“Where do y
ou get your ideas?” This is a question I often hear from children, along with “How old are you?” and “How much money do you make?” I like to tell them that ideas are everywhere. “You just have to keep your eyes open, your ears open and your mind open.”
I’m just back from almost two months in Southeast Asia, with visits to four international schools (private schools with instruction conducted in English) in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, along with a teacher conference in the exotically named city of Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. I had many eye-, ear- and mind-opening experiences during my time in Asia, and I’ve been thinking about books that might come out of them.
The experiences alone would not be sufficient to create a book. I think it is a commonly held misconception that to write a non-fiction book you can simply do/see/hear/experience something interesting, write it up, and send it in. Books should be that easy! In reality, the experience alone provides just the rawest of raw materials for a book. It must then be augmented by a great deal of thinking to define an approach, followed by copious research before beginning to write. I haven’tgone beyond the first of those preliminary steps, but perhaps it would be interesting to lay out the raw materials from two of my experiences (one now and another in a future post). If either book ever gets written, you will be able to say, “I knew it when.”
When I was in college, I met an entomologist who was the world authority on fireflies and their flashing behavior. Read more »
The opinions and questions of children often fascinate and delight me.
As an author of non-fiction children’s books, I receive many letters from young readers. One that stands out came from a nine-year old girl named Lisa who wondered about the accuracy of various statements in my first book, How Much Is a Million? I was thrilled to receive her letter, for I am always happy to learn that my books are being read critically.
Lisa wondered about the truth of my book’s claim that counting from one to one billion (saying each number individually) would take 95 years. After questioning a few other statements in my book, she closed her letter:
“I had mixed up feelings about your book. That’s where the magic comes from the world of books. The magic of books is not knowing whether the facts are true or not.”
In my presentations at schools, I often tell children, “Wondering is wonderful.” Read more »
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