When I give talks about my writing I am always asked “Where do you get your ideas from?” As ideas come from many different things I usually give a very general answer but for my new series of books, Curiosity Box, I can be very specific.
When I was setting up the website I decided to provide free downloadable posters about the scientific method. I thought the stages in the method were best represented by a group of children doing an experiment so I constructed a storyboard on which to place the various stages.
I settled on an experiment on gravity with the children investigating the speed at which things fall. The problem was to find a way to set them off on an investigation. At the time I had been reading about how cabinets of curiosities were set up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and eventually were developed into museums. I then thought of the things that my granddaughters collect such as pine cones and pebbles. These objects are usually left on display on a bedroom windowsill which could be thought of as a small modern take on a cabinet of curiosity.
Here are some conkers from the curiosity box section of the website
I then thought “What if one of the children gathered all her curiosities into a box, then tripped and the curiosities fell out?” This idea worked and so became part of the story. However I was still intrigued by the idea of a curiosity box so made one up in a shoebox and visited local schools with it. The response was so positive that teachers started setting up their own class curiosity boxes. I thought perhaps a series of books about curiosities that children can easily observe might be a help so the first two titles in the Curiosity Box series are now published, two more will be out in June and two final books to complete the series published in August.
Plants
The Seashore
