Claire Eamer Talks About Science Books for Kids

Claire Eamer stopped by for tea at Annick a few weeks ago, and now she's back to answer some questions about researching and writing science books for kids. Enjoy!

Claire: In November, I got the chance to visit Ontario schools during TD Canadian Children's Book Week. The picture above is a display of my books and a welcome sign in the library at the Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto Middle School. I also dropped by Annick Press's Toronto home and we got talking about writing non-fiction. So we decided to take a bit of the discussion to the blog. Here are a few questions -- from kids, teachers, and a blog reader -- and my answers.

From a kid: Which of your books is your favourite?

Claire: I guess I have a short attention span because my absolute favourite at the moment is the book I'm still working on. It's called Snakes in the Sky: Animals Where You Least Expect Them, and it is full of some of the weirdest and most surprising animals you can imagine. And I can imagine some pretty weird animals! Apart from it, I think my favourite is Super Crocs & Monster Wings, mainly because it was my first book for kids and everything about the process was new and exciting.

From a kid: What's your favourite animal in the books?

Claire: I think my favourite is the giant ground sloth, which I talked about in Super Crocs & Monster Wings. They were so amazingly BIG! And they lived in the Yukon, where I live. I've even seen a skeleton of a Jefferson's Ground Sloth. A close second is the giant sea scorpion from Spiked Scorpions & Walking Whales. They were huge and weird and left their footprints behind for us to see. There's something about footprints locked in stone that brings the creature to life for me.

From Mommy C: I am interested in the research that goes behind finding so many cool creatures. I can picture [Claire] travelling the globe like an Indiana Jones of prehistoric animals, searching through the catacombs of museum basements for rare giant beavers and enormous insects.

Claire: I wish! Gotta get me an Indiana Jones hat! Actually, I do haunt museums whenever I get the chance. I love them, and I find loads of ideas in them, both for science books and history books. However, most of the research for the books involves reading -- books, magazine and newspaper stories, articles in academic journals, and websites. I also do a lot of emailing to experts all around the world. Experts are amazingly generous with their time when you explain that you're writing for kids.

From a teacher: What's the best part of writing?

Claire: The research. I love learning things. I think I became a writer for the sake of the research, not for the writing itself. Although I do enjoy turning what I've learned into a story for other people to enjoy. Writing non-fiction is telling a story, just as much writing fiction is. You just have to stick to the facts.

Speaking of research, I'd better get back to it. The next book beckons!

Claire

Crocs are Super Critters!

Hi! I’m Claire Eamer, author of Super Crocs and Monster Wings: Modern Animals’ Ancient Past.

I’m fascinated by animals, both ancient and modern. Where I live, in the Yukon, we know all about the ancient animals. During the last ice age, large parts of the Yukon escaped the glaciers. Instead, the land was covered with grass and home to some of the animals in my book, including giant sloths, beavers as big as bears, and North American camels.

It wasn’t crocodile country, even then, but I have met crocs, up close and personal. Fortunately, there was a good, strong fence between us.

In Australia a couple of years ago, I visited a wildlife preserve with scores of saltwater crocodiles living more or less as they would in the wild. Humans were safely fenced into gravel walkways or loaded onto boats, while the crocodiles glided through the muddy river or basked on the bank in the hot sun, their mouths wide open to avoid overheating.

A saltwater crocodile eyes tourists in Australia.

Those mouths! Most of them were at least the length of an arm, but you wouldn’t want to check that measurement. And when the crocodiles snapped at each other, the sound was like a trap closing. A big trap. With teeth. Lots and lots of teeth.

On a hot day in Australia, any water looks inviting--but you may change your mind when you check the warning signs!

That’s why, when I heard of a prehistoric croc as big as a city bus, I just knew I had to include it in the book.

Want to see some more of my writing? Check out the following:

* "Dopted" -- Cover story for the 2007 Holiday Edition of Written Word Magazine

* "The Lost Land" in POLARIS: A Celebration of Polar Science (Star Ink Books, 2007)

* "Time Change" in Vestal Review 27