After completing my book The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (Farrar, 2004), I wanted to write about another animal in danger of extinction, but one for which there was more hope. My friend Charles Duncan, an ornithologist and conservationist, suggested several creatures, but none seemed the perfect choice.Guest Blogger: Phil Hoose
After completing my book The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (Farrar, 2004), I wanted to write about another animal in danger of extinction, but one for which there was more hope. My friend Charles Duncan, an ornithologist and conservationist, suggested several creatures, but none seemed the perfect choice.
Recently I've been watching and listening to elementary school students as they engage with nonfiction. The range of topics that excite them is extraordinary and their conversations about their reading remind me how powerful a stimulus books can be to exploration and critical thinking.
Elementary students love series titles. They enjoy the comfort of familiar characters, settings, and structures. This is especially true for emergent and newly independent readers, whose reading success with these titles encourages them to seek similar books. (Me personally, I learned to read thanks to Matt Christopher’s sports books.)
The reason I write about sports, women's history, and women's sports history, is that I grew up loving sports. I graduated from high school the week before Title IX was passed, so I didn't have opportunities to play in school, like girls do today. I played at camp, on the street, and with my father and my brother.