Happy Birthday Seymour Simon, August 9!

[Eric Van Raepenbusch]

Happy Birthday Seymour Simon - Born August 9, 1931
Check out Seymour's favorite birthday memory and book giveawaybelow!

Seymour Simon, "The Dean of Science Books for Children", has written over 250 science books for children. Kirkus Reviews feels "Seymour Simon may have done more than any other living author to help us to understand and to appreciate our planet and our universe." His books have inspired struggling readers with large bright photographs and have brought understanding to children (...and adults) about complicated topics such as global warming and our universe. The praise is abundant for Simon's work.

Seymour Simon's love of science started in the vacant lots of Bronx, New York exploring and observing small animals when he was a child and continued as president of the Junior Astronomy Club in High School. He took his love of science and passed it on to his students during a teaching career that lasted 23 years. His writing career began in 1963 with an article for Scholastic where he predicted what men would find on the moon. Scholastic was impressed with his first article and commissioned him to write many more. Seymour Simon felt it was teaching that made him a better writer because as a teacher his ultimate goal is to understand and pass it on to his students. Simon eventually left the classroom to teach a larger audience by becoming a full time writer.

Seymour Simon's first published book, Animals in the Field and Laboratory: Science Projects in Animal Behavior, came as a result of successful writing for Scholastic. The theme of animal behavior appears in many of his books including Snakes, Wolves, andGorillas which are all books from his Smithsonian Collins Series. The series also includes many books about Space including Our Solar System, Stars, and The Universe. My daughter picked out the booksVenus and Destination: Jupiter for me to read to her on a family car trip this week. She intently listened for 30 minutes, learning many new facts along the way. She learned that days are longer than years on Venus and that Jupiter has many moons including many that have ice! We read these books from cover to cover. Seymour Simon encourages his readers to read his science books in this fashion because he has written them as stories. We marveled at the carefully selected full color photographs that will excite all types of readers. -Click Here to Read More-