Nicole said the book has sold about 7,000 copies, so far, in North America.
Jackson made the impact of the Twitter post the subject of an academic article, with Sophia as co-author, that was published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America in 2017.Īround that time, the family moved to Sarnia, her mother’s hometown, where they were contacted by McNamara, the pen name of Brenda Bowen, a New York-based author of more than three-dozen books for young readers who had heard about the girl’s story.īowen travelled to Sarnia to record an interview with Sophia that became the book that was launched with a full house at The Book Keeper in Sarnia in February for a reading and signing. She ended up appearing on Good Morning America, The Today Show and NPR. It went viral, with scientists tweeting hundreds of times to encourage Sophia to keep up her interest in bugs. Morgan Jackson, a society member and doctoral student at the University of Guelph, answered and asked permission to share Sophia’s story on Twitter, adding the hashtag #BugsR4Girls. Sophia’s mother, Nicole, wrote to the Entomology Society of Canada, hoping one its members might offer her daughter, then seven years old, some encouragement. Her interest grew in pre-school and kindergarten, but she stopped talking about bugs for a time after some Grade 1 classmates bullied her and stomped on a grasshopper she brought to school. Sophia fell in love with bugs after a butterfly landed on the then two-and-a-half-year-old’s shoulder while she was visiting the Niagara Falls butterfly conservatory. “Those of us on the jury are always inspired and humbled – we really are humbled – by just how much these young people accomplish in a very short period of time.” Submissions for the youth prize are always extraordinary, said Meg Beckel, the Ottawa museum’s president. “Her story is really inspiring, and it’s helped a lot of people follow their dreams.” “I was, like, over-the-moon thrilled,” her mom, Nicole, said about the award. Sophia Spencer, who co-authored The Bug Girl (A true story) with Margaret McNamara, was named the winner Wednesday during an online ceremony. Original article by Paul Morden at theobserver.caĪn 11-year-old Sarnia author and insect enthusiast is the winner of the Canadian Museum of Nature 2020 Youth Nature Inspiration Award.
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