Stewart, Melissa
Melissa Stewart’s Back Yard
As Melissa Stewart thinks back on her young self tramping through the back yard and forest with her father, little did she know that for many children, her books would be a gateway to that natural world she so loved. A teacher the author greatly admires and respects creates the http://thereisabookforthat.com/ blog. One of her book lists was “Picture Books that Make You Change Your Perspective” and included two of Melissa’s books.
“It made me think about my body of work in a whole different way,” revealed the naturalist/author. No Monkeys, No Chocolate and Feathers: Not Just for Flying do open young readers up to new ideas about the natural world. One of the reasons Melissa’s books work so well with teachers is that “building relationships with educators and getting feedback from them is invaluable to me,” she explains. Her website is particularly rich in resources, from in-depth guides, to pinterest pages, to alignments, and the process of writing nonfiction.
“In the last ten or twelve years, nonfiction has been undergoing a revolution,” she notes. She feels that when book sales started sliding and librarians were losing their jobs, authors and publishers had to raise the bar and find ways to make nonfiction texts more engaging. “There is a whole new breed of nonfiction now.”
“Educators are realizing that this is not the same boring nonfiction, straight informational text, as in the past but a book that has visual dynamics, a strong voice, and compelling design,” she observes. At the same time, nonfiction authors have developed their own terminology much as fiction has had. Melissa’s example is “I want to have a lyrical voice because I’m talking about hibernation or something else lends itself to a question and answer format.” Best of all, she concludes that “authors and editors are thinking more deliberately.”
Her advent to the world of nonfiction for children is grounded in her degrees in journalism and science. A Place for Butterflies was an offshoot of an article she wrote for a magazine of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. “Educators told me about the Harris’ Checkerspot butterfly that almost disappeared,” she recalls. They figured out the breeding place was directly beneath power lines and that when the electric company mowed in the spring, the caterpillars and eggs were impacted. “So they changed when they mowed and the butterflies have bounced back,” she exults. By observing, and thinking and changing one habit, a species was saved.
And that may be the underlying theme to Melissa Stewart’s work–by paying attention and understanding, anyone, even a child, can have a positive impact on the world. Not that her work is limited to what you might be able to find in your back yard. One of her bestselling books is Meteors published by National Geographic with Robots, Dolphins and Deadly Animals also enjoying wide audiences. If it’s science, then chances are high that it has caught her attention in the 100 or so books she has published. And if it is published, it is certain that outstanding resources await teachers and kids at melissa-stewart.com in the Melissa Stewart Science Zone, or alternatively, Melissa Stewart’s virtual back yard that anyone can visit.
Interviewed by Ellen Myrick, July 2015
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