Melanie Meadors, Author at GeekMom

Let’s Dance! Books to Get Preschoolers Moving–And Reading

January 1, 2024December 31, 2023Melanie Meadors

Do your kids have the wiggles? Here is a list of thirty books that will get your preschoolers moving AND reading!

Casting Dinosaur Footprints: Bringing Home a Piece of the Jurassic

October 29, 2023October 28, 2023Melanie Meadors

GeekMom Mel traveled to Connecticut to make a cast of real dinosaur footprints from the Jurassic Period two hundred million years ago!

Review: ‘The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’

October 26, 2023October 25, 2023Melanie Meadors

GeekMom Mel reviews Becky Chambers’s science fiction/space opera novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet!

Therizinosaurus, Owner of the Biggest Claws in the Dinosaur World

October 20, 2023October 19, 2023Melanie Meadors

Therizinosaurus had huge, sickle-like claws, but scientists didn’t know why—until now.

Books, Games, Rock and Roll: An Interview With James L. Sutter

August 1, 2023July 31, 2023Melanie Meadors

Author James L. Sutter has been busy. In between the releases of his romantic young adult novel (‘Darkhearts,’ Wednesday Books/Macmillan) and two comics (‘Starfinder: Angels of the Drift #1,’ Dynamite Entertainment and the story “Remakers” in ‘Schlock Mercenary #17: A Little Immortality’) in June, plus writing for future projects, he found the time to answer a few questions about his work, particularly on ‘Darkhearts.’

YA Book Review: ‘Darkhearts’ by James L. Sutter

June 6, 2023June 5, 2023Melanie Meadors

Friends to enemies to frenemies to boyfriends–what’s not to love? Check out this review of young adult romance Darkhearts by James L. Sutter

Welcome Henry Herz, Co-Editor of ‘The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie’

April 8, 2023April 7, 2023Melanie Meadors

Please join me in welcoming Henry Herz, author and co-editor of the new young adult anthology, ‘The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie’!

‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Fans Have These 10 Reasons to Hope

April 3, 2023April 2, 2023Melanie Meadors

‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ viewers got a shock with this week’s season two finale when our favorite group of misfit clones lost one of their own. Melanie thinks there is cause to have some hope that we haven’t seen the last of a fan favorite character.

For Grieving ‘Bad Batch’ Fans: 10 Ways to Cope

April 1, 2023March 31, 2023Melanie Meadors

It’s hard when we lose a person we love, even when it’s a fictional character like on ‘The Bad Batch.’ Here are some ways to cope. [Contains spoilers]

Microraptors’ Last Meals Hold Key to Dinosaur Diet

January 17, 2023January 16, 2023Melanie Meadors

By studying Microraptors’ last meals, paleontologists have discovered new clues about Cretaceous ecosystems.

What Made King Alfred so “Great?”

February 24, 2022February 23, 2022Melanie Meadors

King Alfred of the Anglo-Saxons is known as “The Great.” What did he do to earn this title, and did he really deserve it?

Bessie Coleman: History-Making Flying Ace

February 7, 2022February 6, 2022Melanie Meadors

Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to get her pilot’s license. Learn more about how this young flying ace made Black history.

Why Isn’t the Earth Cratered Like the Moon?

January 18, 2022January 17, 2022Melanie Meadors

The Moon and Earth are close neighbors, but they look very different. Why isn’t the Earth cratered like the Moon? There are five main reasons, many of which are interconnected.

Enceladus Ice Plumes: New Insights

January 11, 2022January 11, 2022Melanie Meadors

A couple years ago, I wrote an article about how scientists were using the scientific method (yes, the one you learned about in school) in order to study the Enceladus ice plumes, which were discovered when Cassini was doing its fly-bys of several of Saturn’s moons. Well, they are still at it, and learning even more about this fascinating place in our solar system.

Margaret Beaufort: The Pain, Piety, and Politics of a Medieval Mother, Part 3

January 7, 2022January 6, 2022Melanie Meadors

Things aren’t looking great for Margaret Beaufort and her new baby Henry Tudor, as seen in the last installment of this series following a young noblewoman on her path through the politics of medieval England. Find out what happens in this last installment of “Margaret Beaufort: The Pain, Piety, and Politics of a Medieval Mother.”

Margaret Beaufort: The Pain, Piety, and Politics of a Medieval Mother, Part 2

December 23, 2021December 22, 2021Melanie Meadors

When last we left Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the Tudor dynasty in late medieval England, she was seven years old and had just been married to John de la Pole as a political pawn. This was typical for wealthy, landed gentry of the time. It gave the woman (or child, in this case) security […]

How Will NASA’s DART Asteroid Mission Work?

November 27, 2021November 26, 2021Melanie Meadors

What is NASA’s DART asteroid mission, and how will it protect us from near-Earth objects?

Margaret Beaufort: The Pain, Piety, and Politics of a Medieval King’s Mother, Part 1

November 21, 2021November 20, 2021Melanie Meadors

How did Margaret Beaufort go from daughter of a tainted family to mother of a king? Find out in the first of a three-part series!

New Black Hole Discovered Outside Our Galaxy

November 11, 2021November 10, 2021Melanie Meadors

The same thing that keeps Earth in orbit around the Sun can help us detect black holes: gravity. And that’s just how astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope found a small black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a next door neighbor galaxy to our own.

Medieval Women: Fact from Fiction

November 1, 2021October 31, 2021Melanie Meadors

Let’s take a deeper look at the various roles and identities of two European women in the Middle Ages to dispel some fact from fiction.