Jason Chin » Redwoods

Red Clover Award: The Votes Are In

Jason Chin — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:30:47 +0000

About a year ago, I was happy to learn that Redwoods was selected as a Red Clover book. The Red Clover Award Program is a statewide initiative to promote reading in Vermont. Each year 10 books are selected and librarians across the state read them to elementary school children. Curriculums are often planned around the books, and this spring I was invited to visit many schools in Vermont to talk about Redwoods. When all of the books have been read, the children vote on them, and this year’s votes have just come in. Redwoods placed 4th, with 2,193 votes. The winner was Let’s Do Nothing! by Tony Fucile (congratulations, Mr. Fucile!). You can view the full list of Red Clover books at mothergooseprograms.org

Author Q & A

Jason Chin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:34:23 +0000

A few weeks ago, I received a number of questions about Redwoods from students at the JFK Elementary School in Winooski, VT. Here are the questions and the answers that I gave them. Thanks for the great questions, JFK Elementary!

1. I liked the book “Redwoods”. Did you actually go to California to study Redwood trees? And did you plan on becoming an author?

I did go to California to visit the redwood forest. Before writing the book, I knew very little about redwoods. I lived in Brooklyn, and had only read about them in magazines and books. After my publisher agreed to publish Redwoods, I booked a camping trip to Jedidiah Smith Park in northern California. My wife and I camped and hiked for three days and I gathered a lot of visual reference for the pictures in the book, taking photos and doing drawings of the trees. It was a really great trip.

2. When did you become interested in writing books? I liked your story it was so cool.

I became interested in book illustration in high school. I had a mentor who was a very good children’s book illustrator, and she showed me what the life of an illustrator was like. I went to Syracuse University to study art, and when I graduated I started to get small jobs illustrating in magazines. I also got a job at a children’s bookstore, and while I was working there I decided I would really like to illustrate children’s books. I didn’t start writing books until a few years later, and after a few failed attempts at writing fiction stories, Redwoods became my first published book that I both wrote and illustrated.

3. Did you go on the computer and study all about the trees? Or did you just know it and for the last time you’re the best and I have read some of your stories and I liked them all.

Much of what I first learned about the trees initially came from the internet. I find that the internet is a good place to start reading about a subject because there is a lot of general information online (often I start my reading about subjects on wikipedia.com). But I have to be careful because information on the internet isn’t always accurate, so most of my research comes from books and periodicals.

4. Is this you in the book “Redwoods”? Did you go on the internet and find out all of the stuff about the trees?

The character in the book is a version of me (the boy looks a little like me when I was a kid). The idea for Redwoods came to me while I was riding the subway and reading about the scientists who study redwoods. As I read, my imagination took me away, and I saw myself climbing into the canopy, so in a way the book is autobiographical.

A Great Photo of Hyperion, The World’s Tallest Tree

Jason Chin — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:00:23 +0000

It’s not easy to find a picture of Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree, but yesterday I found a great composite photo on Robert Krulwich’s blog. He’s a great writer, so I recommend that everyone read his post. The photo is so good though, I’ve taken the liberty of sharing it with you here.

Credit: Photo by James Balog via http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/

Climbing the World’s Tallest Tree

Jason Chin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:06:33 +0000

I’m a big fan of Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, hosts of one of my favorite radio programs, Radiolab. Today I was browsing Krulwich’s blog and I was very happy to find this post about the world’s tallest tree (tallest known living thing, actually). He’s a great writer, and you should all read the article. In it he included a wonderful video with footage from the top of Hyperion, and I’ve embedded the same video here. I hope you enjoy it!

A Video of My Visit to Calais Elementary School

Jason Chin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:28:03 +0000

On Monday I had the pleasure of visiting the wonderful Calais Elementary and I wrote about it in a previous post. Today, one of the teachers at Calais created a video of the presentation and sent me the link. The video has been edited down (so it’s not the full presentation) but it will give you a good idea of what the visit was like. Thanks so much to the Calais School for this wonderful video!

Cloning Redwoods to Slow Global Warming

Jason Chin — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:19:59 +0000

A group in Michigan is cloning extremely large and long lived trees in an effort to curb global warming, according to this AP article. Trees are very good at sequestering carbon–they absorb carbon from the air and that carbon becomes part of the tree for as long as it is living. When the tree dies, the carbon is slowly released back into the atmosphere as the tree decays (or quickly if the tree is burned). Immense, long lived trees, such as Coast Redwoods and Giant Sequoias, can store a lot of carbon for a long time, and this is what the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is counting on.

The mission of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is to clone the largest and longest lived trees–so called “super-trees”–and plant the clones to serve as carbon banks. The group argues that by cloning and replanting the trees with the greatest potential for carbon sequestering, they will get better results than just planting a random tree of that species. The merit of the super-tree method is debatable, according to the article:

Scientific opinion varies on whether trees that survive for centuries have superior genes, like champion race horses, or simply have been in the right places at the right times to avoid fires, diseases and other misfortunes.

But whether or not the science backs the super-tree idea, seems beside the point to me. Planting trees is a small but import step to combat the looming disaster of global warming. Planting a tree that may have the potential to sequester a larger amount of carbon is worth a shot. Below are links to the AP article and to the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive.

Group Seeks Forest Restoration to Cleanse Planet

Archangel Ancient Tree Archive

FOCAL Award, 2011

Jason Chin — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:21:51 +0000

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to Los Angeles to accept the 2010 FOCAL Award. The award has been given out annually for the past 32 years to an outstanding book with a California focus by the Friends of Children and Literature (which is associated with the Los Angeles Public Library). Prior to the event, I visited three wonderful schools in the LA area: Dana Middle school, Palms Middle School and the Paseo Del Ray Natural Science Magnet. I owe a big thanks to the fabulous teachers and librarians that made them possible.

The awards event was a luncheon at the excellent Border Grill, in Downtown LA. Prior to the event, students participated in essay contests, the winners received a personalized copy of Redwoods. I also sat with them at the luncheon and we talked about writing, illustrating and our favorite books. Following lunch, I gave a short presentation and accepted the award — a beautiful puppet of the main character from Redwoods! There are two copies of the puppet — one for me and another that will reside permanently in the LA Public Library; how cool is that? It was an honor to receive the award and I am especially thankful to FOCAL for arranging for my trip, and each of the school visits.

Fluctuating Fog Levels on the California Coast

Jason Chin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:40:29 +0000

A new study finds fluctuating levels of fog on the California coast which could have an adverse affect on coast redwoods. The study, conducted by biologist James Johnstone from U.C. Berkley, suggests that there has been a 30% decline in fog frequency along the coast in the past over the last century. Redwoods rely on fog in the dry summer months to retain moisture. When the fog rolls in, moisture condenses on the trees’ needles and falls to the ground to be soaked up by the trees’ roots. But not only do they make their own rain, recent research has found that redwoods also absorb moisture through the needles themselves. Over the course of one year, 30% to 40% of a redwoods total water intake is fog dependent, which is why this research has redwood enthusiasts worried. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more about the study on npr.org

Read the full study at pnas.org

National Science Teachers Association Redwoods Review

Jason Chin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:30:55 +0000

The National Science Teacher’s Association has given Redwoods a great review, saying:

“…this book [is] one that you will want to read over and over again. The adventure is beautifully depicted by illustrations that will leave readers in awe…”

and

“The book’s content, graphics, and unique presentation earned it a place as one of the NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Books for 2010″

It’s great to get such a strong endorsement from the experts! You can read the full review on the NSTA website:

http://www.nsta.org/recommends/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=19803

New York Transit Museum Event

Jason Chin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:52:49 +0000

Reading to the crowd inside the subway car

This past weekend I presented Redwoods at the New York Transit Museum. The Transit Museum’s main attraction is their collection of old subway cars (which are really cool) and I got to read the book to a crowd of parents and children in one of them.

Drawing dinosaur-land!

After the reading, we did an art project. In Redwoods, the main character’s world changes outside the subway car window as he reads the book. For our art project the children suggested ideas for things that they might see outside a subway car window (imaginary, of course) and I drew their ideas to a piece of paper taped over the subway window. On our trip, we went to dinosaur-land. There were volcanoes, a stegasaurus, palm trees, the requisite T-Rex and a time-traveling robot. Thanks to the Transit Museum and everyone who attended–I had a great time!

You can see more pictures of the event on the Transit Museum’s Flickr Album.