With two new spring books—Baby Loves Meteorology and How to Explain Climate Science to a Grown-Up—author Ruth Spiro adds to her extensive children’s STEM catalog. Baby Loves Meteorology is the 25th entry in Spiro’s bestselling Baby Loves Science series of board books, which present the essentials of complex scientific concepts in a format accessible for very young readers. And How to Explain Climate Science to a Grown-Up is the third volume of her spinoff picture book series, serving up playful tongue-in-cheek manuals filled with science facts. As spring arrives and Earth Day approaches, we spoke with Spiro about her latest projects and her passion for making STEM subjects engaging and fun.
When did you first fall in love with science?
It may surprise readers to hear that I was not a science kid at all. I just thought science was memorizing things, and I didn’t see how it was relevant to my life, honestly. But what I have always had is a sense of curiosity. I’ve always asked questions, and I’ve always wondered about things that I see and things that I observe. So, I think that sense of curiosity is what led me to write my books.
What sparked the idea for Baby Loves Science?
Back in 2010 there was an article in the New York Times about how picture book sales were declining, and they were attributing that to the fact that parents were replacing picture books with what they thought was more sophisticated reading material for their very young children. I was discussing this with some of my writing friends, and just as a joke, I said, “Well, what do these parents want? Like quantum physics for babies?” It was funny, but I started to think about it, and I realized that what these parents were really looking for was more elevated content in the books that they were sharing with their young children. So, I thought about whether or not I could write a board book series about complex science concepts but distill it down to the most essential elements of what that science idea was.
Before I even started writing the books, I did a lot of research into child development, into how babies acquire language and what would be developmentally appropriate for different ages. And then I dove into the science. I was watching YouTube videos of Richard Feynman’s lectures on physics. Like I said, I really didn’t have a lot of previous interest in science, but the more I started reading about it, the more I realized that it relates to so much that we see and observe around us every day. And that’s what got me excited, because I realized that I could incorporate this into these board books by starting with some questions about different things that babies or toddlers would experience, and then exploring a science concept that related to it. And so that’s how I became a person who really loves science.
Did you ever think the series would strike such a chord?
As soon as I started writing the books, I felt like I really had something here. I wanted the books to be something that not only a little child would enjoy, but also that parents would enjoy reading. And I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from parents telling me that they feel like they’re learning something as well.
Once I made the initial sale to Charlesbridge and we started working on these, and we brought Irene Chan on board for the illustrations, I could just tell that these were special, and different than anything else that had been out there. I always have to credit Irene, because her illustrations were so perfectly suited for the topics. And I don’t think she anticipated that she would eventually be drawing these complex diagrams of what the inner ear looks like, but she rose to the occasion beautifully. We actually do have a new illustrator, Kat Uno, who has illustrated Baby Loves Meteorology, and she did not miss a beat. She’s also doing a phenomenal job.
From the beginning, we started getting great feedback from booksellers and from parents. It was like, these first two are doing great, let’s do another two and another two and another two. It just kind of snowballed, and now we’re at number 25.
How do you choose your topics?
We have a long list that I’ve compiled with my editor [Alyssa Mito Pusey], along with ideas from sales and marketing—because they’re out in the field, and they’re hearing from bookstores and libraries about what their needs are.
And I should mention that because I am not a scientist, and there’s no way that I could have a deep understanding of all these topics, we have experts who review both the text and the illustrations for accuracy multiple times. I don’t want to put anything out there that even has the tiniest inconsistency or a mistake. Some of these folks have been in their fields for 30 or 40 years and have a very deep knowledge that I couldn’t possibly digest from the research that I do.
With the launch of the How to Explain Science to Grown-Ups series, were you looking to continue with some of the younger readers who are hooked on Baby Loves Science and want to know more?
That’s exactly it. We realized that the first Baby Love books came out in 2016 and so it made sense that we would age these up for graduates of that series. Also, I have a lot of feedback from kindergarten and early elementary educators who were saying, “I really love these books. The content is great, but I’m hesitant to use them, because I don’t want these kids to feel like I’m bringing a baby book into the classroom.”
The interesting thing is, there are high school teachers and college professors who are bringing these board books into their classrooms. My daughter’s friend was in a college chemistry class and sent a photo of her professor reading the Baby Loves Quarks book to their class. So it’s kind of funny. Alyssa had asked me a while ago if I would be interested in aging up with the picture books, but it took me a while to commit, because there are so many fabulous nonfiction books out there about coding, robotics, climate— and I didn’t think I needed to do that same thing. So, it took me a while to figure out how I wanted to approach this and do it in a unique way that would be fun for kids to read, and it wouldn’t feel like a straight nonfiction book.
How did you approach addressing the issue of climate science for a young audience? What did you want to say about it?
My perspective on this, ultimately, is that climate change is real. It’s backed up by facts and by science. And so I’m not debating whether this is happening or not, because science is science, whether you believe in it or not. We can measure the effects. Kids can see the effects in the severe weather that we’re experiencing—the floods and wildfires. The important thing is for children and adults to become climate literate, meaning, understanding how climate works and how human actions are affecting it, and what those effects are.
I also read a lot about the idea of climate anxiety among children. Some of the things that they’re learning or experiencing or seeing are really frightening to them. So, I felt it was important to do some research on that, to figure out how can I present this material in a way that didn’t feel threatening. I learned that the best way to do that is to explain the problem, but then pair that with a possible solution, because that creates a way to move forward. I tried to make the book hopeful and provide ways to take action, and assure children that, yes, this is something that we see happening, and there are things we can do about it.
Baby Loves Meteorology by Ruth Spiro, illus. by Kat Uno. Charlesbridge, $8.99 Mar. 4 ISBN 978-1-62354-566-6
How to Explain Climate Science to a Grown-Up by Ruth Spiro, illus. by Teresa Martinez. Charlesbridge, $17.99 Mar. 4 ISBN 978-1-62354-620-5
