According to a report by The Pew Research Center, 73% of adults in the US have been victimized by online scams, such as phishing attacks. I tell you this so that you’ll understand why, when I got a voice mail saying, “I’m calling with some good news, you’ve won . . . .” I immediately deleted the message, looked at my husband and said, “These jokers will try anything to get you to give them your data.”

Fortunately for me, the caller followed up with an email. It wasn’t a scam. The call and email were to inform me that I had won the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Kavli Gold Award for science journalism, in the Children’s News category! The winning story was about plant intelligence. If you’re interested, you can read it here.

To be honest, I’m still pinching myself. And I want to thank you, my readers, for reading my work, putting up with my corny jokes, and sharing it with the young people in your libraries and classrooms.

Writing can be a lonely business, so being able to share my work with you, and hearing from you, is wonderful. Thank you so much for reading!

But enough about me. Next time I’ll be back with some interesting science. Maybe about wombat poop? Smart toilets? Spiders that form communes? I’m sure I’ll think of something.

Stay curious,

Avery