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MEET PAMELA TURNER
by Bonnie O'Brian

What did you most like to do when you were a child?

Pamela Turner

I loved to read and draw. My mother used to buy me long rolls of shelf paper because I went through drawing pads so quickly! My favorite stories were always about animals, and I drew lots of animals, too. My first ambition, not surprisingly, was to write and illustrate children’s books…and now I write books for children, mostly about animals. Alas, I have decided I am not a good enough artist to illustrate my books, but I do take photographs for some of my nonfiction books.

Was your first book accepted immediately? Or did you experience a number of rejections?

 I was very lucky. The second children’s manuscript I wrote was accepted for publication by Houghton Mifflin Children’s Books. The first children’s manuscript I wrote I illustrated myself and had laminated and spiral-bound for my daughter, Kelsey, on her eighth birthday. So I suppose it was self-published!

Do you focus on fiction or nonfiction? Which do you prefer? Do you find one easier than the other?

 I write mostly nonfiction, but I also have some fiction manuscripts I am working on. What I like about fiction is the ability to play God—I can create my own world and make my characters do whatever I want. What I like about nonfiction—I write mostly about biology—is that it provides the opportunity to get out in the field with scientists studying fascinating animals.

Have any of your books earned special recognition?

 My first book, HACHIKO: THE TRUE STORY OF A LOYAL DOG won a Henry Bergh Honor from the ASPCA, a Silver Honor from the Parent’s Choice Foundation, a Golden Kite Honor from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and was on the “best books of the year” lists of the International Reading Association, Booklist, the Center for Children’s Books, Child Magazine, and the National Council for Social Studies, among others. HACHIKO was selected for the 2006 and 2007 Middle School California Collections.

GORILLA DOCTORS: SAVING ENDANGERED GREAT APES, was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association, received a Henry Bergh Award from the ASPCA, and a Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for nonfiction from the Bank Street College of Education. It was named to “best books of the year” lists by Kirkus, the National Science Teachers Association, the Children’s Book Council, and the New York Public Library. GORILLA DOCTORS was selected for the 2007 Middle School California Collection.

Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer to work totally from your imagination?

I actually love research. I like hunting down odd facts and pulling them together into something compelling. I sometimes use the public library, but because I write so much science I do most of my research at the UC Berkeley Biosciences Library. But you can’t write a good book—fiction or nonfiction—without using your imagination, too.

What are you working on now?

 I have several things in the works. “Adventures in Astrobiology: Exploring Earth for Clues to Extraterrestrial Life” will be published in spring 2008 by Charlesbridge; “The Frog Scientist” will also come out in spring 2008, published by Houghton Mifflin. My fifth book, “A Life in the Wild: George Schaller’s Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts,” will be published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux sometime in 2009 (I think). My picture book biography about an eighteenth-century woman astronomer, “Comet Chaser,” that is making the rounds at publishing houses. I’m also working sporadically on a young adult novel.

What do you most want students to get out of your school visits?

 When I talk about HACHIKO, I hope they will come away with an understanding of how children’s books reach their hands, from first idea to writing to research to illustration to publication. When I speak about GORILLA DOCTORS, I hope they take away how important conservation is, and what a wonderful tool science is for understanding our world.

What other jobs did you have before you became a writer?

 My first job was working in the local public library while I was still in high school. I’ve worked as a legislative assistant to a congressman in Washington, D.C., as a health planner in Micronesia, Haiti, and the Philippines, and as a health policy analyst in San Francisco.