[null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://remydou.blogspot.com/2012/", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bH3lVnnREtI/ULErfkmkZ1I/AAAAAAAAAJc/0_oIxnGnnVM/s320/IMG_1730.JPG", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bH3lVnnREtI/ULErfkmkZ1I/AAAAAAAAAJc/0_oIxnGnnVM/s320/IMG_1730.JPG", "formatted_filename": "IMG", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 240}, null, {"document_url": "http://remydou.blogspot.com/2012/", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s5WHUcm2W2Q/ULErV3VIrsI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/KGfsO4Q-g2o/s320/IMG_1728.JPG", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-s5WHUcm2W2Q/ULErV3VIrsI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/KGfsO4Q-g2o/s320/IMG_1728.JPG", "formatted_filename": "IMG", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 110}, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://remydou.blogspot.com/2012/", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JpiYKY2KDZQ/UJcBO6R65YI/AAAAAAAAAIw/W_E8UlfNUro/s320/290783728_640.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JpiYKY2KDZQ/UJcBO6R65YI/AAAAAAAAAIw/W_E8UlfNUro/s320/290783728_640.jpg", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 180}, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://remydou.blogspot.com/2012/", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lCpE4hfgWVg/UIilDkcbp_I/AAAAAAAAAIg/czy7d2ne6oM/s320/IMG_1599.JPG", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lCpE4hfgWVg/UIilDkcbp_I/AAAAAAAAAIg/czy7d2ne6oM/s320/IMG_1599.JPG", "formatted_filename": "IMG", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 239}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://remydou.blogspot.com/2012/", "unformatted_src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uwWrbEjdcq4/UIQnYzr0CdI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/mfdx9OnEdJ8/s320/IMG_1590.JPG", "src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uwWrbEjdcq4/UIQnYzr0CdI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/mfdx9OnEdJ8/s320/IMG_1590.JPG", "formatted_filename": "IMG", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 320}, null, null, null]

The Train Station - Part I

The train stopped in Philly.

Train #165 departed from NewYork City Penn Station on its way to Union Station in Washington, D.C., but never arrived. Something besides the storm rained down that night. It took investigators ten years to figure out why all one hundred eighty-seven passengers disappeared. Once they did, government officials stepped in and silenced them.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

"You know what, Trish?" said a young woman scrolling through her iPad, a single earbud clinging to her right ear.
"What?" said Trish from the seat across the isle.
"This has been the longest day ever."
"I know. It's like never ending."
"You're telling me," said the girl with the iPad, her eyes never leaving the screen.
A young man lay sprawled across the pair of seats behind Trish. He tried to sleep, half listening to the conversation the two women were having. He found it difficult to drift off with his knees pressed up against his chest. The gym bag beneath his head also provided little cushioning.
A man behind him stared at his laptop screen. He was watching an Olympic qualifying match, checking his stocks, and listening to the news. The screen flickered, but quickly collected itself. Rain spattered the windows.
A voice sounded through the speakers built into the train:
"Ladies and gentlemen, please be informed that we may be driving through hail. The storm is not expected to last long, and we'll be crossing through in a matter of minutes."
The cabin lights flickered. Outside, the rain poured with ferocity. Impenetrable darkness swallowed the train cars as they glided over metal tracks. Hail began to fall.
"Dang, that is loud," said Trish.
Her friend did not reply.
"Tanya, pay attention. You don't hear that?" said Trish, trying to get her friend to respond.
"What?" said Tanya, ungluing her eyes from the tablet in her hands.
"Girl, don't you hear that?"
"What the hell is that?" she said, standing up suddenly.
"It's just hail."
"Dang, that's loud."
"I've been trying to tell you," said Trish.
The girls smiled at one another and returned their attention to their gadgets.
"Excuse me," said the young man who had been trying to fall asleep. "Would one of you mind lending me your charger? My phone's about to die."
"Sure," said Tanya, unplugging her device.
"Thanks. I'm Victor, by the way."
"Nice to meet you."
"You don't seem to be doing so well, Victor," said Trish.
"I know. I think I'm getting sick."
Victor took the charger. He plugged in his phone and resumed his wrestling match with the gym bag. Rest continued to elude him.
A muffled thud traveled down the cabin like electricity through a nerve.
"Hey, what happened to the Wi-Fi?"
The man sitting behind Victor hit the keys on his laptop, hoping to fix the problem.
"Did you feel that?" said Tanya.
"Oh, my Wi-Fi's gone, too," replied Trish, ignoring her friend's question.
The lights in the cabin flickered off and on again. Rain and hail beat the aluminum casing of the train car.
"I'm going to talk to someone about this," said the older man, impatiently.
He stepped out of his seat, walking with purpose towards the front of the car.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will be stopping the train temporarily," spoke the voice in the speakers.
"What now?" yelled the older man who was nearing the junction leading to the next car.
The voice came back on. "It looks like we..."
"Something's not right," said Trish.
The two women sat up and stared at the front of the car as if expecting someone to walk in and explain what was happening. A few other passengers sat up to look around. The train continued to roll gently through the darkness, the sound of rain and hail intensifying.
A muffled shriek pierced the air.
"What the hell was that?" said Tanya.
No one spoke, hoping the silence would bring more information.
"I'm going to find out what's going on," said the older man who had been standing in the isle. He reached out to open the door to the next car.
The train shook violently, its right side temporarily coming off the tracks and landing back down with a loud clang. The passengers yelled, grabbing onto whatever they could reach to keep from losing balance. Luggage fell onto the walkway between the seats.
"Oh my god, Trish, we're going to die!"

(End of Part I of IV)
Posted by Remy at 6:11 PM No comments: Labels: horror, Remy Dou, short story, suspense, the train station, thriller


Written by a good friend...

Beautiful poem.

Caracas, You and I

Caracas, you and I, what will we do tonight?
What movie shall we watch at the drive-in theater in the sky?
On what are we going to spend my last Bs. 3.75s?
In what stolen car shall we escape
at 180 km/h or more?
And tell me, where shall we hide
to cry out everything that hurts us?

Because I can’t forget about her, Caracas.
She’s everywhere.
On all the covers of Bazaar,
of Cosmopolitan, of Playboy.
On all the backlit propaganda in the city.
At this moment, she is entering
10,000 hotel rooms
on the arm of my 10,000 rivals.

Everything reminds me of her.
The smell of cherries at three for five;
the ballad that managed to jump
out the window of an ’81 Mustang,
and even the face of the young man
that sells El Mundo on the corner
in some way resembles hers.

Why don’t we kill ourselves, Caracas?
It would be the most spectacular
of the passion suicides of the century.
Let us sink ourselves in a colossal earthquake.
Let us get into a radioactive cloud.
Let us burn like a Rome with skyscrapers.

But we’re both cowards.
You will continue to sow your concrete hyphae
on the cadavers of more than a million marginalized
and I, surely, will go one more time
to prowl beneath her window before dawn.

In the meantime, it will become night;
Pietro, the café owner,
will kick out his last client
and one more leaf will fall
from one of your trees.
Her and you, Caracas,
sink into me
like a stone dagger.
Posted by Remy at 11:29 AM 2 comments: Labels: angst, Caracas, Dou, poem, poetry


NCTE Annual Convention - Part II 

Posted by Remy at 3:40 PM No comments: 


NCTE Annual Convention - Sir Ken Robinson (Video)

I'm incredibly excited about the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention. That's not just because I get to be out of the office for a few days--though it doesn't hurt. For three days I'll be hearing from experts in literacy, English studies, and fine arts. They'll be discussing the Common Core standards (math and English language arts), which is important for educators, nonfiction children's writers, and even science content specialists like yours truly. But the highlight of my trip will probably be getting to hear from Sir Ken Robinson. Sir/Dr./Mr. Robinson is known across the globe as a leader in education, particularly bringing creativity and innovation back into the classrooms. This should be a fun conference and I hope to share some of my experiences when I return.

If you haven't watched Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk on creativity, you should definitely check it out, and not just because he's funny--though it doesn't hurt:

Posted by Remy at 9:02 PM No comments: Labels: Common Core, creativity, English, Fine Arts, Language Arts, National Council of Teachers of English, NCTE, science, Sir Ken Robinson, standards


Children's Books and Science Standards "When the Next Generation Science Standards are released, what will that mean for nonfiction children's books?" This is really the million dollar question being asked by editors across the industry. For publishers, the release is an opportunity to appeal to librarians, teachers, and curriculum developers. Really, it is an opportunity to make books more appealing to consumers. Sure, there are plenty of opinions on this topic, but the following comes from a proven STEM educator.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are really the result of a document put out by the National Academies of Sciences called "A Framework for K-12 Science Education." In it, the authors describe a new way of teaching science courses using a combination of three dimensions: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. While the ideas in the framework are not completely new--they are a combination of years of reports and research--they are new in their elegant presentation. Using the framework, the NGSS are being put together through the leadership of the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve.

By "practices" the document generally refers to students actually "doing" science, where science is more about generating knowledge rather than absorbing it via lectures or textbooks. This goes beyond hands-on labs, and taps into the heart of science: inquiry, investigation, gathering evidence, analyzing evidence, developing conclusions, sharing knowledge. "Crosscutting concepts" refer to the scientific truths that are applicable across most fields, such as the relationships between matter and energy, structure and function, and stability and change. Last, but not least, are the "core ideas" that pertain to each specific field of science, be it physics, chemistry, biology, etc.

The key for publishers will be finding a way to incorporate the "practice" of science. Recently, I read several nonfiction science books written for girls ages 9 to 12. They were part of a series that presented girls with fun, interesting science experiments. One book contained ten "biology" experiment, another ten "chemistry" experiments, and so on. The experiments were cool and designed to appeal to young girls. In fact, even I wanted to try some of the ideas. There was just one problem (and it had nothing to do with me not being a girl): the era of these kinds of scripted science labs is ending. Ideally, the NGSS will bring it to a near close.

While some may think incorporating science practices in children's books will be difficult, it does not necessarily have to be. With a few leading questions, books can help children begin to think like scientists, particularly in pushing them to ask more questions, develop experiment variants of their own, analyze evidence, and share results. The scripted labs that I read could have included leading statements: "what would happen if..." or "how would you get this result:..." Also, better online content can be developed where children contribute their variants, evidence, and thoughts. This would create truer science engagement and possibly even collaboration. These are the kind of things that would appeal to me as a science educator and curriculum developer.

Yes, there is more to this conversation than can be covered by a single blog posting, but the idea has been presented. The "Framework for K-12 Science Education" did a very good thing for the field, and hopefully, the release of the NGSS will do the same. Many are seeing it as a game changer, and it will be. Most likely, it will be a game changer for the nonfiction children's book industry, as well. This does not need to be a reason to panic, but rather to put a little more thought into getting children to engage in science. The important thing is to remember that science is more than just following a set of pre-scripted directions; it is about contributing to a living network of ideas.

Posted by Remy at 6:57 PM No comments: Labels: agents, books, children's books, editors, fiction, framework, inquiry, K-12, Next Generation Science Standards, NGSS, nonfiction, publishers, science standards, standards, writers


Are Book Reviews Helpful?

Posted by Remy at 7:00 PM No comments: 


Children's Literature Review 

Posted by Remy at 11:00 PM No comments: 


Many Interests 

Posted by Remy at 1:20 PM No comments: