Mixing Science Fact and Fiction in Mira Forecasts the Future
I was looking for a fun way to write about the sciences, and I thought of the weather. I love kids nonfiction, but I’m a fiction writer. I brainstormed a way to build a story around it, and that story turned into MIRA FORECASTS THE FUTURE.When I was growing up, my family was obsessed with the weather, and once we got cable, we watched The Weather Channel every night. Until then, the weather had just been a few square inches of the newspaper or a few minutes of the nightly news. We had a thermometer, barometer, windvanes, and rain gauges, but I didn’t forecast the weather myself -- it was more of a spectator sport.
It doesn’t need to be. Children can observe and track the weather with very few tools -- just a thermometer and their own eyes. And with easy availability of weather apps and satellite photos, they have tools at their disposal that Mira never dreamed of.
Turning Weather into a Story
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| Kell Andrews, author Mira Forecasts the Future |
From there I came up with Mira, an inept fortuneteller turned weather wonder girl whose predictions her whole beach town comes to rely on. New to fiction/nonfiction hybrids, I studied a lot of texts, and one I liked a lot was Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money, by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Brian Karas. So I wrote the weather information as backmatter.
Later, when I was working with Sterling Kids, editor Zaneta Jung asked my to incorporate the factual information into the story, and illustrator Lissy Marlin turned into a visual in the middle of the book as Mira researches in the library before she tries her own hand at meteorology.
I hope readers get inspired by Mira’s love of weather -- whether they make their own predictions or get fascinated by another area of science. There’s so much kids can do now to learn about and participate in science -- it’s much easier to forecast the future if you start working towards it now.
May be purchased at Barnes & Noble
About the book: Telling the future is a gift: you either have it, or you don’t. And Mira, daughter of the famous fortune teller Madame Mirabella, just doesn't. When Madame gazes into the crystal ball, magic swirls. When Mira looks . . . nothing. Then one day Mira gets a pinwheel and a windsock, she finds her own form of “magic” in the science of predicting the weather—and saves the day for everyone! This engaging tale, with a fun touch of science thrown in, helps kids understand that we all have our own special talent.
GIVEAWAY
Begins June 22
ENDS July 13 @ 12:01 a.m. EDT
Open to USA & CANADA addresses only.
DISCLOSURE: This guest post was provided by Sterling Children's Books an imprint of Sterling Publishing on behalf of the author, Kell Andrews, to promote this book. I was not compensated for posting this review.NOTE: This story does incorporate the skills of Mira's mother, Madame Mirabella, who is a fortune teller at the beach and Mira bemoaning the fact that she does not have the fortune telling skill as well. I appreciate Mira's discovering points about predicting the weather and it makes for a cute story.
This is a perfect book for my children to read on summer vacation. I love her use of science in it.
ReplyDeleteI always start sneezing before rain and get a headache before a big storm
ReplyDeleteI always start sneezing before rain and get a headache before a big storm
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect book for my children to read on summer vacation. I love her use of science in it.
ReplyDeleteI learned that she writes for children of all ages.
ReplyDeleteI always start aching in my joints, particularly my neck. I can tell you when it's going to rain probably with about 80% certainty!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this contest, Vera! Very fun.
ReplyDeleteFrom the post, I learned that the author (along with Mo Willems) are not only children's writers!
ReplyDeleteNo knack for predicting the weather here. My best way to tell about weather changes is to look at the sky or look at my weather app on my phone. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't predict the weather well - I gotta Google it!
ReplyDeleteI learned this about this author when writing children's story books; There’s not as much room in a picture book, but there also aren’t many characters. If you can make every character vibrate with their own motivations and change in the course of the story, your picture book will pack more resonance into 300 to 800 words.
ReplyDeleteI do have a knack for predicting the weather, when rain is coming my left knee will hurt like a son-of-a-gun! :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a lot of fun, and I'm always on the lookout for good living books for science! Thanks so much for sharing this at Booknificent Thursday on Mommynificent.com!
ReplyDeleteTina
I can't predict the weather at all.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Feb. 29, 2016 post I learned that she feels like she doesn't value her own career enough.
ReplyDeleteI look at my weather app everyday for the weather.
ReplyDeleteI learned that she writes for children of all ages. Also her first novel, Deadwood was published in 2014.
ReplyDeleteMy bones ache when the weather is rainy or cold.
ReplyDeletenot an author of just children's books
ReplyDeletejan
I cannot predict the weather, but I do like the sun
ReplyDeletejan
I learned from Kell Andrew's post that when her daughter's teacher asked who her favorite author was she said her mom.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a knack for predicting the weather. I do seem to always get a really bad headache sometimes when about to rain.
ReplyDeleteI can usually tell when it's going to rain because I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and I get aches.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any special ability in predicting the weather.
ReplyDeleteI love how Kell Andrews learned that she needed to value her own career as a children's writer more highly after she examined her reaction to her child choosing to focus her school project on "just-a-children's-writer" Mo Willems, rather than "more accomplished" (in Kell Andrews's mind) subjects. An important reminder for all of us!
ReplyDelete