Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

Ah, so much fascinating research, and so limited story space! Prolific author Darcy Pattison shares how she organized and focused NOT EXTINCT: THE PRZEWALSKI’S HORSE RETURNS FROM EXTINCT IN THE WILD, an amazing story with a ride range of appeal.

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Congrats to Donna Gwinnell Lambo-Weidner, winner of THE MYSTERIOUS VIRGINIA HALL, WORLD WAR II’S MOST DANGEROUS SPY from Claudia Friddell.

Using Timelines to Focus a Conservation Narrative by Darcy Pattison

My interest in the Przewalski’s horse, nicknamed the P-horse, was piqued by a 2024 news article that the Prague Zoo had released a small herd of P-horses in Kazakhstan. That, of course, was the last item on the timeline that tells the story of saving this species from extinction. To write the story, I just had to uncover the rest of the timeline.

I began with a visit to the Prague Zoo. A Czech student had lived with us for a year as an exchange student and we wanted to visit him. Before we left, I contacted the Prague Zoo and asked for an interview. Graciously, they agreed. I was worried about the language barrier, but I found the Communications Director to be fluent in English. His stories of transporting the horses to Kazakhstan were funny and poignant. For him, the project culminated when they released the horses from their transport box and their hooves touched the soil of their new home. For the first time in centuries, the P-horse again roamed their native Asian steppes. 

The poignancy of the moment came from the years of hard work trying to save this species that was once considered extinct in the wild. From almost nothing, the scientists had created a miracle.

For me, the interview began hours of poring over research reports on the horse from scientists in Mongolia, China, and international zoos. For example, ticks carried diseases from domestic horses that would infect the P-horses, too. Wolves were a danger to colts. Survival rates were calculated and risks assessed.

Amid overwhelming data, I started to record important moments on a timeline. 

• When did the Western world learn of this species? In 1878, Colonel Przewalski visited Asia and returned with a skull and hide. 
• When did the P-horse first appear in Western zoos?  1897-1902: German animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck funded expeditions capturing 52 P-horse foals. The collection efforts helped decimate the wild populations.
• When did conservation efforts begin? Czechoslovakia held the First International Symposium about the Przewalski’s horse in 1959 at Prague Zoo.

And so on.

Putting information into a timeline gave me an outline for a narrative. Of course, there was too much data. The next task was to focus the story and choose those moments that demonstrate a coherent, touching narrative. I found this very hard because in a story that spans a century, so much will be cut. 

Just the story of how the Prague Zoo worked out transportation for the P-horse was fascinating. When they first flew horses to Mongolia, they lost many horses in-flight. Why? Scientists learned that if the horses laid down, their circulation was cut off resulting in death. They devised tight boxes designed to keep the horses standing upright for the two or three days of flights. 

When they loaded up eight horses for the flights to Kazakhstan in 2024, they stopped enroute to the airport and realized that one horse had already managed to lie down. What a disappointment! But the decision was clear. They sent that horse back to the zoo and only took seven horses. Fascinating! But too much information for a children’s picture book focused on conservation efforts. It’s something I’ll talk about in blog posts like this or when giving a speech about the book. But it’s not in the book itself.

In the end, the timeline of the story had to be whittled down to a very few events that told the story of saving a species, suffering a major setback, and then finding a way to recover. It’s a story of scientists who persevere, solve problems, and win the battle against extinction. 

Timelines are a major tool for me as I write such stories. I fill them out in detail and then cut and cut and cut until the story takes shape. Then, I can write, confident that the story will be memorable.

Learn more about NOT EXTINCT on Darcy’s website HERE.

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Children’s book author and indie publisher DARCY PATTISON has written over seventy award-winning fiction and non-fiction books for children. Five books have received starred PW, Kirkus, or BCCB reviews. Awards include the Irma Black Honor award, five NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books, five Eureka! Nonfiction Honor book (CA Reading Assn.), two Junior Library Guild selections, two CLA Notable Children’s Book in Language Arts, a Notable Social Studies Trade Book, a Best STEM Book, an Arkansiana Award, and the Susannah DeBlack Arkansas Children’s History Book award. She’s the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature. Her books have been translated into eleven languages.