For this column, NASW book editor Lynne Lamberg asks NASW authors to tell how they came up with the idea for their book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, funded and conducted research, and put the book together. She also asks what they wish they had known before they began working on their book, what they might do differently the next time, and what tips they can offer aspiring authors. She then edits the A part of that Q&A to produce the author reports you see here.
NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines to submit your report.
Publication of NASW members' reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of their books. NASW welcomes your comments and hopes this column stimulates productive discussions.
A lonely teenaged girl leading a birding tour in a northern Minnesota peat-moss bog finds a mummified Viking boy. A college biology student loses his way on a biosphere tour, finds he is locked in, and faces a creepy night. In The Path of Totality: Stories & A Novella, Marie Zhuikov draws on her experience as a science writer to craft stories that slip from real-world settings to science fiction.
“Questions aren’t just for scientists,” Jessica Fries-Gaither tells readers aged 3-5 in Wild Wonderings: Scientists and Their Questions She describes in short verses the studies Mary Leakey, Stephen Hawking, Adriana Ocampo, and six other scientists conducted. She also gives children advice on how to turn observations into questions, decide how to pursue answers, and conduct simple research.
Do huge sharks, bigger than a school bus, still exist? Thanks (No thanks!) to fake news, some people think so. Ditto for mermaids, NASW Member Ellen Prager & Dave Jones note in Megalodons, Mermaids, and Climate Change: Answers to Your Ocean and Atmosphere Questions. The authors use cartoons, a conversational tone, & 16 photos to answer often-asked & zany questions on marine life and weather.
Principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) are as American as apple pie, NASW Member Carlos Hoyt and Minna Ham assert in Diversity Without Divisiveness: A Guide to DEI Practice for K-12 Educators. While some label DEI as “reverse discrimination,” Hoyt and Ham show how DEI can boost student engagement, prepare students to live in a global society, and encourage critical thinking.
When the Nazis took control of Germany in the 1930s, they stripped Jewish citizens and women of their academic positions. In Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History, Olivia Campbell describes the women’s harrowing journeys to freedom and later success in Sweden and the US, flourishing, she notes, “in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.”
Archives of past NASW Advance Copy virtual events. Find links to past events, video recordings, and panelist bios.
“Even though the world needs mining more than ever, the world needs mining to change,” Christopher Pollon writes in Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places, recipient of NASW’s 2024 Science in Society Book Award. It’s sometimes better to leave metals in the ground, he suggests, and capture those needed for present-day use by recycling outdated products, such as smartphones.
“There’s nothing more complicated than parenthood,” Kavin Senapathy asserts in The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids. She aims to help parents make evidence-based decisions about breast-feeding, vaccines, and food additives, and help their children acquire a positive racial, cultural, and gender identity, along with a social conscience.
In her novel, Rebecca of Ivanhoe, Alison Bass imagines the life of Rebecca, a 12th-century healer saved from being burned alive as a witch, after she flees from England to Spain and then to Egypt. Bass describes botanical remedies and other therapies used in medieval medical practice. She incorporates historical characters, wars, and other events occurring in the background of daily life.
