Books
What's New is What's Old!
I am the author of 18 nonfiction books for children, including The Doomsday Detectives: How Walter and Luis Alvarez Solved the Mystery of Dinosaur Extinctions,
to be published by Lee and Low Books, March 2025.
In the picture above, I am standing on the rocky shore at UN World Heritage Site, Stevens Klint, Denmark, pointing to the line in stone that is evidence of where the Cretaceous Period ended and the Paleogene began. What caused the world to change so suddenly 66 million years ago? And how did scientists figure out what happened at a time long before humans existed?
To find out, I dug into studies by scientists beginning in ancient times all the way through the present day to understand how the knowledge of each scientist builds on that of another to create the understandings we have today that will lead to new discoveries tomorrow.
See below for more of my books to help kids and adults find wonder wherever they look!
Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, a Life in Nature
Ansel Adams couldn't sit still. Even his thoughts "flew about like a gull in a storm." By his own reckoning as an adult, Ansel figured he might have been diagnosed with ADHD when he was a childn, if that diagnosis had been available in the early 1900s. He couldn't tolerate school, which he described as "dully brown." Instead of forcing him to go, his father Charles Adams, pulled Ansel out of school at 13 and let him play outside, hiring private tutors to meet his academic needs. Ansel Adams' relationship with nature would become the overarching theme of his life, shaping his work as a photographer, which in turn shaped our world. Find out how the antsy little boy because a world-renown artist and conservationist in this picture book.
Weeds Find a Way
Love them or loathe them, weeds are here to stay. If we can take a moment to appreciate them -- their tenacity, beauty, resilience and -- surprise! -- ability to pop up where we least expect them, we can see the true wonder of weeds. Use this book to find the wonder of nature wherever you happen to be -- or to study biological adaptations, the social-emotional traits of resilience and perseverance, and to observe the natural wonders around us in our every day lives.
Dig In!
What young child doesn't love to muck around in the mud? Dig in to dirt and see what you can find in the most extraordinary ordinary stuff on the planet!
Use this book as an easy reader for children who love to learn by doing. Get busy, and Dig In!