Book Event Inspires Kids at the Children’s Inn
Photo: Dana Talesnik
Jagmeet is a neuroscientist. He also enjoys painting and taking photos of nature. He is one of 14 scientists featured in the children’s book, Who is a Scientist?, by Laura Gehl, who visited the Children’s Inn at NIH on Mar. 2.
Photo: Credit Elizabeth Gouldman
The event was the third installment in a new series, “Authors and Illustrators Share at the Inn,” a project of volunteers for the Family Program of the inn. Each interactive program includes a book reading and a kid-friendly discussion.
Gehl, a scientist-turned science writer-turned children’s author, opened the event with a lively discussion of hobbies and favorite things to introduce the book to the rapt children in attendance. A live Zoom link allowed others, not feeling up to venturing out of their rooms and children not in-residence at the time, to watch remotely.
As Gehl then read aloud from the book—which features scientists across different disciplines and cultures—she sought to illustrate that people with all kinds of interests and pastimes are scientists.
Photo: Elizabeth Gouldman
She also discussed the people and things scientists study and where they might work—from the lab to the ocean—in a way that sparked imagination and creativity and got the kids talking about their own future careers.
“The authors in this series have become—as we all do—extremely enchanted by the inn and its mission,” said Dr. Marin Allen, former NIH deputy associate director of communications and public liaison, who helped launch the program with Karen Jaffe, former director of the Young Readers Center at the Library of Congress.
Later in spring, author Naaz Khan is scheduled to share her book, Room for Everyone.
For each book in the series, publishers or authors donate copies to the Children’s Inn for current and future inn residents to enjoy.