Lynne Cherry

Description of Lynne Cherry's School & Conference Talks and Movie Screenings

Lynne Cherry shares her love and respect for the earth with young people and tells them many stories of how youth are making a difference in the world. She shows the first book she wrote and illustrated as an 8-year-old and describes how her love of nature and of story-telling led her to become a children's book author and illustrator. Lynne is also a filmmaker. The Young Voices for the Planet films that Lynne produced feature youth solutions to the climate crisis--young people reducing the "carbon footprint" of their homes, schools, and communities.These films have been shown at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, at the COP 15 Climate talks in Copenhagen, at film festivals such as Mountainfilm in Telluride and many other science museums, conferences and elsewhere.


Honorarium and Expenses:
Lynne Cherry's conference and school fee is $2200 a day plus travel and hotel expenses. (negotiable for local appearances and for environmental groups). A day consists of two presentations and one or two book signings.
Lynne may also be able to do an evening or weekend public presentation.

Lynne enjoys speaking to groups of students who want to work on a specific project such as the CO2-Reduction projects featured in the Young Voices for the Planet films or land preservation, school gardens, schoolyard habitat, stopping school bus idling, ridding their school cafeteria of plastic bottles or styrofoam or, in general, creating a more sustainable school and community.

To request an author appearance by Lynne Cherry, please e-mail us at YoungVoicesClimate@gmail.com mentioning date, time, place and the audience/s you would like Lynne to address.

Details of Lynne Cherry's School & Conference Talks and Movie Screenings
In her hour-long presentation, Lynne Cherry talks about how her books were inspired by her love of the natural world and how using nature to integrate curriculum makes a child’s learning relevant.

Lynne describes how her book How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming makes science exciting and relevant. "What is Science?" Lynne describes how climate scientists discovered clues about Earth's climate through studying tree rings, ice cores, mud cores, and the ranges of birds, butterfiles and plants and how kids can replicate, in their classroom, the studies that "real" scientists do and how Citizen Scientists often provide data that helps scientists understand the natural world.

A national study showed that when teachers teach core curriculum: math, social sciences, literature, science, art--essentially everything--under an umbrella of nature/environmental studies, students' test scores go up. With traditional teaching, children often do well on the standardized tests, but they do not retain what they’ve learned. When what they’ve learned has a “handle” –a relevance to their lives—they retain the knowledge.

And kids also learn better when they get at least one "Green Hour" a day--one hour of unstructured time where they can run around outside, explore nature or plant a vegetable garden. The importance of outdoor time for children is documented in Richard Louv's book "Last Child in the Woods".

Lynne Cherry's remarkable slides show Amazon flora and fauna that she photographed while researching The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest, The Shaman’s Apprentice and Flute’s Journey. Her slides of the Nashua River, the subject of A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History, show the condition of the river before and after it was cleaned up. Children and teachers are appalled by the condition of this river before the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency or the Clean Water Act. Lynne Cherry shows slides of the old growth forests she visited to research The Dragon and the Unicorn, a tale of the ancient forest.

Lynne Cherry suggests ways that her books may be used to integrate math, science, social studies, history into curricula through environmental themes.

For instance, The Great Kapok Treecan be used to teach about how all living things are interconnected or to teach about the rainforest comparatively—i.e. how is the rain forest similar to the forest near your school? How is it different?

Flute’s Journey will help children realize how rain forest ecosystems are connected to the ecosystem in your community.

The Sea, the Storm and the Mangrove Tangle will inspire children to write letters to save mangroves and children in Florida might want to go out and replant and protect mangroves in their communities.

How Groundhog’s Garden Grew, will inspire schools to transform their schoolyard into nature centers which also provide a peaceful place to read a book and make connections to the other living things with whom we share our world.

How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate tells stories of kids who have reduced the carbon footprint of their homes, schools, communities and even their whole states! Lynne talks about how everyone can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide they put into the air.

Her talk gives the audience ideas about teaching and learning in exciting new ways, and leaves them empowered--with hope and inspiration for the future.

Praise from Reviewers and Letters from Fans (for reviews of How Groundhog's Garden Grew go to "In The News")

The Great Kapok Tree
“Dear Lynne Cherry, I wish I could draw and paint as well as you do! That is a beautiful and powerful book…My Lorax doesn’t fell quite so lonely now that your great birds and beasts have come to join him.” Ted Geisel (Dr Seuss)

“…she traveled to the Amazon to research the illustrations… It shows. She’s drawn the animals and vegetation in great detail and with loads of color.. New York Times Book Review

A River Ran Wild
Dear Lynne, I wanted to take this opportunity to commend you for all of the work that you do to promote environmental awareness among our children. You have truly made a difference. Al Gore

How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming
This beautiful and informative book fills a major gap in environmental writing for children. It covers a wide range of research, defining technical terms gracefull and naturally as they arise. The overall tone--urgent without being shrill, hopeful without being complacent--strikes me as just right. I happily recoommend it.
Robert Coontz, deputy news editor, Science Mazazine

Flute’s Journey: The Life of a Wood Thrush
Insatiable curiosity, dedication to environmental activism, and artistic talent have placed this gifted author at the forefront of children’s literature. Living Bird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University

The Armadillo from Amarillo
An ecological jewel that sparkles with multifaceted spin-off possibilities. School Library Journal

The Snail’s Spell
The adventures in learning provided by author and artist is captivating, encompassed in a book that grownups will appreciate as well as children for its sheer beauty.Publishers Weekly

If I Were in Charge of the World
Lynne Cherry’s drawings are superb. If I were in charge of the world, I’d see that she had enough ink for a lifetime and nothing to do but draw. Nashville Banner