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2017 NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book
LITTLE ROCK, AR – December 13, 2016 — For 100 days in 2012, a Johnson jumping spider (Phiddipus johnsonii) circled Earth while aboard the International Space Station. She circled the Earth 1584 times, traveling about 41,580,000 miles. When author Darcy Pattison heard the story, she researched and wrote a children’s picture book, Nefertiti, the Spidernaut: […]
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Oldest Bird in World Lays Egg – Age 66
Wisdom, the Midway Albatross is Back! In 2012, I wrote the story of the oldest bird in the world and how she survived the 2011 Japanese tsunami. At that time, she was almost 60 years old and had lived far beyond the 25 years expected of Laysan albatrosses. Each November/December, when the albatrosses return to […]
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Sailing with the Pigs: Where Do Ideas Come From?
My fabulous brother-in-law HP owns a 2-cabin, ocean-going sailing ship that he docks at Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. We’ve gone twice to sail with him, and it’s a blast. There’s something about letting the wind carry you across the water with no other means of propulsion. Wind in your face. Cold. Thrilling. I wanted […]
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GoodReads Giveaways: Rowdy
ROWDY: The Pirate Who Could Not Sleep comes out on June 1. One week away! To celebrate, we’ve set up a Goodreads Giveaway that will end – appropriately – on Father’s Day. The giveaway ends on Father’s Day. Rowdy: Father-Daughter Bedtime Story A rowdy heart doesn’t know what it wants or needs! When a rowdy […]
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Oliver Meets Rowdy: A Case Study of an Ongoing Promotion
One of my stories, THE JOURNEY OF OLIVER K. WOODMAN, is in a HMH reading textbook, Journeys. It’s usually read in the spring and one activity that students often do is to send a laminated paper version of Oliver on a trip to visit folks. Download the 2016 Lesson Plan pack, which includes Sample Chapters […]
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An Incredible Signature: Thanks, Marcia and Sergio!
As writers, we put our books out into the world, and they take on a life of their own, apart from us. But sometimes, we get an echo back about what the book is doing, who is reading it and how they are affected. This week, I had one of those incredible, amazing and powerful […]