Steve Jenkins, 69, Died; Children’s Books Bring Science to Life


In addition to his wife, he is survived by Mr. Jenkins’ children Jamie, Alec and Page Jenkins and a brother, Jeffrey.

“His curiosity and passion for science and the natural world was boundless,” said Margaret Raymo, longtime editor of Mr. Jenkins. told Publishers Weekly. Over the past 25 years, he and Mr. Jenkins have published over 50 books, first at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and later at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, where Mrs Raymo is managing editor and where Mrs Jenkins and Ms. they worked together. The next two books on the page will be published.

“There were always new ideas floating around – the hard thing was deciding which ones to work on,” he said. “He wanted to get kids excited about science.”

“I always learned something while working together,” Ms. Raymo added in a phone call.

Credit…harper collins

Over the years, Mr. Jenkins realized that he was increasingly frustrated by society’s shift towards creationism and other questionable sciences. The idea that evolution was viewed as a theory rather than a scientific fact, or not taught at all, bothered him in particular.

A kind, soft-spoken man whose manner of speech often reassures others was stunned a decade ago when he gave a speech to a group of educators about the dangers of ignoring scientific data or manipulating facts for political gain or financial profit, and some in the audience stepped out.

“Understanding how science works means we know how to think critically about things.” said that day“We can observe things not as we are told but as they actually appear, formulate new ideas about these things and test them with what we already know.

“It’s that kind of thinking if we want to maintain some kind of control over our lives and our culture,” he added.



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