Sneed B. Collard III
Sneed Body Collard III (born November 7, 1959) is an American author. On November 4, 2006, Collard received the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award, presented annually to "an author or illustrator whose total body of work has contributed significantly to the quality of nonfiction for children." In 2006, Collard also received the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) award for his science book "The Prairie Builders: Reconstructing America's Lost Grasslands". Collard has written more than 80 books for young people, including "Shep—Our Most Loyal Dog", "Fire Birds: Valuing Natural Wildfires  and Burned Forests", "Hopping Ahead of Climate Change: Snowshoe Hares, Science, and Survival", and "Dog Sense". He is also the author of an adult memoir, "Warblers & Woodpeckers: A Father-Son Big Year of Birding" (2018, Mountaineers Books) and a professional development textbook, "Teaching Nonfiction Revision: A Professional Writer Shares Strategies, Tips, and Lessons" (Heinemann, 2017). His articles have appeared in "Environmental Action", "The Humanist", "Florida Wildlife", "Islands", "Cricket", and "Highlights for Children". Biography. Collard has been a farmer, computer scientist, and author. The son of farmers, Collard says that he fell in love with the agricultural field at an early  age, watching livestock with his mother and growing corn, wheat, and various other crops with his father. "My parents were both farmers and surrounded me with agriculture all the time". Collard began writing after graduating with honors in agriculture and forestry from the University of California at Berkeley. He earned a master's in agriculture genetics at the University of California in Santa Barbara, after which he worked as a crop analyst for several major agricultural companies. As of 2019 Collard lives in Montana where he continues to write books and articles for young people. He also visits schools and  conferences giving talks and workshops to children and educators. Children's nonfiction books. Selected science books: