Mariposas Marinas: On the Writing of a Bilingual Children's Book about Sea Butterflies

Children’s books such as The Magic School Bus series are effective tools for educating and exciting children about science and building “environmental empathy.” Here we describe the writing, publishing, and distribution of a bilingual (Spanish-English) illustrated children's book about sea butterflies. The 32-page book is titled “Mariposas Marinas // Sea Butterflies” and is written at a third grade reading level. These marine organisms, also known as pteropods, are beautiful and charismatic microfauna which are part of the zooplankton. In this book, we first describe their biology (e.g., morphology, size, habitat, place in the food web) and then delve into their unique swimming behavior, namely, that sea butterflies flap flexible wing-like appendages to “fly” through the water. In doing so, we introduce fluid mechanics concepts (e.g., viscosity) in an age-appropriate way and introduce the concept of bio-inspiration. To broaden the book’s impact, we also have created a website (www.mariposasmarinas.com) which hosts a digital edition and additional learning resources, including high-speed videos we have acquired of swimming pteropods and photographs of the authors working together on this project in Bermuda. Finally, for the benefit of other researchers interested in publishing a children’s book, we highlight obstacles and lessons learned from this project.