Environmental Writing sends Earth Day message

by Sue Heavenrich

On a normal spring day bees cluster on willow catkins, filling the air with buzzing. But last year the bees were few and far between. I began to worry we might have a silent spring.

Thing is, native and bumble bee populations are declining. For those of us who like to eat, this is a problem because bees pollinate 75 percent of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States – about $3 billion worth of crops each year. Plus, they pollinate plants and fruit trees that provide food for birds and other wildlife.

Rebecca E. Hirsch dives into the pollinator crisis in her most recent book, Where Have All the Bees Gone? She begins her tale by taking the reader on a field trip to find Franklin’s bumble bee, once common in Oregon and California. That bee hasn’t been seen since 2001, and it’s not the only bumble bee in decline either. In her book, Rebecca highlights what can happen when wild bees disappear. For example, decades of pesticide use in apple orchards in Sichuan, China, killed off the natural pollinators. Now farmers have to pay workers to climb ladders and hand-pollinate the blossoms using paintbrushes of bamboo and chicken feathers.

But, says Rebecca, we can change things. She concludes her book with two chapters devoted to bee conservation and positive action kids – and their families –  can take: plant gardens for pollinators; engage in citizen science bee counts; and encourage organic farming and gardening. Back matter includes a list of online resources and links to citizen science projects making it a perfect book for Earth Day!

So I caught up with Rebecca by phone a few weeks ago. Had she intended her book to be an activist call to action, I wondered?

Yes, she said. “I wanted to embrace the more activist part of environmental writing. I wanted to appeal to emotion and encourage people to take action.” So she turned to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a mentor text, reading and re-reading passages to see how Rachel put words to the page.

Inspiration to write about bees came while volunteering at a local pollinator garden. It was eight years ago, Rebecca said.  “At first I worked there because I wanted to see the butterflies. But all the master gardeners talked about were the bees, so I started to pay attention to them.” When Rebecca planted native plants in her own garden, she noticed the bees visited every day. The butterflies? Only occasionally.

When she heard hints about bees in trouble, Rebecca began learning about the Rusty patch bumble bee. It was the first bee to be put on the endangered species list, “and that was when I decided to do a book about bees,” she said. Rebecca also spent time at a rural school. One of the teachers works with his class to convert a strip of grass into pollinator garden every year.

“There’s so much that people can do to help,” Rebecca says. “If you put native plants in your garden, bees will show up! If you mow less often and let the clover grow, bees will show up.”

As a nonfiction writer, Rebecca feels most comfortable with facts. “I had to learn that it’s okay for people to have a point of view.” As she read other writers, Rebecca decided that she needed to figure out how to imbue her writing with a more activist voice. “We need to be shouting about the environmental stuff,” she said, referring to climate change and other issues. “Even if you’re not an environmental writer, find a way to work environmental concerns into your story.”

You can find out more about Rebecca at her website.

Rebecca Hirsch Writes Science

By Sue Heavenrich

Rebecca Hirsch has written more than sixty books, from picture books to YA nonfiction, for educational and trade markets. She’s also written about science and nature for Spider and other magazines. Her most recent picture book, released just last month, is Plants Can't Sit Still. If you’ve got a wiggly-worm for a child, you’ve gotta get a copy. (I reviewed it on Friday over at Archimedes Notebook)

“This was the manuscript I took to Rutgers back in 2013,” she said, but the story Hirsch took to Rutgers looked nothing like the breezy text of the published book.

“It was a list about cool things plants can do,” she said. Her Rutgers mentor pointed out that it needed just a few things to set it straight:

• an entry into the story
• a narrative ark
• a strong ending
• turn descriptions into art notes and let illustrations show those details

 The first thing Hirsch did when she went home was to closely study picture books. “I wanted to see how they start. And I discovered I could take out description because it would be shown in the artwork.” One of the books that helped her see a different way to organize material is Ducks Don’t Get Wet, by Augusta Goldin. She paid attention to how that book used a repeating line. It took her about six months, and a complete re-visioning of her story, but she found the heart of the book.

Reading the kind of book that you want to write is important, Hirsch says. One summer when she didn’t have any projects, she read 100 picture books. She chose a number of award-winners and studied how the first sentence worked; how the first page worked; what the “fresh take” was for that story. At the same time, she studied Ann Whitford Paul’s Writing Picture Books.

“It’s focused on fiction, but the rules apply to nonfiction,” Hirsch said.

Her advice to other writers? “Have more than a single project going on at once.” On any single day, Hirsch usually has four to six books in various stages of completeness. Right now she’s doing preliminary research for one, writing text for a middle grade science book, has a couple picture books in the rough draft stage. “This,” she says, “allows me to get away from one project for a couple days – and come back with more clarity.”

Every six months or so, Hirsch takes a step back and reviews her goals. She usually has two or three big goals: write a new picture book; study picture books; maybe write some poetry. She also sets herself a few minor goals that she matches to a timeline: do research, draft the story, do the back matter. She puts these on a calendar.

“Having a framework helps,” says Hirsch. “Knowing that this week I’m working on back matter helps me stay organized.”

It must be working because she’s got another book hitting the shelves in November, Birds vs. Blades. It’s about offshore wind power and protecting seabirds.