Award-winning author speaks to area students

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MARQUETTE - Sounds of humpback whales, monkeys and birds echoed off the walls at Northern Michigan University this week as area elementary school students listened to visiting author April Pulley Sayre.

"I love bird calls," the award-winning children's book author said. "I know hundreds of birds by sound."

Sayre, author of 55 books dealing with natural history, is in Marquette this week as part of the Marquette-Alger Young Authors program. Students from area public schools have been attending her presentations at NMU's Jamrich Hall.

Known for her books "Vulture View" and "Stars Beneath Your Bed: The Surprising Story of Dust," Sayre and her husband Jeff - a native plants expert - have been traveling all over the world to study animals and write about them for children. Whether lemurs in Madagascar, army ants in Panama, piranha in the Peruvian Amazon or hawks at Whitefish Point, the Sayres have researched them all.

"When I was your age, I didn't think I'd be a writer," she told fourth- and fifth-graders on Monday. "My best friend Miranda was a better writer, but I couldn't stop writing."

Sayre, who lives in South Bend, Ind., added that when she was a kid she pretended rocks were pets and wrote bedtime stories for the pet rocks, selling the books to classmates. Nowadays, she mostly writes nonfiction.

"I decided to write about science instead of doing it," she said, adding that she studied primates at Duke University, but then decided against becoming a scientist. "I know a lot of science stuff, but I'm not a scientist."

Sayre told the students she takes video of the animals she is studying so she can remember details better. Expository writing - explaining or describing something - and the narrative nonfiction essay are the two formats she uses when writing.

"When I'm doing narrative, it has to be scientifically correct," she said, adding that she often lets professional scientists proofread her books for accuracy.

Sayre also told the kids how on her way to Marquette, when she was driving on M-28, she rescued a turtle that tried to cross the highway. When she picked up the reptile, she noticed a golf tee stuck in its skin. While she rescued that particular turtle, she cautioned kids that not every animal can be rescued, especially if the situation is dangerous for the rescuer.

Emily Cannoot, 9, of Ishpeming was very interested in what the author had to say.

"I learned it takes a long time to be a writer," she said. "You have to believe in yourself."

She added that she hopes to be a nurse or veterinarian in the future and that she's interested in the howler monkeys Sayre talked about.

Sayre will give a public book signing at 6:30 p.m. today at Chapter Two Bookstore at 124 N. Third St. in Marquette.