What’s Up? Books for a Better Earth™ with Holiday House, Dana Alison Levy & Roxie Munro
If you’ve ever thought about becoming a scientist or about ways to take action to save the planet, you’ve come to the right place! On What’s Up?, Holiday House Books and KidLit TV are teaming up to bring you BOOKS FOR A BETTER EARTH™! It’s a collection of non-fiction picture books, middle-grade books, and a graphic novel that are full of information, resources and activities to inspire kids to be informed, active participants in caring for the Earth.
Meet Dana Alison Levy, author of BREAKING THE MOLD: CHANGING THE FACE OF CLIMATE SCIENCE, a book which introduces 16, diverse scientists battling climate change. BREAKING THE MOLD shares their stories, how they got into their fields, what they wish they knew when they were students to help make getting into science easier, and offers citizen science projects you can do to make a difference in your community.
Then join Roxie Munro for a sneak peek at her new picture book, A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DESERT. Most people think deserts are hot, dry places devoid of life, but Roxie knows better! She’s visited five out of the six deserts in this book, and can’t wait to share information about the thousands of interconnected insect, animal, and plant species that make deserts their home! Learn about way to preserve deserts and prevent their inhabitants from extinction — all on What’s Up?!
ABOUT Books for a Better Earth™ 
The Books for a Better Earth™ collection is designed to inspire young people to become active, knowledgeable participants in caring for the planet they live on. Focusing on solutions to climate change challenges, these books look at how scientists, activists, and young leaders are working to safeguard Earth’s future.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Sixteen scientists. Protecting our planet. Making science more equitable.
Scientists who collect microbes from surfers’ skin, who use radar sensors to gather data miles away, who combat inequality by pushing for cleaner air policies. Each with their own story, all working to make life better for future generations.
Celebrated author Dana Alison Levy profiles 16 people, all studying different elements of the earth’s landscape, animals, and climate, who defy stereotypes of who can be a scientist. From analytical chemists to volcanologists, from global experts to recent graduates, these scientists share what they were like as young people, how they got where they are now, and what they—and the rest of us—can do to help the planet.
ABOUT THE BOOK
WATCH THE BOOK TRAILER for A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DESERT!
ABOUT Roxie Munro
Roxie is the author/illustrator of more than 40 nonfiction and concept books for children, many using “gamification” to encourage reading, learning, and engagement. Her books have been translated into French, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese.
Roxie was born in Texas, and grew up in southern Maryland, by the Chesapeake Bay. At the age of six, she won first prize in a county-wide contest for a painting of a bowl of fruit. She has been a working artist all her life, for a while freelancing in Washington DC as a television courtroom artist. It was great training for life drawing, concentration under pressure, and making deadlines. Clients included CBS, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press. Fourteen of her paintings have been published as covers of The New Yorker magazine.
She also creates oils, watercolors, prints, and drawings, primarily cityscapes, which are exhibited widely in the US in galleries and museums. Roxie’s work is in numerous private, public, and corporate collections.
Roxie Munro studied at the University of Maryland, the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore), earned a BFA in Painting from the University of Hawaii, attended graduate school at Ohio University (Athens), and received a Yaddo Fellowship in Painting. She lectures in museums, schools, libraries, conferences, and teaches in workshops.
Many oils and watercolors are views from the roof of her sky-lighted loft studio in Long Island City, New York, just across the East River from her home in mid-Manhattan. Roxie is married to the Swedish writer/photographer, Bo Zaunders.
ABOUT Dana Alison Levy
Dana Alison Levy was raised by pirates but escaped at a young age and went on to earn a degree in aeronautics and puppetry. Actually, that’s not true—she just likes to make things up. That’s why she always wanted to write books. Dana’s new novel, Above All Else, takes place on Mount Everest and is her first for Young Adults.
Her novels for younger kids, The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island, This Would Make a Good Story Someday, and It Wasn’t Me have garnered multiple starred reviews, been named to Best Of lists, and were Junior Library Guild Selections. Also her kids like them.
Sponsored by Holiday House
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