Ecology for Kids
ECOLOGY FOR KIDS:
SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
INSPIRED BY AWESOME ECOLOGISTS, PAST AND PRESENT
Liz Lee Heinecke
Quarto Publishing Group, 2023, paperback $19.99, ebook $9.99
ISBN: 9780760375693, eISBN: 9780760375709
ASIN: B0BLZMLN1L
Heinecke reports:
I’ve been doing research for the last few years for a historical novel about a 1940 biological collecting trip to the Sea of Cortez. The seven people on the six-week voyage included the writer John Steinbeck, his wife Carol, and their friend Ed Ricketts, an early ecologist.
When my acquiring editor at Quarry Books asked whether I had an idea for a kids’ science book, an ecology book seemed like a logical fit for my Kitchen Pantry Scientist series. After all, I was fully immersed in the science of intertidal ecosystems. In the end, three of the scientists I feature in Ecology for Kids were inspired by the research for my novel.
Liz Heinecke, photo by Amber Procaccini
While I’d already planned to include Ed Ricketts in the ecology book, a boat trip I took to the Sea of Cortez in January 2022 unexpectedly gave me two more scientists to write about. As we explored the sea and desert of the Baja Peninsula, we were guided on hikes and snorkeling trips by naturalists, including Carlos Navarro.
When I asked Carlos who the most famous ecologist in Mexico was, he pointed me to bat biologist Rodrigo Medellin. There also happened to be a barnacle scientist on the boat. After talking to her, I decided to write about Dora Priaulx Henry, whom Ed Ricketts often consulted when identifying specimens for his own collection. The other 22 biologists in the book come from around the globe.
Writing Ecology for Kids was a joy. It was delightful to learn about people who care about our planet and have been working to preserve the multitudes of ecosystems sustained by Earth. Modern ecologists I interviewed include Dana Bergstrom, Lesley de Souza, and Jodi Darquea Arteaga.
I also worked with a group of smart, enthusiastic kid scientists who planted seeds, cast plaster animal footprints, and netted freshwater invertebrates as we visited local nature centers to photograph the experiments that accompany each biography. As always, Amber Procaccini took gorgeous pictures, Kelly Anne Dalton penned stunning illustrations, and the design team at Quarto put everything together beautifully.
Contact info:
- Liz Heinecke: 952-484-9957, lizleeheinecke@gmail.com, https://kitchenpantryscientist.com/, https://lizleeheinecke.com/, @kitchpantrysci@lizheinecke
- Book: https://www.quarto.com/books/9780760375693/the-kitchen-pantry-scientist-ecology-for-kids
- Publicist: Angela Corpus, Angela.Corpus@quarto.com
- Agent: Victoria Wells Arms, victoria@hgliterary.com
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