40 Gallons of Sap to Make 1 Gallon of Syrup -- Research to Book

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. That's a lot of sap! It's not too different from creating a nonfiction book. It takes gallons of research to make one small book.

When I recently went to nErDcampNNE I brought one of my book boxes. Every book I create with Houghton Mifflin has its own box. Some boxes are bigger than others. They get filled with ticket stubs, receipts, articles, books, drafts, photo release forms, and all sorts of stuff that pertain to the writing of the book. They do NOT include all of the articles I have read online or in libraries, or the piles of books that I am not able to keep, including rare editions and such. It also does not include the hundreds of photos I take and download to my computer. 

It does take many "gallons" of research for each book. Every nonfiction writer will tell you the same thing. But we enjoy it! It's a treasure hunt -- an extreme sport  -- a time to EXPLORE! 

There are so many ways that teachers can spur on this exciting phase of writing with students. Loree Griffen Burns, Melissa Stewart, and I discussed having students interview each other, parents, teachers, and community members. Teaching students interview etiquette and how to write questions and ask follow-up questions is part of the learning process. 

Thinking of the research phase more like a quest than finding three sources for a project is the goal. Making discoveries and letting those discoveries lead to more questions and on to more discoveries is the joy we nonfiction authors feel every day. 

And then after all that research we have to distill it down  - just like boiling down the sap  - to find the  jewels we want to include in shaping the book we write. 

Ask any nonfiction author about their research and you will be in for a treat! 

Interview: Melissa Stewart, Author of No Monkeys, No Chocolate

 Melissa Stewart is the author of many fantastic nonfiction books on topics ranging from deadly predators to earthquakes.  With her recent picture book, No Monkeys, No Chocolate, she takes readers to tropical rainforests, the very source of the chocolate we eat. If you like chocolate, you’ll love this book!  It even has wise-cracking bookworms that comment on everything. 

Thanks, Melissa, for speaking with us today about No Monkeys, No Chocolate.

 

Can you tell us about the process of writing this very kid-friendly text with a leading scientist?

Thanks so much for your kind words about No Monkeys, No Chocolate, Nancy. This book was 10 years in the making. I thought kids, teachers, and aspiring authors might be interested in the story behind the book, so I created a fun Interactive Timeline. 

Allen Young is the world’s leading expert cocoa growth and pollination. He didn’t actually do any of the writing, but he did provide key bits of information that I couldn’t get anywhere else. His knowledge was based on working with cocoa trees in the Costa Rican rain forest for more than 30 years.

The bookworm narration adds a wonderful dimension to the text. Was that fun to write?

I had a blast writing the bookworm dialog. The trick was to keep the exchanges short while also making them funny and packing them with information that reinforced the main text.

No Monkeys, No Chocolate is chock-full of great information. Did anything surprise you in your research?

There were so many surprises. Before I began working on this book, I had no idea that a tiny fly pollinates cocoa or that monkeys and a couple of other small mammals disperse their seeds.

I also learned lots of interesting information that didn’t make it into the book. There were many different candidates for the spots occupied by the anole lizard and the coffin flies. Each one had an interesting relationship to the tree responsible for our favorite dessert. In the end, I chose the coffin flies and their brain-eating maggots because they are just so gross and cool. I chose the lizard and aphids, as a tribute to the rose-slurping aphids that inspired me to write the book in the first place.

I’m sure teachers would love to add this to their library. Do you have any tips on how teachers can use No Monkeys, No Chocolate in their classroom?

Yes, I have a Teacher’s Guide, Readers Theater, and several activity sheets that go with the book. You can find them here.  Also, the book was featured on the ClassroomBookshelf blog, where three super-smart educators from Lesley University offer lots more ideas. They’ve even included some ideas for using the Interactive Timeline in the classroom.

What are you working on now?
My newest picture book, Feathers: Not Just for Flying will be published in February, and I’m very excited about it. Illustrator Sarah S. Brannen did a fantastic job. Right now, I’m working on a video to go with the book. I’m also putting he final touches on the Teachers Guide and a Readers Theater that I think teachers will really like.

To learn more about Melissa and her books visit her website  or her blog  You may also want to follow her on Twitter, @msterwartscience, or on Pinterest.