Cover Reveal....And More!

Here it is -- my next book: Just a Piece of String: An Invention That Changed the World. Well, here's its cover at least. The book itself will hit store shelves early next year. But lucky you! It's available for pre-order now.

Xulin Wang created the amazing illustrations. The publisher is Orca Books -- and if you want a sneak peek at some of the inside pages, go to this bit of their site and check the little images below the cover. They all so pretty! (Can you tell I'm excited about this book?)

Have we got some books for you! And some authors too!!

Looking for a good science book? Go straight to Sci/Why, a group blog by Canadian kids' science writers for your science fix.

The blog was launched in 2011 by a few writers (including me) who wrote science books and articles mainly or partly for kids. Our idea was to help Canadian kids, parents, teachers, librarians -- and even scientists -- find us, their science-writing home team.

Since then, more than eleven years ago, the blog team has shifted and changed, people have joined it and left and some have come back again. Some of us who were there at the beginning are still there. We promote our own books and each other's books, but mainly we just write short pieces about whatever our current scientific fascination is.

And the current fascinations can be....well....fascinating. Way back in the first year of the blog, Judy Wearing explained why Santa's hair is white. In 2012, Jan Thornhill explained why slime molds make her happy. More recently, Kiron Mukherjee talked about the importance of representation and diversity in science and elsewhere -- and about his mother's loving quest, long ago, to find a brown Cabbage Patch doll just for him.

And me? 

Well, my latest fascination is the Arctic Woolly Bear caterpillar of the Eastern Arctic and its close cousin, the Beringian Arctic Woolly Bear, first spotted just over a decade ago on a mountain in the Yukon, hundreds of kilometres south and west of the Eastern Arctic. You can read all about it here, on Sci/Why.

Enjoy!

And it's here!

Officially released into the wild today, June 1 -- Extremely Gross Animals: Stinky, Slimy and Strange Animal Adaptations (Kids Can Press). You know you want all that grossness!

Good News Comes in Twos

The Shining Willow Award

Two of Claire's books have been honoured in the past couple of weeks. These are very special honours because they are associated with children's choice awards, where kids get to vote on their favourite books.

On May 23, at St. Angela's School in Saskatoon, Claire was presented with the 2018-2019 Shining Willow Award for her picture book, Underneath the Sidewalk (Scholastic Canada) -- the book voted most popular by young Saskatchewan readers up to Grade 3.

And just last week, the nominees for British Columbia's 2019-2020 Red Cedar Award were announced -- including Claire's 2018 title, Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past (Kids Can Press).

And...TA-DAH!... A quick update: Out of the Ice was also shortlisted for the 2019 Information Book Award given by the Children's Literature Roundtables of Canada.

School and Library Presentations

Claire is available for presentations and workshops in schools and libraries - or anywhere else kids gather. For information about presentations, check her profile at the Writers' Union of Canada website or her member page at CWILL BC. Both sites also provide general information about sources of funding for bringing authors into schools and libraries.

Check with Claire (EamerWriter [at] gmail.com) for her latest rate schedule. Generally, there is a small surcharge for events beyond Vancouver Island to help cover the extra travel expenses.