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No. 02 · The Storyteller Issue
10 pages · Letter format
DORX CHRONICLE
Magazine · The Storyteller Issue
No. 02
October 2026
41
Years in science classrooms, from middle school to the university
12
Books on his shelf, every one written with family in mind
60+
Refereed journal articles before his first picture book
“No one is insignificant. Even the smallest act can make an amazing difference.”
The Cover Story
Verified AuthorClouds, curiosity and faith: the science professor who sends children to the window
No. 02 · The Storyteller Issue
Kevin D. Finson
The Professor at the Window
Four decades of inquiry learning, and why it led to picture books
In His Own Words
Clouds, curiosity and the grandchildren who started it all
A Book for Every Reader
The design rules he learned teaching students with disabilities
The Nature Shelf
My Maple Tree, The Rainbow Tree and Ivy Blossoms
The Faith Shelf
The Tree and the Stones, The Sacred Wood and Mystical Dreams
Mysteries and Wonders
Dragon Sign, The Paper Ghost, Starduster and The Fifty-Dollar Eggs
Music, Memory and What Comes Next
Strings and Wood, Brotherhood and the books in progress
The Complete Shelf
Every title, plus a code to take you straight to his books
Editor's Letter
Some authors write to be read. Kevin D. Finson writes so that his readers will go and look. His first picture book, A Cloudy Tale, sent his own grandchildren to the front window to match the clouds in the sky with the photos on the page. For a man who spent his career championing inquiry learning, there could be no better review.
This issue gathers everything on his shelf: gentle nature stories, quiet books of faith, mysteries with dragons and ghosts, a book of music and a history of the men he called brothers. Each one, he says, carries a thread back to his family. We hope they find their way into yours.
Look closely and you will see the professor in every title: the careful observation, the gentle question, the trust that a child can work things out. That is what makes these small books feel so large.
Profile · Kevin D. Finson
After 41 years in science classrooms, Kevin D. Finson found a new audience: his grandchildren, and then children everywhere.
Kevin D. Finson, professor emeritus of science education at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.
34
Years teaching at college level
8
Academic books published
60+
Refereed journal articles
2020
Year A Cloudy Tale arrived
Kevin D. Finson spent most of his life in science classrooms: five years at the middle school level, two at the high school level and 34 years at the college level. He retired as a professor emeritus of science education at Bradley University, where an earth scientist by training also taught physical science, life science, instructional theory and program evaluation.
Along the way he published eight books, twelve book chapters, five monographs and more than sixty refereed journal articles. Much of that research asked a simple question: how do we make science reachable for every student, including those with learning disabilities?
Through all of it ran one belief: inquiry learning. Children learn best, he argues, when they observe something, grow curious about it, and go looking for answers themselves, with a teacher or parent who guides rather than lectures.
Retirement did not end the teaching. It moved it to the kitchen table. Finson began writing books for his grandchildren to pass on his thoughts about life, starting with clouds and the weather they announce. When an early draft of A Cloudy Tale sent the children to the window to compare the sky with the pictures, he knew the book was working.
From there he turned to faith and moral living. Most of his stories, he says, connect to something his grandchildren have lived through, so they can recognize themselves in the pages “even if it is at a subconscious level.” Eventually he decided to share the books more widely, hoping they would entertain and teach other children and their parents too.
Two teachers shaped him. His fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. McCain, read the first short book he ever wrote and urged him to keep going. Dr. Robert James, a college professor, grounded him in inquiry science. Today, every page Finson writes carries a little of both.
Mrs. McCain told him she would like to see his first real book. By the time he wrote it, she had passed away. In a sense, every book since has been written for her, too.
“Weather is something each of us experiences each day. It is a shared common experience.”
His research on students' perceptions of scientists and on how they read visual data still guides how he pairs words with pictures. The result is a shelf of books that look simple and are anything but.
The Interview
Kevin D. Finson spoke with DORX Chronicle about clouds, curiosity, puns and the grandchildren who set him writing. Answers have been condensed.
Why clouds and weather?
Weather is something each of us experiences each day. Being able to understand the messages clouds are telling us can help us prepare for what is to come, and that removes some fear of the weather. The early pioneers knew how to watch the sky. Much of that has been lost.
What went through your mind when your grandchildren used the book at the window?
I was thrilled that they had invested themselves in its message so much that they wanted to use it as a guide for their own observations. The book was doing what I intended it to do for them.
How does inquiry learning show up in your books?
I provide the initial seed that hopefully gets a child interested, then sprinkle in a little information throughout. Children use those pieces, along with their curiosity, to connect the dots and arrive at their own understanding.
Is writing for children easier than academic writing?
In a way it is easier, and at the same time more challenging. You have one very specific point to make, and you must write for children at a wide range of reading levels. Every detail of an illustration must agree with the story and invite prolonged attention.
Where does your famous sense of humor go?
It depends on the book. Humor would be wrong in The Tree and the Stones. Elsewhere it is subtle, in how a character reacts. In The Lesson of the Sunflowers, a young man carefully removes his shoes and socks to cross a creek, then falls flat on his back halfway across.
What do you hope families remember?
The feeling of hope and growth in faith. They may not remember the exact words, but I hope they remember that no one of them is insignificant, and that science, or any subject, can be accessible if it is presented in an appropriate way.
“It is sometimes fun just to sit and watch the clouds and imagine what shapes we see in them.”
The Craft
Years of research on science for students with learning disabilities taught Finson that how a page looks matters as much as what it says. These are the rules he brings to every book.
14 to 16 point type
Research showed larger fonts, ideally 16 point, help young and struggling readers.
No serifs
Clean letterforms without the curly-cues at the ends of letters are easier to decode.
Half-line spacing
A little extra air between lines keeps the eye from slipping to the wrong row.
Pictures face their words
Each illustration sits on the page directly opposite the text it belongs to.
Gentle color
Colors and brightness are chosen so the art never becomes a barrier for any child.
No hyphenated words
Word level and sentence syntax are matched to the reader, and words are never split.
Those rules came from the classroom. Finson remembers students who were eager to learn science but struggled for reasons that had nothing to do with the science itself. So he found other ways in. He rewrote sections of textbooks just for them and restructured lessons to give them choices and flexibility. “If information was presented to them in appropriate ways,” he says, “they could grasp it and make sense of it.”
Underneath the technical choices is a deeper aim. He writes so that a child can build pictures in their own mind and connect the story to their own life. A good picture book, in his view, is not decorated text but a single experience, where every detail of the art agrees with the words and invites the reader to stay a little longer.
He keeps text on each page short, so no child faces a wall of words. Illustrations are never decoration for its own sake: the amount of detail and the choice of color must support the storyline rather than distract from it. The goal is simple. Every child who opens one of his books should feel it was made for them.
Above all, he writes so a child can build pictures in their mind and step inside the story, joining what happens on the page to what has happened in their own life.
The Books · Part One
An earth scientist's eye for the living world: trees that grow and renew, colors that bloom, and vines that climb.
Life cycles
Written and illustrated by Kevin D. Finson
A tale of one maple tree “from seed to tree to seed.” Finson's own hand-drawn illustrations follow the tree through its whole life, its branches heavy with pink and russet leaves, until it sends new seeds spinning out to start again. It is a quiet, beautiful first lesson in how living things grow, change and renew themselves, and an invitation to step outside and find a maple of your own.
A family collaboration
Kevin D. Finson and Savannah · Illustrated by Carrie L. Finson · 2nd Edition
Now in its second edition, The Rainbow Tree is a true team effort: written by Kevin D. Finson and Savannah, and illustrated by Carrie L. Finson. Its cover tree bursts into every color of the rainbow, crimson and orange, sunflower yellow, green, blue and violet, with a title that arcs above it in the same bright hues. It is the most joyful book on his shelf, and a reminder that his stories begin at home.
Hand-drawn wonder
By Kevin D. Finson
Framed in a lime-green border, the cover of Ivy Blossoms is a frame of hand-drawn ivy, deep green leaves twisting along rose-red stems. The detail rewards a slow look, which is exactly what Finson hopes for: art that invites prolonged attention and sends a curious reader off to notice the plants growing along their own garden walls. Like ivy itself, the book shows how small, steady growth can cover a whole wall in time.
The Books · Part Two
“I have always had a deep and abiding faith in the Holy Trinity.” After A Cloudy Tale, Finson turned his storytelling toward faith and moral living.
Written and illustrated
The story of the cedar tree cut down to make the cross on which Christ was crucified. Finson's cover shows a young evergreen rising between great golden rocks. It is the one book where, he says, humor would be out of place, and it is told with reverence from first page to last.
Reflection
A dark wooden cross set into pale, flowing grain fills the cover. It pairs naturally with The Tree and the Stones, inviting young readers to think about the meaning carried in something as ordinary as wood. Simple, quiet and reverent, it is a book to read slowly and talk over together as a family.
2nd Edition
Subtitled A Journey About Faith, its cover is a dirt road winding through autumn aspens turned to gold, the perfect image for a pilgrim's path. It is written for older readers and for any traveler still finding their way toward a deeper faith.
“I hope they remember the feeling of hope and growth in faith they can get from my books.”
The Books · Part Three
Four second editions full of dragons, ghosts, stars and secrets, each one planting the seed of curiosity that Finson believes every child should be free to follow.
By Kevin D. Finson · 2nd Edition
A single dragon eye, blazing red and yellow and ringed with hand-drawn scales, stares out from the cover. Few titles promise adventure more boldly. Readers will want to know whose eye it is, and what it is watching for.
By Kevin D. Finson · 2nd Edition
Handwritten words spiral inward across a scorched sheet of parchment, a puzzle that rewards readers who look closely and follow the clues. Turn the book in your hands to read the message.
By Kevin D. Finson · 2nd Edition
A bright white star burns at the center of a black disc, trailing dotted arms like a galaxy. A science teacher’s love of the sky shines through, inviting readers to look up on the next clear night.
By Kevin D. Finson · 2nd Edition
Two hand-dyed eggs, one marbled orange and one deep crimson, sit under a title that begs a question: what could make an egg worth fifty dollars? The answer has more to do with love than with money.
?
The inquiry habit. “Inquiry involves curiosity, and that is a natural tendency for many children,” Finson says, “but it needs to be nurtured.” A good mystery is the perfect place to start.
The Books · Part Four
Music
Written and illustrated by Kevin D. Finson
Written and illustrated by Finson, Strings and Wood carries a sheet of music on its parchment cover, its notes climbing the staff under the book’s own title. It brings the same patient, observant eye he gives to clouds and trees to the world of instruments and song.
Family history
Kevin D. Finson, Editor
As editor, Finson gathered brief biographies of the men of the Alpha Epsilon Chapter of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. It is a record of friendship and a gift to the brothers who shared those years.
An illustrated book, nearly ready
The story is complete and with a graphic artist. Finson may illustrate it himself.
The healer
A faith-based tale of a traveler who finds a miraculous healer has visited every village before him.
Letters to grandchildren
Three books published, more in process: the monthly letters he sends each grandchild on their birth date.
A book on scientific inquiry
Written with a co-author for science teachers and the professors who train them.
“If there is a central theme, it is one of helping other people, through science, through faith and through my love for my family.”
Kevin D. Finson · The Complete Shelf
“I want the love we have between us to be the glue that binds us together through times both good and bad.”Kevin D. Finson
Find his books
Scan to shop every title on Amazon
Kevin D. Finson's books are available through Amazon, IngramSpark, Barnes & Noble and other outlets. His author webpage shows every cover, a short description and links to buy.
Web kevindfinsonauthorspage.org
Amazon amazon.com · search “Kevin D. Finson”
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