Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview & Book Giveaway, a repeating feature for the fourth Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!
Today we’re interviewing Patricia Newman, author of Eavesdropping on Elephants: How Listening Helps Conservation. This fascinating book is a 2019 Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students: K-12 (National Science Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Council) and won a Eureka! Gold Award from the California Reading Association.
Mary Kay Carson: Why did you write Eavesdropping on Elephants?
Patricia Newman: Back in the 1980s I visited Kenya and saw elephants in the wild for the first time. I watched the way they moved, observed their family groups, and experienced how fiercely the matriarch protects her herd when she charged our safari van. One day we took a hike outside the national park and came across a massive elephant skull. Any child who has seen The Lion King understands the circle of life, but it wasn’t at all clear to us how this elephant had died. Natural causes or poaching? The tusks were gone. Did a park official or a poacher take them? The idea that a poacher carried away the tusks under cover of darkness gave me shivers.
I must have passed my interest in elephants on to my daughter Elise, because she worked for Cornell’s Elephant Listening Project as an undergrad. She had daily contact with Katy Payne, Peter Wrege, and Liz Rowland. She explained their research to me and described how she sat in front of the computer cataloguing forest sounds. And she told stories of snatching the headphones off her ears when an elephant trumpeted a very loud alarm call. I knew then I wanted to write about them. Elise handled the introductions, and the rest…well, you know.
School Library Journal says about Eavesdropping on Elephants, “…this book does an excellent job of transporting readers and providing a clear, multifaceted picture of African forest elephants…The more you listen to wildlife, the more your mind opens up to new ideas about why the world is a place worth saving.”
MKC: How did you research this book? Did it involve travel?
Patricia: I did not spend time with forest elephants. The scientists were not at their research station in the Central African Republic when I wrote this book, but I did sit in the Elephant Listening Project’s lab and listen to forest sounds. I had headphones on my ears and for hours I watched video and listened to sound files.
You might think listening to sounds is a poor substitute for actually being in the field, but it wasn’t. The sounds were transformative and immersive! I felt elephant rumbles and roars deep in my chest. I heard water sloshing as elephants walked through it. I literally swatted away a mosquito buzzing in my ear. I could imagine the forest mud sucking at my feet. And I learned how to identify the sounds of frogs, buffalo, parrots, gorillas, and chimps.
By allowing my ears to take over, I learned to appreciate the forest in a whole new way. And I wanted my readers to have the same experience. Eavesdropping on Elephants tells the story of field scientists helping an endangered species, but it’s so much more. Through the power of video and audio QR codes, the book allows readers to walk in the scientists’ shoes inside the forest. I always ask kids to tell me what they see in the videos or hear in the audio. Their responses would make Katy and Peter proud.
Patricia Newman’s books show kids how their actions can ripple around the world. Newman hopes to empower kids to think about the adults they’d like to become. Find out more about the author and her award-winning books at www.patriciamnewman.com.
MKC: To whom did you imagine yourself writing to while writing the book?
Patricia: Throughout, I imagined my daughter at age ten. What would she want to know? Elephant facts, for sure. But she was also interested in the “how” and “why” of the world. This book was a challenge because the narrative unfolded over the course of many years. How would I squeeze in Katy Payne’s early work with infrasound, sprinkle in some Elephant Listening Project history, and still keep the ten-year-old Elise engaged? I decided to use the passage of time to my advantage.
Science is not performed in a vacuum, nor is a long-term investigation quick. I thought the story of how Katy’s work on infrasound at the Oregon zoo morphed into ELP was a great example of real science in action. Questions and observations often lead scientists down unexpected paths and to unexpected conclusions.
Also, scientists sometimes age out of their work. When Katy retired from ELP, Peter carried on her vision but added his own flair. I thought the staff change was a great example of the inclusiveness of science—how different individuals can contribute to and build on the same project.
MKC: For readers who loved Eavesdropping on Elephants, what other middle-grade books would you suggest?
Patricia: A tough question because I don’t know of any other books about forest elephants for children (or for adults for that matter). They are just coming into their own as a species and few people know about them. Young readers interested in elephant research might consider The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell and Donna M. Jackson, which features Caitlin’s work with savanna elephants. Also, consider Bravelands #3: Blood and Bone by Erin Hunter, the author of the Warriors series. The third installment of Bravelands is told by the African elephant—but it’s a savanna elephant, not a forest elephant.
Win a FREE copy of Eavesdropping on Elephants!
Enter the giveaway by leaving a comment below. The randomly-chosen winner will be contacted via email and asked to provide a mailing address (within the U.S. only) to receive the book.
Good luck!
Your host this week is fellow elephant fan Mary Kay Carson, author of Mission to Pluto and other nonfiction books for kids. @marykaycarson
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This book sounds fascinating. I look forward to reading it.
I love elephants and often felt they were a species treated badly by poachers and abusive handlers. They are truly what you would call gentle giants, unless of course you hurt one of their own.
Hear, hear, Joan!
I loved this book! Elephants are such magnificent and sentient creatures. The science behind it was so fascinating! I didn’t take the time to do the QR codes–must rectify that!
Thanks for the praise, Maria! You must indeed listen to the QR codes. They’re amazing!
Thank you for an interesting interview. We were just discussing the value of zoos with someone who questioned whether we could justify them; this brings another facet to that conversation and reminds me that there is always more to learn when we include people in the conversation with expertise beyond our own fields of knowledge.
Hey Beth. Please be sure to also read ZOO SCIENTISTS TO THE RESCUE. It speaks to the very question you mentioned above.
I didn’t know Patty had a new book out. And who doesn’t love elephants. That cover is gorgeous and the book sounds fascinating. Thanks for the interesting interview.
Thanks for the shout-out, Rosi!
This is absolutely fascinating! My elementary library students can’t get enough of books about animals. We’re always looking for great nonfiction, too. The link to Cornell is super ( I am an alum!).
Hey from one Ithaca-survivor to another!
You’re a randomly chosen winner, Beth! Look for an email soon….
I love the idea of listening as research. Our ears can pick up on so many details that our eyes often miss. What an experience!
Exactly, Carolyn! It’s a great skill to have children practice.
Most of us don’t think a lot about what elephants sound like. Patricia’s research must have been fascinating!
Most of us give listening short shrift, don’t we? We’re all about the visual and the tactile. I loved focusing on our sense of hearing in this book!
Wow, I think of elephants visually, it’s amazing to consider how all the senses give different impressions.
Right! And how we don’t just have to study elephants by observing them. Acoustic listening opens up a wide variety of possibilities.
I loved reading about your process and how it stretched across the course of several years.
Patience is the name of the game, right? A good lesson for kids. 🙂
Thank you for this post! I was absolutely enthralled by Eavesdropping on Elephants, as I have been with all of Patricia Newman’s books, and I love learning more. One of the reasons I cherish Eavesdropping on Elephants, and so many other Scientists in the Field books, is for the models they provide students of living life as a scientist. I can’t wait to share with my students and see their faces when I reveal the video and audio QR codes. Thanks for a great interview and for the opportunity to win a copy of the book!
That’s the reason I love to write about field scientists. It’s so interesting looking over their shoulder! I’m glad you like the QR codes–I wanted to find way to bring kids inside the forest with the scientists. Enjoy! Let me know what the kids say.