Hi Karen, Thanks for the good writing and even better, for the informed thinking. As a long time newspaper reporter, I appreciate both. I'm trying to make history and science subjects that excite our YA citizens. Check my website: joyhakim.com. I'm now writing biology books that approach that subject though narrative. Of course I have a chapter about Francis Bacon.
Writing learning books for the YA market is not for the faint of heart. Our schools have been owned by a few megapublishers. Think robber barons and you'll begin to understand.
Algorithms for social media platforms like Facebook almost universally discourage disinterested discussion and reward emotional responses as a technique for keeping customers at the site for as long as possible, thereby being exposed to advertisers who mostly fund Facebook. The extreme emotional responses that conspiracy theories can evoke send many customers down rabbit holes of increasingly paranoia such as Q-Anon hype. Furthermore, Facebook and other social media sites have shown by their actions that they have not respected customers' privacy concerns and allowed access to predatory third parties such as Cambridge Analytica. For such reasons, I have never opened any social account such as Facebook, and never intend to, though I can understand why some fellow skeptics of social media corporations have opened such an account as a condition of employment. I am pleased that my employer, a public university, has not required that I open a social media account as a condition of employment--that would arguably be a violation of academic freedom. Social media corporations, like the largest interest service provider corporations, ought to be subject to anti-trust laws, which have increasingly been ignored by lax government regulators in recent decades.
Hi Karen, Thanks for the good writing and even better, for the informed thinking. As a long time newspaper reporter, I appreciate both. I'm trying to make history and science subjects that excite our YA citizens. Check my website: joyhakim.com. I'm now writing biology books that approach that subject though narrative. Of course I have a chapter about Francis Bacon.
Writing learning books for the YA market is not for the faint of heart. Our schools have been owned by a few megapublishers. Think robber barons and you'll begin to understand.
Here's a letter from a reader in Maine:
From: Meagan Packard mepackard79@yahoo.com Subject: Thank You! from loyal reader
Date: January 23, 2019 at 9:32 PM To: joyhakim@gmail.com
Dear Joy,
Thank you for your books ! I haven't read all of them
but I'm into my fourth :)
My name is Meagan, 39 yrs young and mother of two boys
now 14 and 8. I live near Augusta Maine and I was compelled
to write you a thank you note.
I first discovered your book "The history of Science,
with Newton at the center" back in September 2018 when it was
featured on one of the front facing shelves in the children's
room of Lithgow Library in Augusta. I was hooked and even
brought it to work to read on my short breaks. I am an
electrician at Bath Iron Works. I want you to know that you
have re-ignited my passion for history. Now that I have
completed college and settled into a career, and brought my
children to semi-self efficient state, I have more time to
read !!! Yeah !! And it has been your books that have a
real page turner for me. I love your style; informative,
personal, matter of fact and just over-all lovely.
I am a minority in my field, and especially a minority
in the male dominated world of ship building. I found it
completely striking and uplifting to read in "the Story of
Science, Newton at the Center" the compelling and integral
role women had in science. I even read aloud to the men I
sit with at break a portion of that book (in-fact I have read
many portions since then to them, and even some at their
request ... and just having your book in front of me, I got the
affectionate nick name "Copernistein") ... It read something to
the effect -- Her parents were frustrated with her and warned
and pleaded that a man would never want to marry a woman so
well read. The entire text continually made me appreciate
the time I live in and the opportunities given to me by our
historic heroes :) So, I thank you again for taking the time
and having the foresight to write your books. Kudos !
I only learned today upon attempting to contact you that
you are 88 years young! Wow ! I never suspected that the
writer so in tune with the needs of this generation ... the x-
generation of my children ... was well .. I'm sorry ... In her
Eighties :) I mean no disrespect, believe me, I am proud of
you that you write to such a broad audience in such a way
that connects us all to our past. Thank you !
I have also read "the Age of Extremes" and loved it,
great job. And most of "Story of Science, Einstein's new
Dimension" but now I am in delved in the "First Americans"
and I love how you keep the theme of a flying time machine
throughout.
You have captured me and my children and my colleges into
your way of viewing our history and retelling it in a very
personal, pleasing, and provocative narrative. I have
praised your books at our library and have encouraged them to
keep your books at the front facing shelves !
Thank you for your time,
Sincerely,
Meagan E.
Algorithms for social media platforms like Facebook almost universally discourage disinterested discussion and reward emotional responses as a technique for keeping customers at the site for as long as possible, thereby being exposed to advertisers who mostly fund Facebook. The extreme emotional responses that conspiracy theories can evoke send many customers down rabbit holes of increasingly paranoia such as Q-Anon hype. Furthermore, Facebook and other social media sites have shown by their actions that they have not respected customers' privacy concerns and allowed access to predatory third parties such as Cambridge Analytica. For such reasons, I have never opened any social account such as Facebook, and never intend to, though I can understand why some fellow skeptics of social media corporations have opened such an account as a condition of employment. I am pleased that my employer, a public university, has not required that I open a social media account as a condition of employment--that would arguably be a violation of academic freedom. Social media corporations, like the largest interest service provider corporations, ought to be subject to anti-trust laws, which have increasingly been ignored by lax government regulators in recent decades.