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 Lynne Kelly, author of Three Blue Hearts (October 2025). The book involves Max, a twelve-year-old who lives in the shadow of a powerful father and struggles with expectations that don’t match his own interests. One day, while visiting a beach town with his mother, Max sees an octopus that he thinks is dead. Instead, the octopus is injured and Max makes it his mission to find help and care for it. In doing so, he not only learns about how unique these creatures are, but finds the strength to set his own path for his life.

Christine Taylor-Butler: Hi Lynne. You’ve written several books about kids and animals. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Lynne Kelly: No, I always loved books but didn’t think about writing them until I was teaching special ed, grades 3-5. I had bookshelves all over the room. I helped students find the right book for them and did a lot of read alouds in the classroom. Over time I discovered old favorites and found new ones.

CTB: So what was your first book?

Lynne: Chained, published by Macmillan in 2012. I didn’t realize that the road to publication would take six years. But after some time I liked finding an idea and figuring out what story could lead from there. It helps to be a big reader but learning how to write a story is more difficult. Once I began learning about writing and publishing I wanted to keep going.

CTB: So your background was in teaching?

Lynne: I taught for just a few years but have been a sign language interpreter for much longer. I loved teaching special ed. I started in 2000. But I didn’t love the planning and paperwork. I couldn’t quit my job and just write for a living so I went back to sign language interpreting as the only day job.

CTB: I noticed that your book, Song For A Whale, the main character is deaf and helps a whale who is also struggling. You used your experience with American Sign Language to help the reader understand the richness and the culture.

Lynne: Yes. I think it’s important. There are a lot of services being offered by non-deaf influencers, but the most important resources come from those who live with being deaf every day. For example, my favorite website is ASL University. It’s easier to learn from those who are deaf so you can get it right. They have a huge video dictionary which is better than a two-dimensional book. And there are lessons if you want. There’s also a YouTube channel where deaf people demonstrate sign language so others can learn.

CTB: So this is STEM Tuesday and our monthly topic is on cephalopods. Tell us about your new book, Three Blue Hearts?

Lynne: It’s been in the works for a long time. Parts of it I wrote 10 years ago. The setting is made up from different coastal towns in Texas, including Indianola. That town was pummeled by two hurricanes in the late 1800’s and is now a ghost town. Much of the old town is now underwater. In the book, the main character, Max, is a sweet compassionate kid, but his father is an overbearing politician and car salesman. They also look alike. So when Max travels to the beach with his mother, it’s a welcome change from the pressures of trying to fulfill what others have planned for him – like being a football star.

Max and his mother arrive at the beach town when it’s stormy. The next day he finds an injured octopus in the sand and initially thinks it’s dead. Even so, he knows he can’t walk away. The octopus reaches out to him. So he finds help and ends up taking care of her.

CTB: How does he know it’s a girl?

Lynne: Max finds a vet clinic/wildlife center. There, he meets a guy named Jordan who helps get the octopus into a tank. Jordan points out one particular arm in which the suckers go all the way to the end. That indicates the octopus is a girl.

CTB: How did you find the facts that helped you write about Max taking care of the octopus over the summer?

Lynne: I knew I had to make a connection between the two. I had read Soul of an Octopus in 2015. I also had a National Geographic at home with an octopus on the cover. I saw an article where someone found an octopus in a parking garage after a storm. So I thought, “That’s the animal.”

Max feels honored the octopus seemed to reach out to him even though he was the only one on the beach at the time. Over time, caring for the animal, Max learns that focusing on the things that interest him are okay. He finds strength and learns it’s okay to say no to his dad (no one says no to his dad).

CTB: What research did you learn about the octopus that you would want kids to know?

Lynne: I watched documentaries, then got to meet octopuses at various aquariums, including Houston Zoo. At the zoo, I did a behind-the-scenes tour where I could meet them. In one instance, one of my hands was being pulled into a tank by an octopus while my other hand took pictures. The ones I met were Giant Pacific. They’re the ones most people think of even though it’s not the one in the book. They are huge. At the Houston Zoo, the octopus didn’t have a name so I named her Ursula. I used the same name in my book. Max thinks the octopus he finds looks like a deflated volleyball, so it’s smaller than the ones most people see in public aquariums.

CTB: What are their personalities like? They are so intelligent.

Lynne: I’d written about mammals before but octopuses are so different. They’re good puzzle solvers. I was reading about their brains. It’s almost as if they have nine brains. There is a central brain, and each arm has its own brain. They can hunt for food with one arm while punching an animal with the other. They don’t have long lives. They live about 3 years. And they don’t grow up with examples, so their behavior has to be instinctual. Their fathers die after mating. Their mothers watch over the eggs then dies when they hatch.

Another thing. Octopuses have three hearts – hence the name of the book. They also have blue blood. It contains hemocyanin which is a copper-rich protein rather than iron like humans have. Octopuses have camouflaging abilities in both color and texture. Think about it. They can blend in with coral reefs despite being color-blind. Somehow its body knows what color and texture is around them. It is almost as if their skin sees their surroundings.

CTB: Where is Max caring for the octopus in your book?

Lynne: Max hangs out at the center. He’d grabbed post-storm debris for a makeshift tank while he searched for help. He meets Emmett, who suggests they take her to a beach house, which is the wildlife care center. Inside they see injured animals such as sea gulls, pelicans, and a sea turtle with a cracked shell. The center names the animals after book characters. They have a tank big enough to care for the octopus until she’ll be strong enough release back to the environment. Octopuses have escaped, so they have to weigh down the lid. They also have a lot of hatchlings. Some have hundreds, others have tens of thousands. Most will not make it which may be why octopuses have so many eggs.

Max was not knowledgeable so the reader is going to learn about the octopus along with him. For example, octopuses do recognize people. There are studies about it. In one study, one person would bring food and another person would poke it with a bristly thing. The octopus would shoot water at the person that poked it and swim towards the one with the food.

I enjoyed writing the story and watching Max wonder why he is so worried about the animal. Maybe it’s about him wanting to do something right.

CTB: So is there a future book you want us to watch out for? Anything you are excited about?

Lynne: I’m working on different projects but nothing is confirmed yet. Stay tuned.

CTB: Anything else you want our blog readers to know?

Lynne: Yes. The book comes out on October 7, 2025. That’s the day before World Octopus Day (October 8). It’s just a coincidence but very exciting.

I’m also doing an author Q&A session. Anyone who buys even one copy of the book, can get a link to the session.  

Photo by Sam Bond

Lynne Kelly’s career as a sign language interpreter has taken her everywhere from classrooms to hospitals to Alaskan cruises. Her 2019 novel Song For a Whale, about a deaf girl named Iris who forms an unlikely bond with the “loneliest whale in the world,” has been described as “finely crafted,” “important,” and “uplifting” by reviewers from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and School Library Journal. Song For a Whale received the 2020 Schneider Family Book Award and was named one of the best books of the year by New York Public Library. Her latest book, Three Blue Hearts, releases in October 2025. Lynne lives near Houston, Texas. Find her online at Lynnekellybooks.com and on Twitter @Lynnekelly.

Photo by Kecia Stovall

Your host is Christine Taylor-Butler, MIT Visiting Scholar and author of close to 90 nonfiction books for kids. She is also the author of the STEM based middle grade series The Lost Tribes. Follow @ChristineTB on X, @ctaylorbutler.bsky.social‬ on Bluesky and/or @ChristineTaylorButler on Instagram