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.
Military bases often serve as islands of biodiversity. Nearly 500 threatened or endangered species live on US military bases, more than in US National Parks, Sneed Collard III reports in Defending Nature: How the US Military Protects Threatened and Endangered Species. In this book for readers ages 9-14, Collard focuses on three at-risk species and the biologists and others working to save them.
Smartphones, daylight saving time, jet travel, shiftwork, lighting, and other aspects of modern life disrupt biological clocks that govern sleep and alertness, appetite, mood, response to medications, and other bodily functions, Lynne Peeples writes in The Inner Clock: Living in Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms. Paying more attention to body time, she asserts, could improve health and happiness.
Why do we still need vaccines? How do I sort out the good information about vaccines from the bad? Isn’t it better to be naturally infected than immunized? In Vaccines and Your Family: Separating Fact from Fiction, 2nd Ed., Paul A. Offit, MD, and NASW member Charlotte A. Moser, of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center provide a broad overview of current vaccine topics.
“One of the first great things about birds: they are everywhere,” Sneed B. Collard III writes in Birding for Boomers—and Everyone Else Brave Enough to Embrace the World’s Most Rewarding and Frustrating Activity. Collard offers tips for new birders on binoculars, field guides, and bird ID apps, coping with age-related hearing/vision loss, birding travel destinations, and bird conservation.
Sadie Dingfelder scolded a man in a grocery store for choosing the wrong item. She mistook him for her husband. After she learned she is faceblind, her reportorial instincts kicked in. In Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter's Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory, and Imagination, she says she’s learned how to cope: “If I pay close attention and ask the right questions, I’ll figure it out.”
Over billions of years, life forms from microbes to mammoths transformed continents, oceans, and the atmosphere, Ferris Jabr reports in Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life. To explore this process, Jabr visited a former gold mine a mile underground, now a science lab; an Arctic region once home to megafauna; and a 1066-ft tall observatory for global climate studies in the Amazon rainforest.
The Australian platypus, though a mammal, lays eggs. Whale sharks, the world’s longest fish, may be 60 ft long. New Zealand’s kakapo, the world’s largest parrot, can’t fly, Sneed B. Collard III reports in Like No Other: Earth’s Coolest One-of-a-Kind Creatures. Collard, author of nearly 100 science books for young readers, includes additional resources and exercises in this amply-illustrated book.
Introducing a puppy or traumatized rescue dog to your home often presents unexpected challenges: some are nippy, fearful, or constant barkers. Tactics that help at-risk kids also may improve dog behavior, Wendy Lyons Sunshine asserts in Tender Paws: How Science-Based Parenting Can Transform Our Relationship with Dogs. To change behavior, she says, one first needs to assess a dog’s unmet needs.
While science and marketing are separate disciplines, effective science communication draws on knowledge and skills from both, Sheeva Azma asserts in Science X Marketing, a book summarizing her experiences studying neuroscience and working as a science writer, educator, marketer, and policy advisor. Azma also explores ethical challenges that people who work in science marketing may face.
Despite extinction of nearly 600 seed plant species since the 18th century, the number of top US universities offering botany degrees continues to fall, Erin Zimmerman reports in Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science. Protected maternity leave, pumping space, remote work options, and childcare at conferences, she asserts, could keep more highly trained women in science.
