12-15, 2010.

Both events are free and can, if necessary, be squeezed into an already busy weekend. Kids who participate learn to identify common backyard birds and get to practice field skills like observing wildlife and recording data. More importantly, at least to me, young birders are forced to slow down, breathe cool winter air, look closely at the trees and bushes growing in their backyards and wonder, perhaps for the first time, who might be living in them.

All the information you need to get started is available at the websites linked above. If you’ll be birding with kids, I highly recommend a general bird guide (one of my favorites is WHAT’S THAT BIRD?, by Joseph Choiniere and Claire Mowbray Golding) and a regional field guide specific to where you live (we use THE YOUNG BIRDER’S GUIDE TO BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, by Bill Thompson III). And if you are really feeling crazy (like me!), you can gather materials for a simple and natural bird feeder that your young birders can make on the day of the event. Details on that little project in a separate post. Until then, Happy Birding!

OH! And don’t forget I’m raffling a copy of the picture book LIVING SUNLIGHT. Not many entrants yet, so you’re odds of winning are still pretty darn good.

 

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Excellent Science Books … and a Surprise Raffle!

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Subaru last week announced the winners of the SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books. Not surprisingly, they chose some topnotch books:

Children’s Science Picture Book

LIVING SUNLIGHT: HOW PLANTS BRING THE EARTH TO LIFE
By Molly Bang and Penny Chisolm
Blue Sky Press, 2009

Middle Grade Science Book

THE FROG SCIENTIST
By Pamela S. Turner
Houghton Mifflin, 2009

Young Adult Science Book

INVISIBLE KINGDOM: FROM THE TIPS OF OUR FINGERS TO THE TOPS OF OUR TRASH, INSIDE THE CURIOUS WORLD OF MICROBES
By Idah Ben-Barak
Basic Books, 2009

As it happens, LIVING SUNLIGHT was a favorite of mine this year. So much a favorite, in fact, that I asked Santa to bring me a copy of my own for Christmas. And he did … twice! In honor of its selection as one of the best science books for children published this year, I’m going to give the extra copy away via a raffle here on my blog. Here’s the deal …

If you are over eighteen and live in the continental United States and would like to own a copy of LIVING SUNLIGHT, leave a comment here before Thursday at midnight. On Friday I’ll announce the winner and, with some luck (and a mailing address), I’ll put the book in the mail on Monday.

Got it? Good. Go forth and comment!

No … wait. One more thing. If you spread the word about the raffle (via your blog or Facebook or Twitter) and let me know you’ve done so in your comment, I’ll add your name to the raffle twice.

That’s it. NOW, go forth and comment. Good luck!

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TRACKING TRASH Resources for Teachers


© Matt Cramer/AMRF

Did anyone catch the Colbert Report on Wednesday night? Stephen Colbert’s guest was Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) and one of the scientists profiled in TRACKING TRASH. Personally, I would not want to be in Colbert’s hot seat … he’d have me standing on it yelling and screaming in about twenty-two seconds. Captain Moore, however, was the picture of calm and consistency, letting Colbert and his viewers know that the accumulation of plastic trash in our ocean is not a joke. Check it out for yourself (or your students) here.

As if sparring with Stephen Colbert were not enough hard work for one week, yesterday, Captain Moore and AMRF announced a new initiative called the 5 Gyres Project. Along with several other ocean conservation organizations, Captain Moore and his team will soon be visiting the five gyres* of the world ocean, sampling for plastic levels, and reporting what they find to the world. Teachers (and anyone else interested worried about this issue) will find a whole lot of useful information at the new 5 Gyre Project website.

I’m working on a compilation of these and other web and print resources for teachers using TRACKING TRASH in the classroom. It will eventually be available through my website, but if you are a teacher in need of it now, please let me know and I will send it by email.

*A gyre, for the record, is a circular pattern of ocean surface currents. There is one gyre in each major ocean basin.

 

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Friday?!


© Loree Griffin Burns

Friday?! How did that happen? I’ll tell you how: time in the Facebook world is strangely warped. It moves more quickly than here in my quiet little office. Must keep that in mind moving forward. Anyway, I’ve got eight hours of work to accomplish in the next seven hours. It can be done, but only if I skip my morning walk. Hence the picture, which was taken yesterday during said walk. Enjoy.

Okay. Deep breath. Centering thoughts. Here we go …

 

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Midwinter in Boston

I’ll be attending the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting at the end of next week. I am most looking forward to the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt banquet on Sunday, January 17, where I’ll be speaking with other HMH authors about our new spring 2010 books. If you know me and my book love issues, you’ll understand how excited I am to be speaking alongside:

Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Jeanne Birdsall
Beth Fantaskey
Russell Freedman
Lois Lowry
Sally Mavor
Linda Urban

There are lots of other exciting events going on at the midwinter meeting, including the ALA Youth Media Award announcements, which take place at 7:45am on Monday, January 18. So many of the books I adored this year are up for awards; best of luck to all the nominated authors!

Hope to see some of you in Boston …

 

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Writing to Change the World

WRITING TO CHANGE THE WORLD
By Mary Pipher
Riverhead, 2006

Category: Non-fiction for adults (a craft book for writers)

I found WRITING TO CHANGE THE WORLD at my local bookstore last year and couldn’t resist the flap copy: “[this] is a book that will shake up your beliefs, expand your mind, and possibly even inspire you to make your own mark on the world.” Seemed to me a rather tall order for a single book. I’m happy to report that Mary Pipher delivered with quiet style.

Early on, as an example of activist writing, Pipher shared an article she wrote for the September 2004 issue of Psychotherapy Networker. It is a clinical assessment of a fictional patient by the name of Mr. United States of America. One particular line resonated with me and qualifies as having shaken up my beliefs. That line? “[Mr USA] crafted a Bill of Rights, but no corresponding Bill of Responsibilities.” Woah.

Later, Pipher challenged nonfiction writers to think bigger. Don’t simply share the conventional wisdom in new ways, she says, but instead, rethink the wisdom based on your research, your knowledge, and your experience. As an example, Pipher talked about the hard work of crafting her bestselling Reviving Ophelia: “I slashed and burned through my manuscript, crossing out every ‘Based on the previous information, we could tentatively conclude for certain populations …’ and instead wrote, ‘We live in a girl-poisoning culture.’ This section of the book forced me to think hard about taking a stand in my own work; it is safe to say my mind has been expanded.

As for inspiration, I found it throughout the book, but most especially in these lines: “In a sense, all people are riding a rickety boat across dangerous seas. I like to think of writers as the steady ones saying, ‘Breath deeply, stay steady, we will make it if we help one another.’”

I’m glad I have this one in my library, and I’d recommend it to nonfiction writers, both beginning and practicing, who want to think harder about how their words mark the world.

 

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Facebook … Finally

Yes, I have taken the plunge into social networking. Finally. And it is not as easy as y’all have been telling me it is…

First of all, how does one separate a personal Facebook life from a professional Facebook life? My high school friends and work colleagues certainly don’t want to hear about my books and writing life constantly … and perfect strangers who happen to read my books (Facebook calls them fans!) don’t need to hear me chit-chat with my high school prom date. Right? Right.

So, what to do? I decided to set up an author page, ingeniously called “Loree Griffin Burns, Author” that is expressly for people interested in my books. You can find it here. (Feel free to visit and become a fan. Feel free to send your friends and neighbors and parents and children and spouses and coworkers to become fans, too. At the moment, I am my only fan. Seriously.)

I set up a personal page too, because who can resist re-connecting with the girl you raced Mexican jumping beans with when you were ten? Or the guy who broke your heart in high school? Or Auntie Mary? I can’t.

So, how do the rest of you handle Facebook? Personal and professional pages both? One or the other? Does it matter? I’d love to know.

Finally, do I really have to include this line every time I mention Facebook here?

“Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.”

Oi.

 

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Happy New Year!

Last January, on a bit of a whim, I started recording the books I read. And while I stumbled here and there with the rest of my 2009 resolutions, I was amazingly dutiful about this list. And so it was that I was able to relive a year of literary adventures this afternoon. This was pure book geek fun, folks, and I plan to keep my “Books Read” list going in 2010.

First, the numbers …

I read 117 books in 2009: 59 works of fiction, 56 non-fiction and 2 poetry. Broken down by genre, the count is: 47 picture books, 31 middle-grade books, 8 young adult books, and 28 adult books.

Books that truly thrilled me got a star next to their entry, and I gave many of them as Christmas gifts this year. Only one book had two stars next to its name. Which book was that, you ask? ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE, by Barbara Kingsolver, known around here as the book that changed the way I live. If you haven’t already read it, you really should.

The number that gave me most to think about was this one: 21 That’s the number of books on my 2009 reading list that I managed to blog about during year. Interesting. I started this blog as a place to talk about books—books I love, books I write, books that find their way into my hands in mostly random and always interesting ways. But blogging about books has gotten harder for me over the past three years. Part of the problem is time, as in: I don’t have enough. The other part, though, is my personal struggle with what blogging about a book means … and what not blogging about a book means. Today’s exercise has got me thinking even harder about books and my blog and how the two fit together.

In case you are worried that my New Year’s Day was all book geekery, check out the image behind the cut. My husband, kids, and I started 2010 with a hike in the woods behind our house, and what we found there had one of us screaming.


© Loree Griffin Burns

It’s a deer carcass. And for the record, I was NOT the one who screamed!