Snot-collecting helicopters, 'draft dumps' and a bit of French paradise

PLUS a bird's nest so big that cheetahs sunbathe on it!

Sep 03, 2025

Hi, I’m Alice! I’m a children’s author, editor and author coach. I’ve written more than 50 books – about art, science, activism and more – that help kids to explore our world, and make big ideas feel exciting and easy to understand.

This is Big Wide World, a monthly newsletter that gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like to be a children’s non-fiction author. If you’re into fun facts, great stories and odd creatures, I think you’ll like it here.

What I’ve been up to this month

Getting started on writing an extremely cute book about wild animals, which I can't say much more about yet… It's a new format for me, and I'm really enjoying how it makes me think differently even at this early stage. Also, the research involves learning lots of great new animal facts, which is never not fun!
Enjoying reading all the reviews for Farting Fish, my very fun new science book all about winners of the Ig Nobel Prize, with hilarious illustrations by Sam Wedelich. Lots of the reviewers’ children have picked my top pages as their own favourites – including this one about using remote-control helicopters to collect whale snot!

Going away on holiday! We went abroad for the first time as a family, on the Eurostar, and had the loveliest time on Île de Noirmoutier, just off the coast of Brittany, France. Beautiful sand beaches, incredible fresh seafood, and cycle paths along salt marshes full of herons, egrets, ibises, plovers, sandpipers, gulls and more. Perfection!

What I’ve learned at work this month

The sociable weaverbird builds enormous nests on trees and telegraph poles (which have to be specially engineered to stay upright!) A nest can be up to 100 years old and house hundreds of birds – including species other than weaverbirds – in a sort of apartment complex layout! The nests are so big that cheetahs rest on top of them, and antelopes shelter in the shade beneath them.

As a permanently fidgety ADHDer (who often got told off for doodling/scribbling in class despite my protests that it actually helped me concentrate), I felt vindicated by recent research suggesting that physical movement – such as fidgeting with your hands – can help to boost the brain’s focus and attention! It apparently increases levels of certain chemical messengers (dopamine and norepinephrine, if you’re interested) in the brain, in a similar way to ADHD medications.
As this is a sort of work/holiday edition, and I spent a decent chunk of this last month getting to know Nantes and Noirmoutier, I thought I’d put together a little list of our favourite restaurants, activities and so on in case you’d like to book a trip there at any point! You can read and download it here. Bonnes vacances!

Book recommendations

Once Upon a Fairytale is a BIG hit in our house! A choose-your-own adventure story for young children, it gives you the chance to ride on a unicorn, feast on fresh-buttered sunbeams with fairies, and defeat a goblin’s curse by turning them into a nice little baby! The folky, painted illustration and interesting turns of fairytale phrase elevate it into something that’s an enjoyable read for parents too, even when it’s the twentieth time that week…

I adored Squished – a sweet, funny graphic novel about an 11-year-old girl, Avery, who’s struggling to make space for herself in her loving but chaotic family of nine. Avery is such a great kid, and the author treats her problems, feelings and efforts with respect and sensitivity while always keeping up a good pace and lightness of touch. And the artwork is STUNNING. The colour, the light, the characters’ expressions – it’s all so masterfully and joyfully done.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, who also wrote the bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass (which I also love), is about gift economies and what capitalist societies can learn from nature and Indigenous philosophy. A lovely one to talk with kids about once you’ve read it, especially because imagining better systems and ways of living is such a necessary step in helping to bring them into being.

*This post contains affiliate links which means if you buy a book using one of these links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!

Author coach corner

As well as writing and editing, I also do 1-to-1 author coaching to help new and aspiring children’s authors create their own brilliant books! Here is a real-life writing tip that has come up in my own work this month…

Make a ‘draft dump’ file
Sometimes it can be really hard to cut things out of your work-in-progress, whether it’s content that you like but that just doesn’t quite fit, extra detail that takes you over the age-appropriate word count, or alternate ideas and directions that you’ve decided against for now. As well as feeling attached to this writing, you might also (like me!) worry that if you delete it from your draft and then change your mind later, you won’t remember it. This can result in a lot of ‘should I/shouldn’t I?!’ back and forth, which can really stall writing progress.

So instead of ‘killing your darlings’, just put them safely in storage by creating a new document separate to your main draft. I call this my ‘draft dump’ but you could always give it a nicer name! It keeps my main work-in-progress document focused, avoiding the overwhelm and confusion that can come with lots of margin comments and highlighted sections of ‘maybe’ content.

Around 95% of the time what goes in the draft dump stays there, but I do occasionally rescue ideas and chunks of text from it. I’d never remember them if they weren’t there, so I’m always very grateful to past me.

3 things I like that aren’t books

My Old Ass: Put this on when I was ill for a silly watch. OH BOY, I was not prepared. It's so beautifully shot (made me want to go to Canada immediately) and really fun, but also so unexpectedly moving that I keep thinking about it.
Kids’ Party Pact: If all the expense and plastic tat that kids' birthdays generate really stresses you out (me too), but you've felt too awkward/pressured to stand alone against it, this is for you!
Substack shout-out: The Climate Change Garden from Sally Morgan – full of practical help and joyful inspiration for gardening through our climate and biodiversity crises.

Have you read any great books recently, or found any fun new ways to engage with nature? Please comment below in Substack or reply to this email to let me know :)

Big Wide World

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