Tag: leaf collection

An iPhone App for Gianna Z…

This is just too cool. 

In my upcoming middle grade novel The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z, the main character has a monster leaf collection due.  It’s a project she’s put off to the last minute, and now everything that can possibly go wrong…does.  If only she’d had access to this iPhone application, I might have written a whole different story. The scientists developing this particular app say if all goes well, you’ll be able to identify a plant from a photo of its leaves that’s then uploaded to a database.  Ultimately, they say it could help researchers learn more about climate change and changes in biodiversity.  And of course…it would make those school leaf collection projects a walk in the park.  Thanks to  for the link!

The Truth About Leaf Collections

As a middle school teacher in a school where the huge 7th grade leaf collection project is downright infamous, I thought I’d done my research for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z (Walker Books, Fall ’09).   It’s a funny, contemporary novel about a girl whose 7th grade leaf collection project is ruining her life.  I’d heard the horror stories of kids getting caught in mean neighbors’ yards, stealing leaves off their trees.  I’d heard tales of the all-nighters kids pulled, securing the last few sets of leaves into their binders.  But until this fall, I’d never watched my very own 7th grader complete a leaf project of his own. 

To be sure, it’s meant some beautiful autumn hikes for leaf collecting…

Point Au Roche State Park on Lake Champlain

But the leaf project also has a dark side. This is what my living room looked like last weekend, when son and his two friends were working…

My manuscript is in copy edits right now.  Do you supposed I’ll have a chance to go back and add a few more details about the impact Gianna’s leaf project had on the rest of her household?  We’re still vacuuming pine needles here (Or are they spruce needles…? I’ll have to check the key…)

Collecting Leaves on Mount Jo

What do you do when your middle grade novel about a 7th grade kid whose leaf collection is ruining her life is off in New York City being edited?  You head for the mountains to collect leaves, of course!

THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z won’t need my attention until copy edits are complete, and the Adirondacks were postcard-perfect this morning, so we headed out for a morning hike so my own 7th grader could work on his school leaf collection project.


An American Beech greeted us at the trailhead to Mount Jo.


With almost no wind, Heart Lake was a perfect mirror for the foliage.


I kept tripping over roots because I couldn’t stop staring up at the leaves against the blue sky.


When we hiked Mount Jo a few weeks ago, this view from the summit was shrouded in fog, but today made up for it.

Our leaf collector came home with six new specimens — Mountain Maple, Striped Maple, Bigtooth Aspen, American Mountain Ash, American Beech, and Balsam Fir.  The rest of us came home with pockets full of rocks and pine cones, tired legs, and lighter hearts.