If you go outside on a moonless night, what do you see? A planet, maybe a handful of stars if you’re lucky. Unfortunately, for too many of us the city lights diminish the night sky. Streetlights and other artificial lights do more than illuminate our world. They create problems for plants and animals living in and around our cities, including seasonal migrators.
Who Hid the Stars? How Light Pollution Changes Our World by Danio Miserocchi & Maciej Michno; illus. by Valentina Gottardi, and translated by Sylvia Notini
This well-documented book examines how city lights affect birds and bats, reptiles and insects – even trees and flowers. It also provides hope, sharing things cities and people can do to minimize light pollution. Back matter includes ideas for bringing back the stars (dark skies) and resources.
Saving the Night : How Light Pollution is Harming Life on Earthby Stephen Aitken
Full of fascinating photos and facts, this book examines many interactions creatures and plants have developed with light, the differing effects of various sources of light pollution on land and in our waterways, conservationists working to preserve the night, and successful projects. It includes suggestions for reducing our individual light pollution.
Dark Matters: Nature’s Reaction to Light Pollution by Joan Marie Galat
A blend of science and memoir that focuses on the environmental consequences of increasingly artificially lit night skies. She describes its impact on sea turtles, fireflies, birds, and bats and provides basic steps to address light pollution.
The World at Night: Discover the World That Wakes When You Sleep by Ben Lerwill
A browsable book broken into sections including the night sky, oceans, forests, and cities. From penguins to city rats, it explores how animals sleep, how they see at night, and the environmental and health effects of artificial light on animals, including humans.
In the Dark: The Science of What Happens at Nightby Lisa Deresti Betik, illustrated by Josh Holinaty
Combining lightly comic illustrations with amazing graphics and charts, it explores the biological functions of sleep and darkness on people, animals, and plants. Did you know plants do math at night? It also examines issues caused by artificial lights on migrations, animal and plant behaviors, and the science of the night.
Follow the moon home : a tale of one idea, twenty kids, and a hundred sea turtles by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson
Informational fiction inspired by the student-initiated Lights Out for Loggerheads program in South Carolina. The story presents a model for community engagement, and back matter outlines actions appropriate for preteen environmentalists.
Some Hands-On Appreciation Of The Dark:
The Animal Adventurer’s Guide : How to Prowl For an Owl, Make Snail Slime, and Catch a Frog Bare-Handed, by Susie Spikol
While not dedicated to night prowling, these animal-focused activities will get kids outside at any time of the year whether light or dark.
Sky Gazing : A Guide to the Moon, Sun, Planets, Stars, Eclipses, Constellations by Meg Thacher.
This was actually a featured book a couple years ago (link) but we wanted to mention it again as a resource for sky-watchers. Each section includes activities that focus on the sky, the moon, the sun, planets, and stars and constellations.
This month’s STEM Tuesday book list was prepared by:
Sue Heavenrich is an award-winning author, blogger, and bug-watcher. A long line of ants marching across the kitchen counter inspired her first article for kids. When not writing, she’s either in the garden or tromping through the woods. Her books for middle-grade readers include Funky Fungi: 30 Activities for Exploring Molds, Mushrooms, Lichens, and More and Diet for a Changing Climate. Visit her at www.sueheavenrich.com
Maria is a children’s author, blogger, and poet who is passionate about making nature and reading fun for children. She’s been a judge for the Cybils Awards since 2017, and a judge for the #50PreciousWords competition since its inception. Two of her poems are published in The Best of Today’s Little Ditty 2016 and 2014-2015 anthologies. When not writing, critiquing, or reading, she bird watches, travels the world, bakes, and hikes. Visit her at www.mariacmarshall.com.
Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!
Today, we are thrilled to travel to the Czech Republic to interview Magda Garguláková, author of Bridges (April 2025, Post Wave). Explore the amazing world of bridges—from ancient stone arches to modern marvels—and discover how they connect us all! This illustrated 64-page hardcover book delves into the history, engineering, and construction of bridges. Intricate illustrations by Jakub Bachorík invite readers to follow roads and rivers and stumble upon tiny details: a cyclist, a stroller, a leashed dog, and more.
About the book:
Imagine a world without bridges, where every journey takes longer, rivers become obstacles, and valleys are nearly impossible to cross. Bridges don’t just make travel easier—they connect us to extraordinary places, too.
Take a journey through the fascinating world of bridges, exploring their awe-inspiring structures and the visionary architects who brought them to life. Uncover the secrets of bridge-building and marvel at some of the most famous designs from around the globe. Along the way, enjoy captivating comic strips, fun facts, and hands-on engineering activities.
Bridges
Linda: Tell us about your book, Bridges.
Magda: Bridges is a large-format, illustrated non-fiction book that invites readers into the world of bridges. It is richly illustrated with Jakub Bachorík’s distinctive, playful, and original—yet highly precise—artwork.
I like topics that can be explored from many different angles, and bridges are perfect in this respect. In the book, I don’t look at them strictly as architectural structures, engineering constructions, or from the perspective of how they are built. I also ask why people started building bridges in the first place, how they influenced history and technological progress, how they have evolved, how they have changed our everyday lives, why they are such powerful symbols, and what surprising kinds of “bridges” we can find outside architecture.
The book is intended primarily for children aged nine to eleven. It is fact-based but playful, and the amount of text is just right. I tried to draw readers into the topic and spark curiosity about bridges. Although it is designed for children, it also works very well as an all-age book. I’m really happy with readers’ responses, as it turns out that it resonates across generations and appeals to adults as well.
Linda: That’s wonderful. What inspired you to write about this topic?
Magda: It’s actually quite simple. I’ve been fascinated by bridges since childhood. I don’t even really know why, but they’ve always drawn me in and sparked my curiosity. I’m also an amateur admirer of architecture, especially modern architecture, and I love concrete as a building material as well as riveted steel structures.
What fascinates me about bridges is not only their technical side; I’m equally drawn to how multilayered a symbol they are—how they can bring hope and expectation, how important a role they play in our lives, and, at the same time, how ordinary and invisible they often feel in everyday life. I enjoy the overlaps they offer—into history, art, culture, and everyday experience.
And then there’s one more thing: I’m afraid of heights. So bridges are also a bit of a challenge for me. I actually prefer looking at them rather than from them—and quite often, that turns out to be a more interesting view anyway. 😊
All of this together makes them a perfect subject for a book. It also invites rich illustration, which can communicate with readers in its own way, which is why I like to give illustrations a very important role in my books.
Linda: The textured maze-like illustrations complement the text. How did you organize the material in this book, and why did you choose to present it this way?
Magda: Let me start a bit broadly. When I begin working on a book, the first thing I look for is its overall arc: where I start and where I want to arrive. The flow of the book—how individual pieces of information and thematic sections are arranged—is essential to me. I constantly think about what follows what, why it should be that way, and to what extent I need to follow the logic of the subject. These are questions I return to again and again. During the process, I create several versions of dummy layouts where I test and rearrange the order and structure of the content. It’s one of the most important parts of my creative process.
At the same time, I enjoy when the reader is occasionally surprised, and the expected flow is interrupted—when the rhythm of the book shifts or something unexpected appears.
Bridges reflects all of this. It follows a logical structure of the topic, but it also allows for occasional detours. I wanted the book to flow like a river—one idea leading to another, layering and complementing each other.
It was also important to me that the book works even when read non-linearly. In other words, you can open it almost anywhere and immediately find something that grabs your attention. In this respect, Jakub Bachorík’s illustrations are essential—I knew from the very beginning that they would not just accompany the text, but become an equal part of the storytelling. Thanks to them, the book gains its unique atmosphere and appeal.
Linda: In the book blurb, there is a statement that “bridges connect us to extraordinary places.” Can you tell us about some of these places?
Magda: When I say that bridges connect us to extraordinary places, I don’t mean only specific destinations on a map or in our surroundings, but also different kinds of experiences and meanings. Some bridges lead into dramatic natural landscapes, places that would otherwise be very difficult to reach. Other bridges become destinations in themselves—iconic landmarks and architectural highlights that people travel to see.
At the same time, we also use the word “bridge” in much broader contexts. Metaphorically, a bridge can take us anywhere we can imagine. We perceive it very positively as a symbol of change or transition, and it can even signify passage into another world. It is a very powerful symbol on many levels.
And then, there is also a more playful aspect where we encounter “bridges” in unexpected places—such as in dentistry or in a yoga class.
Linda: By looking at the word “bridge,” and its many meanings and its symbolism, you added depth to this work. What would you like readers to get out of this book?
Magda: I often think about this. If I keep it to the most basic wish, it is simply that I want my book to inspire enthusiasm for bridges, encouraging us to notice, explore, and appreciate them.
If a reader, thanks to my book, decides to stop on a bridge and enjoy the view, remembers the complexity involved in bridge construction, or, with joy and an awareness of their importance, appreciates a bridge expansion joint, that would already be enough.
The book is quite intense, so it is good to take breaks while reading it, come back to it, and discover things that may have escaped you the first time. I would therefore be very happy if the book worked this way and readers enjoyed returning to it—either on their own or when reading it together.
I have also personally found that it is a great travel companion; it presents a large number of bridges from all over the world, many of which you will simply want to see in real life (or at least some of them).
Linda: This book includes fun engineering activities. I’m intrigued. How can parents, teachers, and librarians use this material?
Magda: The book includes a challenge to build your own bridge out of dried spaghetti. It’s a playful activity, but it also works as a small test of engineering thinking and technical skills. The task is to build a bridge—of any size and design you dare to attempt—that can hold a load without collapsing.
This activity can be used at home, in schools, or in libraries as a simple project or even a small competition. It is a lot of fun, but also requires real thinking. I’ve tried building several of these bridges myself—and you can probably guess how that went…
Linda: Lol! Instead of building a bridge, it might be easier to boil the spaghetti and toss it with some pasta sauce. Magda, thank you so much for joining us!
Magda Garguláková studied Art History at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno, in the Czech Republic. She works as a curator and producer at the Brno-based art gallery OFF/FORMAT. After spending some time in marketing, she eventually found her way back to books, which she has loved since childhood. She collaborates with Albatros Media and its foreign rights editorial team, writing and editing mainly nonfiction illustrated books for children. She is the author of more than ten books, which have been translated into numerous languages around the world. Her The Hand Book was selected among the 100 most beautiful books at the 2022 Bologna Children’s Book Fair and was nominated for several prestigious awards in the Czech Republic and Italy. For older readers, she also wrote the acclaimed Bridges, whose illustrations by Jakub Bachorík received the Golden Ribbon Award and which was honored with the Open Book Award in Taiwan. She lives in Brno, Czech Republic, with her husband and their two daughters. Her books have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and several other languages.
Linda Zajac is the author of Robo-Motion: Robots That Move Like Animals and eight Minecraft books for kids. She is an award-winning science writer who gained an appreciation for bridges after a stream crossing that involved straddling an iced log. Find her at www.lindarosezajac.com
It’s summer! I know everyone is busy, so here’s a short and sweet STEM Tuesday Writing Tips & Resources post in place of my normal rambling dissertation on the beauty and significance of STEM in a literary world.
I am the son of an engineer, a civil engineer. My dad was an engineer to his very core. He thought like an engineer. He fixed things, like our bikes, broken baseball bats, toys, etc., with an engineer’s approach. He packed the trash and the garbage cans every week with an engineer’s efficiency. He wrote everything in that classic engineer’s script—an engineer to the core.
Me? I am not an engineer. I am a microbiologist. My approach to life is messier than my father’s, and my handwriting is nowhere near the neat and precise handwriting of an engineer. However, that is not to say I did not learn a thing or two from him. In fact, I gleaned many things about how he worked and went about his business that still stick with me in my creative life. One of those is his particular area of civil engineering expertise, bridge construction.
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, 2011 (Almonroth, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
The main function of a bridge is to connect. A functional bridge is built through solid design and execution of its structural parts. The pilings and the caps support the deck and create the stability necessary to establish the desired connections.
For example, an island in the middle of a large lake or sea is not easily accessible until a bridge is built that connects one place to the next. As writers and creators, we can bring this concept of bridge building into building stories,
Outlining or developing the plot points of the story provides the structural plan to assist in the execution of the story. The plot points are the islands sitting isolated in the open water. Once we get our plot points envisioned, the next step is to work to build the structural parts through design and execution.
The storytelling magic happens with the type and style of the bridges we build to connect the plot points. The stories that grab readers contain bridges with interesting features, bridges that are fun to traverse. The successful story bridges make the journey a more enjoyable experience beyond simply getting from one plot point island to another.
One tool I use to create the plot islands for outlining my stories is the Brooks Model from Larry Brooks’ excellent book, Story Engineering.
Opening Scene/First Page
3 Essentials
Whose story is it? Protagonist
What’s happening here? There’s a world & there’s something off in it.
What’s at stake? The specific conflict for the protagonist.
Hooking Moment (In first 20 pages)
Exposition/A setup of inciting incident(optional)
First Plot Point (@ 20-25%)
First Pinch Point
Context Shifting Midpoint (reactionary to action @~50%)
Second Pinch Point (~60%)
Second Plot Point (75%)
Ending/Resolution – New Normal
These nine points give me destinations to target. Once these are loosely set in stone, the drafting begins, and my creative brain switches from planning mode to bridge-building mode. The job becomes creating and building effective bridges to transport the reader to the next destination in an entertaining and engaging manner. The goal is to engage the reader in such a way to keep them traveling along the bridge instead of wanting to stop halfway across, racing for the railing, and jumping off the bridge deck into the water below.
As you ponder your stories, don’t forget the power of building bridges to get your story to its target destination. Adopt a bit of a civil engineer’s mindset into your creative work, but feel free to leave the perfectly formed engineer’s writing script behind if you so choose.
Mike Hays has worked hard from a young age to be a well-rounded individual. A well-rounded, equal-opportunity sports enthusiast, that is. If they keep a score, he’ll either watch it, play it, or coach it. A molecular microbiologist by day, middle-grade author, sports coach, and general good citizen by night, he blogs about sports/life/training-related topics at www.coachhays.comand writer stuff atwww.mikehaysbooks.com. Two of his science essays, The Science of Jurassic Park and Zombie Microbiology 101, are included in the Putting the Science in Fiction collection from Writer’s Digest Books. He can be found roaming Bluesky under the guise of @mikehays64.bsky.social and @MikeHays64 on Instagram.
The O.O.L.F Files
This month on the Out Of Left Field (O.O.L.F.) Files, we cross the bridge and explore bridges!
This was the first big bridge project my civil engineer dad worked on in the early 1960s for the Kansas Department of Transportation. After it was completed, he transferred back to Kansas City in 1964. I now live and work within 30 minutes of the bridge and still get a great deal of joy visiting and driving across the mile-long bridge.
Here’s a YouTube drone video that uses the Randolph Bridge as a backdrop to show the drone’s features.
I highly recommend Story Engineering and its companion Story Physics. It’s one of those craft books I reread every few years to not only refresh my creative skills, but to revitalize them. It’s a reminder that discipline and structure actually help me be creative rather than stifle my creativity.
The Mike Hays Best Bridge in Fiction Award goes to…
Robert Enrico’s 1961 short film adaptation of the story is a must-watch.. I remember watching this in school and being completely mesmerized. Of course, we’d already read, or supposed to have read, the story, so the infamous Ambrose Bierce “Gotcha” moment was already played out. Nevertheless, it is a fantastic short film. Below is the Vimeo link to the movie.
In today’s Author Spotlight, Jo Hackl chats with award-winning author John Claude Bemis about his new graphic novel, Rodeo Hawkins & the Daughters of Mayhem. John Claude Bemis is the...
From the Mixed-Up Files is the group blog of middle-grade authors celebrating books for middle-grade readers. For anyone with a passion for children’s literature—teachers, librarians, parents, kids, writers, industry professionals— we offer regularly updated book lists organized by unique categories, author interviews, market news, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a children's book from writing to publishing to promoting.
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