For Accidental Archaeologists, it’s about
understanding the biases that have long bedeviled the field of archaeology and
how those biases have shaped our perspectives of human history. 

My
kid readers don’t need to know the core idea for each book, but it’s essential that
I figure it out and stick to it.

Even
after I’ve nailed my core idea, there remains the challenge of boiling down
complex science or multi-faceted historical events so they’re accurate, engaging,
and accessible to kids.

Let’s
Compare and Contrast!
Narrative
nonfiction generally consists of a single, arcing story about a person or
period of history. The story is broken down into scenes with rising action and
tight pacing.

In
my books, each chapter is generally its own arc, both independent of the rest
but also part of the overall linking concept. I generate a bunch of smaller
stories, related but not monolithic, and then I stick together the individual
prismatic cells to form one big honeycomb-blob of a book. With lots of
pictures.

I
see narrative nonfiction as being more like a feature-length film, whereas my
style of expository nonfiction is more of a variety show of sketch comedy.

The
challenge is to entice my readers with a fun topic and surprising, funny,
sometimes gross stories, but also to provide them with historical or scientific
context. And it must all happen within the matrix of interesting writing. While
the process is never easy, the final product has to look easy.

Speaking
of making it look easy

Here’s my latest book, which published in September.
It’s called Fairy Tale Science, and
it’s full of hands-on experiments, which required me to learn (or re-learn) a
whole lot of physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, forensics, botany, zoology, and psychology. In
addition to my frequent SOS appeals to reference librarians and scientist
friends, my process may also have included some dark muttering, stomping
around, and balling up of pages.

There
were days when I asked myself what had possessed me to embark on such an
ambitious project. Then a little voice would answer: Who else would
be idiotic enough to think they could write such a book? It may as well be you.

So
here you go. My four steps to good expository writing:

—Find
what’s familiar and appealing to young readers, then help them make
connections.

—Make
it accurate.

—Write
tightly.

—And
make it look easy.

Sarah Albee is
the New York Times bestselling author of nonfiction books for
kids. Fairy Tale Science is her latest title. Other recent books
include Accidental
Archaeologists: True Stories of Unexpected Discoveries; North America: A
Foldout Graphic History;
POISON: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines;
Why’d They Wear That?: Bugged: How Insects Changed History;
and Poop Happened: A History of the World from the Bottom Up. She lives in Connecticut with her family.