How to Have a Thought: A Walk with Charles Darwin -- Nicholas Day, Hardcover

Take a walk with Charles Darwin in this electrifying new picture book from Sibert Medalist Nicholas Day.

How do you work through a complicated idea, solve a tricky problem, or make a big discovery? Charles Darwin had a lot of ways to do it. He paced in circles and hit rocks with a stick. He studied the bones of his dinner. He even rode around the world on a boat called The Beagle.

These methods may sound unorthodox, but they led him to some pretty great thoughts--and discoveries about the origins of life as we know it.

Sibert Medalist Nicholas Day's conversational text has all the charm of a true story told by your smartest, most interesting friend. With Hadley Hooper's engrossingly textured illustrations, How to Have a Thought is both an introduction to Darwin and an invitation to live with brilliant curiosity.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Author: Nicholas Day
Publisher: Neal Porter Books
Published: 01/13/2026
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
ISBN: 9780823458509
Audience: Ages 4-8

Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 10/01/2025 pg. 88
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 11/01/2025

About the Author
Nicholas Day has been a wine salesman, a wedding cake baker, a fairground maintenance man, and a stay-at-home father. He is the author of the Sibert Medal-winning title The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity, illustrated by Brett Helquist, and Nothing: John Cage and 4'33", illustrated by Chris Raschka. His writing has also appeared in Slate, Salon, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and The Atlantic, among other publications. He lives with his family in Buffalo, NY.

Hadley Hooper is a painter and illustrator whose artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums in major cities such as San Francisco, Toronto, New York, Denver, and Santa Fe. As a picture book illustrator, she has worked with bestselling authors such as Patricia Maclachlan, Liz Garton Scanlon, and Jan Greenberg. She lives in Denver with her partner and their dog.