Posts Tagged middle-grade fiction

STEM Tuesday Science in Fiction Books– Craft and Resources

By on December 19, 2017   /   Common Core & NGSS, Science in Fiction, STEM, STEM Tuesday, Writing  

There are two things you need to do to ensure proper use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in fiction.

  1. Obtain an advanced degree in nuclear computational physics C++ programming or an equivalent field.
  2. Obtain a federal or privately funded grant to research the molecular neurological factors and biochemical pathways necessary for the incorporation of STEM into story.

Wait! Don’t leave!

I’m only joking. I’m a microbiologist, not a comedian (if you hadn’t noticed). I’m also a writer so the representation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is important to me. Nothing rings my own readerly bell more than a seamless use of STEM in fiction and I believe it is vital to show STEM topics outside of a nonfiction or textbook scenario.

Remember back in the day when you were in that algebra or physical science class? Do you recall the question that ran through your young, the-world-is-my-oyster brain?

WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO USE THIS STUFF IN REAL LIFE?

The answer is one we didn’t like back then and we probably still don’t like today…

You are going to encounter this STEM stuff all your life.

It’s everywhere. Even in our entertainment.

STEM in fiction further defines the subject through the power of story. That magic of story we Homo sapiens have shared from our first breath. Shared experience. Shared truths. Shared hopes. Shared knowledge.

STEM fiction is a gateway into the world of STEM for young readers. STEM-based fiction and science fiction show possibility. The melding of facts and story through our STEM lens peers forward to what can be. To explore possibilities. To dream. To take what we know and throw it into the pot to create a future built on past discovery.

BUT STEM IN MY FICTION? SERIOUSLY?

Okay, okay! I know! The STEM fields are based on fact. It’s using data and observation to draw conclusions about the world we live in. It’s formulas, white coats, statistical analysis, publications, lines of code, blueprints, lectures, etc. STEM has always been labeled as serious, strict, narrow, and just a tad bit snooty and full of itself. But is that all science and technology and engineering and mathematics are?

No way!

These STEM fields are living and breathing and growing and discovering. STEM is disciplined creativity at its finest. STEM skills enable one to ask, “Why?”, then go figure out “How”, and eventually figure out a better way to move forward.

This sounds very similar to classic fictional story structure.

Problem/Solution/Improve = Setup/Confrontation/Resolution.

How can we include STEM topics into fiction without it sounding like a 1950’s textbook pontificating that, maybe someday, we will explore our moon?

  1. Mix the STEM with the narrative.
    We don’t need to know all the details. It’s not a standard operating procedure manual. It’s a story. We don’t really need to know exactly how Ellie’s grandfather, Melvin, was transformed in Jennifer Holm’s THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH. We only need to know it had something to do with his work as a research scientist, a new species of jellyfish, and an unfortunate (or fortunate depending on which side of the fence you sit) experiment.
  2. Story Logic
    The science, technology, engineering solutions, and the mathematics using in the story world must be logical. It must make sense. This doesn’t mean it has to be true to what we know to be true. It means it has to be logical within its context and can’t just be thrown in to solve the story problem deux ex machina-style.
    Think about how well the magic system in the Harry Potter series work. Why? Because J. K. Rowling did such solid work behind the scenes to build the magical world, we don’t even question the validity of the system by the time we get through SORCERER’S STONE.
    Whatever the genre, STEM works! It can even be completely made up stuff. STEM principles work as long as they fit logically and are ground in the foundation of the story world.
  3. Setting
    A solid fictional setting is as much of a story’s character as an actual character. A good story environment is created by the author from information gleaned by observation of actual environments. STEM basics!
    Think about the setting Kate Milford constructs in GREENGLASS HOUSE. The architectural design of the house, the engineering principles of the lift, the meteorology, and the cartography. All crafted at such a stellar level, you can feel the impact of the setting as you read.
  4. Character
    Similar to the setting. Same rules apply. A fictional character is created from observations an author makes over time.The data is analyzed and manipulated to build the precise character needed.
  5. Plot
    The three-act storytelling structure is ingrained into our western culture psyche. It is almost as old as stories themselves. Our minds expect a story to follow a certain path and adhere to defined beats. Now, that sounds eerily similar to the way we do STEM, doesn’t it? Two of my favorite craft writing books are STORY ENGINEERING & STORY PHYSICS Physics by Larry Brooks. In both books, Mr. Brooks breaks down the nuts and bolts of how to build a story and how to make the story sing to the reader.
    The Hero’s Journey narrative pattern, made famous by Joseph Campbell, is built upon psychology. Carl Jung Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology first defined the archetype in literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the observed data weigh heavily on the STEM inclusion side of the fiction argument. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fit into the world of fiction just as snugly as they fit into the nonfiction world. STEM not only adds depth to fiction, it also acts as a gateway to introduce readers to STEM topics. And that itself is as important as the entertainment value of a story.

STEM in fiction just makes good stories even better.

EXTRA! EXTRA! Breaking News from the STEM Tuesday news desk!

The National Science Teachers Association just released their Best STEM Titles list for 2018. Definitely worth the click to check out these great STEM books!

I hope you are enjoying the STEM Tuesday series on the Mixed-Up Files blog. I am! And as we highlight science in art, don’t forget to also put some art into your science. Science needs creativity as much as creativity needs science.

Until next time…STEM On!

Mike Hays

The O.O.L.F. Files

This month’s STEM Out Of Left Field (O.O.L.F.) Files looks at some cool ways science and technology work their way into our everyday lives. Everything from a blog series where experts weigh in on how to best use science to write sci-fi and fantasy to classic lectures from three heavyweights in their fields to a new annotated version of the classic book that birthed a genre.

Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. I don’t know where to even start with ASU’s CSI. So much crazy-awesome information, so little time! Check out CSI’s new version of Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking Frankenstein to celebrate the 200th anniversary of its publication. Particularly interesting are the discussions about gender and the trials Mary Shelley faced as a woman author in 1818.

The Science in SciFi blog series hosted by Dan Koboldt. A great resource for writers where experts weigh in on topics relevant to science fiction and fantasy. I’ve been fortunate enough to pen three posts for the series. Keep an eye out for Fall of 2018, when Writer’s Digest Books will publish an anthology of Science in SciFi blog posts titled, Putting the Science in Fiction.  I was fortunate to have two of my posts selected for the anthology.

How America’s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future by Eileen Gunn (May 2014) from Smithsonian Magazine.

From Science Fiction to Science Fact: How Design Can Influence the Future by Patrick Purdy (June 2013) from UXPA.

Science influenced by science fiction by Bruce Sterling (September 2010) from Wired.

And to wrap up the O.O.L.F. Files this month, a throwback to this 1985 look on science and society. THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON SOCIETY by James Burke, Jules Bergman, and Isaac Asimov (1985)  PDF link from NASA 

Mike Hays, O.O.L.F. Master

 

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Book Fairs: Forging Connections Between Authors and Readers

By on December 15, 2017   /   Articles, For Librarians, For Teachers, For Writers, Publishing & Promotion  

As an author and as a parent, one of the school activities I love most is the book fair. This chance to watch our readers as they browse books and talk about what they’re connecting to is invaluable; it provides a unique peek into what they love about books and characters that I don’t get anywhere else. Obviously, there are other tools and even metrics to measure what’s resonating with our middle grade readers, but book fairs are just special.

Recently, in an effort to enhance the book fair at my children’s school, I piloted a new program called “Meet the Author.” I stole the idea from another book fair I had worked with in Oro Valley, AZ, where their week-long event included two full days of classroom visits from authors whose books were being sold at the fair.

It was a wonderful way to immerse the students in the whole process of publishing—from the crafting and editing of a book to the actual purchase. The visits also offered readers who were able to purchase the authors’ books a tangible reminder of the visit—personally autographed books! The difference between these and the typical author school visit was that it all happened in the classrooms, which provided a more intimate visit than is usually manageable when you pack an entire grade level into a large room.

The event took a lot of heavy-lifting: months of organization and two long days of managing a roster of authors and parent volunteers who could escort our visitors around the school. But oh, the results. Kids were excited and energized; brand new authors were born in every classroom. It was truly wonderful to watch.

When I imported the idea to our school here in northern Virginia, I started small: no budget and only one author for one grade level presentation. I had to depend on the kindness of an author who would be willing to speak for free and still be willing to sign books afterward. That author was Leah Henderson, author of ONE SHADOW ON THE WALL.

Leah was fabulous. Her presentation was interesting, engaging, and interactive. The children loved her slide show, which included photos of Senegal, where her novel is set. They really plugged into her questions, competing with each other to identify which of her geographically diverse photo slides were in Africa.

Even better? Our 6th graders gained a valuable and exciting connection between the book they saw on the shelves at the book fair and the in-person visit from the actual author—the face of the artistry behind the pages.

“Whenever someone can build a connection with a book they’re more apt to pick it up the next time they see it—often curious what other connections they may make. Having a ‘Meet the author’ event before or during a book fair is a wonderful way for students to hear the behind the scenes in an author’s book journey.”

                                                     –Leah Henderson, ONE SHADOW ON THE WALL

It’s important to note here that the experience itself—an author visit—wasn’t new for us, nor would it be for most schools that want to try this. Our school in particular is very fortunate in that we have an active librarian who schedules author visits as often as her budget allows: we’ve met some pretty amazing, well-known writers. But this was unique in that the author’s work was on sale at the book fair, so everything happened in real time: students saw the book on the shelves at the fair and heard about it in person. They got to interact with the author. Many bought the book and got it signed, much like bookstore signings, which not all children get to attend.

One student said afterward, “It was very interesting to hear how she was inspired to write the book and I liked that she focused on that instead of giving spoilers about what the book was about. That was really good.”

Another said, “I was interested to find out what it takes to get a book published. It takes a lot longer than I thought, and I didn’t know that before we listened to Ms. Henderson. She was a great speaker.”

What motivated me to share this with all of you is twofold: 1) I wanted to encourage all of you who get to work with school book fairs to consider this idea (if you haven’t already); 2) I wanted to thank all the authors who are willing to cut or eliminate their speaking fees entirely when they are being courted by a local school or a speaker program with no budget. I understand that for many of us, speaking fees are a vital part of our income and we can’t make ends meet without them, certainly not when it involves travel outside our region. But the fees can also be prohibitive. I was so grateful to Leah for her generosity because I had no budget at all; any speaker fee would have come from my own pocket, which I couldn’t do. But the value of Leah’s visit was priceless for our kids, and, I can confirm, gained her some new fans. And if we’re lucky? A few new authors were born that day.

Happy Holidays to all of you, and here’s to a 2018 full of great books and good cheer.

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Sparking the Imagination with Written Imagery

By on December 13, 2017   /   Book Lists, children's bookstores, Common Core & NGSS, Cross-Curricular, Curriculum Tie-in, Fiction, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, independent bookstores, Nonfiction, Writing  

As a classroom teacher of upper MG readers, I’ve been wondering lately on the constant technological pummeling we get from images—gaming, TV, movies, computers, tablets, phones. Screened devices have a powerful attention-grabbing effect on kids, and with so many stimulating colors, photos, Snapchat animations, and videos to look at, the modern-day imagination is contending with a very different ball of yarn than in decades past. It’s great that we can Google-Machine “Roman Empire ruins” and see hundreds of pictures, and it’s fun to test our eye-hand coordination by slashing air-borne fruit, chopping ropes, or helping a chicken across a road. But for many readers, after all that color and movement and music, the imagination may balk a bit when given black words on a white page.

For that reason, it might be pretty difficult for a middle grade teacher, parent, librarian, or writer to hook readers on books with descriptive passages, figurative language, or a generally more literary bent. But instead of avoiding imagery, it may be more important than ever to give readers an opportunity to envision and imagine through the words on the page. We should strive to provide work-out routines and fitness centers for the imagination in our stories through language and description. Inclusion of imagery in MG stories will complement the reader’s experience and ultimately improve and enhance the reader’s imagination. And imagination is important in any setting, as it drives flexible thinking and creative problem solving.

So, in order to spark readers’ imaginations, how do you recognize good imagery in MG works, and how do you write your own? Here are some qualities typically associated with imagery:

  • Imagery is language that employs a mental use of the five senses.
  • It can use certain figurative language devices like similes and metaphors, personification, and hyperbole, but it can exist without any other lit devices being present, too.
  • Good imagery isn’t fluffy or fancy or filled with words you’d find on the SAT. Sometimes, in fact, incredibly simple syntax and short phrases make up excellent imagery.
  • Imagery lets you see, touch, taste, hear, and smell the surroundings  in the character’s world, and it draws the reader in with those experiences.
  • Most importantly, good imagery leads the imagination off-leash—it guides, but never forces. The imagination has to be allowed to run free, if it’s to grow strong.

Here are some scenes in three works of MG fiction with imagery to consider:

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. The description of Camazotz is brilliantly creepy in its simplicity. L’Engle’s choice of short, clipped words and phrases reflect the vision concocted in the reader’s imagination of this austere town where anomalies are forbidden:

Below them the town was laid out in harsh angular patterns. The houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray. Each had a small, rectangular plot of land in front, with a straight line of dull-looking flowers edging the path to the door.

Things get more eerie with the rhythmical description of the kids outside all those houses, girls jumping rope and boys bouncing balls:

Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again. Up. Down. All in rhythm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the paths. Like the flowers.

The imagery prompts our imaginations to not only see Camazotz but to hear and feel its driving beat, too.

Sarah Jean Horwitz’s Carmer and Grit, Book One: The Wingsnatchers. Big, immediate conflicts or surprised exclamations from characters can work beautifully as openers in MG fiction and nonfiction. But atmospheric imagery can be used just as masterfully to hook the reader into the story. In this book, the two-and-a-half-page opener has no dialogue and no loud clatter of forces. But the tone of mystery, the discordant sounds, and the symbolic light/darkness imagery all work together to pull the reader in:

At the South Gate, just outside the winding iron bars, the Autocat waits. Its jeweled eyes gleam in the darkness. It watches as each golden lantern on the pathway blinks out, one by one, and it growls–a rough, scraping sound like metal on metal, a sound never heard in the garden before. The creature slinks off into Skemantis’s black night, its mission accomplished.

Karen Hesse’s Letters from Rivka. Good imagery keeps firmly in the voice of the 1st person character, in this case, a young Russian refugee fleeing to America in 1919 and seeing Poland for the first time:

The same crooked cottages, the same patchy roads, the same bony fences leaning in to the dust. Looking out from the train, we see people dressed like us, in browns and blacks; people wrapped in layers of clothes.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share thoughts you have on imagery in MG writing, or name some writers you enjoy who do a great job at sparking readers’ imaginations.

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