ate Boehm Jerome has the answer to almost anything. “The joke around here is that I’m a walking trivia book,” says the author—and one-time science teacher—who has written more than 25 children’s books in less than 10 years. “Because I research on the Internet for hours each day, I’m forever coming up with these obscure facts that keep my family in stitches. I seem to have become the neighborhood biologist as well; people bring me things with fungus growing on them and want to know what they are.” Turns out she’s the perfect person to ask. Having majored in biological sciences and minored in environmental sciences at Miami Univer-sity in Ohio, the Biloxi, Mississippi native graduated with a degree in education before moving to Chicago, where she worked as a part-time high school teacher for three years. In 1981, on a whim, she answered an ad in the Chicago Tribune for a science editor at Scott Foresman Publishing, an educational publishing house in Glenview, Illinois.

“I walked in, and it was the biggest break of my life,” she recalls. “It was love at first sight. I couldn’t wait to get up every day and start working. And when you find a job that you adore, you’re usually good at it. I worked my way up, earning five promotions in five years. I started in an entry-level position; 13 years later, I was president of the company.”

Crediting her three brothers with her business acumen—“they taught me to think like a guy”—Jerome remained president of Scott Foresman for two years, managing more than 600 employees and simultaneously becoming senior vice president of the publishing board at parent company HarperCollins. But in 1995, having reached the top of the proverbial corporate ladder, Jerome decided there was nothing to do but jump right off—and land somewhere entirely different.

“People kept saying ‘you’re at the pinnacle of your career; you can’t quit now.’ But I needed to spend more time with my family,” she explains, gesturing to pictures of daughter Lindsay, 25, who works in television and film production in Los Angeles, and son Eric, a 17-year-old senior at Bishop England High School. “I was trying to find my balance—and that was before finding balance was even fashionable!” So Jerome decided to channel her dual areas of expertise—science and kids—into writing children’s books. After working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, as well as Penguin Putnam Publishers in New York, she was approached by the National Geographic Society to create a supplemental nonfiction reading series, “Reading Expedition Science.”

“When kids start to read, it’s usually fiction,” explains Jerome. “But as we get older, 98 percent of what we read is non-fiction. So kids are really getting the short shrift; there’s just not that much nonfiction out there for them, and they need to develop those kinds of reading skills. The books in this series incorporate nonfiction aids, like graphs and glossaries, and also provide an interesting story. We try to think about what questions kids would want answered, what would make them turn the pages.” Jerome directed all 75 of the books in the series—which covers topics ranging from outer space to the human body—and wrote 22 of them herself. “She knows the science market from every angle,” says Barbara Seeber, editorial manager of Children’s Books and Education Publishing for National Geographic. “Kate is a fantastic problem solver; whenever you ask for her help, she’ll come up with three ideas for you—and six more to foll ¬my subconscious for a little while; I can’t just sit down and write. I’m not organized enough to carry around notebooks, so I scribble ideas onto napkins, or leave voice mails for myself on my phone. I’ve even been known to write things on walls!” Such measures, however, invariably pay off. “I might be weeding the garden, but the book will be there in the back of my head, playing itself out,” she explains. “And then I’ll go inside one day, and out it comes.”

Currently, Jerome is working on 11 new books for National Geographic, as well as her first novel for adults, which, she says, “is quite a departure.” The consummate multi-tasker, she also hopes to start her own imprint of books this fall designed to encourage interaction between parents and children. “You can’t rely on the classroom for a child’s entire education,” she explains. “They learn as much outside of school as they do in it. All of us—as parents, friends, mentors, aunts, or uncles—have a responsibility to expose children to art, science, and culture.”

For her part, Jerome sits on the board of directors of the Trident Literacy Association, a non-profit organization that helps 3,000 adults in the tri-county area with reading proficiency, enabling her to help break the cycle of illiteracy. She is also hosting an August workshop at the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry, has helped the South Carolina Aquarium design their toddler programs, and frequently visits local schools to keep in touch with her pint-sized fans.

“I just love the way little kids think; you can see their minds whirring as they connect new information to their existing base of knowledge,” she says. “When I’m talking to my first-graders, no matter how interesting the subject matter is in any book—from big-toothed sharks, to insect-eating plants, to fiery volcanoes—one of the first questions I always get is ‘how do you put the cover on the book?’ At first that may sound like an irrelevant question, but it’s actually a very logical inquiry. So if I can satisfy their curiosity on that one, then they’re ready to follow me into the guts of the book, which is really where I want to entice them to go. Often, it’s just a matter of taking their route, not mine!”

Jerome’s raison d’être, she explains, involves more than just encouraging kids to read. “My real mission, my stealth mission, is science literacy. I think we do our children a great disservice when we don’t educate them on the basics of the world around us. You can’t pick up a newspaper without reading about some scientific issue,” she says. “But at the same time, you don’t need to force it down their throats. Children ask great questions on their own; science naturally interests them. I try to write the kind of books that will pique their curiosity just a little more.”

Sitting by the pool with her laptop at her side, Jerome is ever thankful for her newfound ability to stop and smell the roses (or jasmine or magnolias)—and then jot down an idea about them for a book. “When you find something you love to do, it’s not a job, it’s a life,” she says. “And I’m so lucky to be able to live here and still do this. If technology weren’t at a level where I could send manuscripts across the country with the touch of a button, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do now. It may be three in the morning and I may be in my pajamas when I press ‘send,’ but I can do it. And I’m so grateful.”