Today we continue the series in which award-winning nonfiction authors discuss the joys
and challenges of the research process with an essay by Laura Purdie Salas.
Thank you, Laura.
I have a confession: I hate interviewing people. Although
I’ve asked a NASA astronaut about his space boots and discussed chipmunk torpor
with a hospital-ridden scientist, my favorite research techniques are
experiential. And my simplest approaches are wondering, watching, and
remembering.
Back in 2014, I was noodling around with equation poems,
brief equations that reveal something
about the world. I wrote a couple hundred using facts I already knew (dinosaurs
+ meteor = good-byyyyyyyyye!) before I settled on my topic: spring. The
world changes in spring—especially if you live up north. And equations are all
about change.
Great! But I needed a bunch of new equations, and it wasn’t
spring. First, I mined some memories, looking through old digital images and
browsing archived calendars at nature centers. The memories poured in.
Every winter in Minnesota, people haul ice houses onto
frozen lakes for ice fishing. (As I grew up in Florida, I find this
mind-boggling!) Every spring, the temperatures rise and the ice melts. And at
least one ice house sits half sunken because the owner didn’t get it off the
lake in time. So…things melt. This reminded me of the sad good-byes to our
daughters’ melted snowmen. A snowman would be more familiar to kids, so…
snowman – cold = puddle
I also remembered a maple syrup activity at our local Elm
Creek Park. We tapped maple trees, watched boiling sap, and ate maple syrup
over ice cream. Yum! A delicious memory and another equation!
maple trees x buckets +
boiling = sticky smile
When spring 2015 rolled around, I was ready to climb out of
my memories and research in person. I observed the natural world intently that
spring with all of my senses.
At Elm Creek Park, I bobbed to the beat of a downy woodpecker
battering an oak tree.
bark + beak = drum
I also heard Canada geese migrating north overhead—one of
my favorite spring sounds. But I already had a bird sound with the woodpecker.
I kept a daily watch for geese, wondering What do they look like, besides a
vee?
My nose got in on the act, too. My neighborhood walk passed
several blocks full of enormous lilac bushes. When they bloomed—whew! The
intense fragrance made me think of my mom’s favorite perfume, White Shoulders.
As spring flowed on, the calls of frogs filled the dusk air
around Rice Lake. Some species made little chirps, while others honked and
croaked. So many instruments!
frogs + night = symphony
In late spring, purely in the name of research, of course,
I blew on dandelions.
1 dandelion x 1 breath = 100
parachutes
Then spring was over, and summer and fall, too, but I was
still working on the book. How could I experience spring during winter? Every
night, as I walked our beagle, Captain Jack Sparrow, down the icy road, I’d
glance up to find Orion in the sky. I love the stories of the constellations
and how the stars make me feel cared for, somehow. I realized that even though
Orion isn’t visible in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, I could still capture
that comforting feeling of looking to the dark sky to see the (different)
constellations telling their tales.
sky – day = stories
Almost every equation poem in Snowman-Cold=Puddle
can be traced back to something I saw, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled—close
to home! Of course, I supplemented my observational research with tons of
reading and email correspondence with experts. But experiencing these things
myself gave me the emotional core of the book—even though it’s nonfiction!
Experiencing spring physically highlighted the mysteries and beauty of our
constantly changing world. It made me approach the topic with awe and
excitement.
Sometimes, my in-person research is more exciting, as when
I cuddled a bottle-fed lamb at a sheep farm or took a week’s voyage on a Great
Lakes iron ore freighter. But often, my research happens close to home. There’s
a lot of cool stuff all around us, no matter where you live. You just have to
open your eyes (and your ears, mouth, nose, etc.) and pay attention.
Former teacher Laura
Purdie Salas believes reading picture books and poems can
have a huge impact on your life. Her 130 nonfiction and poetry books for kids,
including Lion of the Sky, the Can Be… series, and BookSpeak!,
have won some nice awards, like Kirkus Best Books, Bank Street Best
Books, and NCTE Notables. Laura shares inspiration and practical tips with
educators at laurasalas.com or on social media @LauraPSalas
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I also remembered a maple syrup activity at our local Elm
Creek Park. We tapped maple trees, watched boiling sap, and ate maple syrup
over ice cream. Yum! A delicious memory and another equation!
maple trees x buckets +
boiling = sticky smile
When spring 2015 rolled around, I was ready to climb out of
my memories and research in person. I observed the natural world intently that
spring with all of my senses.
At Elm Creek Park, I bobbed to the beat of a downy woodpecker
battering an oak tree.
bark + beak = drum
I also heard Canada geese migrating north overhead—one of
my favorite spring sounds. But I already had a bird sound with the woodpecker.
I kept a daily watch for geese, wondering What do they look like, besides a
vee?
My nose got in on the act, too. My neighborhood walk passed
several blocks full of enormous lilac bushes. When they bloomed—whew! The
intense fragrance made me think of my mom’s favorite perfume, White Shoulders.
As spring flowed on, the calls of frogs filled the dusk air
around Rice Lake. Some species made little chirps, while others honked and
croaked. So many instruments!
frogs + night = symphony
In late spring, purely in the name of research, of course,
I blew on dandelions.
1 dandelion x 1 breath = 100
parachutes
Then spring was over, and summer and fall, too, but I was
still working on the book. How could I experience spring during winter? Every
night, as I walked our beagle, Captain Jack Sparrow, down the icy road, I’d
glance up to find Orion in the sky. I love the stories of the constellations
and how the stars make me feel cared for, somehow. I realized that even though
Orion isn’t visible in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, I could still capture
that comforting feeling of looking to the dark sky to see the (different)
constellations telling their tales.
sky – day = stories
Almost every equation poem in Snowman-Cold=Puddle
can be traced back to something I saw, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled—close
to home! Of course, I supplemented my observational research with tons of
reading and email correspondence with experts. But experiencing these things
myself gave me the emotional core of the book—even though it’s nonfiction!
Experiencing spring physically highlighted the mysteries and beauty of our
constantly changing world. It made me approach the topic with awe and
excitement.
Sometimes, my in-person research is more exciting, as when
I cuddled a bottle-fed lamb at a sheep farm or took a week’s voyage on a Great
Lakes iron ore freighter. But often, my research happens close to home. There’s
a lot of cool stuff all around us, no matter where you live. You just have to
open your eyes (and your ears, mouth, nose, etc.) and pay attention.
Former teacher Laura
Purdie Salas believes reading picture books and poems can
have a huge impact on your life. Her 130 nonfiction and poetry books for kids,
including Lion of the Sky, the Can Be… series, and BookSpeak!,
have won some nice awards, like Kirkus Best Books, Bank Street Best
Books, and NCTE Notables. Laura shares inspiration and practical tips with
educators at laurasalas.com or on social media @LauraPSalas
Most Popular Posts
Resignation
Re-thinking “E” Is for Everyone
We Need Diverse Nonfiction
The 5 Kinds of Nonfiction
Behind the Books: Does Story Appeal to Everyone?
10 STEM Picture Books
Nonfiction Authors Dig Deep by Melissa Stewart
Nonfiction Authors Dig Deep by Deborah Heiligman
Is It Fiction or Nonfiction? A Twitterchat
5 Kinds of Nonfiction, Book Lists
Topics
14 Responses
Thank you for sharing your amazing insights and process for research!
SNOWMAN is one of the most clever books I've read and I'm so glad to find out what led Laura to write it!
This is such a great post! The idea for equation poems is so clever!
I love this book and it was so wonderful to hear about Laura's process. Thank you!
This is SO clever!!
I worked at Charlesbridge when this book was developed. I was amazed at Laura’s clever format and fun text and illustrations by Micha Archer. A book everyone should add to their library! I hope she will create books for the rest of the seasons.
Thanks, Charlotte! My research methods are highly affected by my discomfort in talking to people :>D
Thanks so much, Teresa!
Thank you, Cathy :>)
Thanks, Rose!
Thank you, Lydia. Figuring out what kinds of research work best for you is sometimes a challenge :>)
Thank you so much, Cathy! Charlesbridge did such beautiful work on this book. I would absolutely love to create books for the other three seasons! I pitched the idea, but no go. It just didn't find its audience. (In fact, the crossover of poetry, math, and science was likely what made it difficult for folks to know how to categorize it and share it, so it's kind of a case of being too clever for my own good, perhaps.) Your generous words have made my day, though–thank you!
You have my mind churning with an old idea and a possible new take on how to make it work. Time to do some research, experiential and down the rabbit hole.
Thank you.
This was fun to read about each of your word equations and what inspired you to come up with them. I'm going to share this link with the children's literature book club in which I'm a member of—CLAC—Children's Literature for Adults Club. (We used to be members of a national club, but then we became more local, selecting our own books. Bev Bauer selected your book.) We read your book and discussed it on Feb. 9th. We all loved it. We rated it a 9.8, on a scale of 1 to 10, which is one of the highest scores we've ever rated a book. Thank you for sharing!