Today we continue the series in
which award-winning nonfiction authors compare the joys and challenges of
writing narrative
nonfiction and expository nonfiction with an
essay by Patricia Newman. Thank you, Patricia
Stories connect us. I’m drawn to science stories
that connect us to each other and our world. Behind discoveries in magnetism,
mechanics, and mammals are stories about brave thinkers exploring the unknown, creating
new inventions, and probing beyond our current understanding. Their forward
thinking and risk-taking appeal to me. The trail-blazing innovators in my books
hook readers—even before readers know they’re diving into topics such as trophic
cascades, ocean acidification, acoustics, and ocean plastic.
The storyteller in me uses a narrative style to
introduce scientist-characters who have a problem to solve. Tension builds with
the successes and failures inherent in the scientific process. And I end with a
satisfying conclusion. I also invite readers into the story by helping them make
personal connections to environmental issues that touch their hearts and
empower them to act.
In my Sibert Honor book Sea Otter Heroes,
I open with two paragraphs to make readers curious about marine biologist Brent
Hughes’s problem and how he solved it:
What does a playful sea otter have to do with flowering
seagrass that grows underwater? While they share an ocean home, one is a mammal
and the other is a plant. One eats crabs and fish. The other uses
photosynthesis to make food. One frolics in the sea. The other sways to an
underwater rhythm.
But in fact, a critical link between the two
exists, a link that marine biologist Brent Hughes found completely by accident.
Finding that connection solved a scientific mystery that Brent had almost given
up on [4].
In my newest book Planet Ocean, I collected
true stories from local and Indigenous people around the world. Rather than listing
salmon statistics, Dana Wilson, an elder fisherman with the Lummi Nation in the
Pacific Northwest, allows me to make climate science personal:
“I’ve been on the water for the past fifty
years,” Dana says. “…my grandfather caught 40- to 50-pound salmon. My father
caught 25-pound salmon. I averaged 18 pounds. My son catches 10- to 12-pound
fish…Salmon are the basis of the Salish Sea. If we can’t go out and catch fish,
it affects our way of life, our health, our spirituality. Without them we’ll
lose everything” [29].
Scientists are the heart of my narrative
nonfiction, and I work closely with them as they tell me their stories. I visit
them in zoos, marshes, estuaries, the ocean, and labs. I even took a diving lesson
to write Planet Ocean with an underwater perspective.
I record each interview and listen to it
several times before writing, transcribing quotes and their timestamp. Quotes,
like dialogue in fiction, advance the narrative and add personality and
emotion. In an example from Eavesdropping on Elephants, scientist Katy
Payne remarks on her first impressions of the Central African forest where she
would study forest elephants by listening:
“We were surrounded by trees,” Katy says. “Some
of them very, very large, full of creatures I didn’t know, full of birdsongs I
wasn’t familiar with, so densely packed against each other you didn’t see an
animal until you were practically on top of it” [19].
You can feel the mixture of anticipation and
trepidation in Katy’s words as she embarks on this new adventure. Doesn’t it
give you chills?
All scientists were once children, and I share
their journeys so my readers can picture their future story possibilities. In Zoo
Scientists to the Rescue, primatologist Meredith Bastian was always
passionate about apes:
“I grew up with the National Zoo as my home,”
she says. “When I was eight we had to interview someone in our area of interest
for a Language Arts project. I asked my mother to call the zoo” [12].
In the back matter of my narrative nonfiction
books, check out the citations for every quote. If you read a book that claims
to be nonfiction that does not cite quotes, chances are the dialogue is
fabricated, which moves the book from the nonfiction category to the fiction-based-on-a-true-story
category.
I also use lyrical language to familiarize
readers with ecosystems they probably know little about—a California estuary, a
Central African forest, or in the ocean where land is only a memory. Literary
devices such as similes, metaphors, imagery, and alliteration work precisely
because I am a storyteller:
The Arctic is as
magical as it is foreign, with a silence so intense it seems to shout [Planet Ocean, 32].
Mark Twain once said, “Truth is stranger than
fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth
isn’t.” As a narrative nonfiction author, stories about real scientists and the
unexpected twists and turns of their discoveries inspire me and connect me to my
world. I do my best to share that inspiration with readers in an accurate,
truthful way to help them find their own “ah-ha” moments in life. I want them
to say, “I can do this, too!”
Sibert Honor author
Patricia Newman shows young readers how their actions can ripple around the world. Using
social and environmental injustice as inspiration, she empowers young readers
to seek connections to the real world and to use their imaginations to
act on behalf of their communities. One Texas librarian
wrote, “Patricia is one of THE BEST nonfiction authors writing for our students
in today’s market, and one of our MUST HAVE AUTHORS for every collection.”
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3 Responses
I love the way you introduce the questions that scientists are asking, Patricia. Being partial to sea otters, I've got to say that's my fave – so far…
Thanks Sue!
Patricia has a great way of weaving interviews into gripping stories. I look forward to her Planet Ocean book!
Incidentally, in my debut Queen of Physics, I was such a newbie I didn't note where my quotes came from (and unfortunately, my editor/publisher didn't prompt me to do so either). But my readers can rest assured that nothing in quotes was made up in the book. I know better now though and always include citations. 😀