EINSTEIN FOR SIX-YEAR-OLDS: WRITING ABOUT DIFFICULT SCIENCE TOPICS

By Julie Winterbottom

When I was drafting Magic in a Drop of Water, my picture book biography of ecologist Ruth Patrick, I spent weeks trying to write about her landmark discovery that biodiversity is a superb indicator of ecosystem health. I struggled to make this complex idea, typically taught in high school, comprehensible and engaging to a six-year-old. 

Many drafts in, I found a solution (more about that below). Since then, I have studied techniques other picture book authors have used to make difficult science ideas accessible and entertaining, while still being accurate. 

 

Here are just a few of them.

 

1. Distill and Delight

Sometimes it’s enough for a picture book to convey the essence of a difficult science concept, to convey a feeling of wonder and excitement and give readers a sense of what scientists do, without getting into the weeds. (You can always give a fuller explanation of the science in the back matter.) Jennifer Berne does this beautifully in her biography of Albert Einstein, On a Beam of Light. 

 

Here's how she distills Einstein’s theory of relativity:

 

“[Albert] figured that if he could travel near the speed of light, crazy things would happen! Only minutes would pass for Albert, while years and years went by for the rest of us!”

 

2. Science + Humor = Irresistible

Author/illustrator Philip Bunting uses humor to make tough science topics irresistible.  In How Did I Get Here? Your Story from the BIG BANG to Your BIRTHDAY, he explains the origins of the universe and life on earth, the process of evolution, and the development of a fetus, with hilarious but accurate text and pictures. Here’s how he describes the beginning of life on Earth: “The first life-form was pretty simple. She couldn’t see, hear, or wear a party hat. But she had one very special trick. She could make copies of herself. … think of her as your great-great-great—times a trillion, zillion, squllion—granny.” While he took the liberty of giving this cell a gender, everything else he writes is scientifically correct. And totally entertaining. Stacy McAnulty is another master in this genre.

 

3. Rhyme It

 In The Secret Code Inside You, Rajani LaRocca uses rhyme (along with humor and metaphor) to make the tough topic of genetics approachable and a joy to read about aloud.

 

“There’s a secret code inside you, a code called DNA.

A code that tells your body’s cells

What they should do each day.

It looks like twisted ladders,

Or tiny, twirling noodles.

It makes us into people, instead of into poodles.”

 

In my book, I wrote one passage in rhyme to let readers experience the delight of finding a multitude of species in a single stream.

 

“Minnows and midges and mussels and mayflies,

Protozoa, bryozoa, diatoms, and crane flies.

Northern hog suckers and pumpkinseed sunfish,

Sponges and shiners and spinycheek crayfish.”

 

4. A Different Point of View

Sometimes shifting the point of view to first person can normally abstract ideas gripping and immediate. Henry Herz lets gravity be the narrator in his spare but beautiful book, I Am Gravity. By giving this invisible force a distinctive personality and strong voice, Herz makes it easy to comprehend the science: “I tug on everything—dandelion puffs and mighty galaxies. I am stubborn—the bigger things are, the harder I pull.”

 

Jilanne Hoffmann uses the first person to turn the complex ecological story of how dust from the Sahara ends up nourishing the Amazon into a clear and riveting tale in A River of Dust. In my book, I switched from third- to first-person for the section about how pollution impacts an aquatic community.

 

“In healthy water

We are many, many species,

A great variety of creatures,

Balanced in number. …”

 

5. A Picture Is Worth…

In Nicola Davies’ book Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth, the text is relatively simple, and the illustrations do the heavy lifting.  In one spread, the text simply says: “We have learned that every kind of living thing is part of a big, beautiful, complicated pattern.” The full-spread illustration shows this idea in action, with a rainforest full of interdependent plants and animals. (Davies also uses another technique, layered text. She tells the simplest version of the story in large type and gives more scientific detail in blocks of smaller text.)

 

Your turn:

Analyze your favorite STEM picture books. How does the author convey difficult science concepts? Then experiment with different techniques. When you find an approach you like, be sure to run the final text by an expert in the field to make sure you got the science right.

 

Julie Winterbottom writes about science and history as well as sillier subjects like pranks and farts. Her latest book is Magic in a Drop of Water, a picture book biography of pioneering ecologist Ruth Patrick illustrated by Susan Reagan. It was named an Outstanding Science Trade Book of 2025 by the National Science Teaching Association. Julie is also the author of two humor books, Pranklopedia and What a Blast!, and Frightlopedia, a compendium of all things scary. She lives in Beacon, New York. Learn more at juliewinterbottom.com.

 

The Power of Creative Non-fiction

By Kathy Kacer

In my non-fiction writing, I am constantly treading a fine and careful line of staying true to history and trying to engage my readers in meaningful stories. It’s a balance that requires both respect for the truth and a storyteller’s instinct for emotional resonance. Creative non-fiction has become essential as a narrative craft in present-day literature. It blends fact and storytelling, turning real events into stories that touch the heart and teach the mind.

Creative non-fiction is built on truth. The people existed. The events happened. The emotions, though interpreted through the writer’s lens, stem from authentic experience. Yet truth alone does not always make a compelling story. What elevates non-fiction into something more meaningful is the way the writer chooses to tell it—through vivid scenes, re-imagined dialogue, character development, and a pace that rises in tension. These tools illuminate the interior lives of individuals and creating a meaningful bond between reader and story.

Creative non-fiction can be especially powerful for younger readers because it blends the emotional pull of a story with the grounding precision of real events. When children encounter history, science, or personal experiences through vivid scenes, engaging characters, and clear narrative arcs, the information becomes easier to understand and far more memorable. This genre helps young readers connect emotionally with people, encouraging empathy and curiosity. At the same time, because the stories are rooted in fact, creative non-fiction builds critical thinking and a deeper awareness of the world. It invites young readers to learn not just by absorbing information, but by experiencing it through the lens of a compelling, true story.

A good example of this genre in action is my latest book, Last Known Address: The Stumbling Stones of Europe. The book uncovers the lives of individuals who were deported or killed during the Holocaust, using small brass stones placed outside former homes. The stories in the book transform historical record into something deeply human, inviting readers to imagine daily routines, family bonds, and the fragile moments before lives were forever altered. It is precisely this blend of truth and narrative craft that makes the book a good example of creative non-fiction’s power.

In a world where facts can feel fractured and attention is fragile, creative non-fiction reminds us that true stories, told expressively, have the power to live on.

About the Author: Kathy is the acclaimed author of more than 30 books for young readers that focus on stories of the Holocaust. They include The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, To Look a Nazi in the Eye, To Hope and Back, and Last Known Address.

 

A winner of the Jewish Book Award (Canada and the U.S.), and the Yad Vashem Award for Children’s Holocaust Literature (Israel), Kathy has written unforgettable stories inspired by real events. Published in 20 countries, she travels the world speaking in schools and libraries about the importance of the Holocaust and keeping its memory alive. Kathy lives in Toronto. 

Work Smarter, Not Harder: When Research Pays Off Twice

By Nicki Jacobsmeyer

 

Writing a book is not for the faint of heart. The process takes time, grit, and courage. No matter the word count, the work is hard. Hopefully, you find it joyful too. Researching can be intense, especially for our non-fiction projects. I love researching, almost to the point that I allow it to be a distraction from writing. Anyone else with me?

 

Since we need to research to make our work accurate and authentic, sometimes the process takes longer than writing the story. I’ll compare the pile of research materials to my 500-word picture book manuscript and laugh. Were all the sweat and tears of exploring and digging worth it? ABSOLUTELY! But what if we could use all of those investigating hours to work twice as hard for us?

 

When I started working smarter, not harder with my research, I felt elated. In 2017, a critique partner shared an article about the Kentucky packhorse librarians during the Great Depression. The librarians and community instantly stole my heart and I could think of nothing else. I knew I wanted and had to write about this piece of history. Research began. I scoured books, articles, and online resources. I interviewed anyone and everyone I could from historical societies, libraries, descendants of packhorse librarians, etc. And then I finally wrote a non-fiction picture book. For the next seven years, I continued writing, going on submission, revising, and resubmitting with a variety of manuscripts for different age groups. 

Fast forward to the end of 2023, when I stumbled across an opportunity for the adult non-fiction market. Although we know the publishing industry is slow going, I had to jump on this proposal opportunity. As we’ve all experienced, doubt stuck its ugly nose in my business. Do you have enough research? Can you complete the proposal in time? Do you have the support from the community? All the research I’d done over the years for one project waited to be used for another. Once I convinced myself (thank you critique partners), and told doubt to take a hike, I went for it. My research paid off twice. Kentucky’s Packhorse Librarians (Images of America) published with Arcadia Publishing in March 2025. 

What about the original children’s book? I’m delighted to announce that the picture book I penned in 2017, Tales on Trails: The Packhorse Librarians of Appalachia, will make its debut a decade later in the summer of 2027 with Arcadia Children’s Books. 

Your research can work overtime for articles, poems, blog/newsletter posts, short stories, etc.

I’ve research from a poem and short story published in anthologies that were vital for two of my non-fiction middle grade books. Your possibilities are endless!

 

How do you make sure your research is ready for double duty? Here are some insights to help

your future self:

 

1. Bibliography: Make a bibliography along the way, even if you aren’t sure if you’ll use this reference in the final manuscript, or at all. Your story may change different directions during the project and you want all of your resources easily accessible. Your sanity is worth the extra time. You can condense the bibliography upon submission.

 

2. Citing: When drafting and revising, cite your sources within the manuscript. Even if your submission doesn’t ask for embedded citations, this format will be essential to have so you can pinpoint where your facts come from. You’ll be grateful when months or years down the road you need to double check information.

 

3. Recording & Permission: If possible, record all interviews, webinars, lectures, etc. ASK PERMISSION FIRST! I prefer to get a signed permission form for my records either in-person or electronically at the time of the recording. Once permission is granted, you can be in the moment during the interview knowing you can listen to the recording again. State the date, time, person, title, event, location, etc. at the beginning of the recording. Video and audio recordings allow you to observe their facial expressions, energy, and mannerisms. If audio is only available, take notes on these reactions to enrich your manuscript.

 

4. Photos: When researching in person, take more photos than you’ll need. Again, ask permission. Pictures will allow you to bring your story to life and capture details you can repeatedly refer back to when writing.

 

5. Marketing: Make a marketing/promotions/event sheet as you research. Document any and all places and contacts that might be good ideas to have a signing and/or sell your book. Even if the book hasn’t been sold yet, research like it has. 

 

When researching for a project, seek out ways you can apply it to another. Work smarter, not

harder. You got this!

 

What tips do you have? Please share in the comments.

 

About the Author: Nicki Jacobsmeyer writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. She has two forthcoming non-fiction children’s books, TALES ON TRAILS and THE GHOSTLY TALES OF MAINE’S HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSES (Arcadia Children’s Books, Summer 2027 and 2026).

 

She is the author of The Ghostly Tales of St. Charles (Arcadia Children’s Books, July 2025),

Kentucky’s Packhorse Librarians (Arcadia, 2025), and others. Nicki is represented by Senior Agent Heather Cashman of Storm Literary. She is a Co-Host of the Way-Word Writers Podcast, a certified career coach, speaker, and business professional. Besides reading and writing she loves to travel, knit, the outdoors, sunsets, family barbecues, and watching a storm come in from her front porch.

USING SCHOLARLY JOURNALS IN YOUR RESEARCH

By Traci Huahn

One of the scenes in my debut picture book faced being cut at the eleventh hour, but was saved thanks to some obscure information about 19th century fruits and vegetables that I found in two scholarly journals. 

I often turn to scholarly journals (meaning any kind of academic or peer-reviewed journal) as part of my research for a book. Since journal articles are written by experts in their field, they provide good overviews of a topic, put events and ideas into broader contexts, and be useful for tracking down primary sources.

One of my favorite sites for finding such articles is JSTOR. For those unfamiliar, JSTOR is a non-profit site that offers online access to thousands of digitized journal collections, open access books, images, primary sources and other materials from around the world. While some content requires you to be affiliated with a partner institution or have a paid subscription, I’ve found that most items are available using their free registration, allowing you to read all open access content and up to one hundred free views of licensed content each month.

To show how useful journal articles can be, the example that I’m sharing comes from my book Mamie Tape Fights to go to School: Based on a True Story (illustrated by Michelle Jing Chan, published by Crown Books for Young Readers). As a side note, though the book is historical fiction, the research for it was no less than for a nonfiction project and it was equally important to make sure that even fictionalized elements were as accurate and probable as possible. I won’t be going into detail about the ins and outs of nonfiction versus informational fiction or historical fiction, but for those interested in learning more, please check out this post by Colleen Paeff on Kirsten W. Larson’s blog and Nancy Churnin’s 2024 NF Fest post, both of which already offer excellent discussions.

Which brings us back to my dilemma about fruits and vegetables.

In the scene in question, the main character Mamie Tape plays alongside her siblings while their mom shops for ingredients to make a traditional Chinese New Year dish called jai, which contains mung bean noodles and vegetables like lily buds, fat choy, and bamboo shoots. Seems simple enough. Except that when the book went through my publisher’s final vetting, we received a note that mung bean noodles might not have been available in the United States at that time, and that fat choy and bamboo shoots were not yet being cultivated here.

We also got these comments about items shown in the art:

This scene (and two others that build off it) was based on Mamie Tape’s great-granddaughter telling me that when she was growing up, Mamie always helped prepare the jai for their family’s Chinese New Year meal. I also knew, from Mamie’s only-known interview, that their family had assimilated into mainstream American culture, but that food was one of the few Chinese traditions they kept. Of course, the fact that Mamie made and ate jai as an adult doesn’t necessarily mean she also did so as a child, so I fictionalized this detail, but it was important for it to still ring true to what could have been possible for the time period.

What to do? After a moment of panic, I thought about all the imported items I see when shopping at my local Asian market. Could any of the food sold in San Francisco Chinatown during Mamie’s time also have been imported?

I plugged in various search terms at JSTOR….and BINGO, up popped two articles! One in California Historical Society Quarterly, which references invoices from the U.S. Custom House in San Francisco, verifying that shipments of bamboo shoots and pomelos (among many other foods) were being imported from Hong Kong as early as the 1850s. And another, in Historical Archaeology, showing 19th-century ledgers from a California farm that employed Chinese workers listing groceries that included black fungus (an English translation for fat choy) and mung bean noodles.

With this information, the scene was saved! Some of the fruits that illustrator Michelle Jing Chan had chosen for the art had to be swapped out (sorry, lychee and durian!) but now armed with lists of other foods that could have been available, it was any easy fix.

So, next time you’re about to start new research, or when faced with a tricky last-minute detail, consider consulting some scholarly journals. If you’ve used JSTOR before, I’d be curious to know what you think of it and where its led you. And if you haven’t, I encourage you to poke around and see what you find!

Traci Huahn (she/her) writes books for kids and especially loves stories rooted in Asian American culture, history, and identity. Her debut picture book, Mamie Tape Fights to Go to School, illustrated by Michelle Jing Chan (Crown Books for Young Readers, 2024), won the Chinese American Librarians Association 2025 Best Book Award for Children's Non-fiction and was named a CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Her next soon-to-be-announced picture book will be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers in 2028. Follower her on IG at @tracihuahn and learn more at www.tracihuahn.com.

How I Use Mentor Texts for Craft

By Nell Cross Beckerman

Today I would like to share with you how I have used mentor texts in a granular, practical way: to get your first words on the page. Beginnings (and endings!) are some of the hardest parts of crafting your text, so any hacks to make it easier? I’m in!

I wrote my first three books, Down Under the Pier, When the Sky Glows, and Caves, in my “cloffice”—my closet office, the only place in the house I could close the door. When that got old, we moved to a new house where I fin ally had my own office. Which was great…until I realized when I turned on my computer that something had changed. My fingers felt frozen and my mind was static. I had writer’s block!

Around that time, I had been inspired by walks on my local hiking trail, called the Park to Playa trail. I knew I wanted to write a story about how paths and parks connect communities and bring us closer the nature. But for the first time, I couldn’t figure out how to start.

So, I did what I always do when faced with a new challenge in my publishing career. I thought: What would Kate Messner do?  (WWKMD). Ever since discovering Kate’s book Over and Under the Snow (published by Chronicle, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal), I have followed her as my unofficial mentor-from-afar (although I have been lucky enough for a few personal encounters!)

I love Over and Under the Snow so much I could recite it by heart. It is a lyrical adventure of a father and child as they cross country ski through the wonderland of woods that seem to be in their backyard, observing and learning about the animals over and under the snow (aka the “subnivean zone”) Through this adventure, the family bond deepens, the setting feels intimate and local, and the reader learns some STEM concepts without realizing they are learning at all. Perfection.

What if I used Kate’s introductory text, but swapped my words for hers? Wait…but isn’t that plagiarism? Definitely not what I’m proposing! Not imitating the story, but studying the craft. Let me show you what I mean:

Kate’s opening lines are simple and magical:

 Over the snow I glide.

Into woods frosted fresh and white.

 First, I sat down to pick apart why I liked these lines so much. I never studied creative writing in college and have no background in education (I’m a former documentary TV producer.) I’m still learning terms like “assonance” and “consonance.” But, I have been a reader my whole life, and I know when I like how words sound when I say them out loud.

 In layman’s terms, I noticed:

•   The repeated long sounds of “O” (over, snow)

•   The echoed long “I” sounds in I glide and white.

•   Alliteration of frosted fresh.

•   The inverted sentence structure: Over the snow I glide instead of I glide over the snow.

Here’s what I tried, using Kate’s structure but swapping in my own words.

                               

Kate’s words	My words
Over the snow I glide.	Up the path I climb   (repeating “p” sounds)
Into woods frosted fresh and white.	Stepping from pavement to earth, leaving the river of cars behind.   (Continuing the “p” sounds, repeating “v” sounds, repeating “I” sound in “climb” and “behind”)

 

As you can see, I already have veered off from Kate’s structure in the second line. Turns out, I just needed her to hold my hand for that very first line to get my fingers in action.

Those lines disappeared in revision, so there is no visible trace left of Over and Under the Snow in From Park to Playa: The Trails That Connect Us (published by Abrams, illustrated by Sophie Diao.) But I will always be grateful to Kate’s book for helping with the building blocks of mine.

How to Use This Strategy in Your Own Writing

If you find yourself staring at blank screen with an idea lodged in your head, try this:

•            Choose a mentor text you love, especially one with a tone or structure that fits your project.

•            Copy the text in full, by typing it out or writing it longhand. Follow line breaks and page turns. This will help the style seep into your creativity bank.

•            Study the opening lines closely. Listen for repeated sounds, rhythm, and sentence structure.

•            Swap in your own words, Mad Libs–style, using the same structure. Verb, noun, adjective, etc!

•            Let go of the result. This is a warm-up, not a final draft. Just gets words on the page so you can get your idea out.

I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn’t do this for a full book! That would be creepy, and I’m definitely not advocating anything that smells like plagiarism in any way shape or form.

I’ve only used this method once, but it’s a tool I’m grateful to have in my toolbox. And sometimes that’s all you need—a mentor text to hold your hand just long enough to get you started.

There are so many ways to use mentor texts to help your writing.  I hope you’ll join me and NF authors Laura Purdie Salas (please link to https://laurasalas.com/), Michelle Schaub (please link to https://www.michelleschaub.com), and Jolene Gutiérrez (https://www.jolenegutierrez.com/ ) as we reprise our NCTE panel Writers Inspiring Writers: How Both Authors and Students Use Mentor Texts to Reach Their Writing Dreams, hosted with writing prompt breaks from the Southern Nevada Writing Project (https://snwp.org/), offered for free on Zoom. Visit NellCrossBeckerman.com for details to sign up.

If you’ve tried something like this, I’d love to hear about it. What mentor text helped unlock your writing? 

About the Author: Nell Cross Beckerman is the author of Scholastic’s multi-award-winning series, Adventure Through Nature (Caves, Volcanoes, and Forests) and the forthcoming Coyote & Me (Beach Lane Books, illustrated by Yas Imamura.) Sign up for book, teaching, and event updates at NellCrossBeckerman.com