STEM Tuesday

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today we’re interviewing authors Danio Miserocchi and Maciej Michno and illustrator Valentina Gottardi, the creators of Who Hid the Stars? How LIght Pollution Changes Our World.

Who Hid The Stars? artfully explores the causes and consequences of light pollution all while celebrating the wonders of natural light. The book is part of Eerdmans’ Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers series, was shortlisted for Italy’s Little Galileo Award, and received starred reviews from Booklist and Shelf Awareness.

And now, let’s shine a light on this illuminating text!

Emily Starr:  First of all, this book is stunning. I read it with my two elementary-aged boys, and there was something on every page for us to ooh and ahh over – and to think about about long after the cover was closed. You include information about such wide variety of organisms throughout the book. Since many animals are impacted by artificial light at night (ALAN), how did you choose which animals to include? Are there any organisms that didn’t make it in the book that you wish you had space to include?

Maciej: Danio, Valentina, and I had to make many choices when deciding which animals, plants, and aspects of ALAN to describe and what should we leave out. As always, the starting point is our direct experience. What did we, personally, see and meet in our everyday life?

A few years ago, we actually saw the little owl you see on page 28, perched on a balcony in Venice. We see bats every day. A few years ago, I lived in a small house at the end of a small village in the Italian Alps, and when I was driving at night, I wondered why the hares ran in front of my car, instead of leaping to the side.

When writing a book for young readers like this, we always try to remember how we used to think when we were children: what questions did we have? What fascinated us? What did we find strange or unusual? That’s one of the basis our choices.

See the owl in the upper left corner?

Emily Starr: The fact you considered what children would notice and wonder shines through in this book.  I think many children (and adults) may be surprised to learn that animals and insects may move towards a car’s headlights instead of away from them because animals feel safer in light. They may be equally shocked to learn that 9% of people on Earth still do not have access to electricity. What information from your research surprised you most?

Maciej: One of the pieces of information that surprised me the most did not, in fact, make it to the book. It was the fact that, despite everything we may think, bright artificial light at night (ALAN) does not actually provide safety to us.

Another aspect that we did not consider before researching for this book is that ALAN influences not only terrestrial creatures, but also those living underwater along the coastlines. Rivers, even more so seas, appear to us as dark places, so we don’t always think about how light influences the creatures that live there.

Emily Starr: Wow. I never would have considered how ALAN affects sea creatures. We think of them as remote – a separate world under water. In addition to introducing a wide variety of creatures, you share multiple perspectives, even including animals that are helped by artificial light alongside those that are harmed by it. Why did you make the decision to include both positive and negative effects?

Maciej: Light is immensely useful to us as a species. So we were really curious about how it influences other animals and plants. We instinctively know that many nocturnal animals are disturbed by our light. But at the same time, many species have been living with us in our cities for a very long time, and they have adapted, developed new skills and characteristics, and learned how to make the most of the situation. It was important to us to understand both the negative effects as well as the positive ones!

Emily Starr: On a related note, since humans need artificial light for modern society, how did you balance that reality with your call for reduced lights at night?

Maciej: We can’t, and we probably should not, give up light! It would be impossible and absurd. We can, however, try to be good neighbors, and acknowledge that we are not the only citizens of our cities, and that there are many other organisms living with us. We can make small adjustments to make their lives better at a small cost to us.

We can make our lights a bit dimmer and turn off unnecessary light. We can use directional light instead of lamps glowing in any direction. We can try to designate some areas as dark and create low-light oases. We can adjust our street lights to use frequencies that minimize the impact on the other organisms. We would benefit from all this, too. ALAN impacts our health as well.

Emily Starr: Can you talk a little about the decision to include the wordless spreads with varying degrees of artificial light, and what you hope readers notice in those spreads?

Valentina:  The wordless spreads allow readers to take a break, breathe, and pause for a moment over the flow of the content. In those landscapes, I added lots of small details so readers can return to them later and discover new things. It is a bit like a “search and find” activity that allows readers to train their perception and notice those small things that we often overlook in our everyday life, or that we just ignore and don’t consider.

This is one of several wordless spreads in Who Hid the Stars?

Emily Starr: Speaking of the breathtaking illustrations, you include features like maps and diagrams. Those elements not only help readers to understand the text but also provide a wide variety of content for educators. Because many of our readers are authors, could you share if those functional portions of the illustrations were in the manuscript, or if Valentina decided to include them, or if it was a collaborative process?

Valentina:  We create our books in a collaborative process, where we are all directly and constantly involved. So text, images, maps, and all the graphic details are chosen and planned at the same time. It’s not like the text or the images come first. After the initial study and research, we create the storyboard, where we decide together what the contents of each page will be, what images and what other content will be included. After this initial phase, we create the text, the images, and the layout working iteratively. We continuously check the work for correctness and refine it until everything is ready.

Emily Starr: That is an interesting process – quite different than many U.S. publishers where the author(s) and illustrator may not ever communicate. Your collaborative process definitely resulted in a book that encourages readers to take their time and thoughtfully consider the information on each spread. I see you have another gorgeously illustrated book coming out on August 18th: Still Water. Are there additional projects in the works you can share with our readers?

As authors, we continue working on many projects, both as a group and individually. In Italy, we just published a book about landscape, intended as “the place where we live”. This book is about noticing and taking care of our place and of our community. We are already at work for the next book, which will be issued in fall. It will belong to the same series of Who Hid the Stars? and Still Water, and its topic will be a bit similar to the latter.

Danio Miserocchi is a coauthor of The Tomorrow Tree (Phaidon). Who Hid the Stars? (Eerdmans), and the forthcoming Still Water (Eerdmans). He is an Italian naturalist and teacher who works with museums and community organizations on conservation and biodiversity initiatives. Follow Danio on Instagram @daniomiserocchi.

Maciej Michno is an editor at Cocai Books, which creates educational, scientifically verified books focused on often-overlooked natural subjects.  His previous titles include Who Hid the Stars? (Eerdmans),  The Tomorrow Tree (Phaidon), and the forthcoming Still Water (Eerdmans).

Valentina Gottardi has pursued her dual passions of art and nature since childhood. At Cocai Books, she serves as artistic director and designer for all projects, including this book, Who Hid the Stars? (Eerdmans), The Tomorrow Tree (Phaidon), and the forthcoming Still Water (Eerdmans).