The Joy of Wonder: Using Story to Bring Science to Life, a guest post by Rebecca E.F. Barone

I can picture it now – I’m at the end of an author visit. I’ve spoken to the students about my hatred of writing as a kid (true story!). We’ve discussed how being an engineer is similar to being an author (also a true story!). Together, we’ve explored how to use narrative techniques to write nonfiction. Now, in the final few minutes, students are lining up to ask questions. Maybe they’ve written them down on index cards ahead of time. Maybe they’ve been especially chosen by their teachers to get to ask a question. However the case may be, one student bravely asks:

“How do you get your ideas?”

It’s a good question! I hear it at every school, and I can understand why. My books cover a huge range of topics, from exploring Antarctica to spies and codebreaking to surviving a volcano.  Where do those topics come from?

The best explanation I’ve found is in a quote often attributed to Isaac Asimov: “The most exciting phrase in science isn’t ‘Eureka!’ (‘I’ve found it!’) but rather ‘Huh. That’s funny.’”

The most exciting phrase in the life of a nonfiction writer is the same.

My books all come out of a question, out of something I want to know more about. They’re tens of thousands of words that arise from the spark of curiosity that goes “Huh. What about that…” We’ve all felt that spark. There’s a certain kind of joy that comes from wonder.

Perhaps kids feel it most often.

Unfortunately, all too often, that spark, that curiosity, that lightning-bolt of a desire to know is quickly killed off. Learning is often an uncomfortable process. It’s time-consuming and difficult to think in new ways. Especially if it’s something we’re trying to do on our free time, who wouldn’t want to do something stress-free and enjoyable? I can identify all too easily with setting a question aside because doing something else – something more fun – came along.

For me, story helps keep the enthusiasm alive. There’s a great quote by Bill Bryson who writes mostly memoirs for adults. In the beginning of his book A Short History of Nearly Everything, he states that he was really interested in science as a kid…until textbooks and lectures killed that excitement. He says that “I grew up convinced that science was supremely dull, but suspecting that it needn’t be.”[i]

What Bryson was missing was the story.

As a kid, he wanted to know – so he was given theory and facts. To be fair, nothing about this was incorrect. But, it’s easy to lose excitement while drowning in numbers. Facts and figures can be intriguing, but for me – and I suspect for many others who love books – it’s the story that keeps that spark, that wonder, that curiosity alive.

Any novel will have narrative elements – conflict, setting, characterization, etc. We expect these story-telling elements and as reader rely on them to keep our interest in the book. We care, because the world created in the story is an emotional one. We want to care. We want to be invested. The author just has to help us get there.

Narrative nonfiction has the same goals as any novel – to use these same techniques of conflict, setting, characterization, etc. to build a world that a reader cares about. It helps that the world the author is building is one we know so well – it is always our own.

Volcanoes are awesome. They’re terrifying proof of the giant forces that are under our feet each and every day. These forces are constantly shaping and re-shaping our very home, Earth. They live on timelines that challenge our usual timescales, and they create and destroy without any consult or input from humans. How could I not want to know more?

I’ve always been fascinated with the Earth. But geology textbooks hold little to no interest to me. I stare at the chemistry and physics of it all, and I can’t help but feel my eyes glaze over and my mind wander.

But textbooks and letting a meaningful question die aren’t the only options.

In Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens, it’s the volcano who is the star of the show, but it’s the people – the characters – who truly bring the mountain to life. Knowing the scientists and their agony to learn as fast as possible to help protect people. Knowing the people who live on and near the mountain who worry and care for their homes and livelihoods. Knowing their fears, their hopes, their very conflict brings meaning to the science of the eruption.

We learn about Steve Malone who first raised the alarm that something was up with the quaking, shaking mountain. Throughout the book, we follow as he builds and rebuilds a case for keeping people far from the volcano. We meet Harry Truman who lives on the mountain and clings to the memory of his wife in the home they built together. His grief at potentially being forced from his home shows another side to the conflict. As readers, we are forced to contemplate what the potential for eruption means and how to evaluate that.

There’s science, of course, but we end up caring – and learning – because it’s meaningful in the context of the conflict of the story. The narrative brings the question, the science, to life.

I’m grateful that questions have followed me all my life. I hope the joy of wonder never leaves. Narrative nonfiction shows that science doesn’t have to be dull. Showing the story behind the question keeps the joy alive in the answer.

[i] Bryson 5

Meet the author

Rebecca E.F. Barone is an engineer and author. She has worked on technical projects as diverse as injury analysis for the NFL and engine calibration for hybrid cars. Realizing her love of books in addition to numbers, she now describes the world with words rather than equations. Her first two books, Race to the Bottom of the Earth: Surviving Antarctica and Unbreakable: The Spies Who Cracked the Nazis’ Secret Code, received a combined nine starred reviews and were featured on numerous “Best of” lists. Visit her online at www.rebeccaefbarone.com

About Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens

Mountain of Fire is the narrative nonfiction account of the violent volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, the story of the people who died, those who survived, and the heroes who fought to raise an alarm.

For weeks, the ground around Mount St. Helens shuddered like a dynamite keg ready to explode. There were legends of previous eruptions: violent fire, treacherous floods, and heat that had scoured the area. But the shaking and swelling was unlike any volcanic activity ever seen before. Day and night, scientists tried to piece together the mountain’s clues—yet nothing could prepare them for the destruction to come.

The long-dormant volcano seethed away, boiling rock far below the surface. Washington’s governor, Dixie Lee Ray, understood the despair that would follow from people being forced from their homes. How and when should she give orders to evacuate the area? And would that be enough to save the people from the eruption of Mount St. Helens?

Includes a QR code for a website featuring eye-catching photos of the eruption.

ISBN-13: 9781250881656
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date: 05/14/2024
Age Range: 10 – 14 Years

Filed under: Guest Post