2014 Finalist: Middle Grades Science Book

Wild Horse Scientists, by Kay Frydenborg. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Author Kay Frydenborg provides readers a rare glimpse into the wild herds of Assateague Island through the work of two scientists who have devoted their lives to studying the horses. Through beautiful beautiful photographs and elegant, readable prose the story of the herds and the researchers revealed.

About the Author

Kay Frydenborg is the author of several books for young readers including Wild Horse Scientists, winner of the 2012 Riverby Award for excellence in natural history books for young readers, as well as a 2014 finalist for the AAAS/Suburu SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science in the children’s middle grade book category; Chocolate: Sweet Science and Dark Secrets of the World’s Favorite Treat (2015), and A Dog in the Cave: Coevolution and the Wolves Who Made Us Human (coming in 2017).

Kay has always loved to write and especially enjoys writing (and reading!) both nonfiction and fiction about animals, but it wasn’t until she finished school with degrees in English and creative writing that she realized how much she also loves history, science, and research. Luckily, she gets to indulge all of these interests in writing books for young people. She lives and writes in a pre-Civil War-era Pennsylvania farmhouse made of stone that she shares with her husband and two dogs, and also enjoys spending time with her horse. A perfect day is one in which she can do all of these things!