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Brad Matson on Go Wild in New York City
For author Brad Matsen, Go Wild in New York City is another
exciting project in his quest to interpret the environment and
science. The former Marine, whose first novel was Offshore,
has been an editor of the National Fisherman magazine, and a
prolific writer on science and nature. He is the writer of the
Incredible Ocean Adventure series for children and Descent:
The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss. He is also working on Bliss
- New York, The Automobile and Sudden Death, the story of the
first man reported to have been killed by an automobile in New
York City.
Here Matsen talks of his involvement with Go Wild in New York
City:
Go Wild began about a year ago. Jessica Marshall, a book packager
and a friend of mine, had proposed to Ted Kheel a children's
book on urban ecology. But the initial group that began the
project never really conceptualized a mass appeal book. That's
when I got involved.
The idea was exciting. It was really a design driven book. The
designer of the book is Kate Thompson, who has designed four
of the books that I have written. The text tells the story but
it has to be consistent with the design of the book. Kate and
I sat down using text as a design element. The initial research
had been done for an educational audience. We did the research
all over again trying to make the material a lot more buzzy
and popular.
We decided to corral as many facts about the city as possible,
facts that would interest both adults and children. I am really
excited about the facts we were able to marshal. Facts like
the amount of garbage that is processed and how they are processed.
Drinking water. Even centipedes and monarch butterflies.
In many ways Go Wild is about urban creatures. A lot of research
and a lot of knowledge have gone in to figure out who they really
are and where they can be found. For me Go Wild is a way to
spread the word on nature in the urban environment to others.
We see the book as an integral part of the urban ecology movement.
We are targeting the local urban audience but we are also aiming
at school children. We have formed an alliance with Columbia
University Teachers College's Urban Science Education Center
to have Go Wild integrated into the curriculum of eight middle
Schools in the city. They will provide the evaluation. We want
to use our test of this in New York to spread the idea to other
markets.
Go Wild is one of the most exciting projects I have been involved
in. I'd like to see this as the next I Love New York campaign.
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