My Latest Titles

I'm pleased to share my new titles for Fall 2014 — two books in the Rourke nonfiction series United States Regions: Southern Region and Southwestern Region. These are, as you might guess, state studies books intended for classroom use in Grades 3–5. The content focus is to identify and investigate regions based on their common geography, industry, agriculture, and culture. I enjoyed getting to learn more about my two regions and working to make the information and broader concept used to frame it accessible for young readers.

Pretty covers, don't you think?

Nonfiction Monday: A Chat with PURE GRIT Author Mary Cronk Farrell

I recently had the pleasure of attending one of Mary Cronk Farrell's readings in support of her terrific new YA nonfiction book, Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific. It was fun to hear about her experience creating the book — and I was especially drawn to the story, which features an incredibly strong group of women who faced unspeakable hardships and dangers as combat nurses and prisoners of war. 

Pure Grit is thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and gorgeously photo-illustrated, making it a perfect title to feature on this Nonfiction Monday. Be sure to track it down in your local bookstore or library. And in the meantime, enjoy my Q&A with its author.

Welcome to my blog, Mary, and congratulations on the new book! How long have you been writing nonfiction for young readers?

For about ten years. Except for a couple magazine articles, Pure Grit is the first nonfiction book I have published for kids.

Tell us what sparked your interest in this story and why you wanted to write it for young adults.

When I first heard about the POW nurses, I was immediately drawn to the story by my curiosity about how they survived three years in the harsh conditions of prison camp, especially since many others in the camps died. It was difficult to believe, and also disappointing that I had not learned about these courageous women in school and I wanted young people to know about them. I was greatly inspired by their strength of purpose, their resilience, and their dedication to their vocation as nurses. I knew their story would inspire others, too.

From idea to final draft, how long did the research and writing take you? Were there any major stumbling blocks along the way?

It is difficult to gauge the amount of time I spent on this project. I worked on it intermittently for five years. Both the research and the writing were done in chunks of time between other projects I was working on.  I didn't have any major stumbling blocks. The research and writing were quite straightforward, but I will say that at times the material was very difficult emotionally. I remember a time or two that I was typing with tears running down my cheeks.

I’d love to hear about any particularly memorable interviews you conducted.

By far the most memorable interview was with Mildred Dalton Manning, the only one of the POW nurses still alive at the time I was writing the book. She was most gracious, and I felt honored to meet her. Another memorable interview was with Sascha Weinzheimer Jansen, who was a child in Santo Tomas Internment Camp where the Army nurses were imprisoned. She had been in the hospital for a tonsillectomy and remembered being cared for by Army Nurse Denny Williams. Her throat was not healing after the surgery, because the girl and everyone in the camp were starving and malnourished. Sascha remembers the nurse sitting with her all night when she was deathly ill.

What knowledge or message would you like readers to take away from their experience reading the Pure Grit?

I hope readers will get a strong sense of what it was like for these women to find themselves suddenly in the middle of war and then to be imprisoned for three years. I hope the book will cause questions to rise in readers' minds. I don't have specific ideas I want people to take away, other than how brave and dedicated the nurses were, but so many issues arise from the story that I think are worthy of thought and discussion.

What’s next for you as a writer? Any new children’s books in the works?

My next book, working title Fannie Never Flinched, is due out in February 2016.  It's another amazing true story about courage and dedication, this time a biography of one woman — Fannie Sellins — who was an incredible labor organizer in the early 1900s garment industry, coal fields, and steel mills. Like the POW nurses, her strength was imbued with compassion. Unfortunately, she did not survive, but died in a hail of bullets on the picket line of a Pennsylvania coal strike.
 
That sounds fascinating — I look forward to reading it. In the meantime, where can readers and reviewers find Pure Grit, and you?

Readers can get Pure Grit through any bookstore, on the ground or on the Internet, and I invite everyone to visit my website for more information about the POW nurses and me.


Terrific. Thanks so much for chatting with me, Mary! 

Nonfiction Monday Roundup — April 4, 2011

It's Nonfiction Monday in the KidLitosphere (don't act like you didn't know!), and I'm hosting this week's roundup of themed blog posts right here on my blog.

So, if you have reviewed or otherwise written about a nonfiction book for children, blogged about your own nonfiction writing for kids, or blogged about anything else related to kids' nonfiction, please comment today! Be sure to include a link to your post, and I will add your information to the roundup below.

I'll periodically update the list throughout the day, starting early-ish this morning (Pacific Time) — soon after I've plopped myself in front of my computer for the workday. Looking forward to seeing some great blogs!

Nonfiction Monday Blog Roundup

1. Check out Jeff Barger's review of Hail! Ancient Greeks by Jen Green.
2. Shelf-employed has reviewed the audiobook Meat-Eating Plants and Other Extreme Plant Life.
3. Madigan Reads reviews Jo S. Kittinger's picture book Rosa's Bus.
4. A Nation's Hope: The Story of Joe Louis by Matt de la Pena (illustrated by Kadir Nelson) is reviewed at Abby the Librarian.
5. Scrub-a-Dub Tub reviews Steve Spangler's Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments That Make Science Fun.
6. Visit Wild About Nature for a review — and giveaway! — of At the Sea Floor Cafe: Odd Ocean Critter Poems by Leslie Bulion.
7. Books, Dogs, and Frogs discusses fun food books today.
8. Read Lawral the Librarian's review of Scribbling Women at Lucy Was Robbed.
9. Lori Calabrese reviews Where Do Recyclable Materials Go? by Sabbithry Persad.
10. Jeanne Harvey's Astro the Stellar Sea Lion is reviewed at Jean Little Library.
11. Pink Me reviews Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities by Chris Barton.
12. Anastasia Suen introduces the chapter book You Can't Wear These Genes and the picture book Play Ball, Jackie!
13. Wrapped in Foil reviews Kathryn O. Galbraith's Planting the Wild Garden.
14. Lori Mortensen's Come See the Earth Turn: The Story of Leon Foucault is highlighted at True Tales & A Cherry on Top.
15. Books 4 Learning reviews Ocean Seasons by Ron Hirschi.
16. Author Shirley Duke discusses her new book You Can't Wear These Genes at Nonfiction Book Blast. 
17. Head over to Apples with Many Seeds for a look at Genghis Khan: 13th Century Mongolian Tyrant by Enid A. Goldberg.
18. Janet Squires reviews Peggy Caravantes's Best of Times: The Story of Charles Dickens. 
19. Read about the book Written in Bone at Amy O'Quinn's blog. 
20. BookMoot reviews Ultimate Guide to Basketball: Facts, Stats, Stars, and Stuff by James Buckley, Jr. 
21. Featured over at Writing and Ruminations is Kelly Fineman's review of the Poetry Basics four-book series by Valerie Bodden. 

Introducing Space Neighbors — My New Picture Book Series!

It is Nonfiction Monday in the KidLitosphere, and I am thrilled to announce that my latest picture book series has officially launched! It's called Space Neighbors, and its 10 nonfiction titles about the solar system were a joy to work on.

The 10 books are Earth, The Sun, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Pluto and Other Dwarf Planets, Saturn, Uranus, and Venus.

This project marked my first time writing for Child's World. The work involved some fast-and-furious research — and even faster/furiouser writing. I signed my contract in July 2010 and by September 2010, all 10 manuscripts had been written, revised, approved, and shipped off to design.

I'm not sure I can even tell you what else went on in my life during the initial writing phase of the project, but let me think on that for a minute. Hmm . . . well . . . oh wait, yes, I do know exactly what else I did: Not a thing. Or, if you like, no other things. Which is, as you know, aka NOTHING.

I was a writing fool. And anyone who talked to me then probably remembers me as a plain-old fool-fool, too. My brain was so focused on the writing that forming intelligible sentences with my mouth was frequently challenging.

In all seriousness, keeping up with the surprising-to-me influx of late-breaking solar system news was a full-time job in itself. I do a ton of nonfiction work, but typically I write about historical figures (dead), landmark events (over) and already-well-understood concepts (long fully processed). The pressure to get it right reminded me of my stint as a reporter back in the early 1990s. With this work, as happened then, my burning desire to provide the most current and the most accurate information possible really made me sweat. And lose sleep. Despite my overall satisfaction with the project — now that the work is but a memory — I can't say that I would ever again consent to working on so many titles in such a short window of time. But I can say that I am quite pleased with how my Space Neighbors babies turned out.

This series is presented in a photo-illustrated format, and each book is just stunning. I've added all 10 covers here, and you can explore the books' innards at the publisher's site. The series page lists the full set — just click on the "Read excerpt" text from any given title's page to scroll through several spreads. It looks to me like a few excerpts actually feature the entire book, so that's a great way to really see what you're getting before you buy.

Space Neighbors titles are currently available individually and in set form from the publisher (*cough, cough* better prices *cough, cough*) and online through Amazon.

Hoping the books make it into eager young readers' hands — and many thousands of libraries — soon!

My New PB Series — Let's Be Social!

FAMILY GATHERINGS

Just out from Magic Wagon is my new nonfiction picture book series called Let's Be Social! Written specifically for the school and library market (RL 3, IL PreK–4), these six books introduce young readers to the various social groups they encounter and must learn to navigate in their community: family, friends, school, teams, worship groups, and neighborhoods.

From the publisher's description:

MAKE FRIENDS

"The Let’s Be Social series explores the social settings that have a special role in a young reader’s life and community. Easy-to-read text and bright illustrations explore the
relationships, diversity, and interactions that can be found in the world around them. Introduce your students to the groups, places, and people around them. And let’s be social!"

GO TO SCHOOL

Concepts are correlated to state standards, and the vocabulary is appropriate for readers in Grades 2–3, as well as younger children experiencing the books as read-alouds. Illustrator Chris Davidson's fun, cheerful artwork will appeal to kids throughout the interest-level range.

Each 32-page book includes a TOC, glossary, and index, and the series was fully vetted by content consultants.

GO WORSHIP

JOIN A TEAM

Naturally, I enjoyed writing the books! I hope teachers, counselors, librarians, and parents will enjoy sharing them with the young people in their lives. And, above all, I hope young readers will have fun exploring my take on the many forms of community.

MEET YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

A huge P.S. You know it's Nonfiction Monday in the kidlitosphere, right? That means you can learn what nonfiction books (or related topics) other kidlit bloggers are buzzing about by checking out this week's host blog, Rasco from RIF. Head on over there to see a listing of Nonfiction Monday posts. You can even add your own link if you're so inclined!

Hosting Nonfiction Monday on a Nonfiction Monday

It's Nonfiction Monday in the KidLitosphere, and I've volunteered to host today's weekly roundup of themed blog posts.

This little blog party dovetails nicely with my actual duties today, as I'm now knee-deep (make that neck-deep) in research for a new Abraham Lincoln biography I'm about to start writing. I wrote a chapter book about good ole Abe a decade ago and had a great time with it. He's such an enduringly fascinating figure, and from the looks of things, the reading public is far from getting over their thirst for knowledge about his young life, character, family, presidency, and death. The book I'm working on this spring will be for the YA set and written in a graphic novel format. I can't wait to dig in!

If you'd like to participate in today's edition of Nonfiction Monday, just leave a comment below with a link to your post about a nonfiction book, nonfiction author, nonfiction writing — or any other topic related to nonfiction for kids that I'm not thinking of — and I will update the roundup throughout the day. Please include your post title/topic with the link. This post is set to go live at 3:00 a.m. Pacific (in case any Eastern early birds want to submit first thing), and I'll start checking in to move links to the main list sometime (well) after that!

Breakfast Batch

The Wild About Writing Trio reviews Scott Cohn's One Wolf Howls.

Jennifer takes a look at Traces by Paula Fox.

Just One More Book Podcast chats about Bubble Homes and Fish Farts by Fiona Bayrock and Carolyn Conahan.

SimplyScience blogs about It's Electric — Wired by Anastasia Suen.

Abby (the) Librarian presents "Books for Women's History Month."

Lori Calabrese Writes! offers food for thought in the post "The United Tweets of America."

StoryForce reviews the picture book Listen to the Wind (based on Three Cups of Tea) by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth.

MotherReader checks out The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino.

A Wrung Sponge reviews After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance by Anne Sibley O'Brien and Perry Edmond O'Brien.

Jen Robinson highlights two new nonfiction series from Bearport Publishing: Defining Moments — Super Athletes and Little Dogs Rock!

Lunch Bunch

Fuse #8 at SLJ reviews Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz (with 21 Activities) by Stephanie Stein Crease.

Check It Out checks out the biography Amelia Earhart: The Legends of the Lost Aviator by Shelley Tanaka.

Kids Lit uncovers Plant Secrets by Emily Goodman.

Biblio File conjures a post about Harry, a History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon by Melissa Anelli.

ayudda.net discusses National Geographic's Every Human Has Rights: A Photographic Declaration for Kids.

Snack Bites

Valerie peeks at a few books about the moon.

A Patchwork of Books blogs about the Earth in Danger series.

BookMoot serves up a duo of culinary finds: Cakes for Kids by Matthew Mead and Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook by Georgeanne Brennan.

Suppertime Bounty

Charlotte's Library explores What Darwin Saw: The Journey That Changed the World by Rosalyn Schanzer.

Picture Book of the Day discusses voice using Bubble Homes and Fish Farts.

Kid Lit Kit recommends No Girls Allowed by Susan Hughes.

Blog from the Windowsill describes Gone Fishing by David McLimans.

Tuesday Post-Luncheon Tag-Along Treat

Wendy's Wanderings reviews Clouds by Anne Rockwell.


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I think that does it. Thanks to all who shared and/or followed the posts!