Gail Nelson's Blog

You know those moments when you discover something so completely weird that it doesn’t seem real? That’s the hoatzin. This bird is like nature decided to throw every weird feature into one animal and see what happened. Check it out. Where This Oddball Lives The hoatzin lives in the swamps and riverside forests of the […]

Writing a children’s book sounds simple—338 words was enough for Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, after all. But nobody tells you that those 338 words were probably edited down from 800 or maybe more. After watching talented authors make the same expensive mistakes, I’ve learned that success in picture book publishing isn’t just about […]

Convergent evolution explains why the emerald tree boa and green tree python are similar despite living in different parts of the world. Explore the Amazon treetops with Fiona & Fuzz while they learn about it.

Why do we call them bats? From leather flapper to flitter mouse, explore the wild word origins and surprising lives of these fluttery cuties.

Artists do a lot of things behind the scenes that make what they do possible. Have you ever wondered how children’s book characters stay so consistent from beginning to end? There’s more to it than a ton of practice—much like musicians, artists have to practice in ways that make sense. For example, you wouldn’t see […]

The bright red bird and Catholic cardinals share a name—but which name came first?

Spinach is overrated. Try lamb’s quarter instead! It’s wild, free, and works anywhere spinach does.

My iPad gets more use than nearly any other piece of technology I own, for everything from art to writing and editing. Because the device gets so much use, I have to be picky about anything that changes its look or feel. In the iPad’s case, the plain glass screen doesn’t do it for me […]

If you ever thought, “Gee, I would love to take lessons, but I can’t afford $100 (or more) a month. ..” then I have just the thing. First, I completely understand! budgets are super tight, and we are all trying …

I don’t know about other teachers, but I have had a fair amount of new students asking about online lessons. It’s probably due to coronavirus, and the desire to maintain some level of normalcy in a pretty crazy time. Of …