Micrometeorites

After not being able to find any dust mites, you began to wonder what you could see with your microscope. For some strange reason you decided to take some dust from under your bed and put it in a jar of water and see what happened.

A few weeks later, when you looked at a sample of the water under the microscope, little single-celled organisms were swimming around. This led you to believe that there must have been something dormant in the dust under your bed that came to life in water (not a particularly reassuring thought).

Then you went down to the pond nearby and brought back some pond water. There were lots of single-celled organisms in that water, including some mad crazy ones spinning like tops. Next, you collected some saltwater from a marsh near the summer home of the parents of a special friend and looked at that. More mad crazy single- and multi-celled critters were racing around. Their lives resembled bumper cars (Uh, actually, come to think of it, so does yours).

Then you read about micrometeorites -- tiny particles of cosmic dust that make it through the atmosphere and land on Earth. Lots of these itsy bitsy things fall everyday, but they’re much too small to see with The Naked Eye (See The Tardy Boys for more information regarding naked eyes).

Many micrometeorites are metallic so you took a magnet to the beach and swept it over the sand, and didn’t find a single one. Then you read that a good place to find them was at the bottoms of downspouts next to houses. This made sense, since houses have roofs where micrometeorites might land and then rain might wash them into gutters and down downspouts.

You collected debris at the bottom of the downspout of that special friend and studied it under the microscope. Low and behold, amid a lot of other junk, you found micrometeorites!!!



Mr. Bill says, “Zzzzzzzzzzzz. Huh? Don't wake me up until he writes about something interesting.”

Glow-in-the-Dark Bunnies

You had written two Tardy Boys books and needed to come up with a third. Your publisher asked that the third book take place in the fall and have something to do with either Thanksgiving or Halloween. A turkey seemed like the obvious choice for the next animal co-star (an animal usually co-stars in these books). But a turkey also felt a little too obvious and overdone.

You were discussing this problem with a special friend and her children one evening. Was there an animal that could be associated with Halloween? You asked. Her 12-year-old son said, “How about a glow-in-the-dark bunny?”

You said you’d rather write about a real animal. He insisted that glow-in-the-dark bunnies were real. And then he showed you the glow-in-the-dark bunny website:

http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html

The real glow-in-the-dark bunny is named Alba. They call her a fluorescent bunny. The man who “invented” Alba says that she’s a work of art. All you know is that she was created by mixing glow-in-the-dark jellyfish DNA with cute white bunny rabbit DNA.

You live near Long Island Sound. Sometimes at night in July or August, an oar pulled through the water will reveal dozens of small, round greenish glow-in-the-dark jelly fish.

And so Is That A Glow-In-The-Dark Bunny in Your Pillowcase was born.

You have since heard that there are glow-in-the-dark cats

http://cbs4.com/pets/Cat.Clone.Glow.2.611111.html

And glow-in-the-dark pigs

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Health/story?id=1498324

Mr. Bill says, “Must have been something I ate.”

Another review for IF I GROW UP

Another review has come in for IF I GROW UP. This one from Booklist:

“In Strasser’s tough, authentic work, tragedy is always just a gunshot away, and temptation all too often upsets the best-laid plans. Strasser loads the book with startling true statistics, and the final pages are both hopeful and heartbreaking.”

Unlucky Leprechaun

You did a school visit in Upper Saddle River this past week and worked with about 150 of the nicest and sweetest 7th graders ever. What a delight these kids were, all full of fun and interest. They nicknamed you the Stassinator.

While you were in one of the classrooms you noticed that your latest Tardy Boys book, Is That An Unlucky Leprechaun in Your Lunch? is being featured in the March offering from Scholastic’s Arrow book club (and inside, Help! I’m Trapped in Obedience School is being bundled with funny books from two other authors).

You think it might be instructive, or even interesting, for readers to see how a book cover evolves.

First, of course, it begins with the book. Scholastic had asked for a Tardy Boys book that could be set in March, so St. Patrick’s Day seemed like a logical holiday to focus on. Not that every Tardy Boys book focuses on a holiday, but you seem to recall that there was some reason why they wanted this one to be.

You were out in Ohio at the time, (or maybe it was Rochester, NY) and mentioned this to several librarians. One suggested Unlucky Leprechaun, which sounded like fun, especially since you knew absolutely nothing about Irish mythology.

Then, through the spring and early summer, you wrote the book while learning about the origins of leprechauns, sleeping giants, dullahans, and other strange stuff from Irish Myhtology (boy, do the Irish have a lot of mythology!). You also got to learn about silver iodide, cloud seeding, and photochemical smog.

In addition, you were able to include an amusing hand washing sign you found in a lavatory in a school in Rochester, NY (or maybe it was Ohio). Has anyone ever stopped to wonder why we hate and fear bacteria (germs) as much as we do? Could it have something to do with certain large companies’ need to sell us every possible kind of soap, detergent, deodorant, cleaner, and anti-bacterial evertything imaginable?

Anyway, it was not the easiest Tardy Boys book you ever wrote. There were lots of false starts, detours, wrong turns, and flat tires. But finally, with the aide of freshly-washed toe notes, and the help of some well-known Greek and British philosopher-baseball players, you found your way.
Shortly after you finished the manuscript, two sketches arrived with a note from your editor:

Todd - Attached are two cover sketches for Unlucky Leprechaun. We like the first one, in which the boy and Leprechaun are facing forward. In the e-mail below are my notes to the illustrator. I think it looks great!

Here are your comments in an e-mail back to your editor: Thanks for the look. I agree on the first one. I agree that the Leprechaun should have smaller ears. He looks like a donkey. His ears should stand up. Perhaps through holes in the brim of his hat? Please give him a pointy beard. I'm sending you some art.

Here’s the art you sent (Your idea of what a Leprechaun should look like even without the pointy beard).


I think your next book should be, Is That A Handsome Minotaur Driving Your Bentley?

Dust Mites

Several years ago, in the middle of the night, you woke up feeling as if you were unable to catch your breath. You were only able to feel like you could breathe when you sat up and placed your feet over the side of the bed and on the floor. The next day you felt absolutely fine.

This happened a few more times on subsequent nights. By then you were totally freaked out. On the Internet you looked up all the possible causes of such breathlessness, but none seemed to fit. You could still play two hours of tennis or do a hard workout at the gym. Then you read somewhere that it might be caused by an allergy to dust mites.

Dust mites are seriously gross, yucky creatures.

Sorry. You just couldn’t resist. Here's what they really look like.

You read more and learned that dust mites love down pillows. You immediately switched to pillows with synthetic stuffing.

And never experienced breathlessness again.

But you were nagged by doubts. Was your breathlessness really because of dust mites? You wished you had a microscope so that you could see if they actually lived in your bedding.

You told this story to a special friend. On your next birthday she gave you a beautiful microscope.

You took samples from your down pillows, sheets, mattress, and even dust under the bed – from every possible place where you thought a dust mite might tread.

And yet, you could never find one. Reading still more, you learned that dust mites usually like a climate with greater than 80 per cent humidity. Except for a few months a year, that was definitely not the climate around New York.

To this day you don’t know what caused the breathlessness. But you do have a wonderful microscope.

Mr. Bill says, “How thrilling! A regular Louis Pasteur! Save me before I pass out from excitement.”

More Guam Photos

A wonderful welcome.

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..............................................................................................Big coconuts.


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The best lunches at school.

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.............................................................Joe and I head for the reef.

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.. It wasn't all play.

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.....................................................................Could it be any better?

Guam

You recently returned from a trip to Guam where you were the guest of the Guam chapter of the International Reading Association. Between speaking engagements, visits to schools, and TV and radio appearances, you got to see manta rays in the wild, discovered large blue starfish and baby giant clams while snorkeling, and had an all-around fabulous adventure.

(The trip took 23 hours, including 17 in airplanes. These were the folks who came out to greet you at the airport. It was a sign of the wonderful hospitality that followed.)

What made the trip great were the people you met. The members of the IRA, and their husbands, who escorted you around the island each day were among the friendliest and most generous you’ve ever met on a trip like this, and they made your 8 or 9 days* on the island some of the best ever.

* You crossed the international date line to get there, losing a day going and gaining a day returning, and still haven’t figured out exactly how many days you were there.

(The first people to inhabit Guam were the Chamorros. They grow the largest coconuts and smallest bananas you have ever seen. The papayas were average size.)


Cyndy and Joe, Liz and Ken, and Vickie and Rich were the people you spent the most time with, but there were others as well. They all went out of their way to make you feel comfortable and show you what they liked about that special island. You saw many fascinating things, ate lots of delicious and exotic food, heard some terrific music, and “met” Yemaya, goddess of the ocean and mother of the fishes.

(Joe with a 1948 balsa wood and fiberglass surfboard made by the legendary surfer Bob Simmons, "The father of the modern surfboard.")

For all of them it was probably just another week with another visiting author, but for you, it was the trip of a lifetime.