L.E. Carmichael's Blog, page 9

Ice Worms and Appropriation of Inuit Culture

Six more sleeps until Polar!

Today’s post was going to be about the science of ice worms, a species I wanted to include in the book but ended up cutting because their range (at least in Alaska) is farther south than the Arctic tundra regions that Polar focuses on.

The reason I initially wanted to include them is because, when I was a little girl, my grandparents went to Alaska and brought me back a souvenir: a toy ice worm. It was a strip of white rabbit fur with googly eyes glued to one end, bearing no resemblance to the real species (Mesenchytraeus solifugus, if you want to look them up). But I loved it because I could make it “dance” by stroking a finger down its silky back.

I don’t have the toy any more, so I was googling for photos to illustrate this post and stumbled on references to Inuit folktales about ice worms. I was delighted, because I love folktales from all cultures, and the references were on the websites of universities and museums – places that are normally considered credible.

Not this time. 

It turns out that, in Canada, ice worm toys are an example of cultural appropriation… and the “Inuit legend” about them was a marketing tactic written by white people.

The full story appears in a 2019 issue of Tusaayaksat Magazine, which centres on Inuvialuit culture, heritage, and language. The piece is called Sewing Culture, and was written by Charles Arnold. The section on ice worms is at the bottom, but I encourage you to read the entire article.

Polar is about animals, not people. But people have also lived in the Arctic for millennia, and their true stories deserve to be heard. 

Polar: Wildlife At the Ends of the Earth comes out in 6 more sleeps! EEK! Pre-order a copy from your local independent bookstore to reduce your carbon footprint AND support a cornerstone of your community.

Don’t forget to check my Public Appearances page for Polar virtual events and live events happening near you. Are you a teacher or librarian? I’m available for author visits in May and June – contact me to secure your spot.  

Stride or Slide? How Penguins Get From Place to Place

It’s World Penguin Day! According to Penguins International, there are 18 species of penguins worldwide, three of which appear in Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth:

emperor penguinsAdélie penguins, andchinstrap penguins

Polar is a book about the adaptations that help penguins (and other animals!) survive in Antarctic habitats. That meant I had to focus on showing the adaptation at work in the wild… which meant that I couldn’t talk about some of the mind-boggling ways that scientists have studied these adaptations.

Until now.

Two of the most eye-popping experiments I came across related to penguin movement patterns. Specifically:

how much energy does a penguin use to walk?how much energy does a penguin use when tobogganing on its belly?how do snow and ice conditions influence which style of movement a penguin chooses?

Snow and ice conditions, it turns out, have a big effect on the amount of energy penguins burn just getting around. Adult Adélie penguins weigh about 5 kg. Each foot is about 255 cm square, but their bellies are about 1800 cm square. Dividing weight by area tells us that foot load is around 19.6 g / square cm, but “belly load” is only 2.8 g / square cm.

In other words, if the snow is soft, a walking penguin’s feet will sink in deep, and it will have to expend extra energy pulling its feet out before taking each step. A tobogganing penguin won’t sink as deep, and will use less energy pushing itself forward – especially on a downward slope where gravity lends a flipper!

The amount of friction between the penguin’s belly feathers and the sliding surface also affects the amount of energy it burns while sliding: a slick surface like smooth ice offers less resistance than uneven or coarse surfaces. How did scientists measure that friction? The experiment was more eyebrow-raising than eye-popping. They sedated a penguin, tied a string to its beak, and pulled it forwards. Once they confirmed that a “freshly killed” penguin gave the same results, they dragged a dead bird both forwards and backwards across the snow.

That was in the early 1990s, and – thank goodness! – the ethics governing animal experiments have evolved considerably since then. I can’t imagine scientists getting permission to perform such an experiment today. But those old-school biologists did manage to prove that friction going backwards is much higher than friction going forwards, which means that, when penguins toboggan uphill, their belly feathers act like tiny little crampons, digging into the surface and helping to prevent them from sliding back down to the sea. So that’s something, I guess?

The second experiment I discovered contains much less ickiness. In fact, it’s entirely delightful.

Like a lot of critters that spend most of their time in the water, penguins have a streamlined shape. Their legs are short and set far back under their bodies, which helps reduce drag in the water. When walking, however, those short, rear-positioned legs produce a whole lot of “lateral displacement,” meaning the penguin has to swing its body from side to side just to get its feet going forward. Compared to similar-sized birds with longer legs, this takes a whole lot of energy.

To figure out just how much energy penguins were burning, Dr. Berry Pinshow and his team measured their metabolic rate by measuring how much oxygen their bodies were consuming. To do that, they trained penguins to walk on treadmills while wearing gas masks that captured their breaths.

And we will now pause for a moment to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of that mental image:

PENGUINS. On TREADMILLS. Wearing GAS MASKS.

You’re welcome.

Pinshow’s team determined that top walking speed for an emperor penguin is about 2.8 km per hour, which required an average of 85 steps per minute. In comparison, rheas – birds with the same body mass but longer legs – only had to take 50 strides per minute at that speed. If the math is confusing, remember what it was like when you were a kid, trying to keep up with a parent in the supermarket – you (the penguin) had to take a lot more steps than your grown up (the rhea) to cover the same distance in the same amount of time.

Which means penguins burn more energy walking than birds that have evolved to spend more time on land. No wonder penguins often choose to toboggan – it takes a lot less energy! And if your breeding colony is 300 km from the place where you get your food, every calorie counts.

Teachers! Do you want your students to see pictures of penguins on treadmills? Because I’ve got them, and they are flat-out AMAZEBALLS. Contact me to schedule a school visit.

Seven more sleeps until Polar arrives. Pre-order your copy from your local indie or your favourite online retailer. And don’t forget to check my Public Appearances page for Polar virtual events and live events happening near you!

Eleven Reasons Arctic Foxes Are the Coolest

I learned about a LOT of amazing animals while researching Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth, but arctic foxes will always have a special place in my heart. One reason is that I spent 6 years studying them (and wolves) for my PhD. The other reason is that arctic foxes are COOL. Here’s why.

1) Look at that little face! This critter knows exactly how cute it is. Notice how its nose and ears are stubby compared to those of other foxes. Those are adaptations that help keep the heat in during a frigid Arctic winter.

2) Arctic foxes have fur on their toe pads (not just in between their toes), which protects them from snow and ice. They are the only member of the canine family with furry feet. They are also the only canine with a seasonal colour change.

3) Foxes sleep in “ball form,” curled up so that only their fuzzy bits are exposed to the elements. In the wild, the temperature difference between the inside of a balled-up fox and the outside air can be up to 52.5 C!

4) In one lab experiment, and arctic fox kept a -80 C for one hour shivered, but maintained its normal body temperature. Do NOT try that at home, kids!

5) Arctic foxes have been known to keep warm by hollowing out reindeer carcasses and crawling inside. Kind of like Luke Skywalker in a Tauntaun. 

6) In most parts of the arctic, their primary food is lemmings. Every four years(ish) the lemming population crashes, and foxes have to find other food supplies. In the opening scene of Polar, a fox is following a polar bear’s trail, hoping to steal his leftovers. This is a popular strategy, though not without risk. Hungry bears do occasionally eat the fox…

7) Fox mothers adjust the size of their litters – in the womb – to match available food resources. In a good lemming year, they can have as many as 24 pups.

8) On Mednyi Island, where female pups inherit their mom’s territory and male pups disperse to find their own, fox mothers can adjust the sex ratio of their litters to match food resources. Moms in good territories have more girls, and moms in poor territories have more boys. AMAZING.

9) One of my own studies showed that, in some conditions, fox moms share dens so they have extra adults to care for their pups. One mom can also have a mixed litter of pups with different fathers. This helps increase genetic diversity in the young, a good strategy when environmental conditions are changeable. With luck, at least one of those pups will have the right mix of traits to surviving in its surroundings.

10) In 2019, scientists tracked a fox that traveled 3506 km in 76 days (the previous record was 2300 km in a single winter). That is really impressive when you consider how short their legs are! Polar connection: one of the scientists who made this discovery is Eva Fugeli. Eva and I collaborated on fox research when I was a graduate student, and she was kind enough to provide an expert review for the book.

11) Arctic foxes grow gardens! Like beavers and elephants, they are ecosystem engineers, changing their habitats in ways that affect a lot of other species. Prey carcasses and fox droppings collect around dens, leading to plant growth so lush, scientists can spot dens from the air. The gardens are also prime lemming habitat – in Polar, a litter of baby lemmings snoozes under such a garden.

Do you have a favourite fox? What’s your favourite Arctic animal, and why? Share in the comments!

Eight more sleeps until Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth hits bookstore shelves! Pre-order a copy from your local independent bookstore to reduce your carbon footprint AND support a cornerstone of your community. You can also order from your favourite online retailers.

Don’t forget to check my Public Appearances page for Polar virtual events and live events happening near you! Are you a teacher or librarian? I’m available for author visits in May and June – contact me to secure your spot.  

The Work It Takes to Write a Book

Nine more sleeps until it’s pub day for Polar! 

Kermit GIF from Kermit GIFs

Today is World Book and Copyright Day, so I’ve been reflecting on how much time and work goes into writing just one children’s book.

Time

Four years, people.

In the Polar  folder on my hard drive, the “Early Planning” documents are all dated April 2019. That’s when I started mapping out what this book might be. The final manuscript is dated March 2022. It took another year for Byron Eggenschwiler to do his fantastic illustrations and for the book to go through layout, copy editing, printing, and shipping to stores.

Work

First, let’s talk research. I set a new record with this one – 339 sources, comprising thousands of pages. Polar is only 48 pages long.

Most of my sources were journal articles describing original scientific research:

Organizing source material: I’m gonna need a bigger office.

(Aside: I used to print journal articles so I could prop them up and read them while simultaneously typing notes into my computer. Now I have two monitors, so I can open the PDF on one screen and open my notes on the other. It’s harder on my eyeballs, but much better for the environment.)

Most of Polar is written in a narrative, storytelling format, but rest assured, it is not fiction. Every single sentence is supported by research. I take my responsibility to my readers very seriously – in my books, kids get the very best information available. 

Balancing storytelling with rigorous fact checking is a tricky process. I have no idea how many drafts I did before sending the “first draft” to my editor Katie Scott, but we went through seven drafts together. 

Copyright

Copyright is what ensures that I (eventually) get paid for all that time and work. It identifies me as the creator and legal owner of my books. Thanks to a recent update to Canadian copyright law, I will earn about $1 from every copy of Polar sold for as long as the book remains in print – theoretically, up to 70 years after I’m gone.

Thanks to other changes in Canadian copyright law, however, it’s become much easier for people to copy and distribute books without paying for them. According to data collected by The Writers’ Union of Canada, the average writer in Canada now makes about $11,000 a year from their work. And that work includes more than just royalties from book sales – it includes freelance contracts, school visits, teaching jobs, and any number of other writing-related “side hustles.” 

I do all of those things, but the main reason I’m privileged enough to work as a full time writer is because I have patrons – people who are willing to support my writing habit purely because they love me personally. Tech Support is chief patron. My Dad and my Not-So-Evil-Stepmother have also been an important source of financial support through the years.

Love Books? Support Copyright

The pandemic has reminded us of the value of storytelling – be it fiction or nonfiction, book or movie or series, that “content” gave us information, and hope, and a desperately-needed escape from difficult realities. And every piece of content has a person behind it – a person who worked really hard for a very long time to bring something valuable into the world. So this World Book and Copyright Day, buy a book, if you can.

If you can’t, there still are plenty of ways to support your favourite creators:

Talk about their work – write a review, send a tweet, tell a friendAsk your local library to add your favourite authors to the collectionEncourage your kids’ schools to use Canadian books in the curriculaWrite your MP, asking that Canadian copyright law be updated to support Canadian creators

 

Need more information? Check out the links below. And no matter what else you do today, read a book! 

The Writers’ Union of Canada – Copyright Advocacy

Access Copyright

Shifting Paradigms: Report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

Canadian Children’s Book Centre – History Book Bank

Canadian Children’s Book Centre – Social Justice and Diversity Book Bank

Polar: Wildlife At the Ends of the Earth comes out in 9 more sleeps! EEK! Pre-order a copy from your local independent bookstore to reduce your carbon footprint AND support a cornerstone of your community.

Don’t forget to check my Public Appearances page for Polar virtual events and live events happening near you! Are you a teacher or librarian? I’m available for author visits in May and June – contact me to secure your spot.  

The Earth’s Albedo: What It Is and Why It Matters

Despite the giant window in my office, the room was unbearably dark. Aging eyes feeling the strain, I replaced the light fixture with a brighter one. That helped, sort of. But on cloudy days, it was still a dim and gloomy place to work.

Last summer, Tech Support and I renovated. The first thing we did was repaint in a lighter colour. Why?

Because of albedo.

What Is Albedo?

Albedo is a measure of how much incoming light reflects off a surface. Dark-coloured surfaces, like roads paved with asphalt, have low albedos, meaning they absorb most of the sunlight that hits them… and its heat. If it’s midsummer and you’ve made the mistake of stepping onto the road in your bare feet, you’ve experienced this personally! Likewise, you’ve felt the relative coolness when you hopped back onto the concrete sidewalk. Light-coloured concrete has a high albedo, reflecting most of the sunlight that hits it, and, as a result, staying much cooler.

The same holds true of natural surfaces: rock, soil, and deep dark water have low albedos, while snow and ice have high albedos. Have you ever stepped outside on a sunny day during a Canadian winter? Most likely, your eyelids slammed instantly shut to block out the light bouncing off the snow. That’s albedo at work.

Why Does Albedo Matter?

The Earth’s albedo is directly linked to climate… and climate change. We all know that, as global climate has warmed, glaciers and the polar ice caps have begun to melt. What’s not often discussed is that the surfaces revealed by this melting are mountain rocks and deep ocean waters. In other words, surfaces with lower albedos than snow and ice.

As they emerge, these dark surfaces start to absorb energy from the sun, causing them to warm up. That warmth accelerates the melting of nearby snow and ice… revealing more rocks and water. Climate scientists call this self-perpetuating cycle the Ice-Albedo Feedback. It’s one reason that the Arctic and Antarctica are warming up five times faster than anywhere else on Earth. 

Putting polar wildlife, and the entire planet, at risk.

Tech Support covers low-albedo lavender with high-albedo pearl pink. It’s SO much brighter in my office now!

What We Can Do

Climate change coverage in politics and the news tends to focus on individuals, emphasizing ways we can reduce our personal carbon footprints. To be totally clear, I am 100% in favour of every person on the planet doing our personal bests to protect it. But I – and the scientists that I interviewed while writing Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth – worry that this emphasis on personal responsibility diverts attention from the much greater harm done by corporate and political policies.

So this Earth Day, as we recycle, plant trees, and walk instead of drive, let’s consider doing one more thing for the planet – speaking up:

attending a climate protestwriting letters to our elected officials, urging them to support environmental and climate initiativesdemanding that corporations adopt climate-friendly policies… and voting with our dollarsdonating to environmental advocacy organizations

How are you taking action this Earth Day? Share your strategies in the comments.

Polar: Wildlife At the Ends of the Earth comes out in 10 more sleeps! EEK! Pre-order a copy from your local independent bookstore to reduce your carbon footprint AND support a cornerstone of your community.

Don’t forget to check my Public Appearances page for Polar virtual events and live events happening near you! Are you a teacher or librarian? I’m available for author visits in May and June – contact me to secure your spot.  

Sheryl McFarlane: Celebrating Welcome Rain!

Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s book creators! Today’s guest: Sheryl McFarlane . Take it away, Sheryl!

Hi, I’m Sheryl McFarlane and I’m pleased to announce the release of my newest picture book, Welcome Rain! It’s published by Greystone Books, and illustrated by the very talented Christine Wei.

Welcome Rain! is a a celebration of rain in the form of a conversation between a child, and Rain.

It’s about running out to greet rainy days,

but…sometimes wishing rain would take a vacation. 

It’s about puddle-jumping, and the wonder of raindrops sparkling on spider webs. It’s about appreciating how rain helps our gardens grow.

It’s about knowing that rain quenches thirsty streams and forests, and the plants and animals who live in and near them. Welcome Rain! encourages outdoor play, even on rainy days.

As a former teacher, I loved using picture books to introduce a theme or concept. Here are some fun ways for primary and preschool teachers to extend learning after reading Welcome Rain! to their classes.

Puddle Jumping Math is sure to make a splash!

After a heavy rain, take your class out to do a little puddle jumping. Bring along some extendable tape measures. Kids love to measure stuff! Have students take turns jumping in puddles to see who can splash the farthest. After measuring each participant’s splash, head back inside to create a large bar chart which can be taped up so students can see how far they jumped. (If some students don’t have rain gear, they can help with the measuring.)

Create a Rainstorm or Rain Choir (kids love this group activity) The leader starts by rubbing their hands together.A second person joins in, and then another and another until everyone is making the same sound together.The leader gently starts to clap their hands while the rest of the group continue to rub their hands together.The next person joins hand clapping, and so on until everyone is clapping.The leader slaps their thighs while the others continue to clap hands.The second person slaps their thighs and so on until everyone has joined in.The leader starts to stomp their feet.The next person joins in and so on until everyone is making the same sound.To end the storm, reverse the actions until the leader is the last one to rub their hands together and then stop.Rainstorming is a cool language arts activity

Use chart paper and felts to brainstorm different words and phrases we use to describe rain. Then have students make up a story using some of these words or phrases. Here’s a few hints…

downpourraining bucketsRain in a jar is an easy way to show kids how the water cycle works

You’ll need:

a medium sized glass jar (canning jar)a platehot waterice ice cubes

Instructions:

An adult pours about two inches of very hot water into the glass jar.Cover the jar with the plate and wait a few minutes before you start the next step.Put the ice cubes on the plate.Observe what happens…

How this works:

The ice-cooled plate causes moisture in the warm air inside the jar to condense and form water droplets. This is the same thing that happens in our atmosphere. Warm, moist air rises and meets colder air high in the atmosphere. The water vapour condenses and forms water droplets (rain) to fall.

Get in Touch!

I’d love to hear what activities Welcome Rain! inspires for you! Welcome Rain! Is available through your favourite Indie bookstore, via Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, Barnes and Noble, and Target.

Sheryl is the author of seventeen books for kids. She lives in Victoria, BC where she enjoys splashing in puddles with her grandchildren, and the rainy days she does not have to water her garden.  Visit her at www.sherylmcfarlane.ca

 

 

 

Here Comes the Sun: Spring Equinox and Circadian Rhythm

Last weekend, many of us suffered through the tortuous ritual known as “springing ahead” – moving the clocks forward one hour to begin Daylight Savings Time.

We hates it, precious.

I live in the Northern Hemisphere, and I am very, very sensitive to ambient light levels. I hate getting up in winter darkness even more than I hate winter temperatures – and I’m medically allergic to cold. So when the days start to get longer and it’s actually – gasp! – sort of light out at 6:30 AM, my brain throws a party.

Then Daylight Savings Time begins, and my brain wants to throw rocks at whoever invented it.

And yes, I have a wake-up light next to my bed and a light therapy lamp on my desk. But glancing out the window undermines any effort I make to convince myself that being awake is a good idea.

I’m not alone in this. Humans and many other creatures have what are called circadian rhythms – internal clocks that tell us when to wake up and when to sleep. There are complex genetic cascades involved in control of these rhythms, but those controls are calibrated by signals from the environment – namely, light. The blue light receptors in our eyeballs communicate with our brains, triggering changes in the levels of melatonin in our blood. That’s why sleep experts recommend reducing artificial light levels before bed. And it’s why so many people take melatonin tablets to combat jet lag – air travel confuses our internal clocks.

But in some ways, we humans are lucky – we can manage our internal clocks (and cope with Daylight Savings Time) by artificially manipulating our light exposure. Animals don’t have that option.

Here Comes the Sun

Polar animals face an additional challenge – the most radical changes in day length anywhere on the planet! In fact, light regime is the thing that makes the Arctic and Antarctica truly unique. There are other habitats on Earth that get just as cold, or just as dry, or just as windy. But there are no other places where (depending on latitude), day – and night – last up to six whole months.

There hasn’t been much research on circadian rhythm of polar animals, mostly because the research is really hard to do. Lab experiments with Antarctic krill can’t fully replicate what’s going on in the wild, and trying measure changing hormone levels in large animals like caribou would be pretty stressful for both animals and humans. What scientists have discovered is that – no surprise! – polar animals have rhythms that are flexible and responsive to changing conditions. That allows them to adjust their behaviours – like feeding, resting, or migrating – to maximize survival in challenging habitats.

Today’s the March Equinox – in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s now officially spring. Between DST-induced darkness and the two feet of snow on the ground, it really doesn’t feel like spring where I live. And I confess that, despite extensive research while working on Polar, I still don’t fully grasp the concept of “equinox” from an astronomical standpoint. There’s a reason I write about Earth and not space!

But here’s what I do know – at the North Pole, the sun came up today, for the first time since September. And that feels like something to celebrate.

To Learn More

Circadian rhythm is one adaptation featured in my upcoming book, Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth. It’s available to pre-order now.

Are you a teacher or librarian? Contact me to schedule a Polar presentation in May or June!

 

Award-winning Author Pens New Science Book for Kids on Polar Wildlife

Despite changing climate and savage conditions, animals in the polar regions can still thrive. Author L. E. Carmichael’s 23rd children’s science book takes a fascinating look at how they manage it—and how young environmentalists can help.

Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth is Carmichael’s 23rd children’s science book. Carmichael’s  2020 release, The Boreal Forest, appears on “Best of” lists in both Canada and the US; it won the Information Book Award and received an honour in the Forest of Reading, Canada’s largest children’s choice awards program.

Fuzzy Forensics, based on Carmichael’s first-hand experience fighting crimes against wildlife, won the 2014 Lane Anderson Award for best Canadian children’s science book.

Carmichael said she writes to fire children’s imaginations and spark their curiosity.

“So many people have the idea that science is a collection of facts they have to memorize,” Carmichael said. “My mission is to help kids discover what science is really about—asking questions, paying attention, and staying alert to the wonders of the natural world.”

Wonders certainly abound in Polar, which features both iconic animals—like polar bears and penguins—and weirder species, like woolly bear caterpillars and glow-in-the-dark lantern sharks.

“One of my favourite critters uses projectile vomit to protect itself from predators,” Carmichael said. “My inner kid thinks that’s hilarious, and I suspect actual kids will, too.”

Newly released from Kids Can Press, Polar draws on meticulous research and first-hand experience. Carmichael attended junior high while living in Yellowknife, and has vivid memories of polar night and the midnight sun.

“My teenage brain did not like either one, but the land and its creatures got into my blood,” she said.

That’s one reason the University of Alberta alumna chose to study northern wolves and arctic foxes for her PhD in wildlife genetics. Her dissertation won the Governor General’s Academic Medal.

Polar shows how Arctic and Antarctic species have adapted to the challenges posed by their habitats, including bitter cold, ferocious winds, and darkness lasting up to six months. But the adaptations which currently help them might harm them as their habitats continue to change.

“Climate change is a real and pressing danger for many of these species, but there is still so much we can do to protect them,” Carmichael said.

Her book includes ways that junior environmental activists can take action.

“I want my readers to feel amazed, but also empowered to make a difference,” she said.

With stunning art by award-winning illustrator Byron Eggenschwiler, Polar debuts on May 2, 2023. Carmichael, who lives in Trenton, has planned several in-person and virtual events to celebrate the launch.

Visit her website at www.lecarmichael.com for a full schedule, plus free educational resources for parents and teachers.

Jean Mills: A Yarn About Yarn – And More

Welcome to Cantastic Authorpalooza, featuring posts by and about great Canadian children’s book creators! Today’s guest: Jean Mills . Take it away, Jean!

I don’t know about other writers, but every story I write has a connection to something in my own life and experience. Music, sports, the Nova Scotia shore and, in Bliss Adair and the First Rule of Knitting – yarn!

My relationship with yarn began in childhood. My mom was a knitter, but she was so busy juggling a full house and a full-time job, she didn’t have much time to indulge. Her sister, my Auntie Jean, certainly did, though. My dolls were well-clothed and there was no shortage of mitts, scarves and hats for my brothers and me.

For Christmas one year, my hockey-playing brother was excited to receive the yarn, pattern, and needles to make himself a blue and white (Maple Leafs, right?) stocking hat. We watched and marvelled. And then, in Girl Guides, I begged my mother to teach me, too, so I could earn a badge for knitting a square. Okay, it was a somewhat geometrically challenged square, but I did get my badge, and I loved the process – and the feel of the yarn, and the needles in my hands.

Over time I progressed to crocheting, and stitch graphs, and Fair Isle and Cowichan sweaters, baby blankets and little animals, and “Nan blankets” – you know, those multicolour granny square throws hanging over the back of the couch. And building a yarn stash because there isn’t a knitter or crocheter anywhere who can walk into a yarn shop without buying something…

Made by mother, using scraps of yarn to crochet granny squares. This is a classic “Nan blanket”.

Yes, I was hooked.

So, no surprise, when the character of Bliss Adair started to take shape in my head – a girl with a gift for math and problem solving – it just seemed right to make her a knitter, too. She runs the Help Desk at her parents’ yarn shop (String Theory – more on this later), which means she helps people fix their mistakes. She leads the Crafting for Community Care club at her school, teaching her peers how to create and give back. But her life is also complicated by the relationships she has with her friends, some of whom are going through life-changing challenges, and who rely on her for support. Sometimes, when she needs to escape for a while, she retreats with yarn and needles, because knitters know that working with yarn and needles or hook is soothing, meditative, and calming. And productive, too.

(An interesting fact: World War I soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress – known then as “shell shock” – were taught how to knit, to aid them in their recovery. There’s a reason for that.)

Writing Bliss Adair and the First Rule of Knitting also allowed me to call up so many memories from my own yarniac life:

Like the Christmas Eve when I was just finishing a baby blanket for my new great-niece and realized I’d dropped a stitch a few rows back. Panic! Frantic calls to find someone to help me keep the whole thing from unravelling. My knitting-wiz niece, Katie, rode to the rescue and saved the day, just like Bliss and her Help Desk.

It was Christmas Eve and this baby blanket was supposed to be a gift. I was panicking – until my niece Katie took over and fixed my big mistake. Katie saved Christmas!

Or the time I attended a workshop that involved knitting a monkey from a highly complicated pattern, a pattern that nearly defeated me. I call the finished beast, “My Precious”. (Yes, say it just like Gollum does…). The frustrated beginners in the Crafting for Community Care club might be an echo of this experience.

It was supposed to be a fun workshop to knit this little monkey. It was hard work! I call this evil little guy “My Precious”.

And the fun coincidence when a new yarn shop opened up in Fergus, about 15 minutes away from me, while I was well into writing the novel, a shop bearing the same name – String Theory – as the store that Bliss’s parents own. Because string theory and math and yarn kind of go together, don’t they?

Yes, it’s true: I am proud of my overflowing yarn stash, and my crafting basket includes a huge collection of needles and hooks. I have four projects in progress as I write this.

What is The First Rule of Knitting? Sorry! I’m not going to reveal it here. Bliss’s faith in this rule may be tested, but it all works out in the end. And I knew it would – because I was writing from experience.

Jean Mills lives in Guelph, Ontario. Her YA novel, BLISS ADAIR AND THE FIRST RULE OF KNITTING, will be released by Red Deer Press in March 2023, and WINGMAN, her Hi-Lo YA novel in the Orca Soundings series, will be released by Orca Books in April 2023.

Wolves for World Wildlife Day

All across the boreal forests of Canada, wolves look for the same things: clean water, safe dens, and places where deer or moose are plentiful. When wolves find everything they need in one area, they establish a territory, and that’s where they stay.

The idea of wolves as territorial has been part of scientific dogma (ha! DOGma!) for so long that, when I submitted my first scientific paper on the genetics of migratory wolves on the Arctic tundra, the journal refused to print it. Indigenous people in the Arctic knew wolves migrated, but scientists had never measured those movements… which meant the scientists reviewing my paper thought I was making it up.

Fortunately, we’ve made some progress since then, and a lot of scientists now recognize that the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous peoples around the world is often based on exactly the same kinds of empirical observations used to produce scientific knowledge… meaning it’s just as reliable.

But back to the wolves. What about the Arctic tundra makes wolves migratory?

The Arctic tundra is often called the barren-grounds, because it’s so cold and dry that trees don’t grow. Deer and moose don’t like to live in places without tasty trees, but barren-ground caribou do just fine on the tundra. These caribou form herds that may contain thousands of animals, and females have their babies in traditional areas called calving grounds.

Arctic wolves make their dens as close to the calving grounds as they can. Adult wolves visit the nearby calving grounds, catching caribou and bringing meat back to their pups. But in the autumn, the caribou leave the calving grounds and migrate south to the boreal forest, where there’s more food and shelter in winter. The wolves have to follow, because if they stayed in their denning territories, there’d be nothing left to eat.

As with pretty much everything in science (and in life), there are exceptions! Wolves that stay on the tundra year round have to switch to other kinds of prey: for example, muskoxen, which are bigger, meaner, and harder to bring down than caribou. Wolves will also hunt smaller prey like arctic hares or foxes, but in general, a wolf pack needs large hoofed mammals to survive.

When pickings are slim, wolves receive help from a surprising source – ravens! Ravens that find caribou kick up a fuss, drawing wolves to the prey. Ravens will also lead wolves to carcasses of animals that have died naturally. Raven beaks aren’t strong enough to cut through skin, but wolf teeth are… and the ravens get the leftovers. A relationship like this one, where both species benefit, is called mutualism. Cooperating helps both wolves and ravens survive long arctic winters.

If you’re interested in learning more about the forest, the tundra, or the animals that live there, check out my books The Boreal Forest and Polar: Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth. Happy World Wildlife Day!

 

Reminder that I’m booking Polar-themed school visits for May and June – contact me if you’re interested in learning more.

I’m also scheduling a number of book launch events that will be open to the public. Click here for the full schedule – I’d love to see you!