Mini Bio and Presentations



Amy S. Hansen is an award-winning author who writes science for kids. She likes unravelling the mystery in every day events. Where do the bugs go in the winter? How does a refrigerator work? Or a VCR? She also likes it when people discover cool uses for existing technology. For example, a merry-go-round can be used as a water-pump. That means that in places where water is scarce, children can play and pump water at the same time. 

To find out stuff, Amy researchers. Sometimes she reads, sometimes she tracks down experts and asks questions and for one of her most recent books, she dismantled an old phone, a tape recorder, a VCR, etc. so she could see the mechanics before describing it. She also visits museums, tours laboratories and reads some more.
  
 “Good non-fiction has its own story and pace,” says Amy. “It’s not just a collection of numbers or facts. Good non-fiction paints a picture, gives cool information, and invites readers to be detectives in their own world.”

Amy’s presentations include:
•     Bugs and Bugsicles
•     Science Safari
•    Take Apart Parties: hands-on investigations of How Things Work
•    Idea to Published Work: The Writing Process
•    Telling stories: Non-Fiction v. Fiction.

Amy’s books include: Bugs to Bugsicles: Insects in the Winter (Boyds Mills Press, 2010), Powering Our World, a six book series. (Rosen, 2010), Touch the Earth (NASA and NFB, 2009), Wild Animals (Publications International,  2007), How Things Work (Publications International, 2006), KidSource: Science Experiments. (Lowell House Juvenile, 2000).