I think it would be a hoot to trade places with A.J. Jacobs, the author of The Know-it-All and The Year of Living Biblically. The way he immerses himself in every story and then reports about it with humor and ninja-level observation skills is remarkable!
Can you tell us a little about your latest book?
Two young boys in a coastal town discover a secret about their elementary school teacher, Miss L'eau, which changes their lives forever. The boys had always known there was something unusual about her, but they could never quite put their finger on it. Even though the boys have always lived near the ocean, they never thought about its importance, power and certainly never its vulnerability. Through Miss L'eau, and her very unexpected relationship to the sea, they develop a love and understanding for the great body of water covering most of the earth's surface. With their teacher's help, they become involved with a nearby aquarium and organize an annual clean-up event in their community.
What kind of research did you have to do to write your book?
There are so many great books and websites about the care and keeping of the ocean and importance of the water cycle that I spent months and months immersed in them, absorbing as much as I could to infuse into the story of Miss L'eau. It was my intention that even though Miss L'eau is a fictional story, its heart would be based in fact.
What message are you trying to convey with this book?
I decided to write Miss L'eau in an effort to make young minds aware of the help our shores needed. If one page of Miss L'eau makes a reader want to investigate more about the water surrounding us, then a good deed was done.
Where do you get ideas to write your books?
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