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!

Happy 500th to Sci/Why!

By Claire Eamer

That's 500th blog post, not really 500th birthday -- just in case you're confused. And today's its publication day!

Way back in 2011, a few of us Canadian children's science writers decided to start a group blog. We called it Sci/Why. The name came courtesy of founding blogger Pippa Wysong, whose explanation is still in the title banner: "Canadian children's writers discuss science, words, and the eternal question - why?"

We thought it might be fun and interesting to mess around with the blog format for a little while -- and to let people know that (a) there are plenty of good Canadian kids' science writers and (b) what we're writing about. When we ran out of ideas or enthusiasm or time, we'd just shut the blog down. We thought.

Well, we haven't run out of ideas or enthusiasm yet. A few of us have run out of time to produce blog posts, but others have picked up the torch. And the blog carries on.

We've talked about everything from earthquakes (How big can an earthquake be?) to singing lice (The Singing Lice (that are not lice)), from fish sauce (Fishy Sauce and a Fishy Date) to fast travel (Terrifying Speed).

Most of our posts draw anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand readers over time. That post about earthquakes might be the most popular of all, with more than 42,000 separate views -- and the number goes up every time a major earthquake hits (or, possibly, every time a teacher assigns a project on earthquakes). And -- for maybe less obvious reasons -- Shar Levine's 2011 post about a long-ago queen's trinket (Eleanor of Aquitaine Sundial) has garnered well over 10,000 views.

And that's just a taste of what you can find in Sci/Why. Drop by http://sci-why.blogspot.com/ any time and take a look around!