Authors

C. Taylor-Butler

C. Taylor-Butler (Christine Taylor-Butler), an MIT trained Civil Engineer, is the author of more than 70 books for children, including Sacred Mountain: Everest. She has won the Best Children’s Book of the Year Award and a host of other awards. Her short stories and essays have appeared in magazines and journals including the Horn Book Review, and Scholastic’s Read and Rise Literacy Guide for Parents, to name a few. In addition to her writing activities, she chairs MIT’s Regional Educational Council and serves on the Missouri Judicial Performance Committee. When not conducting various science experiments for many of her books: how to make solid objects float when they shouldn’t, creating invisible force fields with magnets, and making electricity from fruits and vegetables (bringing the love of science to classrooms everywhere), the author has traveled to remote places, such as the Tongas National Forest in Alaska, to scout unusual locations for her debut science fiction/adventure novel, The Lost Tribes. She lives in Missouri where she is responsible for the care and feeding of a spouse, college kids, cats, fish and a very needy 104-year-old historic house.

Book Activities

Have fun with our downloadable coloring pages for The Lost Tribes 3: Trials book cover.

Interviews & Articles

Fast Forward

Watch Mike Zipter’s interview with Christine.

On the Move...

ELA Success Summit Presentation (Virtual)

Virtual Live Presentation Summary: STEM or STEAM? Thoughts from a former MIT interviewer. Last year I wrote a Horn Book essay entitled “When Failure is Not an Option.” Reading is not just about a grade or a good score on an assessment test, but about making connections. Cooking is chemistry, Dancing is physics and math, music is a mathematical code, and so forth. And yet, school districts are under pressure to hit goals and well-meaning adults are pressuring students to learn coding as if a job at Google is their key to the future. Success means putting all our best

World Science Fiction Convention (DISCON III) – The Morphology of Fantasy Creatures

8:30pm EST Author Christine Taylor-Butler participate in a discussion panel titled, The Morphology of Fantasy Creatures. Do elves and pixies have better hearing because their ears are pointed, and if so, why do they need it? Big Bird is eight feet tall, has thumbs, and forward-facing eyes. Does that make him an apex pursuit predator? (No, he’s a charismatic herbivorous megafauna.) And don’t get us started on Cookie Monster… For more information: https://discon3.org/schedule/

World Science Fiction Convention (DISCON III) – Worldbuilding Spacefaring Civilizations

4:00pm EST Author Christine Taylor-Butler participate in a virtual panel titled, Worldbuilding Spacefaring Civilizations. How can you, as a writer, effectively build a space-faring civilization into your work? What parts of space empires can be directly extrapolated from world history, and what elements will you need that are unique to interstellar commerce, diplomacy, warfare, and lifestyles? For more information: https://discon3.org/schedule/

World Science Fiction Convention (DISCON III) – Working with an Agent

1:00pm EST Author Christine Taylor-Butler participate in a virtual panel titled, Working with an Agent. It’s 2021, do you still need an agent? Typically, yes! Agents are very useful, not only in securing a traditional book deal, but also in handling contract disputes, foreign rights, and helping you land that elusive movie or TV option. Panelists will discuss when and why agents are useful, and how to determine if your agent is doing the best job for you. For more information: https://discon3.org/schedule/