Nancy Farmer, three-time Newbery honoree, was born in 1941.

Nancy Farmer is the author of three Newbery Honor Books, including The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion. The House of the Scorpion also won the National Book Award in 2002. Farmer is the author of several other books, including three children's picture books. She now lives with her family in Menlo Park, California.

In many of Farmer's works, she explores some of society's most hotly-debated scientific issues, such as cloning, toxic waste, and brain implants. Have your students write original short stories in the science-fiction genre. First, as a class, brainstorm a list of current events and issues in science. Examples could include cloning, animal research and testing, stem cell research, and genetic engineering. Then have students examine the Genre Characteristics of science fiction. Using this information, have students select a story topic and decide on a setting (future world, space, a different world, or a different universe.)

Then, have students visit the Literary Elements Mapping tool to plan the characters, conflict, setting, and resolution as a prewriting activity for their stories. Have students work independently and then with a peer to write and edit their stories. When all stories are completed, create a class science fiction short story anthology. Students can illustrate their own stories, or volunteers can serve as illustrators for the collection.

• Nancy Farmer
  

  This resource offers biographical information about Nancy Farmer, as well as reviews of her books and lists of the awards each has won.

• Resthaven
  

  Aaron Shepard provides this reader's theater script, adapted from Farmer's The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.

• A Girl Named Disaster
  

  This page, from North Carolina State University, features three activities to be used with Farmer's Newbery Honor book.