Mary Batten
Home |
My Works |
Bibliography |
Class Visits |
Newsletter |
Discussion
 Author, Mary Batten Recent Books Who Has A Belly Button? Peachtree Publishers For every child who asks, "Why do I have a belly button?"   Hungry Plants Random House, 2004 |
WelcomeNEW BOOK - Spring 2008 Do you know how different animals sleep? You can find out in my new book: PLEASE DON'T WAKE THE ANIMALS. All people sleep. So do all other mammals, but they sleep in different ways. Diurnal animals sleep at night like we do and are active during the day. Nocturnal animals, like bats, owls, and mice, sleep during the day and wake up at night. Birds sleep, too, and some can actually sleep while they are flying. You can find out which ones in my book. Bears and ground squirrels go into a deep winter sleep called hibernation. You'll find all kinds of fascinating facts about sleeping animals in this book. I hope you'll enjoy reading it. CHECK OUT MY NEW MAGAZINE ARTICLES Remember those old-home remedies? This memoir essay describes remedies from my childhood on a Virginia peanut farm. "Doctor Moms: Southern Farmwomen Knew to Avoid Drafts, Night Air and Other Health Hazards." PrimeTime 2008, published by Hampton Roads Magazine. "Reducing Risk: The Real Skinny on Dietary Fat and Breast Cancer." PrimeTime 2008, published by Hampton Roads Magazine. ALIENS FROM EARTH is making NEWS: Watch for paperback edition - Spring 2008 New York City's public schools have selected ALIENS FROM EARTH in support of the 4th grade science requirement for the study of ecosystems. I am very proud that my book about invasive species is now in every 4th grade library in every public elementary school in the five boroughs of New York City. 2006 Izaak Walton League of America Conservation Book of the Year Award "Every Elementary and middle school in the country needs this wonderful book!" Elizabeth C. Petersen Past-President, Science Teachers of Missouri Chair, District Science Curriculum Committee Ladue Middle School St. Louis, MO HUNGRY PLANTS, my children's book about carnivorous plants, will have a special edition for SRA/ I am also proud to be featured on the MEET THE AUTHOR television series, produced by the Fairfax Network, Fairfax County Public Schools. The program about me was originally broadcast on March 8, 2006. Videotapes are available from the Fairfax Network. I write science books for adults and children, television documentaries, and magazine articles. My work deals with human behavior, ecology, animals, plants, health, disease, stars and galaxies – anything and everything in the natural world. I feel very lucky to be a science writer because I can follow my curiosity wherever my questions take me. I have been privileged to visit tropical rainforests, astronomical observatories, and medical research laboratories. I have had the opportunity to meet some of the most insightful, creative scientists on Earth – people who have generously shared their work and their friendship with me. They are too numerous to mention individually, but I thank them all. The variety of life on our beautiful planet is extraordinary. The intricate interactions among animals and plants in the real world are far more fascinating, wondrous, and bizarre than those any fiction writer could possibly invent. Imagine fish that change sex, plants that trick and seduce insects, animals that have both male and female genitals. All of this happens, some in your own backyard! My first "field station" was the peanut farm in Smithfield, Virginia, where I grew up. I played in the woods, waded through forest streams, and learned to respect and appreciate animals, plants, and the cycle of seasons, planting, and havesting. I believe there is something in all of us that yearns for wild nature because it is in wilderness that we can feel a connection with our ancient hunter-gatherer past encoded in our genes. In my books, I try to convey the excitement I feel about our extraordinary planet, the diversity of life, and the responsibility that humans have to care for the other species with which we share our global habitat. My books include Who Has A Belly Button? (Peachtree 2004); Aliens from Earth: When Animals and Plants Invade Other Ecosystems (Peachtree 2003); Anthropologist: Scientist of the People -- Named Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children by the National Science Teachers Association and the Children's Book Council (Houghton Mifflin 2001); Hey, Daddy! (Peachtree 2002); Wild Cats (Random House 2002); Hungry Plants (Random House, 2000); The Winking, Blinking Sea -- Named one of the Best Children's Books for 2001 (Millbrook Press, 2000); Extinct! Creatures of the Past (Golden Books, 2000); Baby Wolf (Grosset and Dunlap, 1998); Sexual Strategies: How Females Choose Their Mates, (Tarcher/ My magazine articles are published in a variety of publications, including Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Modern Maturity, Shape, International Wildlife, ZooNooz (the San Diego Zoological Society's magazine), Science Digest, Calypso Log, and the children's magazines, ASK, National Geographic World, and Dolphin Log. I was nominated for an Emmy for my work on the Children's Television Workshop's science series 3-2-1-CONTACT, and I have written some 50 nature documentaries for television series, including the syndicated WILD WILD WORLD OF ANIMALS (Time-Life Films) and others for National Geographic and Disney Educational Films. My magazine article for Science Digest, "Sexual Choice: The Female's Newly Discovered Role," won The Newswomen's Club of New York's Front Page Award for best feature story. One of my most rewarding and exciting jobs was editor of The Cousteau Society's award-winning membership magazine, Calypso Log. Until recently, I was editor in chief of Breastlink.org, a website for breast cancer patients and their families. This was also extremely satisfying work because we were providing information about new research and therapies that can help people to make more informed decisions about breast cancer treatment. I live in Virginia with my husband, composer Ed Bland. We have two grown children who are also in the arts: writer Robert Bland and dancer Stefanie Batten Bland. |
|
