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Space Travel and LEGOs: Interview with Author Jennifer Swanson

By Laurie J. Edwards on July 17, 2023 / Author Interviews

We’re excited to have Jennifer Swanson on here today to talk about her two new releases. Let’s start with learning a bit more about her, and then we’ll talk more about both of her books, Spacecare: The Kids Guide to Surviving Space and LEGO: Amazing Earth.

So, Jen, did you love to read as a child? If so, can you tell us some favorite books?

I read EVERYTHING! Every summer my library had a contest to read the most books. I won almost every year. I read so many books. Fiction, nonfiction, science, history, adventure, and more. I think my favorite books are mysteries. They still are. Of course, I read all of the Nancy Drew books, the Hardy Boys, and Trixie Belden as well.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I have been writing my whole life. I used to write books when I was in kindergarten and early elementary school. As I got older, I kept journals. I didn’t fully decide to become a writer until I was much older and a stay-at-home mom with three kids. It was a busy time, but writing was my outlet and I loved it.

Have you had any careers besides writing?

Yes, I’ve been a science teacher for over 14 years. I’ve taught middle school science, forensics science, and high and junior college level chemistry.

That sounds like you have the perfect background to write these science-based books. Is that what drew you to writing nonfiction?

I am a curious person and have lots of questions about how things work. LOTS! One of my mom’s favorite sayings to me when I was a kid was, “Go look it up!”. And I did. I was a totally Jeopardy kid. Because I love facts! And I love learning. So, for me, writing nonfiction is all about making those facts FUN for kids. It’s getting them to be curious, and wanting to imagine, explore, and investigate to learn more.

And now that we know about more about Jennifer, let’s find out about more about her books about space and LEGOs.

Jen, what inspired you to write about these topics?

Both of these books were actually work-for-hire projects, so I was given the topics to write about. But, let me tell you, I was THRILLED to be able to write them both.

I have long been a HUGE fan of space, medicine, and LEGOs.

From the time I was 9, I wanted to be a doctor. At first a pediatrician, then a heart surgeon, then an organ-transplant surgeon. When I was in high school, Sally Ride, went up in the space shuttle for the first time. I was hooked. My new goal – the first female astronaut organ-transplant surgeon. (That sounds like an amazing goal!!)

While, clearly none of that happened, writing Spacecare allowed me to share my passions for both topics.

As for LEGOs, well, I’ve been building with them since I was old enough to put them together. My childhood was spent engineering and building many different creations. I’m old enough to have been around when you just bought the blocks and there weren’t instructions, so you designed your own stuff. My kids loved LEGOs, and our house is still filled with them. Taking my love of LEGOs and combining it with science? Yes, please. Writing this book was simply AMAZING!

Can you tell us a little about the books?

How about I show you. Here are a few spreads from SpaceCare: The Kids Guide to Surviving Space (Mayo Clinic Press/Smithsonian Institution)

pg 23

pg 24

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at this book, and it’s fascinating. Did you ever wonder how people eat in space or go to the bathroom? Remember they don’t have gravity like we do on Earth. What’s microgravity? How do you keep yourself from floating around when you sleep? Jen covers all this and so much more. The pictures are amazing.

If you’re a LEGO-fan, you won’t want to miss this one:

Here are a few spreads from LEGO: Amazing Earth (DK Books)

Lego spread

Lego 2 spread

Not only do you learn to construct many new things with LEGOs, but you’ll also learn fun facts as the sample pages show.

To find all this great information, Jen, where did you go to do your research?

Most of my research for the Spacecare book was done online. NASA has some amazing websites. But I also went to NASA Kennedy’s Space Center, and NASA Johnson’s Space Center, too. I spoke with a few experts, including Dr. Mike Harrison, doctor at the Mayo Clinic and now the Chief Medical Officer for Axiom Space. I was also lucky enough to speak with Astronaut Megan McArthur as well.

Wow! That must have been exciting to go to the space centers and speak to the doctor and an astronaut! And Astronaut Megan McArthur wrote a note at the beginning of the book.

For the LEGO: Amazing Earth book, I did a lot of online research at highly regarded content websites, as well as did some interviews with scientists, too.

With all the unusual information you discovered while researching, what was one of the most interesting facts you learned?

In Spacecare, there were so many facts, it’s hard to pick. I think I would have to say that the fact that when you’re in microgravity, your stomach floats up so that you don’t always feel hungry. That was intriguing to me. (It is to me too.)

For the LEGO book, I’d have to say that seeing how these ecosystems were designed by the LEGO experts was my favorite part. I knew I wanted to include them, but I had no idea what they would look like. (That is fascinating!)

What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

I hope readers will be fascinated by new facts, inspired by the amazing science and technology, and go out and explore the world around them.

I’m sure these books will inspire them! I know they inspired me.

Can you tell us about some of your other books?

I am the author of about 50 books for kids. I love STEM of all kinds, but I also have history and biography books, too. You can find all of my books, free teacher guides, videos, and more on my website https://jenniferswansonbooks.com/

I also have a science podcast for kids (of all ages). Check it out! https://solveitforkids.com/

What are you working on now?

I just completed final edits on my MG NF book, The Lost Forest: An Unexpected Discovery Beneath the Waves (Millbrook Press, April 2024). It follows a group of scientists who were the only ones to investigate an underwater forest.

I am working on edits for a book called Who Owns the Moon? (Margaret Quinlan Books, Jan 2025), cowritten with Cynthia Levinson.

And I’m in edits on the next Atlas Obscura book which releases from Workman Publishing in 2025.

Those all sound like great reads. We’ll look forward to seeing them when they come out.

Thanks so much for having me!

You’re welcome, Jennifer. It’s been a pleasure.

About Jennifer Swanson

Jennifer Swanson is the author of 40+ nonfiction books for kids. She is the creator and cohost of the Solve It! For Kids podcast which, in its two years of being on air, has 40k+ downloads, is ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts Worldwide, and is #1 in the Top 10 Best Podcasts for Learning by All Digital School. Her passion for science and technology resonates in all of her books but especially, Brain Games, named one of the 50 Best Science Books Ever by ThePlanets.org, Astronaut-Aquanaut, BEASTLY Bionics, and Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner, Save the Crash-test Dummies. Her books have received starred reviews, been on the Booklist ‘Best Tech’ books list, won a Green Earth Book Honor Award, three Florida Book Awards, California Reading Association awards, and multiple National Science Teaching BEST STEM awards. Jennifer’s Outdoor School: Rocks, Fossils, and Shells book was named a 2021 Kirkus Best Books of the Year, and her Save the Crash-test Dummies book received a Parent’s Choice GOLD Award. Jennifer is an accomplished speaker at events and schools around the country, the Highlights Foundation, the National NSTA conferences, the World Science Festival in NYC, and the Library of Congress’ National Book Festival. You can find Jennifer through her website www.JenniferSwansonBooks.com.

Writing Across Age Bands – A Conversation with Author Julie Buxbaum

By Ines Lozano on July 14, 2023 / Articles

writing across age bands, author Julie Buxbaum's young adult novel Tell Me Three Things on a table outside

I will forever fangirl over Julie Buxbaum. My love for her work began in July of 2016. This picture was the start of my love affair with stories crafted by Julie. And on that day, her work sparked the inspiration that sent me on my writing journey. Her skillful abilities in writing across age bands helped unbox my dreams of writing books for children of all ages.

Julie Buxbaum is the New York Times best-selling author of Tell Me Three Things, her young adult debut, What to Say Next, Hope and Other Punchlines, and most recently, the very popular middle-grade series The Area 51 Files. She’s also the author of two critically acclaimed novels for adults: The Opposite of Love and After You. Her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Julie’s writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times. She’s a former lawyer and a graduate of Harvard Law School. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and more books than is reasonable.

Your debut and sophomore books were both critically acclaimed adult novels. They were followed by your incredibly successful young adult books that include NYT bestselling novels Tell Me Three Things (my favorite YA of all time) and What To Say Next. In 2022, you again expanded your readership’s age band with the release of the first book in The Area 51 Files series for middle-grade readers. Did you start your writing career aware that you would be writing across age bands?

Nope. I never expected to write across age ranges or genres. When I first started out, I couldn’t think beyond the first book. I didn’t even let myself imagine that writing would become my long-term career. But over the past sixteen or seventeen years that I’ve been doing this, my life, and who I am as a person, have fundamentally changed, and so it feels natural and organic that my interests keep shifting. At the moment, my son is a middle-grade reader and I very much wanted to write a series for him. He’s the reason I ended up turning to The Area 51 Files.

Your popularity transcends generations, something that is not easy to achieve. Will we soon see your name on the shelves for early readers?

Thank you! I would love to write a picture book! No plans for one at the moment, but you never know when inspiration will strike. I do have an idea that has been percolating for years, but I’ve never been able to crack it.

You’ve proven that writers do not have to confine themselves to any genre or age group to find success. For the writer out there reading this, looking for advice on crossing readership age brackets, what is one thing that you’ve learned that surprised you the most about writing across age bands and categories?

Writing is writing. I find it is equally hard to write for young people as it is to write for sophisticated adults. On the other hand, it’s also equally fun! Each genre requires me to lean on a slightly different skill set, and I find my instinct sort of guides me toward what I’m best equipped to write at the time.

For example, during the height of the pandemic, I wasn’t in the right mind space to dig into serious material, so I wrote The Area 51 Files, which was pure joy. My YA and adult editors would have never let me get away with so many fart jokes! And it was just what I needed to help me get through what was otherwise a not-so-happy time. Which is to say, I think it’s helpful for writers to be adaptable and responsive to their own needs when deciding what they want to work on.

Regardless of the characters’ age, wit and humor are consistently present in your writing. My favorite thing in your stories is the clever banter within the dialogue. Do you have any tips for writers transitioning from writing teen or adult characters to exploring middle-grade novel ideas?

I approach my MG much like I imagine Pixar writers approach their movies. That is with the idea that I’m writing for two audiences at once. I’m writing directly to the middle-grade reader who may be reading on their own before bedtime—and I want my book to be a delicious, funny, adventurous delight for them. But I’m also writing to the parent whose lap they may possibly be sitting on.

So I try to have my humor work on multiple levels. My MG books are 95% jokes that kids will hopefully find hilarious, and then there are maybe 5% written as a wink for the grown-ups. Also, I think it helps to remember that kids are so freakin’ funny, and so they are always down for a good joke. No one makes me laugh as much as my ten and thirteen-year-old kids. They have perfect comic timing.

Also, this might sound like conflicting advice, but I think it’s super important never to write down to your audience. Kids these days are smart and sophisticated. At the same time, especially when writing middle grade, it’s important to always remember your readership and be mindful of their need for movement in the text to keep them engaged. You need to consistently be turning the dial up on every front because it’s hard to compete with the X-box!

To those that aren’t writers, it can seem like things come easy to successful authors such as yourself. After having written for teens and adults, did doubt ever enter your mind while drafting your middle-grade novels?

I doubt myself with every single book! After I wrote The Opposite of Love and After You (both adult novels), I spent two years working on a novel that will forever live in a drawer. You never know what’s going to work until it works (or in some cases doesn’t). Each time I sit down to write a new project, it feels like starting all over again, because each idea is fundamentally different and its own animal. That’s both my favorite and least favorite thing about being a writer. It’s always exciting and challenging, but it never gets easy. I’ve just gotten used to doubt being baked into the process.

Parents are never supposed to admit which child is their favorite. **I suppose the same may be said of authors and their book babies, but, (IL lowers her voice to a whisper), do you have a favorite between writing adult, young adult, or middle-grade novels?**

Honestly, I love them all! I find what I like writing the most has way more to do with where I am in my life, than the genres themselves. When the world shut down, writing middle grade felt like getting to go outside and play and laugh. At the moment, I’m working on middle grade and adult at the same time, because my brain and life have a little more room to breathe. Both feed different parts of my soul, so right now, it’s like asking me to pick between chocolate and coffee. I can’t live without either.

((If you enjoyed Writing Across Age Bands – A Conversation with Julie Buxbaum, you’ll love this piece.))

Want to Buy the Book?

You can find all of Julie’s books here

https://www.juliebuxbaum.com/books.

To buy The Area 51 Files for your middle grader, click here (

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-area-51-files-julie-buxbaum/18234858?ean=9780593429464)

And pre-order the next in the series here

(https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-big-flush-julie-buxbaum/18993218?ean=9780593429501.)

What Does AI Mean for Middle Grade?

By Susan Koehler on July 13, 2023 / Oh MG News

Everywhere you turn in the news these days, you’re hearing about artificial intelligence, more commonly referred to as AI. What is it that prompts both excitement and apprehension, and just how does this tech news affect authors, illustrators, and readers of middle-grade works?

If you find yourself asking these questions, read on. There’s plenty of AI news on the middle grade front, and multiple organizations are speaking out.

SCBWI

Back in December of 2022, the official blog of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators published a two-part series titled “The Troubling Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and How It Impacts Children’s Book Creators.”

Part I covered issues for illustrators, like the potential for AI systems to study a wealth of existing artwork, learn patterns within them, and “create” something new from what the system has learned.

Natural questions arise. Can this be termed as “stealing” from existing creators? On one hand, it looks new. What’s the difference between a tech tool borrowing from existing patterns and an artist being inspired by them? But on the other hand, the product is not new and original. The “creation” is generated from the images that have been programmed into it.

The same issues exist for authors, as detailed in SCBWI’s Part II of the series. At issue is the fact that AI systems like the highly popular Chat GPT and a growing number of similar resources, are producing text at a wildly accelerated rate.

These systems can generate a story or a nonfiction piece about a particular topic for a target demographic at a specified word length. Just give it the specs, and watch it “create.” But can you really call it “creating”?

How Does AI Work?

Text generated by AI systems pulls from the language patterns, information, and ideas of existing works. Technically speaking, it’s not creating new work – it’s regenerating data points from established work in a whole new way.

This capability is sending up red flags for authors and illustrators. What qualifies copyright infringement in this strange new world? How likely is it that the publishing industry might succumb to the potential for big returns on small investments?

And what might all this mean for readers? When text and illustrations are being generated from patterns and data points gleaned from existing works, there is no creativity. No human perspective. No potential for something new and wonderful that speaks to the soul and enlightens the mind.

The SCBWI blog posts refer readers to the questions that are already on the minds of the folks at The Authors Guild, so let’s go there next.

The Authors Guild

Back in October of 2022, The Authors Guild posted a cautionary article by Mary Rasenberger entitled “How Will Authorship Be Defined in an AI Future?”

One major concern presented in this piece is fair compensation for creators. The Authors Guild is actively advocating for changes to copyright laws that will prevent AI from taking over the market for written works.

Rasenberger presents a list of ways AI has already been used in journalism, corporate texts, and literature. She cites two examples of AI achievements that are more than moderately concerning. An AI-generated novel was a finalist for a Japanese literary award, and there was an AI-generated article about the harmless nature of AI published in The Guardian.

Rasenberger goes on to explain that AI is not actually “creating”; it is auto-generating texts and images using existing works that have been programmed into it. She argues that copyright laws need to adjust for AI infringements, and she details a list of concerns that need to be addressed.

However, the author also concludes that she does not foresee AI being able to replace true art. Human art reflects the very real experiences and emotions of its time and place. And that cannot be generated from existing works. In Rasenberger’s words, “I think we can all agree that a world without the arts, which help move us forward as a society, is not one that we aspire to.”

MLA and NCTE

In July 2023, a joint task force of the Modern Language Association and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (a chartered conference of the National Council of Teachers of English) issued a statement about writing and AI in which they discuss both the risks and the benefits of AI. It’s a working paper, so comments are open and a final version is forthcoming.

This working statement “makes principle-driven recommendations for how educators, administrators, and policy makers can work together to develop ethical, mission-driven policies and support broad development of critical AI literacy.” In other words, there may be dangers, but AI isn’t going anywhere, so how can we make this work?

In the introduction, the statement is made that “writing describes a process as well as a product.” This is an important premise to consider. The labor involved in creating should be acknowledged and compensated appropriately, and students of writing need to learn their craft by going through the process of writing.

The paper goes on to define “broad risks and potential benefits of artificial intelligence to language, literary, and writing scholarship and instruction.” For example, while we need to guard against AI resources infringing on copyright and supplanting actual authors and illustrators, we can safely acknowledge the benefit of AI in brainstorming and gathering ideas.

Conclusions

It’s hard to derive real conclusions from all the AI information out there right now because this is just the dawn of the age. However, it’s safe to say that AI is here to stay, and creators as well as consumers of middle grade literature need to be aware of both its positive and its negative potential.

Does AI have the potential to eliminate human creators from the equation? No, it does not. Regenerating text and images from what already exists does not move the world forward. AI will never have the capacity to think, feel, empathize, and imagine.

AI can help us see with new eyes what is already in existence. But it cannot truly create. In the wise words of Albert Einstein, “Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought.”

Keep seeing. Keep thinking. Keep creating.