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Ya lo veremos!

© Loree Griffin Burns

Last week I handed the final draft of my next book—13,234 words and 104 images—over to my editor. Although most of the photos were taken by the talented Ellen Harasimowicz, I managed to slip a few of my own into the mix, including the wood frog above. I’m incredibly excited to see this project march off in the direction of publication, though I can hardly sleep for wondering how the design team will take my words and Ellen’s pictures and magic them into a book.

Oh, the waiting. And I am not a patient girl.

And so I’m trying to distract myself with more mundane things: planting garlic, painting the door to my office (said door having hung unpainted for TWO YEARS!), preparing for my November school visits (seven days, four schools, two libraries, and eighteen presentations!), learning Spanish with my kids, and reading like a fiend. I’ve also been wondering if this might be the month I finally get my act together and write up some of the stories behind THE HIVE DETECTIVES for this blog; they are long overdue.

Ya lo veremos! (We shall see!)

Buenos Martes! (Happy Tuesday!)

 

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Honey Bees and CCD

© Ellen Harasimowicz

If you read this recent New York Times article on Colony Collapse Disorder and honey bees, please take a moment to also read this Fortune online article about important information missing from the Times report.

Very. Important. Information.

And if you are at all confused, I’d highly recommend the original PLOS One article, which details the work in question. (Warning: this is pretty technical stuff.)

The bottom line is that we simply don’t know yet what is causing Colony Collapse Disorder. But we do know a lot more than we did four years ago, when the CCD mystery began to unfold. We know for sure that “our world is a dangerous place for honey bees, and that it will take a Herculean effort on the part of all humans–people who keep bees, people who study bees, and even people who read about bees–to see them through.”

Long live the bees …

Edited to add: The NYT article is apparently only available online to subscribers.

Edited further to add: That quoted bit is from THE HIVE DETECTIVES. But you knew that, right?

 

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AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prizes for Excellence in Science Books

I was tickled to find out today that THE HIVE DETECTIVES has been named a finalist for the 2011 AAAS/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Excellence in Science Books. This mouthful of a prize was created six years ago in order to “encourage outstanding science writing and illustration for children.” Here’s the complete list of nominated titles in all four categories:

Children’s Science Picture Book

Bones. Steven Jenkins. (Illus.) Scholastic, 2010.

Lizards. Nic Bishop. (Illus.) Scholastic, 2010.

Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge. Joanna Cole. (Illus. by Bruce Degen; from the Magic School Bus Series.) Scholastic, 2010.

Why Do Elephants Need the Sun? Robert E. Well. (Illus.) Albert Whitman & Company, 2010.

Middle Grades Science Book

The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe. Loree Griffin Burns. (Photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz; from the Scientists in the Field Series.) Houghton Mifflin, 2010.

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Largest Parrot. Sy Montgomery. (Photographs by Nic Bishop; from the Scientists in the Field Series.) Houghton Mifflin, 2010.

The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing. Susan Jermain. Houghton Mifflin, 2010.

The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter’s Wonder. Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson. (Illus. by Nora Aoyagi.) Chronicle, 2009.

Young Adult Science Book

The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference. Alan Boyle. Wiley, 2009.

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements. Sam Kean. Little Brown, 2010.

Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discovery, Deductions, and Debates. Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw. Charlesbridge, 2010.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Rebecca Skloot. Random House, 2010.

Hands-On Science Book

The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science. Sean Connolly. (Illus.) Workman, 2010.

Insect Detective. Steve Voake. (Illus. by Charlotte Voake.) Candlewick, 2010.

Nature Science Experiments. Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. (Illus. by Edward Miller; from the MAD Science Series.) Sterling, 2010.

You Are the Earth: From Dinosaur Breath to Pizza from Dirt. David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden. Greystone, 2010.

Happy dancing in the Burns house today!

 

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Six Things on Saturday: San Diego Edition

This past week I took my first-ever trip to southern California. We had lots of touristy adventures, but my favorite photos were of the nooks and crannies variety …

All photos © Loree Griffin Burns

Edited to add: No idea why the sixth photo won’t post. I’ll try again tomorrow; its a shot of Pacific Ocean spray!

 

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The Songs of Insects

THE SONGS OF INSECTS
By Lang Elliott and Wil Hershberger
Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Category: Nonfiction for Adults

Friends, this book is a treasure.

I know, I know. You think you don’t need a field guide to the most common crickets, katydids, grasshoppers and cicadas of eastern North America. But consider this delightfulness:

The Music of Nature

Now, tell me … if you could find a field guide that felt like visiting that website, wouldn’t you want to own it? A book chock full of images so stunning that you are both mesmerized and curious? A book that reminds you to slow down and consider sounds that are so common you’ve almost forgotten they are there?

Yes? I thought so. Well, both book and website are part of the creative vision and inspirational mission of Mr. Lang Elliott: to promote the understanding and appreciation of “nature near at hand.” And both are worth exploring thoroughly.

THE SONGS OF INSECTS is the perfect resource for naturalists-in-the-making, and although it is written for adults, it has mega kid-appeal. My nine-year-old daughter spent hours with it this past summer, consulting its sights and sounds as we puzzled out players in nighttime choruses from Massachusetts to Maine. A word of warning: your child will discover in the pages of this book that there are some singing insects whose songs become harder for humans to hear as we age. And if your kids are as fresh as mine, one night soon, as you are outside listening to the sounds of nature together, this may happen:

Fresh Daughter (stopping and cocking her head): Mom! Shhhh! Do you hear that?

Me (stopping and cocking alongside her): No.

Fresh Daughter: There it is again. Sort of high pitched. You don’t hear it?

Me (listening harder): No. I can’t hear anything.

Fresh Daughter (now giggling uncontrollably): Oh. Sorry. It must be one of those crickets that old people can’t hear.

She finds this endlessly amusing. And to be honest, so does her mother. What’s not to love about a moonlit adventure inspired by a book and decorated with the sounds of insects singing and your child giggling?

A treasure, I tell you. A treasure.

 

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Five Things on Friday: New York City Edition

1. I spent two days in New York City this week, meeting up with my agent, editors, and writer friends.

2. My grandmother used to say I was like a linen suit: I don’t travel well. But Nana would have been proud of me this week as I hailed cabs, navigated streets, and even mastered the subway system.

3. On the teeny balcony of my tiny hotel room fourteen floors above East 42nd Street, I met a massive New York City dragonfly. I can’t believe I didn’t have a camera.

4. My friend Deborah Heiligman gave me an 18-inch square copy of her book FROM CATERPILLAR TO BUTTERFLY for my daughter, and I dutifully carried it around NYC, protecting it from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan pedestrians. Deborah, if you see a spike in sales of that book this week, it is because I was a walking billboard for two days!

5. I am still thinking about the group of five men and women I saw meditating in Madison Square Park yesterday. In that small green space, surrounded by city oceans of people and pets and automobiles and electronics, they managed to sit down, turn off the noise, and breathe themselves to a quieter place. (I have trouble doing that in my empty living room!)

 

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This Sunday at Broad Meadow Brook

© Ellen Harasimowicz

Researching THE HIVE DETECTIVES was a project that relied heavily on the kindness of beekeepers in central Massachusetts, where I live. Members of the Worcester County Beekeepers Association welcomed me to years of meetings and events, exposing me to the endless passion of beekeepers and, of course, the endless allure of honey bees. Mary Duane, WCBA president, even let me suit up and explore her hives with my own gloved hands. (That’s us together in the photo above. I’m the one taking notes, she’s the one working the bees!)

If you’ve read the book, you know Mary became an important part of the story I told … which is why it will be super fun to reunite with her on Sunday to talk about bees at MassAudubon. We’ll be speaking at the Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary at 2pm, and there will be a book sale and signing following the presentation.

I hope you can join us …

Honeybees: Our Professional Pollinators

Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary
414 Massasoit Road
Worcester, MA
Sunday, September 19
2pm

Adult Fees: $6 Members, $8 Nonmembers
Children’s Fees: $3 Members, $4 Nonmembers

You can find more information at the MassAudubon website.

 

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Twelve


© Loree Griffin Burns

It hardly seems possible, but these little boys—my sweet, silly, curious, passionate boys—are turning twelve today. Happy, happy, Sam and Ben!

I must go and bake the birthday apple crisp …

 

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The Book Hook


© Loree Griffin Burns

The lovely and talented writer-women who produce The 4:00 Book Hook, a free e-mail newsletter for people who share books with kids, recommended my blog to their readers in the September newsletter.

Thank you Book Hookers!

(Wait a second. That doesn’t sound good.)

Thank you, lovely and talented writer-women who produce The 4:00 Book Hook!

(Not much better.)

Anyway, the recommendation reminded me that I have a blog, and that it has been sorely neglected this past month as I vacationed, gardened, and prepared for the upcoming school year. Clearly it’s time to get back on the blog wagon (the blagon?).

The first order of business, of course, is to encourage all of you to subscribe to The 4:00 Book Hook. Doing so is simple (see instructions here) and FREE. You can view back issues (totally worth doing) at the same website. Each month, The Book Hook reviews fiction and non-fiction for young people of any age, and provides teachers and parents with marvelous ideas for linking books with real-life experiences.

The second order of business? Crickets. Katydids. Cicadas. Have you stuck your head outside after dark these past few days? Where I live, doing so is a lesson in night life and biodiversity. If you concentrate just a little bit, you can easily pick out a dozen unique insect calls. My daughter and I have been making a study of these sounds, and of the singers themselves, ever since she found a dead Lyric Cicada in the front yard. (Yes, that’s our dead inspiration in the photo above.) Anyway, we’ve found some very cool resources, and I’d like to share them here.

So stay tuned.

(But be patient!)