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One of the most challenging aspects of learning the writing craft, to me anyway, has been how to describe and depict the emotions a character feels. It's simple to just tell the reader: Elliot felt mad. Not good writing. How to make the reader feel the mad, the anger, the heat of it. Some of my best writing teachers have suggested using physical sensations to describe the emotion, since most of us feel emotions in our bodies. I find that advice useful, but it takes time to develop. When I'm writing an emotion, I stop and try to feel it in my own body and then try to get that feeling down on the page.

Recently, I came across this telling graphic depiction of the areas in the body where emotions are felt:

Wow. I think every writer should print this out and post it above your computer. Look at anger, for example. It's all in the upper body, especially in the jaw and hands. And in the heart area. That's why phrases like "harden the heart" are part of our lexicon. But of course, as writers, we don't want to rely on cliched expressions to do the work we should be doing.

I find this graphic so interesting. Disgust is mostly in the throat. Depression is a deep dark whole in the center of your body. Shame seems mostly expressed in the eyes. I wish there were many more of these images to fit more emotions.

However, we all have bodies and emotions, so start mapping out for yourself. Observe those around you. This is one of my favorite games: watch people interacting and try to predict what their emotional states are even without hearing what they're saying. You can do this with the TV muted as well, although I prefer watching real people in their real lives. Notice how other writers do this well. You may not want to steal their fabulous phrasing, but you can learn from their unique take on a time-worn description.

I am inclined to use every moment as writerly research, so use any situation you are in to track emotional responses. How are people at a funeral expressing their grief in their bodies? How about during a family quarrel? What about driving on a dangerous stretch of road in the winter--white knuckles, right? But that's cliche, so dig deeper.

I would really love to have some interaction in the comments section here. Submit your ideas for describing emotions through bodily sensations. We can all help and learn from each other.

by Neysa CM Jensen
Boise, Idaho

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“When can I grow a beard?”
“Where do doctors go when they’re ill?”
“How do cuts get better?”
“Why do I look pale when I’m ill?”

Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers about Your Body by Katie Daynes, illustrated by Marie-Eve Tremblay answers all these questions and many more in a brilliantly framed and formatted book for the 3-7 year old crowd all about the human body.

Rather than going through topic by topic like many body books do (covering, for example, your brain, your senses, your digestive system), this book is themed around the type of questions kids of this age are so good at asking: Why does x happen? How does y work?

Thus we have spreads asking and answering questions around when things happen to human bodies, how parts of human bodies work, and why bodies behave like they do. This framing of the information about bodies is a effective device; the book sounds like a child asking the question, making the questions and answers seem doubly relevant and interesting to young readers and listeners. It also allows for a rather eclectic approach to the issues covered and for the young age group this book is aimed at I think this is so clever; it creates the space for some more difficult or whimsical questions, such as “Where do my ideas come from?” and also allows dipping in and out of the book with great ease.

The colourful cartoony illustrations are fun and feature children asking lots of questions and doing different activities. It’s interesting to note that no child with any disability is included in the book; I do wonder if this was a conscious editorial decision. The robust physical properties of the book (with pages more like card than paper) are ideal for young children; it’s easy to handle and will certainly cope with repeated reading and enthusiastic lifting of the flaps.

I love the very last page of Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers about Your Body, for it turns the tables on the reader/listener and after asking a few questions which your child should be able to answer having read the book, it states “Now here are some questions this book can’t answer. See if you can…”

This gave us the idea to create Mini Me Booklets – a mini book kids can fill in about themselves using these questions as prompts. I’ve created a printable template which you can download from here. Once you’ve printed off the sheet, you’ll need to fold it and cut it to create the booklet. This video will show you how:

As well as some pens and pencils you might give your kids some photos of themselves to cut up and stick into the booklets (my kids adore seeing photos of themselves when they were younger); if you do this I suggest that the photos are sized so that the area to be cut out is no more than 65mm high (to ensure it will fit in the booklet).

I was particularly heartened by what M wrote in one section of her Mini Me Booklet:

Whilst making our Mini Me Booklets we listened to:

Pee keeps our insides clean by Marc “Doc” Dauer (from a whole album about how the body functions). It’s a much catchier song than the title would suggest, and you can listen for free here on the album’s Myspace page.

The Bloodmobile by They Might be Giants

Dry Bones sung by the Delta Rhythm Boys

Other activities which would work well alongside reading Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers about Your Body include:

Creating your own lift the flap book with all the questions your own kids come up with whilst reading this book. Here’s a simple template you could adapt.

Learning what blood is made up of by creating a sensory tub to play with. I love this idea from I Can Teach My Child.

Making a role play hospital at home with teddies and dolls. Here’s a couple of ways we’ve done it in the past, including an operating theatre and home made x-rays.

What’s the funniest or most surprising question about bodies you’ve ever been asked by your kids?

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers about Your Body from the Royal Society.

Each year the Royal Society awards a prize to the best book that communicates science to young people with the aim of inspiring young people to read about science. Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers about Your Body is on this year’s shortlist for the The Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. The winner will be announced 17th November.

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We kicked-off Pride Month early this year, celebrating the publication of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community in late May. Taking Our Bodies, Our Selves as its model, Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is an all-encompassing resource for the transgender community and any one looking for information. Covering heath, legal, cultural and social questions, history, theory and more, the book weaves in anonymous quotes and testimonials from transgender individuals, adding hundreds of voices to share the diversity of transgender experience.  Contributors, allies, friends, family members and community leaders gathered in the lobby of Oxford University Press’ New York office to fête the book. Here are some highlights from the evening.



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  Laura Erickson-Schroth, the editor of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, with Dana Bliss, OUP's Senior Editor for Social Work

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  Members of the Trans Bodies Board with Dana Bliss

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  Copies of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves before they flew off the shelves

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  Laura Erickson-Schroth, Trans Bodies Board Member Amanda Rosenblum, OUP USA President Niko Pfund and OUP's Senior Editor for Social Work Dana Bliss

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  OUP USA President Niko Pfund and actress Heather Matarazzo

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  Laura Erickson-Schroth talks about the project

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  The party crowd listens to speeches

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  Laura Erickson-Schroth and Dana Bliss hug it out after speeches

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  Fiona Dawson and Landon Wilson of TransMilitary

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  Party attendees and contributors with copies of the book

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  Dr. Kenn Ashley, former President of the Association of Gay and Lesbian psychiatrists, Laura Erickson-Schroth, and Dr. Charles Marmar, chair of psychiatry at NYU share a moment of achievement

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  More esteemed guests..

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  ...and more!

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  The OUP marketing team behind the book

Laura Erickson-Schroth, MD, MA, is a psychiatry resident at New York University Medical Center. She is a board member of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality, as well as the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists. She is a founding member of the Gender and Family Network of New York City, a group for service providers interested in the health of gender non-conforming children and adolescents. She is the editor of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community.

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The post Celebrating Trans Bodies, Trans Selves appeared first on OUPblog.

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Sciatica. Sciatica. Makes me very static. Argh!

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What Goes On in My Head? by Robert Winston is a tremendously entertaining children’s book about neuroscience and psychology and is the final book shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize.

Read this book and you’ll find answers to questions such as “Are brains actually necessary?”, “Why do we rub sore bits of our body better?”, “What is more dangerous – sleep deprivation or food deprivation?” and “Is it always better to concentrate when you’ve got to make an important decision?”.

You’ll also learn about the chicken called Mike who lived for 18 months after having his head amputated, why it’s better to star gaze using your peripheral vision and why smells can powerfully evoke past memories.

If that’s not enough, whilst reading this book it will seem like you have your own magician in the room; What Goes On in My Head? is packed with activities that explore different aspects of brain behaviour and many of them had us gasping with amazement or trying them again because the illusion or effect was so powerful. For example you can learn how to see inside your own eyes, how to make someone’s arm spontaneously levitate (the myth of telekinesis is debunked, by the way), and why it’s so difficult to draw even a simple image when you look in a mirror.

What Goes On in My Head? is a fascinating, exciting read, packed with curious facts. And as you’d expect with a Dorling Kindersley book, it’s a lovingly produced physical object, rich in images.

If I were to find fault with this beautifully produced book it would the use of Robert Winston as the “celebrity” author. Yes, he’s a household name (at least here in the UK), but he’s not a neuroscientist nor a psychologist (human fertility is is area of expertise). It seems a shame that if you’re going to use a scientist presumably with the idea of giving weight to the content of a book, why not use a scientist who is an expert in the field. Of course the book was written in consultation with a neuroscientist, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, and this leaves me wondering what Robert Winston actually wrote for the book. Additionally, Robert Winston was used as a figure head to promote the sale of a health supplement, the adverts for which were subsequently banned for breaching the ASA guidelines on “substantiation and truthfulness”, so for me personally, the use of his name to add “credibility” to this book backfires a little.

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**Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win a bookcase perfect for picture books. Click here and leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning**

The Icky, Sticky Snot and Blood Book by Steve Alton, Nick Sharratt and Jo Moore, one of the 6 shortlisted books up for the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Award, was torn out of my hands as soon as I unwrapped it.

The frontcover has a big globule of squishy snot dribbling down it, all the illustrations are done by the instantly recognisable and widely loved Nick Sharratt, and the book is full of crazy, impressive, sometimes slightly icky pop-ups. You can see how this would appeal to a lot of children!

Under a cloak of grossness Steve Alton has snuck in a great deal of information about breathing, blood and bogeys. You can learn what bogeys are made of (and why it’s not a great idea to eat them), what pus is made from, and how far across the room your heart could squirt blood if you were to cut the main artery from it.

Yep, this book isn’t for the very squeamish (though many kids seem to enjoy being “squeemed” a little) but it’s exactly the sort of book I’d offer to reluctant readers or thrill seekers: Like a breathtaking fairground ride The Icky, Sticky Snot and Blood Book zooms along making your stomach squirm, inducing oohs and aahs and is lots of fun (if you like that sort of thing).

My girls certainly did enjoy this rollercoaster of a read, but if I’m being pernickity and trying to find a reason to rank it higher or lower any other book shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Award it would be the paper engineering.

The pop-ups, flaps and tabs are great fun, but a few of them make reading the text rather difficult (for example, you have to half shut the book to read the text hidden behind the pop-out body) and whilst they’re all enjoyable, I don’t think they are all as clever as many of them are in the other pop-up book shortlisted for this prize, How the World Works. Rather than adding to the understanding of the issue being explored some are included for pure enjoyment purposes (for example the pop-up amusement park at the end). Fun and pleasure is no bad thing, but if the pop-up engineering can be informative as well as eyecatching so much the better.

Don’t get me wrong, The Icky, Sticky Snot and Blood Book is a super book, that will grab everyone’s attention. It’s informative, funny and just a little bit disgusting. This science b

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Did y'all check out the Cybils winners that were announced this weekend?

I was on the MG/YA nonfiction panel, so I thought I'd discuss the winner for nonfiction Monday!

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir Cylin Busby and John Busby

John Busby was a police officer on Cape Cod who was about to testify against the brother of Raymond Meyer, a known arsonist and suspected murderer. On his way to work one night, he was shot in the face. If he survived, John knew that Meyer would come after his family next. He also knew that Meyer would only know where John was going to be if someone on the force had leaked that information.

Cylin was 9 when someone tried to kill her father. All of a sudden, there were policemen guarding her house, following her to school, standing outside her classroom door... she wasn't allowed to go over to anyone's house, no one was allowed to come over to hers.

John was frustrated and angry at the lack of progress being made in the investigation. He couldn't talk and had to take his meals through an injection in his stomach, and later through a tube.

Cylin knew she was supposed to pretend that everything was fine, and that life was going on as normal, but it wasn't.

The Busbys tell their story in alternating chapters, giving us both sides of their story--Cylin's chapters keep their child-eye's view, and John's give us the information on the investigation and his medical progress. The book is gripping and a page-turner, with something to appeal to everyone. Some readers will respond to Cylin's feelings of confusion and fear, some will appreciate the police procedural and medical information. Overall, a strong book and a strong winner.

One of my other favorites on the short list was...

Body Drama: Real Girls, Real Bodies, Real Issues, Real Answers Nancy Redd

Usually, when it comes to body stuff for girls, books fall into 2 categories--books about puberty and books about sex. Redd's doesn't--this is a book that is about your body and not sex, but it's for the post-pubescent woman. It covers a range of topics--everything from corns and warts to facials, body piercings and zits, lice and facials, stretch marks and skid marks. The overall image is that yes, I know you feel like a freak because your body does this, but guess what! most bodies do and everyone's feeling like theirs is the only one!

Best of are Redd's confessions throughout the book--about all the embarrassing things she's talking about and how yes, they have happened to her.

And, there are pictures. No weird drawings of things, actual photos. Yes, this means there are photos of all sorts of body parts and bodies, in all shapes and sizes and colors. Some people may find it gross or titillating, but I think it is very empowering. My favorite are the pages showing what airbrushing can do to pictures, and how it's often used. The normal shots versus the airbrushed ones are illuminating and eye-opening.

It's funny, it's informative, and in a very teen-friendly design. This is a book I wish was around when I was a teen and needs to be on every teen girl's bookshelf.

Round up is over at Jean Little Library!

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NOTE TO SELF: BODIES AND LOVE ONE'S WAITING TO BE BURIED

Grave diggers and maintenance staff have been locked out of the Notre Dame des Neiges Cementary located in Montreal, Canada since May 16 and the bodies are piling up. A labor dispute has paralyzed Canada's largest cemetary but there could - key word here could - be a break through if you parden the pun. The feeling of personal loss however, can't be measured in numbers.

The one-hundred and twenty nine unionized workers at the burial ground announced that they are prepared to return to work 4 days per week, starting next Monday. Management for their part are considering the proposal. Workers are members of the Syndicat des travailleurs et des travailleuses du cimetière Notre Dame des Neiges, a local of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux and have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2003.

Contract negociations will continue even while the dead are being buried. The statistics are shocking with 498 bodies stored in refrigeration units since the Fabrique de la Paroisse Notre Dame de Montréal, the corporation managing the cemetery for the owners, Sulpician priests, locked out the workers. More alarming is the closing date for the season being November 1
and some families of the dead fear the sheer logistics of burying or cremating so many bodies before then will be a nightmare.

In addition to the remains in storage, the cemetery receives about 50 to 60 bodies a week.
According to one veteran cemetery employee, those returning to work will be hard-pressed to bury 20 bodies a day. There are only four backhoes on the site, and once they start digging, no two graves are the same.

The cemetery's executive director said that there is a plan of operation, a system and it will be adapted to the needs of the individual families.

If families want a graveside interment service conducted according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, in what is a predominately Roman Catholic cemetery, the situation becomes even more complicated. In many instances, it means reuniting families who may have come some distance for the funeral, and now again have to co-ordinate travel plans if they wish to be present for the burial.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=afa7fe20-309a-47de-94f4-255aad97f8f6&k=85666

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Remember how I reported on the Scott O'Dell Award ceremony? At the time, I may have mentioned the speech of Ellen Klages. I may even have said something along the lines of, "It was one of those speeches you wish Horn Book would consider reprinting in one format or another." Well, Horn Book be damned, me mateys, I'LL reprint it! How's that for initiative? And lest you think I've spent hours transcribing these words from the tiny tape recorder I keep in my pocket at all times, I have Ms. Klages herself to thank for sending me the speech in its entirety. Voila.

First of all, I want to thank Scott O’ Dell and his wife Elizabeth Hall, for founding this award and for recognizing the importance of historical fiction, especially for children. I want to thank Hazel Rochman and Ann Carlson and Roger Sutton, the members of the O’Dell committee, for selecting The Green Glass Sea out of the hundreds of amazing books that were published in 2006. I want to thank my editor, Sharyn November, and her boss, Regina Hayes, for taking a chance not only on a first novel, but one that seemed an unlikely topic for a children’s book. And all the people at Viking, all the sales reps who were so enthusiastic and hand-sold this book to booksellers and librarians. And thanks to my agent, Michael Bourret, who shepherded it from a manuscript to an object out in the world.

A lot of people think that history is boring. It’s just names and dates and facts that you have to memorize for a test. I suspect that I’m preaching to the choir here; I don’t think most of the people in the room feel that way. But too many people do.

Up until last October, I was primarily a science fiction writer. Which means I’m in a unique position to recognize that this -- [holds up GGS] -- is a time machine. ‘Cause that’s really what we want out of historical fiction. We want to go there. We don’t want to be on the outside, looking in. We want the backstage tour. We want to be there as the events of history are unfolding around us.

That’s what we want as readers. Most writers are also readers, but for a writer, it’s slightly different. If I’m going to spend a year or two of my life someplace in the past, there has to be a hook. We writers are observant magpies, taking shiny bits back to our nests to play with. And we’re easily distracted -- ooh, shiny!

For me, that shiny was the green glass. I read one sentence about it in an account of the Trinity Test, and I thought -- cool -- and I wanted to find out more. And there isn’t much more about it, because the glass was a footnote, a side effect. It wasn’t all that important to the scientists at the time. But it was what got me hooked.

So I read some more books, and in each of them I found another, one sentence, description of the glass, or of people going to go see the glass. And I took those single sentences home and collected them, lined my little magpie nest with them, until I had enough information that I could almost see it, in my mind’s eye.

And I wanted to go there.

I wanted to go there more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. But it’s gone. It was bulldozed before I was even born, and the only picture I’ve ever been able to find of it is in black-and-white.

If I was a painter, I would have made a big color picture, hung it on my wall and looked at it. But I can’t even draw. My tools are words. So I wrote myself a story in which I got to go to the green glass sea, in the company of two odd, quirky little girls named Dewey and Suze. And I saw it -- through their eyes.

Because that’s the other important thing about historical fiction. It reminds us that history isn’t just dates and facts and places. It’s people and their lives and their stories. Sometimes it’s extraordinary people in ordinary times, changing the world. And sometimes it’s ordinary people in extraordinary times, as the world changes around them.
By seeing the past through their eyes -- how they live, what they do, how they think -- we get a new perspective on the present.

[Picks up GGS] If you accept that this is a time machine, then there’s one thing you need to know, the one unbreakable law of time travel -- you cannot change the past.
But I hope that when you close the cover of The Green Glass Sea, and return to your own life, you may discover that the past has changed you.

Thank you.

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