Putting the Story Back into History

By Marissa Moss

One reason I write historical nonfiction is because I want kids to see how exciting real history is. Textbooks may be boring, but going right to original source material rarely is. When I wrote the diary of a pioneer girl taking the Oregon Trail in 1850, I read stacks of pioneer journals, some published, most not. I felt like I was looking over the writers’ shoulders, fording rivers alongside them. The result, Rachel’s Journal, is meant to give students the same thrill I got, the same sense of being close to an experience that happened in a completely different era.

One way to grab students is to tell them tales they don’t know about, giving them that wonderful sense of discovery.  I love stumbling onto people who should be better known but aren't. Those are the stories I turn into books, the tales of courage and achievement that deserve to be widely known.

   

 

Maggie Gee was that kind of lucky discovery.  I found her in a local newspaper article about WWII veterans.  I didn’t know that women had flown warplanes in WWII and it seemed like an important story for kids (and adults) to know about.  

 

I reached out to Maggie and asked for an interview. That interview and the many conversations that followed became a picture book. Maggie impressed me with her drive, her optimism, her courage. She barely mentioned the discrimination she faced when she talked about her life. As a child growing up in Berkeley, as a Chinese-American she couldn't swim in the public pools. But she could serve her country in wartime. Maggie not only had many stories, she had photo albums, even her WASP training materials, including a guide to aircraft, allied and enemy. She had a treasure trove of source material about the WASP experience, all useful for the story I wrote.
 

I thought of Maggie’s grit, her enthusiasm for taking risks and following her dreams, when I started looking for a Civil War story. I wanted to find a woman who had made similar daring choices. I started by reading widely, about both the North and the South. I learned that more than 400 women had disguised themselves as men and fought as soldiers for one side or the other. Could one of those women’s lives hold the story I wanted?

I plowed through books about nurses, soldiers, spies, but they all lacked some essential characteristic.  Some were there to be with a husband, brother, father, or fiancé. Some were adventurous, but not particularly patriotic or admirable. Very few cared about the issue of slavery.

Sorting through all these women, I found one who seemed promising. The first book I read about her didn’t tell me much, but it gave me enough of a sense that I wanted to learn more. When I saw she’d written her own memoir of her soldiering life, that I could hear in her own voice her motives and intentions, it was like finding a treasure trove. Source material like this is crucial to make history vivid and accurate.

That woman was Sara Emma Edmonds, aka Frank Thompson. She had integrity, bravery, loyalty to the Union. She wrote movingly about the horrors and wrongs of slavery. But there was more. Edmonds was the only woman to successfully petition the government after the war for status as a veteran. She wanted her charge of desertion changed to an honorable discharge, and she wanted a pension for her years of service.  Suffering from malaria she’d caught in the Virginia peninsula campaign early in the war, she needed medical care she couldn’t afford without it.

It took several years and two separate acts of Congress, but Edmonds received the legal recognition she so richly deserved. Men she’d served with testified on her behalf, praising her steadiness under fire, her work as a battlefield nurse, a general’s adjutant, a postmaster, and even a spy. All of this was more original source material.

I use the same kind of material in the middle-grade nonfiction I write. I follow the trail of whatever I'm writing about to get to documents directly from the period. You can read newspapers from the 1700s in the Library of Congress. The National Archive has digitized much material as well. Recently, I wrote a book about a woman who worked as a codebreaker before there was any intelligence agency in the American government. Much of her work had been declassified and I could read it on the NSA's site.

This is the history I like best, a kind of time travel that evokes real people doing amazing things: powerful stories that actually happened.

 

Marissa Moss has written than seventy children's books, from picture books to middle-grade and young adult novels. Best known for the Amelia’s Notebook series, her books are popular with teachers and children alike, using graphic formats to introduce history in an accessible, appealing way. Barbed Wire Baseball won the California Book Award, Gold medal and the California Young Reader Medal. It has also been banned from Texas and Florida schools.

 

In 2013, Moss founded Creston Books. The small press has earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Booklist, as well as awards. Each list balances debut authors and established names, showcasing the best in children's books.

Fact Checking: What to do with Irrelevant Facts, Unreliable Sources, or Time-Specific Facts

By Darcy Pattison

As nonfiction authors, we stick to the facts! I am terrified of a book being published with mistakes. But what if the facts are not as straightforward as True or False? 

When kids research a topic for an essay or research paper, one of the hardest tasks is sorting through information to find the relevant information while discarding information that is off-topic or irrelevant to the writing task. It’s the same for those who write nonfiction books for kids. 

Spelling and Location Names Changes Over Time

Every history writer will have a story about conflicting names for a location. For my book, George Washington’s Engineer, I found maps that conflicted when naming a location. Rufus Putnam served as engineer to General Washington during the Revolutionary War. During the frigid winter of 1775-1776, Washington asked Putnam to build a wall to protect troops. Winter soil, however, was frozen making it impossible to dig a foundation to build a fence. Putnam researched ideas and found a solution that allowed the Colonial army to stop the siege of Boston without firing a shot. 

I needed to follow the troop movements around Boston, but it quickly became complicated because place names change rapidly; or, the spelling of the place name varies widely. 

For example, in documents of the time, Lechmere Point is also called Leachmor Point or Leachmoors Point. I had to decide how to handle this. For consistently, I used Putnam’s spelling whenever possible. If he didn’t name a location, then I used the spelling from maps of the time. For purposes of the story, it’s more appropriate to use the name used at the time; but I also try to include today’s name when possible. 

 

Fact Checking Memoirs: When Memory is Faulty

One valuable resource for George Washington’s Engineer was the autobiography of Rufus Putnam. Such documents are available through various sources online.

Putnam wrote that he read Attack and Defense of Fortified Places by the British engineer John Mueller, which inspired his idea of using chandeliers (a structure to hold bundles of sticks) to build a portable wall. I based my story on Putnam’s statements. My fact checker, however, found a copy of Mueller’s book online and the chandeliers are not mentioned. Mueller wrote several books, though, and after checking other titles, she found the chandelier information in Field Engineer by John Mueller. In other words, Putnam had a faulty memory when he wrote his autobiography. He correctly remembered reading a book by Mueller but misremembered the title of the book that inspired his engineering feat. 

 

International Date Line and Time Zones: When Facts are Irrelevant

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the shore of Japan causing a huge tsunami that killed thousands and damaged a nuclear plant. But the waves from an earthquake travel out in concentric circles, which meant the tsunami traveled across the Pacific Ocean and eventually struck Midway Island. On the island is the largest colony of Laysan albatrosses that includes the oldest known wild bird in the world, Wisdom. In early drafts of my story, Wisdom, the Midway Albatross, I wrote the date as March 10. Why? As the tsunami crossed the Pacific Ocean, it crossed the International Date Line before reaching Midway. 

Because we live on a globe that rotates, we divide the earth longitudinally from the north to south into 24 roughly equal sections, each section representing one hour of the day. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean at roughly 180 degrees is the International Date Line. When you cross the date line traveling east, you subtract a day, and if you cross the line traveling west, you add a day. 

By Japanese time, the tsunami hit at about 2:40 pm on March 11. Midway Island lies just east of the date line. It took about 10 hours for the tsunami to travel across the Pacific Ocean to Midway where it struck at about 11:46 pm, March 10, Midway time, but lasted for four hours into the early morning of March 11. That meant it technically struck Midway the day before the earthquake, which caused the tsunami.

However, the exact times and dates were irrelevant to the story. I used the date, March 11, when the earthquake struck Japan, but just added the ten hours. Trying to explain about the International Date Line was off topic and too complicated for the story. The story just says the tsunami traveled across the Pacific and struck at about midnight, and then “The next morning…”

When you write nonfiction for kids, you need to find the facts. But sometimes, you must interpret changing place names, leave out confusing and irrelevant information, or correct a primary source. 

Children’s book author and indie publisher DARCY PATTISON has written over seventy fiction and nonfiction award-winning books for children. Five books have received starred PW, Kirkus, or BCCB reviews. Awards include the Irma Black Honor award, six NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, six Eureka! Nonfiction Honor book (CA Reading Assn.), three Best STEM Book, two Junior Library Guild selections, two CLA Notable Children’s Book in Language Arts, two Notable Social Studies Trade Book, an Arkansiana Award, and the Susannah DeBlack Arkansas Children’s History Book award. She’s the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature. Her books have been translated into eleven languages.

 

Making the Hard Stuff (look) Easy

By Cynthia Levinson

Writing nonfiction for kids is an act of translation. Doing the background research—interviewing scientists, visiting museums, reading a subject’s diaries, etc.—is thrilling. But the trick is to convert some of what you’ve learned into a book with kid-appeal (and editor-glee). This task is especially challenging when the material is technical, conceptual or just plain tough. How do top-of-their-game nonfiction writers pare the mountain of evidence they’ve amassed and channel what’s left into text and illustrations that are comprehensible and meaningful? Here are some approaches.

1. Keep it basic. Hardly anything could be more technically complex than physics (at least for me). In the picture book On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein (Chronicle Books), author Jennifer Berne and illustrator Vladimir Radunsky draw in readers with an opening sentence that moves from the universal (“as the stars swirled in the sky”) to the familiar (“as the Earth circled the sun”) to the particular (“as the March winds blew through a little town by a river”) to the personal (“a baby boy was born”). Then, rather than delve into mechanics, they simplify the concept of light by focusing on a beam on which little Albert rides a bicycle!

In the philosophical realm, Paige Britt, with Sean Qualls and Salina Alko, accomplish the same magic with the highly conceptual, very low word count Why Am I Me? (Scholastic Press). 

2. Hook your reader at the get-go. In their picture book We Go Way Back (Roaring Book Press), Idan Ben-Barak and Philip Bunting talk directly to kids with the opening line “Hey, you! Yes, you!” After the page turn, they get serious: “What is life?” And, they’re off—with kids inevitably along for the ride.

3. Make the text conversational. This advice can be especially useful in books for older readers, who want more information but in digestible forms. Pamela S. Turner, who also talks directly to readers in How to Build a Human in Seven Evolutionary Steps (Charlesbridge), raises the questions she’s sure are in their minds, and then writes, “So glad you asked.” It’s as if she’s chatting with them.

4. Put the technical stuff into sidebars. Christina Soontornvat’s middle-grade All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team (Candlewick Press) tells a gripping story with suspense, personalities, and cultural context and places such technical scientific information as “Human Responses to Levels of Oxygen Concentration” into charts. She relegates other unfamiliar information, such as “Buddhism in Thailand,” to sidebars. 

5. Mix writing styles. The chapters in my books Fault Lines in the Constitution (with my husband, Sanford Levinson, Peachtree Publishers) and Who Owns the Moon? And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space (with Jennifer Swanson, Margaret Quinlin Books) open with a short narrative story, then move on to expository legal, historical, and scientific information, mixed variously with graphics, sidebars, diagrams, QR codes, and other means of keeping readers actively engaged with the material. 

6. Let the illustrations convey the hard stuff. It’s not just science, philosophy, and law that can stump kid-lit writers. So can frightening experiences. Tonya Engel paints a ghost-like but dark and looming figure in Rise: From Caged Bird to Poet of the People (Lee & Low Books) to show the specter of a child molester while Bethany Hegedus’s subtle free verse merely hints at what might happen.

7. Respect your audience. Teens want and deserve to be taken seriously and can absorb and ponder serious subjects and material. Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and adapted for young adults by Eric Singer (Putnam) deals with physics, politics, romance, and more. Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group (Houghton Mifflin), Deborah Heiligman’s Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America (a love story) (Farrar Straus Giroux), and Ann Bausum’s White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History (Roaring Book Press) all deal straight-forwardly with complex politics, undercurrents in America, and violence.

How can you accomplish what these authors do? Try this: Choose a topic about which you’re curious but know nothing. No WIPs allowed! (For instance, how does a refrigerator work? Or, what is the mind-body problem?) Next, list all of the questions you have about the topic. It’s likely that your questions will be as basic as your readers’. Now, using your questions and the suggestions above, write the first sentence of a book. 

 

About the Author: Cynthia Levinson writes nonfiction books for young readers, aged five and up. Focusing on social justice and law, her books have received the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal; the Carter G. Woodson, Julia Ward Howe, and Crystal Kite Awards; Golden Kite honors; and Best Book recognition from multiple organizations, including the National Science Teaching Association, among other honors. She and her husband divide their time between Austin and Boston. 

 

NF FEST Starts TOMORROW!

By Stephanie Bearce

Welcome, writers, to Nonfiction Fest!

If you’re here, it means you love true stories—the kind that inform, inspire, surprise, and spark curiosity in young readers. For the entire month of February, you’re invited into a generous, knowledge-packed celebration of writing nonfiction for children, led by some of the most accomplished and respected voices in kidlit.

Here’s something important to know right from the start:

Every single guest blogger at Nonfiction Fest is volunteering their time and expertise.
They are not paid.
They are not promoting a product.
They are here because they believe deeply in this writing community and want to lift other writers up.

That kind of generosity is no small thing.

These authors—award winners, seasoned professionals, teachers, mentors—are sharing what they’ve learned through years of writing, researching, revising, failing, succeeding, and trying again. And they’re doing it with the hope that something they share will help you take your next step as a writer.

Throughout February, you’ll find posts that dig into:
• craft and structure
• research strategies
• picture books, middle grade, and YA
• narrative nonfiction and informational text
• market considerations
• voice, POV, emotion, and purpose

This year’s Nonfiction Fest lineup:

February 1 – Cynthia Levinson – Making the Hard Stuff (Look) Easy
February 2 – Darcy Pattison – Fact Checking
February 3 – Marissa Moss – Putting the Story Back into History
February 4 – Amy Houts – Assignment vs. Freelance: Which One Wins?
February 5 – Henry Herz – Writing Nonfiction
February 6 – Lindsay H. Metcalf – PB, MG, or YA?
February 7 – Nancy Churnin – How to Write Picture Books Inspired by Headlines
February 8 – Joyce P. Upglow – The IT Factor in Picture Books
February 9 – Sue Bradford Edwards – Writing for the School Library Market
February 10 – Louise M. Aamodt – Teachers’ Pet: Supplemental Guides
February 11 – Danna Zeiger – Writing About a Living Subject
February 12 – Elizabeth Shreeve – Joyriding Into Image Research
February 13 – Stephanie Bearce – The Hook Factor
February 14 – Sarah Aronson – Finding My Why
February 15 – Chana Stiefel – You Rock! Playing with POV
February 16 – Donna Janell Bowman – Weaving Through Lines into Narrative Nonfiction
February 17 – Judy Bryan – From Lyrical Poem to Nonfiction Debut Picture Book
February 18 – Nell Cross Beckerman – How I Use Mentor Texts for Craft
February 19 – Traci Huahn – Using Scholarly Journals in Your Research
February 20 – Nicki Jacobsmeyer – Work Smarter, Not Harder
February 21 – Kathy Kacer – The Power of Creative Nonfiction
February 22 – Julie Winterbottom – Einstein for Six-Year-Olds
February 23 – Vivian Kirkfield – Picture Book Bios
February 24 – Stacy Nockowitz – In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time
February 25 – Mira Riseberg – Considering Your Reader: Emotion in NF
February 26 – Debra Shumaker – Finding Story Arc & Structure

February 27 – Lisa Amstutz - Writing Nonfiction for Kids

February 28 – Lauren H. Kerstein – When the Research Doesn’t Match Your Vision

 

HOW YOU CAN SAY THANK YOU

• Leave a comment on their post

• Buy their books or request them from your library

• Leave a review wherever books are sold

Those small acts matter more than you might think. They support careers, encourage generosity, and keep communities like this thriving.

Welcome to Nonfiction Fest—a full month of learning, sharing, and celebrating the power of true stories for young readers.

 

Join Us for the Ninja Total Experience Retreat!

By Stephanie Bearce

I love Nonfiction Fest. A whole month of learning from the best authors in the business. What could be better?

How about spending a whole weekend hanging out with some of those authors in person? That’s exactly what you can do if you join us for the Ninja Total Experience Retreat this May!

Every year, the Ninja team gathers for a retreat to revise projects, brainstorm new ideas, and share insider information about publishers and editors. We might also play silly games, eat chocolate-drizzled popcorn, and watch Linda Skeers do interpretive dance moves. We’re not all business all the time!

Over the years, so many people have asked if they could join our retreat. And, selfishly, we’ve always said no. After all, there’s only so much chocolate-drizzled popcorn to go around! But this year, we decided to share the fun with all of you.

We’re inviting kidlit authors—of all genres—to join us in Hiawatha, Iowa (home of the interpretive dance studio of Linda Skeers). And yes, we mean all genres. You may know us as nonfiction experts, but the truth is, we Ninjas write fiction, too—award-winning fiction!

What You Can Expect

At the retreat, you can bring up to four manuscripts for critique. You’ll meet in small groups led by a Ninja team member, receiving professional feedback to help refine your work.

But that’s just the beginning. Throughout the weekend, we’ll cover key topics to help you strengthen your craft, including:

• The dreaded query letter—how to make yours stand out (in a good way).
• Interpreting feedback from editors and agents—because sometimes it feels like a foreign language.
• Brainstorming new ideas—for when your creative well needs a refill.

And for those burning publishing questions, Storm Literary agent Lisa Amstutz (who also happens to be a Ninja) will lead an Ask-Me-Anything session, giving you the inside scoop on agents, editors, and the publishing world.

Learning, Laughter, and Yes—Prizes!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Ninja retreat without some goofy games and equally goofy prizes. You might walk away with a year’s supply of interpretive dance lessons. Or a coveted bag of chocolate-drizzled popcorn. Either way, you’ll leave with new friends, fresh insights, and an extra boost of motivation for your writing journey.

And here’s the biggest bonus—after the retreat, all participants will have the opportunity to submit to Lisa Amstutz. She’s officially closed to submissions, but she’s making an exception for retreat attendees. That alone is worth the price of admission!

Affordable Pricing

We’ve worked hard to keep the retreat affordable because we want as many of you as possible to join us. Every registration option includes all programming and meals:

• Option 1 – A shared room for $350 per person. Bring a writing buddy or make a new best friend!
• Option 2 – A private room for $550 per person.
• Option 3 – Stay off-site but enjoy meals and programming for $275.

That’s a deal that can’t be beat!

 

Ready to Join Us?

So what are you waiting for?

Still need more details? Check out all the nitty-gritty at Ninja Retreat.

We hope to see you in May! But if you can’t make it, stay tuned to our blog. We’ll be sharing more great content throughout the year, and of course, we’ll see you next February for Nonfiction Fest 2026!

 

FIVE FLY-TYING TIPS FOR WRITING NONFICTION PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHIES

By Jeanne Walker Harvey

I recently came across notes I took when I joined my son, a fishing fanatic, in a fly-tying class. He quickly engaged in the process, while I realized (after fumbling with the tiny bits of thread, feathers and beads) that I was better off with pen and paper tools. Some of the fly-tying tips struck me as advice one can use in writing children’s nonfiction books.

1.  Reference – Gather information on hatches, baits, fish, and tying techniques.

Or in my case, as an author of picture book biographies, I try to gather as much information about the person that I’m considering featuring, and preferably from primary sources (interviews, letters, diaries, videos, etc.)  And, just as it’s important for someone tying a particular fly, say a wooly bugger, to learn about a particular insect’s habitat, it’s necessary for me to learn about a person’s world – the politics, history, customs of the time. I may not include these details in the finished manuscript, but they guide me in my writing about the person’s life or experiences.

2.  Materials – Don’t get hung up on finding exact materials from a recipe. Use what you have.

I can get lost in the incredibly enticing world of research. Sometimes I need to tell myself to stop gathering  information, and instead face that blank page and begin writing. I can always go back and gather more specifics, if needed.

3.  Thread tension – Pull at about 80% of the thread’s breaking strength.

I’m always trying to think about the throughline of my story when I’m writing it. What is the central, unifying idea or theme that holds my narrative together.  What are the challenges or obstacles the person faces? What does the person seek to achieve? What will connect to the child reader? 

In my upcoming picture book biography, THE GLASS PYRAMID: A Story of the Louvre Museum and Architect I.M. Pei (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster), I hit upon the throughline idea of I.M. Pei “planting and growing” the pyramid in a way that addressed the redesign needs of the Louvre, despite challenges and setbacks (resistance from the French, discrimination as a Chinese American, etc.). 

4.  Finishing: Use a whip finish or half hitch to finish your fly for a solid finish

I’m always seeking a solid ending to a manuscript, and in the case of THE GLASS PYRAMID, I was able to weave in (after many rewrites) my theme:

    “What began as I.M.’s secret Louvre project

    blossomed into a cherished symbol of France.

    In the splendid garden of Paris,

    Ieoh Ming Pei patiently planted

    and then grew

    a glorious glass pyramid.”

5.  Steam: Steam your finished flies to rejuvenate them.

When I finish a manuscript, I always ask others to read and critique the finished draft to “rejuvenate” it. But because we write nonfiction, it’s sometimes tricky because other fiction authors may suggest plot additions that are not accurate or supported by evidence. So instead, I ask for their thoughts on clarity of information, pacing, and engagement.

And after I’ve tackled these tips, I toss my finished manuscript out into the publishing waters, and hope for a bite! But no matter what, the process of writing the manuscript (or tying the fly) is always rewarding for me. And so for any of you seeking to tie together a nonfiction piece, I hope you enjoy the process and wish you all the best!

About the Author:

Jeanne loves writing picture book biographies about creative people who overcame challenges. In addition to  THE GLASS PYRAMID, her books include ELSE B. IN THE SEA: The Woman Who Painted the Wonders of the Deep; ABLAZE WITH COLOR: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas; DRESSING UP THE STARS: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head; MAYA LIN: Artist – Architect of Light and Lines; and MY HANDS SING THE BLUES: Romare Bearden.

She studied English literature and psychology at Stanford University, and lives in Sonoma, California. You can learn more at jeanneharvey.com or follow her on X or Insta  @jeannewharvey