Where the Crawdads Sing - by Dr. Delia Owens

Another book report! However, this book isn't a science book per se, rather a novel that incorporates science in it because it is written by an actual scientist! Talk about multidisciplinary.

Dr. Delia Owens, writer and zoologist

At once a coming-of-age story mixed with a mystifying murder mystery, Where the Crawdads Sing is peppered with references to the ecology and zoology of the North Carolina marshlands. I won't talk too much about the story itself, because that would take the fun out of reading it for you. HOWEVER, I want to discuss the science in the book, and the unlikely young female scientist and her discoveries.

When Kya "Marsh Girl" Clark is abandoned at her family's marsh shack as a young girl, she has to fight to stay alive and provide for herself. In this case, staying alive means more than access to food and shelter, but also activities to keep herself busy as she staves off loneliness. The nearby town of Barkley Cove sees her as a wild thing, unfit for society, and so she remains isolated, even evading Child Services who try to force her to go to school.

To keep herself busy, she explores the surrounding marshlands both by boat and on foot. She brings back to her shack local specimens such as bird feathers, shells, and interesting grasses. However, lacking any formal education in reading to describe her findings, she resorts to painting her specimens to preserve them.

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Of note, the character "Kya" mirrors Owens' upbringing, not that she was abandoned in a marsh, but that she spent much of her time exploring the natural world, especially by spending her summers in the North Carolina marshlands.

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Enter Tate, a local kid and a fellow curious mind. Ignoring the rumors of the nearby town, he forms an unlikely friendship with Kya, teaching her to read, write, and count. With this new knowledge, she is newly able to provide more information for her specimens - where they were found, from which animals they originate, if they're rare or not.

Fast forward a couple of years, Tate comes home from his PhD studies to work at the newly minted research post near his hometown. Paying his old friend Kya a visit, he sees how her collection has grown to be the most detailed account of the vast and flourishing flora and fauna of their region, then left mostly unstudied (the book takes place in the '60s). He encourages her to submit her collection to a publisher - and she become a full-fledged published scientist without ever having attended school!

Now, that might seem like a stretch nowadays, but science did used to happen in backyard sheds, drinking chemicals just to see what would happen so.... maybe not that far-fetched after all?

Roanoke Island Marshes Dedicated Preserve on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

Overall, this book offers a unique insight into scientific discovery by those impassioned by the subject, for the sake of knowledge. It also incorporates a strong female character with many feminist attributes, which I really appreciate. Dr. Owens' writing is at once riveting and captivating for the scientific mind within all of us. I love reading all kinds of books, but when an author incorporates real scientific knowledge into it well... that just really does it for me.

I highly recommend this book!