Children's
Michael Homoya
Michael Homoya authored the scientific text for Wake Up, Woods, the Indiana selection for the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book Great Read in 2020, as well as the recipient of the 2020 GardenComm Silver Medal of Achievement. He has written over 75 scientific papers, popular articles, and books about Indiana’s natural features, including Orchids of Indiana and Wildflowers and Ferns of Indiana Forests: A Field Guide. Homoya earned a B.A. and M.S. in botany at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, after which he taught elementary school science on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and biology at Southwestern Community College in North Carolina. For 37 years, he served as a botanist/plant ecologist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Nature Preserves, before retiring in 2019. Homoya is a fellow and former president of the Indiana Academy of Science, a board member, and the immediate past president of the Indiana Native Plant Society. He is currently an adjunct faculty member in biology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. In 2019, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb awarded him the Sagamore of the Wabash for his contributions to preserving Indiana’s natural heritage. Other honors include the Indiana Academy of Science Distinguished Scholar Award, the Distinguished Career Public Service Award from the Conservation Law Center, and the Barbara J. Restle Lifetime Conservation Award from Sycamore Land Trust.
Homoya lives in Brownsburg with his wife Barbara and is fortunate to have their two sons Aaron and Wes, daughter-in-law Andréa, and grandson Soren living in nearby Indianapolis.
2020 Children's Shortlist: Wake up, Woods
Early in the year, our North American forests come to life as native wildflowers push up through patches of snow. With longer days and sunlight streaming down through bare branches of towering trees, life on the forest floor awakens from its winter sleep. Plants such as green dragon, squirrel corn, and bloodroot interact with their pollinators and seed dispersers and rush to create new life before the trees above leaf out and block the sun’s rays.
Wake Up, Woods showcases the splendor of our warming forests and offers clues to nature’s annual springtime floral show as we walk in our parks and wilderness areas or even in shade gardens around our homes.
Readers of Wake Up, Woods will see that Gillian Harris, Michael Homoya, and Shane Gibson, through illustrations and text, present a captivating look into our forests’ biodiversity. They show how species depend on plants for food and help assure plant reproduction. This book celebrates some of nature’s most fascinating moments that happen in forests where we live and play.
