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National science-writing-award finalists have Island ties

Four of the six finalists for national science-writing awards have Island connections.
Chitchat_book cover.jpg
Oak Bay writer Jude Isabella has been nominated for a national science-writing prize.

Four of the six finalists for national science-writing awards have Island connections.

The writers — who tackled topics that range from flying reptiles to the history of handwashing to how Korean kids say “an elephant ate my homework” — have been nominated for the Lane Anderson Awards. The two prizes, one for adult books and the other for children’s books, are each worth $10,000.

Three of the finalists are graduates of the University of Victoria. James Bay author Daniel Loxton’s Pterosaur Trouble (Kids Can Press) tells of a battle between a giant reptile that can fly and its deadly pursuers that cannot.

It features digital illustrations and landscape photography by Jim W.W. Smith.

Oak Bay author Jude Isabella, one of the UVic grads, spent several years working on her juvenile entry, Chitchat: Celebrating the World’s Languages, in the process touching on 50 languages from Gaelic to Mohawk and Bengali.

Her response to the news of her nomination was all English: “I’m so excited,” she said. “It’s a huge deal.”

One of her most intriguing interviews for Chitchat involved a deaf linguist from the Prairies. Why? “It’s very possible that the first human language was sign language and there’s a lot of unspoken languages.”

One mystery she highlights: “All of the world’s languages grew from one language, but no one knows what that language was.”

A veteran of kids’ science writing, Isabella called the research among the “most challenging” she’s ever done, explaining that linguistic experts don’t always agree.

Illustrated by Kathy Boake, Chitchat explores everything from how babies learn language to how language evolves and how the world’s alphabets differ.

Isabella pointed out that both her book and Loxton’s were edited by recently retired Victoria editor Val Wyatt. “She’s been at it for over 30 years and to me it’s testament to Val’s huge impact on science writing for kids in Canada. There’s just so many writers today that are writing and winning awards and everything that wouldn’t be where they are without Val. She’s just legendary.”

The third finalist for the children’s prize, Claire Eamer, also lives on the Island.

Her work, Before The World was Ready: Stories of Daring Genius in Science (Annick Press), looks at eight scientists whose theories were ahead of their time, including those who studied the role of handwashing in preventing disease and argued that the Earth revolves around the sun. It’s illustrated by Gibsons artist Sa Boothroyd.

Another finalist, UVic grad Arno Kopecky, who now lives in Squamish, wrote The Oil Man and the Sea (Douglas & McIntyre). It’s his take on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project that will see supertankers loaded with bitumen plying the waters of B.C. for the first time.

Kopecky delves into what First Nations, urbanites and environmentalists have to say about Ottawa’s determination to make B.C. integral to Canada’s ranking as “energy superpower.” The prizes will be awarded this month in Toronto.