A More Bearable Appendix B

Yes, I know we covered the Common Core standards in October, but here's some interesting news -- a children's literature advocates who are making a big difference. 

(left to right) Jane Gangi, Alexandria Hercules, Anthony Hazzard, Nancy Benfer, Lauren Feliciano, Jane Tejeda, Justin Lewis (missing: Peter Gangi, Gabrielle Gallinaro, Taylor Law) 

Imagine that you found fault with the Common Core standards, spoke up about it, were contacted by the authors, and convinced them to make a change. 

This is what happened to Jane Gangi, Ph.D. an associate education and literacy professor at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. (A little more about her here.) Like most authors, Gangi has developed a succinct “elevator pitch” for her work: “The Unbearable Whiteness of Literacy Instruction” is her summation of the battle she’s fighting to increase the number of books providing “mirrors” and “windows” in elementary school classrooms.  Gangi is the author of three books for education professionals about the best use of trade books in building literacy.  

Her emphasis is on providing children’s books of excellent quality that present a range of viewpoints -- multiple cultures, backgrounds, and abilities. Jane found such books to be poorly represented in Appendix B, the list of books recommended for classroom use in the Common Core standards. “Their text exemplars were primarily white,” she says. 

Although Jane was public with her criticism, commenting on the Common Core website, writing letters, and speaking, it wasn’t until Emily Chiarello of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center,  heard her speak that things began to turn.  Chiarello connected Gangi with the Student Achievement Partnership, which is carrying out the Common Core. In late 2012, emissaries arrived at Mount Saint. Mary to visit Gangi. 

She greeted them with a conference room full of hundreds of books that offer, in her view, “mirror” and “window” opportunities for children -- mirrors, so that they see themselves in books, and windows, to provide a look into the lives of others. 

The SAP asked Gangi to propose an alternative to their Appendix B.  Her job was to get recommendations of books from literacy professionals -- teachers and librarians -- and to annotate and excerpt them.  This past March, Jane put together a rainbow team of ten alumni and graduate students to assess the recommended books, and soon added two undergraduates who begged to join. Together, the team assembled a revised Appendix B that comprises nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, and represents varied ethnicities, faiths, and abilities.  

Gangi’s team’s Appendix B selections are now being analyzed for level at Stanford University. Subject to that final nod, they will replace the “unbearably white” initial Appendix B. School districts adopting the Common Core may have already purchased books from that Appendix; my hope is that the books in the Appendix B will find their way to more classrooms, too. 

What follows are comments from team members. Note that their list includes all genres, including fiction and nonfiction. 

Nancy Benfer, a graduate of Mount Saint Mary College, teaches fourth grade at the campus elementary school, Bishop Dunn. 

“I have three students whose families originally came from the Philippines. One of the moms brought in the story Lakas and the Manilatown Fish by Anthony D. Robles, illustrated by Carl Angel.  The three students were so excited they gave me a standing ovation [for buying it for the classroom.] The rest of the class were very excited, too. These mirror text are more powerful than I think any of us can understand. They are personal and individual, while allowing the reader to feel like he or she is not alone.” 

Alexandria Hercules is in her senior year at Mount St. Mary, studying history and psychology, with certifications in childhood and special education. 

“I am Trinidadian-American, and I grew up in a small town with a large Caucasian population. Every day I ironed out my curls and tried my best to fit in with my peers, but I knew that I was different. Hot Hot Roti for Dada-ji, by Farhana Zia, illustrated by Ken Min,  is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of the kind of books that I want children to be reading. The overall themes in the book are things that I hold dear to me. It represents my culture and my roots. I see myself in the little boy Aneel, and my life is just like his.” 

Justin Lewis has a bachelor’s degree in information technology and childhood/special education certification and is working toward his master’s in literacy, birth to age six. 

“Being involved in this project means that I get the chance to speak on something that places importance on minority cultures.  If only 18 books out of the 150 in Appendix B are by authors of color, what kind of message are we sending to students? As a black male, I know there aren’t as many positive role models for black children. Reading books in school about other children with similar experiences shows students that they too are important. It gives students of color the idea that they are also expected to succeed and become doctors, lawyers, artists, or politicians.” 

Jane Tejeda is a senior at Mount Saint Mary working toward dual certification in special education and middle school education. 

“My mother is Dominican and my father was Columbian.  My school had predominantly white students. I could not find anything that represented me. From the portraits of white men and women on the walls to the bookshelves filled with books from white authors telling the stories of white people. To fit in, I only spoke English, and did not participate in any of my cultural festivities as much as usual, because I trying to be accepted by a new culture that I started to believe was better than mind. No child should feel this way.”

More examples from the new Appendix B: 

Crazy Horse’s Vision  by Joseph Bruchac, illustrated by S.D. Nelson

The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby  by Crystal Hubbard, illustrated by Robert McGuire

I Love Saturdays y domingos  by Alma Flor Ada, Illustrated by Elivia Savadier 

Heart and Soul : The Story of America and African-Americans by Kadir Nelson

Waiting for the biblioburro  by Monica Brown, illustrated by John Parra 

Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave   by Monty Roessel 

Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars  by Mark Weston, illustrated by Katie Yamasaki

The Poet Slave of Cuba by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Sean Qualls

When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messenger and Susan Katz, illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden

Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream  by Crystal Hubbard, illustrated by Randy DuBurke 

Illustrating Bats and Rats -- and Bat and Rat

When I was asked to do a book about bats and rats (to be called Bats and Rats, HarperCollins 2013), I was quite pleased.  This would be the second of three Humanimal Doodle Books I'm doing for this publisher. For the first time, I'm writing and illustrating books in the style of my Humanimal Doodles science comic, and it's an exciting new challenge.  I knew I'd learn a lot in making the transition from 2- to 6-page articles for middle school or high school to 16- or 24-page books for a somewhat younger audience.  

But I was also a little anxious, because a beautiful new picture book called Bat and Rat was just published by Patrick Jennings, with illustrations by Matthew Cordell, and I felt worried that I would seem to be a copycat...copybat...copyrat. I decided to approach the matter head-on, and to determine how the books would be NOT THE SAME AT ALL. To do so, I had to take a look at the goals I'm setting for Bats and Rats, and to find out about the goals of Bat and Rat.  

I've been writing nonfiction for many years, but illustrating it -- and really leaning most strongly on the images -- is a new thing for me, so before beginning on my book, I decided to talk to Matt about his illustrations for Bat and Rat and compare our thinking. 

Me: My goal is to entertain kids with factual information about rats and bats. Yours was to entertain kids with cool characters and quirky plot. We're both using pictures drawn by hand. How do you think our books would differ? 

Matt: That's cool that you're doing a whole different take on the bats and rats! I would guess your challenges are very much different from mine. Mine were to take two possibly gross or scary (but sometimes cool) night crawlers and humanize them into cool, urban, creative and sweet night crawlers. There was much refining of how to soften the looks of these guys in the beginning. They had to look like a bat and a rat, but a sort of kinder, gentler (and ultimately a kinda 60's beat generation) Bat and Rat.

Me: Did they tell you to put clothes on the animals? I think you gave them a lot of qualities that may not have been in the specs. 

Matt:  The clothes and humanizing was all me. Since they were doing very human stuff, I wanted them to look as human-like as possible. And the story has a neat kinda 60's Beat era, jazzy, tinkly vibe to it, so I really took that and flew with it. As far as the styling went, I came up with a few different ideas for what they could wear and we whittled it down over time. They liked my ideas there, but the main thing was making them look less vermin-y and more sweet/friendly. (I shortened the Rat's snout, no big fangs or claws, no shiny black beady eyes, etc.) And the clothes and style certainly helped dial that down.

Me:  Well, this is a major difference.  I definitely have to show the animals as they are -- fangs and all -- although I'm trying to choose images that aren't terrifying or gross.  I'm trying for a cool vibe, too, weighing what the impact of, say, red glowing eyes in a subway tunnel might be on young readers.  So I'll ask, as you've been sharing your books with kids, what kind of response are you getting to these "vermin"? 

Matt: They dig it! I think kids (or maybe more so boys) generally think bats are cool (um... Batman!) and rats can be icky but in this context they are cool too. I think a bat and rat make a cool team and it makes perfect sense. Kids have seemed to see it the same way.

Me: Did you change the bat's physical appearance, too? 

Matt: A bit, but he was more easy to nail, for some reason, than the rat was. My first take was a really zany and halloweeny looking Bat. Then I made him a bit more youthful and friendly and simplified/sweet.

I actually think bats are rather sweet. Maybe I can show why I think so,  with some facts to back it up.  Also, I have been reading about cool new research on rats that shows their empathy toward other rats, and I'm about to ask the scientist who did that study about the implications of that empathy for wild rats, such as those that live in the city.  

While I am not about to put clothes on my bats and rats -- or put musical instruments into their little paws or draw apartments for them -- I realize that I can develop narrative around them that reflects the values in these animals that I want to show to kids, while also using realism and facts to demonstrate why they do things that may have led them to seen as having a dark side.  And all just in time for NEXT Halloween.  

Thank you, Matthew Cordell, and congratulations to you and Patrick Jennings on your wonderful book!  Maybe in a year or so our books can be compared side by side. I'd be so honored.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, I.N.K.!

Is it an anniversary or a birthday? Who knows. But I.N.K. was founded by Linda Salzman right around four years ago and it’s time to celebrate. So a few of our contributors have chimed in with reasons we think being part of this blog is so special.

Happy Birthday INK! Just seems like yesterday that Linda asked me if I wanted to write about art books on this new cool blog that she was creating. Four years later, I’m still on my soap box for art books... And, well, any other kid nonfiction book that I feel the need to talk about. Thanks to all the other amazing INK members for letting me hang out here for the past four years. Full STEAM ahead, INK! -Anna M. Lewis

The I.N.K. blog has been a great forum for sharing my own adventures as a picture book author-illustrator as well as reading what my fellow authors are up to. I've learned so much in the course of researching my own posts and while reading articles by my colleagues. New resources for creating, finding, and marketing books are popping up every day and since I'm checking them out anyway, it's great to have a place to trade information with interested readers. -Loreen Leedy

I like being part of this blog because it is a gathering of writers curious about the world and committed to their craft -- doing the best writing they possibly can to bring the world to kids. -Barbara Kerley

I wanted to be Erma Bombeck when I was growing up. I thought it would be the greatest job in the world to tell people what you think and be funny at the same time. Instead, I write books for children and teens, and I believe that is the greatest job in the world. With I.N.K., I get a little bit of that Erma dream, too--I get to tell people what I think about writing, about nonfiction, and sometimes even about life. Thank you, Linda and I.N.K.! -Deborah Heiligman

The blog has given me a real sense of community and shared purpose through the dedication, commitment and integrity of all the contributors. I LOVE reading the blog every day and I continually marvel at the intelligence and writing skills of each and every member. Thank you, Linda, for creating something that is larger than we are. -Vicki Cobb

As a part-time blogger and full-time reader, I'm grateful to Linda for bringing I.N.K. into the cyber world. Writing is often a solitary profession, one where "process" is a sport played out in an empty field. Before I.N.K. I didn't spend very much time thinking about my own process, I just did it. Then my wonderful nonfiction colleagues came into my life. You help me think through what I do. Writing the blog forces me to articulate how to do it. Then, by reading the way you all approach a subject, I am able to refine and reinforce my own technique. You make me a better writer! Thank you dear colleagues. It's wonderful to have the backs of so talented a group. But I'm not there yet, so please don't quit. Imagine how much there is to learn the next four years. Happy Fourth Birthday I.N.K.ers! -Susan Kuklin

Happy fourth anniversary, INK! Reading the posts at INK has given me a peek into other nonfiction writers' passion and process. I'm continually drawn in by the kindness, humility, and humor my fellow bloggers exhibit. It's reassuring to hear about others' struggles and victories. INK's nonfiction discussion has expanded my knowledge of the nonfiction field and helped me teach educators and kids tackling nonfiction areas (such as history) that I don't cover in my own work. -April Pulley Sayre

Shortly after Linda invited me to join the I.N.K. blog (was it only four years ago?), a rash of memoirs for adults were "outed" as fiction, the most notorious being James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces." This discovery only boosted his sales figures. For many reasons, I was deeply offended by these fictional memoirs. I would bring the subject up with friends, most of whom would stare at me blankly. But then with our new nonfiction blog, I had a forum to voice my literary concerns and to get feedback from other writers who shared my passion for research, careful attribution, and chapter notes. My first blog was a rumination on the definition of nonfiction. Over the years, I've written blogs on a variety of subjects: editing, research, teachers guides, new book announcements, school visits, the creative process and many other topics about our genre for young readers. The open-ended range of subject matter inspires me. In addition I've enjoyed the dialogue with other I.N.K. bloggers, both in posts, in person, and in personal e mails. Thank you, Linda, for your commitment to nonfiction for children, for your vision and perseverance. This is my Valentine to You. -Jan Greenberg

I’ve learned so much from my I.N.K. colleagues. I’m continually reminded of the process we each go through as we try to pursue our ideas and write and draw and make books. I would love to hear that reading about our challenges has helped some young person decide to go into science writing or another nonfiction writing area -- and I know it’s going to happen. I’m grateful to be part of this group and to have a place to write about what I do. -Karen Romano Young

What else is there to say, but "ditto." Thanks, Linda, for creating the blog, and to all the writers who make it so interesting, and to our readers who inspire us to keep going. This is Susan Goodman, ready for another great year.

One Thing at a Time: Not Necessarily Possible

Henry Miller’s COMMANDMENTS has been shared among my writer friends on Facebook for the last few days. I know it’s good advice from a brilliant source. I know it would be best to stay devotedly on task. But I have issues with working on just one thing, and I suspect Miller did, too, or he wouldn’t have needed to write these rules. (By the way, Henry, shouldn’t you have been working on your novel instead of writing rules that are so tough to follow?) So here’s my take on this.

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.

Maybe Miller knew what was good for him. I’m 85 percent sure it’s good for me, too. It’s the 15 percent leftover that’s the problem, the part that tugs me away from the novel in draft and the graphic novel in revision to stare at the illustrated nonfiction draft that is tacked on my wall, because that’s how committed I am to it -- even though I know I need to put my focus elsewhere, on the novels.

4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

But. You knew I was going to say but. But the nature of nonfiction -- particularly the science progress-in-process -- is that, like life, it goes on happening while I’m making other plans. I have to stay on top of my nonfiction topic, deep-sea research via submarine. And that’s why I took a break from the novels recently to make a trip to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to visit some friends -- the little deep submergence vehicle Alvin and the group of engineers, pilots, and scientists who buzz around and inside it wherever it happens to be.

3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.

When last seen by me, in 2008, Alvin was on the deck of its mother ship, Atlantis, in Guaymas, Mexico, the end port of the research cruise I was on along with two dozen scientists. I had dived in the sub to the murky hydrothermal vents a mile and a half deep in the Sea of California, and had learned about new work being done to make Alvin capable of diving deeper.

A new passenger sphere had just been forged. In the computer lab aboard Atlantis, Alvin Expedition Leader and Chief Pilot Bruce Strickrott showed me pictures of the titanium halves of the sphere, glowing red-hot, and told me how they would be hollowed and machined and fitted into Alvin’s skeleton. Since then, all that has been underway on shore, while Alvin stayed at sea working. It’s last dive before coming ashore took scientists to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to check out the Macondo Drill site after last year’s explosion and oil spill.

1. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

This past summer Alvin was delivered to Woods Hole and taken apart. Although I knew I needed to be working on books 1 and 2, book 3 began tugging on my sleeve and whining. I needed to find out what was happening in the Alvin workshop, or I was going to have trouble with Book 3. So I emailed Bruce, asking if I could visit. “There’s nothing much to see,” he wrote back. But I went anyway, opting to see what “nothing to see” looked like, knowing that it would help me understand the Alvin renovation better when it began to accumulate mass.

1. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

Inside a work bay stood what was left of Alvin: the sub was nothing but a skeleton. Before long, the sphere would arrive, and if all went well, the “new” Alvin would be ready for test-dives by fall of 2012.

1. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.

Meanwhile, Bruce and the crew had dummied up the interior of the passenger sphere, using taped-up paper and plywood to show where the new viewports, video screens, instrument panels, and observer benches would be positioned. The pilots were experimenting with seats that would give them the view and elbow room they needed to drive the sub, and operate claws used to pick up samples and deploy probes and other instruments.

I intend to cover the rest of the refitting of Alvin in my book, as well as the first dives. Bruce and the guys experimenting with pilot chairs reminded me of kids figuring out a seat for a go-cart, and yet the stakes were much higher. The pilots in this seat would have future oceanic research in their hands once Alvin’s big upgrade was finished, with increased battery hours, pressure resistance and other capabilities needed to dive deeper. The changes will make 99 percent of the ocean floor accessible.

7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.

I left by way of the dock on which the old sphere was set among buoys and trailers and the other flotsam of the research lab’s doc. Bruce rested his hand affectionately on the burnished titanium that glowed softly, reflecting the cloudy sky. Next time I came back, the new sphere would be in the sub and this one would head to a museum.

1. Discard the Program when you feel like it -- but go back to it next day.

Thanks, Henry. My notes, photographs, and sketches from my day in Woods Hole are packed away. I’ll add to them during visits in April and August, because I wouldn’t be able to get the book done without it.

February Interesting Nonfiction for Kids

February is right around the corner and that means Valentine's Day! More importantly, that means CANDY!
Fittingly, the February issue of Odyssey magazine is all about Candy!

Be sure to check out my article "Making New Candy Concoctions". Ric McKown, an old friend and author of The Candy Bar Cookbook: Baking with America's Favorite Candy (Longstreet Press, 2000), graciously helped me with some of the candy science.  (See, old friends do come in handy.)
To complement my article, Odyssey has a Candy Concoction Contest. Entries must be postmarked by March 30, 2012, so check it out.
And, four pages after my article, check out a piece by fellow INK member, Karen Romano Young. Her Humanimal Doodle is titled "Honey Doodle".

Librarians, teachers, and parents, looking for other books about Candy and Sweets for February?  In May 2011, I wrote Sweet! Interesting Nonfiction for Kids with a list of book suggestions.
Here are a few more suggestions that may inspire some candy concoctions:

Ghoulish Goodies: Creature Feature Cupcakes, Monster Eyeballs, Bat Wings, Funny Bones, Witches' Knuckles, and Much More!
by Sharon Bowers
Storey Publishing   July 2009

Raw Chocolate
by  Matthew Kenney and Meredith Baird
Gibbs Smith   February 2012

Twist It Up: More Than 60 Delicious Recipes from an Inspiring Young Chef
by Jack Witherspoon, Sheri Giblin, Lisa Witherspoon
Chronicle Books   November 2011

Happy Valentine's Day to All!

Humanimal Doodles

My post is a doodle. Please click on the picture to read it at full size. -- Karen

P.S. For more Humanimal Doodles, click here.

I.N.K. News for June

Vicki Cobb's new book What's the BIG Idea? Amazing Science Questions for the Curious Kid is published by Skyhorse Publishing on June 6. You can see Vidki's promo for the book at http://vickicobb.com/Video1/whatsthebigidea.html

Karen Romano Young is headed for the Arctic! She's taking part in the NASA-sponsored ICESCAPE mission aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, and will be at sea for two weeks in June. The Healy, an icebreaker, will carry nearly 50 scientists who are studying the effects of climate change on the Arctic Ocean and its ice. Karen will be researching a new book called Investigating the Arctic, drawing a science comic for Drawing Flies (http://www.jayhosler.com/jshblog/), creating a podcast for the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org), and blogging at Science + Story. (http://scienceandstory.blogspot.com/) And her new book, Doodlebug, is in the warehouse June 8! (www.karenromanoyoung.com)

Dorothy Patent just returned from a trip to California for research on a book about one of the dogs rescued from the Michael Vick dog-fighting ring. She's fallen in love with her subject, named Audie. Look for the book is Spring, 2011.

Susanna Reich be speaking at the Metro New York SCBWI Professional Series on Tuesday, June 8. Author illustrator Melanie Hope Greenberg and I will be talking about "Marketing to the Max: Publicity for Children's Book Authors and Illustrators." http://metro.nyscbwi.org/profseries.htm

Ada Lovelace Day at I.N.K.

Ada Lovelace Day

“Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognized. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do.” -- Ada Lovelace Day website

Augusta Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) wrote the first computer programs, which were used by the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage.

Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the legacy of a lone woman scientist in a field of men. -- and does so, in part, through across-the-board blogging about women in the sciences.

The first Ada Lovelace Day, March 24, 2009, generated hundreds of blogs worldwide, as well as attention on Facebook and in the media.

I decided to sign up on behalf of I.N.K. to blog about women scientists on this day and soon found out that 1,110 other bloggers signed up, as well.

It’s Monday morning, and I’m putting the finishing touches on my Ada Lovelace blog when I find this article in the New York Times: “Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences”. Tamar Lewin describes the American Association of University Women’s report, "Why So Few?" on the gains that women have made in the sciences, and the issues that still get in their way. Thirty years ago, among high schoolers scoring 700 or more on their math SATs, boys outnumbered girls 13 to 1. The ratio has dropped to 3 to 1, but that’s still proof of chopped sides.

Despite increasing numbers of women receiving doctorates in science, math, and computer science, women don’t represent a parallel percentage of workers or tenured faculty in those fields. The AAUW report focused more on factors that can make a difference in the accomplishments of women and girls -- such as learning that ability can grow with effort -- than on differences in innate ability between the sexes. Researchers found that cultural bias -- an underlying impression that women can’t cut the mustard -- had considerable impact. This bias takes root in any who feel themselves to be on shaky ground, as evidenced by a dramatic difference in performance between groups told that men and women have equal abilities in math and science and those told that men are stronger in these areas.

Many I.N.K. writers have devoted their work to science and to telling children about women in the field. Ada Lovelace Day seemed like the right time to ask some of them to spotlight their stars.

Vicki Cobb: I want the world to know more about Marie Curie because of her passion for science that overcame all the roadblocks life and her times threw in her path. As I summed her up in my biography: Poverty didn’t stop her from getting and education. Marriage only enhanced her personal growth; it didn’t stop it. Children didn’t stop her from pursuing a career, and her career didn’t stop her from being a good mother. Lack of money didn’t stop her from building up the Radium Institute into the world’s premier laboratory for research into radioactivity. Illnesses, off and on throughout her life, didn’t stop her. Grief and the loss of a beloved partner didn’t stop her. Above all, being female at a time when women were second-class citizens who didn’t even have the right to vote didn’t stop her. She was in the news because of her achievements, and because she was a woman she became a target for the press… She was not tempted by fame or the possibility of fortune. Marie Curie was a truly worthy role model for generations to come.

Deborah Heiligman: I would like the world to know more about Barbara McClintock, the geneticist who was the first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in the category of Physiology or Medicine. O.K., the way I wrote that, it (and she) sounds dry, but let me tell you, Barbara McClintock, and the story of her hard work and long-delayed recognition, is anything but dry. Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize for a discovery she had made decades earlier. She discovered "jumping genes" and it took most other scientists decades to realize she was right. The most amazing part of her story is that even though she was pretty much ignored, and even ridiculed at times, she kept on working on her beloved maize to hone her discovery. How did she have such perseverance? She loved her work, and, as she once said, "I knew it would all come out in the wash." And it did. Her discovery led to great advances in science, especially in studies of cancer, AIDs and other fields of medicine. You can read more about her in my book, Barbara McClintock: Alone in Her Field. I wrote the book because I really wanted to know what kind of person keeps going, working alone, even though no one else understands or appreciates what she is doing. The book is out of print, but if you can't find it in your library, email me. I have some copies.

Tanya Lee Stone: I want kids to know about Rosalind Franklin because her research was paramount to the discovery of the structure of DNA. This London-born female scientist was not given proper credit alongside Francis Crick and James Watson even though some of her data was instrumental in Crick and Watson constructing their DNA model. Learn more about Rosalind Franklin in the children's book Rosalind Franklin by Lara Anderson and the brand-new adult book The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science, by Julie Des Jardins.

Karen Romano Young: I want the world to know about Marie Tharp (shown in the picture above), who drew the first image of the ocean floor. It was the U.S. Navy’s Matthew Maury who first mapped the North Atlantic by dropping weighted lines and measuring how far they went, and using his data to draw a profile. In the 1940s and 50s, scientists Maurice Ewing and Bruce Heezen used sonar massively increased Maury’s data to confirm the existence of the underwater mountain chain now known as the MidAtlantic Ridge. Nowadays, we use satellite data to see detailed false-color images of the ocean floor. Ewing and Heezen’s data wound up on the desk of Marie Tharp, who painstakingly drew and painted them into a map by hand, revealing the rift valley that lay between the MidAtlantic range -- and which would later be revealed as a vital center of previously unknown life. There’s more in my books Small Worlds: Maps and Mapmaking and in Across the Wide Ocean: the Why, How, and Where of Navigation for Humans and Animals at Sea.

I also want to mention Temple Grandin, for her kindness to animals, advocacy for them, and contribution to the understanding of different thinkers, including people with autism like herself, whose unique way of seeing the world allows them to make exceptional contributions and encourages the rest of us to take a look at our own thinking and how we, too, can contribute through our own uniqueness. To read Grandin’s book Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life with Autism is to find all kinds of shared attributes -- when my father read it he decided he, too, might be autistic -- but also to be awed at the way this woman has learned to understand her own mind. As someone who continually struggles with feeling like I don’t have the right kind of mind for certain subjects (history and linear processes in particular), Grandin helped me to look more closely at what I am good at, and to find ways to value and emphasize my strengths.

I hope Ada Lovelace Day inspires other people to spread the word about finding your own strengths in the sciences.

I.N.K. News for February

Please continue to look for additions to Karen Romano Young's series, Science Fair Winners, from National Geographic. These little books are full of science project ideas (NOT only experiments!) for middle schoolers. The first book, Bug Science, is going gangbusters, and Crime Scene Science is out now, too. Coming in March: Junkyard Science, all about trash, energy, going green, and -- everybody's favorite topic -- decomposition. Book 4, Family Science (experiments on your brothers and sisters) is due in May.
Visit www.karenromanoyoung.com to see the Bug Science trailer and more.







CHARLES AND EMMA: THE DARWINS' LEAP OF FAITH was the winner of the first YALSA-ALA Prize for Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction. It also received a Printz Honor and was a Best Book for Young Adults.





Vicki Cobb's Your Body Battles a Cold has been named an Honor Book in the Science – Grades K-6 category of the Society of School Librarians International 2009 Book Awards.



Ink Think Tank. is pleased to announce a new partnership with Mackin Educational Resources. The FREE database on http://www.inkthinktank.com/, which features all of the I.N.K. bloggers current books in print, will be linked to Mackin so that users can fulfill book orders in a one-stop shopping experience. Database searchers will be able to click into Mackin’s personalized service to educators, which reaches more than 20,000 school librarians, teachers and administrators around the globe. The connection will go live later this month. If you are a registered user, you will be prompted to update your profile before gaining access to search the database. This is part of the process of linking our database to theirs. We are very gratified by their support and interest in the books by I.N.K. authors.

Put Up Your Dukes, Sharon!

Sharon McElroy was worried. Was I suggesting that, as a science project, kids should sit in the mall food court observing families to see which of two siblings got the most parental attention?That could be a problem, she told me. Just as any social science research must be approved by a Scientific Review Committee (SRC), a student doing a science fair project must get clearance from their Internal Review Board (IRB) prior to doing any work involving human subjects, any living subjects actually, and the reason is to keep anyone – or any living thing – from coming to harm. And here I was, suggesting that they spy? What if…?

Sharon is the teacher adviser to my series Science Fair Winners, published by National Geographic Children’s Books. She’s an esteemed high school teacher from Indiana, and the winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and the Intel Excellence in Education Award. National Geographic picked her because her success in science competitions and her work on national and international science fair committees prepares her to offer advice regarding the projects in my books.

Sharon’s role was to make sure the projects made it simple for kids to do science work that was interesting, that was safe, that met science standards, and that wouldn’t violate the rules. And here she was, suggesting that my projects might get kids kicked out of science fair? As if!

Our NG editor did the rational thing. She pulled us out of the boxing ring, sat us down in our corners, had us pour ourselves a cup of coffee, and set up a conference call.

Putting together Family Science (due out in May) hasn’t been easy. YOU try coming up with 20 science workshops that involve family members – your own or someone else’s -- including those with four legs and two legs, the old and the young, the quick and the dead.

Make sure the science is good (meaning that the observations are measurable, the experiments can be replicated, and the conclusions are based on real data).

Make sure the science is current, that it relates to work actually being done in the field, and that the questions it raises promote further knowledge and understanding of concepts and processes.

Focus on fields that kids don’t typically get into in middle school, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, or genetics. Consult scientists for their thoughts on how kids can do a version of the studies the scientists really do, and include advice for young scientists on how to get into their fields.

Keep it exciting, simple, sincere, safe, and legal.

And, most of all, keep it on the middle school level. Hit ‘em where they live: sibling rivalry, babysitting, afterschool activities, and hangouts like the park and mall.

Why bother? That’s the question that brings Sharon and me out of our corners shouting. There we are, in the middle of the mat, shouting about what lights kids up, about stupid science non-experiments that run rampant in science fair halls, about the problems inherent in putting anything under stress. We’re under stress. And then we realize we’re both saying the same thing:

The purpose of these books is to give middle schoolers guidelines to being a scientist at a young age.

Sharon tells me a story about one of her former students, a boy named Paul Lynch. Paul’s younger brother used to lose at video games and get up and yell and kick. Paul asked Sharon what she thought the cause was: was his brother mad at losing? Or did the video game make him more violent? How could he find out? Sharon helped him get started.

These days, Paul Lynch has contributed loads of research to the question of violence and video games. He is now an M.D. (You can google him.) And he began his work by considering a situation that he observed in his own home.

I wish every student could have a teacher like Sharon McElroy to help him or her figure out a way to study social science. And I’m grateful to have her helping me navigate the rules of science fair committees so that the projects in my books can potentially light the fire inside more social scientists.

P.S. The photo shows Sharon with a student. The book cover is for Bug Science, the first book in the Science Fair Winners series. The cover for Family Science is still underway

Obsessed with Science

“In time you can turn these obsessions into careers.” -- Elvis Costello

I apologize if I’ve used that Elvis quote here before. It’s quite possible. It’s something I’ve learned to live by, since I am obsessed. Volkswagens, dogs, foreign terms for “sprinkles,” vinyasa yoga, the public option, moray eels, drawing pens – it’s an exhaustive list.

Sometimes obsessiveness can lead to business, and sometimes it doesn’t.

When my kids were in elementary school I became obsessed with science fair. It rolled around as predictably as late-winter mud every March, and consumed my family from January on.

January was when my little science students had to submit their science fair proposals. This took the form of a hypothesis– a what-if question – and a plan for answering – also known as reaching a conclusion about it. Silly me: when my children asked what they should do, I asked, “What do you want to find out about?” They considered, wrote up their proposals, and went off to school. . That’s when the rejections started rolling in.

Sam wanted to find out what kind of animals inhabited our stone patio. Bethany wanted to know whether she could get our dog Yogi to notice any kind of music. Emily wanted to study the infection rate of people who got their ears pierced.

“What would that prove?” asked Mr. Seventh Grade.

“It’s not an experiment,” said Mrs. Fifth Grade.

“It’s not scientific enough,” said Ms. Fourth Grade.

If you’ve been to a science fair, you know the kind of experiments that some science teachers do consider to be legitimate: analyzing which toothpastes whiten best; making a tornado in a bottle; blasting different levels of rock music at goldfish, hamsters, and houseplants; and – somebody shoot me, please – demonstrating how a carnation channels water, using food coloring in the water.

At first, I applied for a grant, titling my research and writing proposal “Death to Science Fair.” I wanted to find out what scientists thought kids should be doing in science fair. My idea was to come up with ways that parents could help their kids shape their interests into science fair projects. My grant proposal was rejected, and I daresay the problem had something to do with my title – and the obvious anger behind it.

By this time my kids were in high school, and I had stood in the hallway outside the regional science fair with them and all their classmates, waiting for the climactic moment when the cuts were announced. When the cheering erupted, it took me a moment to realize that the kids who were cheering were the ones who’d been cut; so jaded were they with science fair that the winners were pitied for the extra time they’d have to spend on science.

The time had come to channel my obsession positively. I began working on the series of books that eventually would be called Science Fair Winners. The first two books, Bug Science and Crime Scene Science, have just been published. The next books, Junkyard Science and Sibling Science: Experiments on Your Brothers and Sisters, are due out in March: mudtime, science fair time.

The titles of these books reflect my purpose: to start with things kids are interested in and help them figure out ways to make science projects out of them. Each book has 20 workshops – projects, observations, experiments – that put kids to work on real science, while also helping them shape their work for science fair.

To do this, I went to scientists who were working in each of these areas, learned about their work and methods, and asked for their guidance on how to get kids’ feet wet in their area: simplifying lab or research or experiment techniques. I hope that kids will consider sociology, physics, biology, forensics, anthropology, economics, and the other sciences included here as potential careers, and that they take their own obsessions into these areas. I hope they’ll realize that whatever they’re interested in can be used as science fair inspiration.

Just a sampling:

In Sibling Science, a social psychologist tells how to observe families in a mall food court, as a study of favoritism.

In Junkyard Science, an engineer suggests ways to experiment with garage junk to make musical instruments.

In Crime Scene Science, a forensic detective teaches you to train your dog to track your cat.

In Bug Science, a biologist shares ways to assess the bug population of your backyard – and provides his email address, should you come up with something unidentifiable. When he surveyed his own yard – as only a biologist OR a budding biologist would do – he found a new species of moth.

Obsessions…careers…good business…and maybe, good grades at science fair, and cheers for the winners. Science Fair Winners. New from National Geographic and me. Please check it out.

Nobleman: Writerman, Superman

A lot of us around here have been giving serious thought to how to get more nonfiction into classrooms. The summer has been spent (so far! It’s not over!) blogging and paneling about ways students and teachers can get into reading our nonfiction. Just in time for Back-to-School, fellow author Marc Tyler Nobleman reminds us of something vital:

Kids write nonfiction, too. They write answers to homework questions, they make powerpoint presentations, they pen letters to the editor, persuasive essays, journals, and reports. For most of them, as for most of us, in the words of Ringo Starr, “It don’t come easy.” But Nobleman can help.

His book, Quick Nonfiction Writing Activities That Really Work! (Scholastic) is a compendium of funny, clear, wry, and effective solutions to the fuzzy problems of the teller of the true story. It is the product of Nobleman’s own troubleshooting in the course of writing more than 70 books for kids, including last year’s sparkling Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (Knopf), which was reviewed here. In addition, Nobleman is a cartoonist, whose clients include The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Good Housekeeping, and more.

“All the best stories in the world were true before people started retelling them and making stuff up,” says Nobleman. “We have to break the stigma that nonfiction writing is boring. It’s great!” Nobleman is excited about many of the original, accessible, and generally fabulous titles on the nonfiction shelves these days. Among his recent faves:

• The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barden (Charlesbridge, 2009) about Joe and Bob Switzer, brothers who invented those bright glow-in-the dark colors.

• Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way to Fame, Fortune, and Swimsuit History by Shana Corey (Scholastic, 2009) It’s about the woman who revolutionized the sport of swimming for women and made the one-piece bathing suit famous.

• The 39 Apartments of Ludwig von Beethoven by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Barry Blitt (Random House, 2006) “Most biographical subjects don’t lend themselves easily to comedy, such as Ludwig von Beethoven. But this author hit upon a great approach, using humor to teach history. Beethoven moved a lot, and he had to move his piano every time. It was winter, it was snowing, it was Vienna. The author tells the story through the lens of the moves. It’s hilarious!”

Nobleman also intrigued by new picture books about people such as Coco Chanel and Alexander Calder, who “aren’t necessarily household names but are such fun stories you’ll remember them.” And he’s excited about publishers who take chances on off-center books, as opposed to more books on say, Abraham Lincoln, who has been pretty well covered.

Nobleman’s idea for Quick Nonfiction came from a workshop he developed called “Draw a Story, Write a Cartoon” which he has frequently run for both students and teachers His goal, he says, is to get writers to rethink nonfiction by getting them to focus on just the first line of the story. “The secret is that any tip you learn for the first applies to the rest of the writing. One exercise shows how to convey a character right away. Another shows how to clear away adjectives. You start with the first line and branch out into varying wood choice, avoiding clichés, cutting, and self-editing.” Another secret? This book will work for any writer, not just the grades indicated on the front of the book (4 to 6). Each page stands alone and can be photocopied so every student has his or her own sheet to work from.

“You can open to any page in the book and apply that page to any subject area.” To test this theory, I give him a topic, the activity that’s going on outside my window: lawn-mowing. Nobleman opens his book to a page on the senses. “It’s perhaps most common to write about the sense of sight, but think of the intrusive sound of a lawn being mowed with a power mower, the smell of gasoline and grass. Then there’s my neighbor who mows this lawn at six a.m. That’s a different feeling!”

Nobleman honed his nonfiction craft by writing for Nickelodeon magazine, which sadly is shutting down. “Once I wrote about pirate myths versus realities. What might be dull in a school/library book could be told in a livelier way in Nick – and that helps teach, because we remember what we laugh at.” He takes that Nickelodeon sensibility into his own writing, so it’s natural that it ends up wrinkling the starchy side of teaching writing.

“Nonfiction writers have a number of assumed roles,” Nobleman says. These include storyteller, detective, reporter, historian, teacher, and rebel. “Anyone who puts a book or story out there is a little rebellious. Anyone who writes about someone unconventional is saying ‘This person is important even if you’ve never heard of them. And someone who writes his or her own perspective on a real person takes a risk.”

So where did this idea come from that nonfiction is boring? Nobleman credits fantasy. “Kids are reading completely outlandish fiction about dragons, pirates, aliens… It transports them! They don’t realize that real people have stories that are just as transporting – and true.”

Nobleman’s purpose in writing Quick Nonfiction is to help train well-equipped nonfiction writers. That entails knowing the difference between a good story and a good story that’s well told. With the tools in his book, he says, “writers can take raw material and make something beautiful, or can take a story that others have mined and reforge them into a new ring from the same old gold, and make it their own.”

Now that Quick Nonfiction is out there, Nobleman will continue teaching writing, while practicing what he preaches on his next true story, a biography of Bill Finger, the dominant force behind Batman comics.

As for me, I’m paging through his book, picking up pointers to inspire the first line of my next nonfiction, whatever that’s going to be – plus all the lines that come after.