The Argonaut Queen by LP Hansen illustrated by Marlo Garnsworthy

The subject of this book is a totally new discovery for me. I had no idea about this amazing creature.

This creature is sometimes called a ‘paper nautilus’ isn’t actually a nautilus. Also known as argonauts, these creatures derive their name from the paper-thin, spiralled shell that females produce to shield their eggs.  Argonauts are a type of octopus, while the nautilus is, well, a nautilus. Both species are cephalopods, the taxonomic class comprising all octopuses, cuttlefish, squid, and nautiluses. Argonauts happen to be the world’s only pelagic octopuses. Instead of living near a structure on the seafloor, like a rocky shoreline or coral reef, like most octopus species, argonauts spend their lives floating near the surface of the open ocean. The genus Argonauta derives its name from Greek mythology. The Argonauts were the famed sailors of the ship Argo, who helped Jason on his quest to recover the Golden Fleece. Early naturalists thought that argonauts ‘sailed’ around the ocean using two of their tentacles, hence the name… and a lot of weird anatomical postures in early drawings of argonauts. (In reality, argonauts scoot about by expelling water through their funnels.) Source

The Argonaut Queen opens with six huge shells on the end papers - these are the six species of Argonauts. 

"She's a Queen of the Ocean, bold and beautiful, around the size of a human hand. She travels the seas, carrying her shell like a Greek goddess's helmet. She's a pink coloured octopus called an argonaut and she makes this shell herself."

I laughed when I read that the male argonaut is the size of a peanut! The Queen starts making her shell when she is just twelve days old and when it is large enough it can hold up to 250,000 eggs at a time. When the babies are born they are smaller than a rice grain. If I was sharing this book with a group of students I would bring along a container of rice and hold up one grain. I was also fascinated to read that the argonaut can repair her own shell. 

How do we know anything about the argonaut? The first research was done by a French woman named Jeanne Villepreux-Power. She was a marine biologist and she worked out a way to study the argonaut in the ocean using her invention of an aquarium. Sadly, though, her large collection of shells, reports and drawings were lost when the cargo ship carrying them sank. Also, as with many women scientists of her time it took years for her research to be taken seriously. 

I found two more books about this remarkable woman who was born in 1794.

This book is why I visit school libraries, it's why I read kid's books, and it's why I wish I was back in my former school library. I would love to add this book to my library collection and then put it into the hands of readers and teachers. The Teacher-Librarian in the school where I work as a volunteer has such a good eye for book treasures. She found this one in a local bookstore.

Publisher blurb: Dive into the oceans — and into the depths of history — with the Argonaut Queen, an expertly-told story that weaves together the marine science of these fascinating creatures and the woman who we have to thank for it, Jeanne Villepreux-Power, one of the earliest studiers of this subspecies of octopus and the many features that make it so unique. Though Villepreux-Power’s scientific illustrations were lost to the seas in a shipwreck, this book pays homage to them through exquisitely-rendered, real-to-life drawings of the creature she dedicated her life to.

LP (Linda) Hansen is a New Zealand based author. Marlo Garnsworthy is an author, illustrator, editor, and Antarctic science communicator. When she’s not making books, you’ll find her paddling her kayak, hiking a trail, having adventures in far-flung places, or dreaming of Antarctica. She lives in a National Park on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. Read more about Starfishbay Publishing here. There is a link from their page to a pdf of the Teachers Notes.

Further Reading:

• Museums Victoria
• Jeanne Villepreux-Power: Marine Biologist and Inventor of the Aquarium
• The Seamstress and the Secrets of the Argonaut Shell
• Wikipedia Argonaut (Animal)
• Natural History Museum
• Critter Science

Your school or local library are sure to have lots of books about the Octopus but not all will have information about the argonaut. I did discover this book which I am sure will be in the library:

Brilliant Ideas from Wonderful Women by Aitziber Lopez illustrated by Luciano Lozano

Subtitle: 15 incredible inventions from inspiring women!

This book was published in 2018 but it is still available. I suggest you act quickly - this is a one of those books that should be added to your school library.

I feel as though I have been hunting for this book (or a book just like it) for a few years. Back in 2022 a box of brand-new donated books arrived in the library where I volunteer at Westmead Children's Hospital here in Sydney, Australia. Among the treasures was a book about women and their amazing inventions. I read it and was amazed especially about windscreen wipers and syringes.  The book I have been looking for is not this book but this one that I found in a library - Brilliant Ideas from Wonderful Women - is just as good. The one that came in the donation box simply disappeared. I am not in charge of the collection or of decisions about which books we accession but I have often wondered what happened to that book I saw back in 2022.

Did you know a woman invented:

• Car heaters 1893 
• Monopoly 1904 
• Disposable diapers 1951 
• The dishwasher 1886
• Kevlar 1965 
• Maritime flares 1859
• Anti-reflective glass 1940
• Wifi 1942
• Syringes 1899
• Submarine periscopes 1945
• Diagnostic tests 1959
• Lifeboats 1882
• Windshield wipers 1903
• ebooks 1949

Each brilliant idea is presented with biographical information about the brilliant woman who came up with it, including what inspired them. Learn how Martha Coston disguised herself as a man to contact pyrotechnicians and convince them to manufacture her idea for maritime flares, how a New York tram ride on a wet winter’s day led Mary Anderson to invent the windshield wiper, and why Letitia Mumford Geer’s one-hand operated syringe was a medical breakthrough, among other fascinating facts. Full-page illustrations show the inspiration for and use of these incredible inventions in humorous detail. Lady in Read Writes

Here are some other books illustrated by Luciano Lozano.

South with the Seabirds by Jess McGeachin

The subtitle of this book says: Follow four remarkable scientists to the edge of the world.

By being one of the first female scientists to join an Antarctic research trip, fearlessly exploring the globe, actively striving to conserve wildlife and leading by example Mary Gillham became an inspiration to female scientists helping to normalise the sight of women in a traditionally male-dominated field.

In this book we meet four scientists. The year is 1959 and that is very significant because only men are considered able to do research in Antartica. The four women we meet here are Mary Gillham from the UK; and Isobel Bennett, Hope Macpherson and Susan Ingham from Australia. Hope and Isobel are marine biologists who plan to study the animals in the rock pools on the shores of Macquarie Island. Mary has been studying birds, animals and plants in a variety of environments from the arid desert to rocky islands. She has a plan to study the seabirds and unique plants and to report on the damage caused by introduced rabbits. Susan wants to check on the seals to make sure their populations are recovering now that hunting is banned. And all four scientists are fascinated by the variety of penguins - Royal, King, Gentoo and the Southern Rockhopper. 

Image Source Antartcia.gov.au

The whole expedition was just 15 days. You can read more and this expedition and about Mary Gillham (1921-2013) and see photos and newspaper articles here. The end papers in South with the Seabirds show four places on Macquarie Island that celebrate the achievements of these women scientists. This book also has a useful timeline and a brief biography of each of the four women. I was thrilled to read that Mary Gillham achieved her PhD. 

Some facts about Macquarie Island:

• Macquarie Island is located halfway between Tasmania and Antarctica and a station was established on the “green sponge” in 1948. The Island was used as a half way point to establish the first radio link between Australia and Antarctica during Sir Douglas Mawson’s 1911 expedition.
• Throughout the year, the Macquarie Island teems with vast congregations of wildlife. Where the nutrient rich waters of the Southern Ocean meet warmer northern waters, rich feeding grounds are created and make the island an ideal haven for penguins, seals and seabirds to live and breed.
• Macquarie Island was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1933. In 1997, World Heritage status was granted due to its outstanding geological and natural significance.
• Rabbits, rats and mice, brought to the island over nearly 200 years of visitation and occupation were finally eradicated in 2014, after a 7-year, eradication program. With grazing pressures removed, the island is returning to its former lush, green glory.

In my former school library our Grade 6 students completed a unit of work on Antartica. This book would be a perfect resource. Using this book you could also explore women in Antarctica - scientists, explorers and as people working in the various stations. The publisher webpage has a link to a set of teaching notes to use with South with the Seabirds. 

Here are some websites to explore:

Ten Pioneering Women of Antarctica and the Places Named for Them

The story of the first Australian women in Antarctica

Behind the News Macquarie Island (2023)

Behind the News Rabbit on Macquarie Island (2019) YouTube

When you introduce the topic of women in science you could also talk about Beatrix Potter. The children are sure to be familiar with her characters like Peter Rabbit and other animals characters who appear in her small books, but Beatrix Potter was also an amazing scientist especially in the area of mycoloy. I think your students will be amazed to learn that as a woman in 1897 she was not permitted to present her research to London’s Linnaean Society, the bastion of Victorian botany, which was exclusively male and barred women from membership, denied them access to the research library, and wouldn’t even allow them to attend the presentations of scientific papers.

We are so lucky to have a talent like Jess McGeachin producing books here in Australia.

Fly

The tree at Number 43

Deep

Kind

South with the Seabirds is a CBCA 2025 Eve Pownall (Non Fiction) Notable title. I am very hopeful it will be one of the six short listed titles which will be announced at the end of March. 

The 2025 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Eve Pownall Award Notables are…

• All About the Brain by Gabriel Dabscheck (Berbay)
• Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson (Magabala Books)
• Anti-Racism Kit by Sabina Patawaran & Jinyoung Kim, illustrated by Emma Ismawi (Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing)
• Australia’s Baby Animals by Jess Racklyeft (Affirm Press)
• Before the Mountain had a Name by Fiona Levings (Forty South Publishing)
• Come Together Again by Isaiah Firebrace, illustrated by Jaelyn Biumaiwai (Hardie Grant Explore)
• Design & Building on Country by Alison Page & Paul Memmott, illustrated by Blak Douglas (Thames & Hudson Australia)
• Extreme Animal Facts by Jennifer Cossins (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants by Tania McCartney (NLA Publishing)
• Follow Your Gut by Ailsa Wild & Lisa Stinson, with Briony Barr & Gregory Crocetti, illustrated by Ben Hutchings (Scribe Publications)
• I am a Magpie, I am a Currawong by Bridget Farmer (Black Cockatoo Books)
• The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Extinct Animals by Sami Bayly, illustrated by Sami Bayly (Lothian Children’s Books)
• Into the Ice: Reflections on Antarctica by Alison Lester & Coral Tulloch (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Making the Shrine: Stories From Victoria’s War Memorial by Laura J Carroll (The Crossley Press)
• Now for the Good News by Planet Ark Environmental Foundation, illustrated by Sarah Wiecek (Penguin Random House Australia)
• Plantabulous! More A to Z of Australian Plants by Catherine Clowes, illustrated by Rachel Gyan (CSIRO Publishing)
• Seed to Sky: Life in the Daintree by Pamela Freeman, illustrated by Liz Anelli (Walker Books Australia)
• Sensational Australian Animals by Stephanie Owen Reeder, illustrated by Cher Hart (CSIRO Publishing)
• South With the Seabirds by Jess McGeachin (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Sunny Finds His Song by Catherine Storey & Penny Watson, illustrated by Sarah Matsuda (Wet Season Books)
• Too Many Tigers by Monica Reeve (Forty South Publishing, Tasmania)
• Unreal by Kate Simpson, illustrated by Leila Rudge (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Walking the Rock Country in Kakadu by Diane Lucas & Ben Tyler, illustrated by Emma Long (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)
• Wedge-tailed Eagle by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Christina Booth (Walker Books Australia)
• When the World Was Soft by Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, illustrated by Alex Mankiewicz (A&U Books for Children and Young Adults)

Summer Birds by Margarita Engle illustrated by Julie Paschkis

It is International Women's Day - time to celebrate women in Science. I often think about this book Summer Birds and then I searched my blog the other day and realised I hadn't actually talked about it here. Unfortunately, Summer Birds was published in 2010 so you may have to hunt out a copy in a library.

Reading this book several years ago was a revelation. People used to think butterflies came out of the mud in the summer - like magic. Maria Merian, from a very young age, was a curious girl. She collected butterflies and caterpillars but she had to do this in secret because in the 1650s she could have been accused of witchcraft.

Maria observed that caterpillars come from eggs. These are eggs laid by summer birds (butterflies). Caterpillars eat leaves and grow bigger and bigger. Eventually the caterpillars spin cocoons. Then comes the complex part. Inside the cocoon, while they rest, the caterpillars turn into butterflies and then they come out of their cocoon ready to fly and sip nectar. Maria also noticed a change like this with frogs and tadpoles. 

"When people understand the life cycles of creatures that change forms, they will stop calling small animals evil. They will learn, as I have, by seeing a wingless caterpillar turn into a flying summer bird."

About Maria Merian (1647 - 1717) born in Frankfurt, Germany died in Amsterdam:

"At the age of thirteen, Maria was well on her way to disproving the ancient theory (that butterflies came from mud). By careful observation she discovered that metamorphosis is natural, not supernatural. There was no witchcraft involved. Beginning with silkworms brought from Asia by a merchant, she watched the slow process of change, recording every detail in her notes and sketches ... Today as a result of Maria Sibylla Merian's careful studies, we know that butterflies, moths, and frogs do not spring from mud."

See more images of her work here

In 1705 she published Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (“The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname”). Arguably the most important work of her career, it included some 60 engravings illustrating the different stages of development that she had observed in Suriname’s insects. Similar to her caterpillar book, Metamorphosis depicted the insects on and around their host plants and included text describing each stage of development. The book was one of the first illustrated accounts of the natural history of Suriname. Britannica

Read more and see her art here:

Botanical art and artists

British Museum

Natural History Museum

Royal Society video (4 minutes)

The Conversation (Background reading for teachers)

Here is another book about Maria Merian written for children:

Perhaps you have some books from the Little People Big Dreams series in your library. I would love to see a book in this series about Maria Merian. Here are some other women scientists to explore:

Using Summer Birds as a jumping off point I highly recommend the verse novels written by Margarita Engle. AND every library should have one or two books illustrated by Julie Paschkis - her art is incredibly special.

Singing with Elephants

Books illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Luna and the Sky Dragon by Bethan Woollvin

Luna is a young astronomer. She takes the time to observe the skies and notice patterns. People in her village make sense of the skies by assigning any phenomenon to the Sky Dragon - he is angry, he is happy, he is fighting. 

"Legends said that the Sky Dragon was banished to the sky after a battle, because of his fiery breath and quick temper."

When the villagers see a trail of bright stars they are sure the Sky Dragon's claws have torn open the sky whereas Luna is sure it is just a normal part of the galaxy. When the weather turns wild the villagers again blame the Sky Dragon - of course it is really just a thunderstorm. Then the moon vanishes. The people are terrified. It is an eclipse but of course they have no knowledge of these events. Luna is determined to explain all of these things to the people in her village, so she invites them to look through her telescope. 

"From then on, the villagers often joined Luna on clear nights and together they marveled at the stars."

The end papers in this book offer an explanation of the lunar eclipse and also mention Draco the Sky Dragon and his banishment by Athena. 

I was interested to read this book after it was recommended to me BUT when I discovered the connection to an ancient woman astronomer my interest increased tenfold. This book is based on the story of the Ancient Greek astronomer - Aglaonice. Aglaonice studied the moon and understood it appears to change shape and occasionally even disappears. BUT she was considered a sorceress for her ability to make the moon vanish.

Read more about Aglaonice:

History of Scientific Women

Kids Encyclopedia

Here are some other books by Bethan Woollvin:

You could explore the the theme of a young girl making scientific discoveries - try to find this book:

Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor by Patricia Valdez illustrated by Felicita Sala

"They gawked at the geckos. They peered at the pythons. 

And they marvelled at the monitors."

As a young child Joan Beauchamp Procter was fascinated by reptiles. Her curiosity about these, often strange creatures, led her to read lots of books and also to collect small lizards so she could observe them. 

She loved to visit the Natural History museum in London and eventually became an assistant to the curator and later she took over his duties. Enormous Komodo dragons were of special interest to Joan and she was invited to design an custom enclosure at the London Zoo for two Komodo dragons which were sent from Indonesia. In 1928 Joan presented a scientific paper about these curious creatures to the Zoological Society. This is significant firstly because of the topic; then because the paper was delivered by a woman when almost all of the scientific world was male; and thirdly we have a girl (now a woman) who is interested in reptiles - a topic not usually associated with women especially in the 1920s. While all of this is important, I do like the way none of this is sensationalised in this biography. Reading about a young girl who loves reptiles is presented in a natural, almost matter of fact way.

Image Source: Science.org

Publisher Blurb Andersen Press: Back in the days of long skirts and afternoon teas, young Joan Procter entertained the most unusual party guests: slithery and scaly ones, who turned over teacups and crawled past the crumpets... While other girls played with dolls, Joan preferred the company of reptiles. She carried her favourite lizard with her everywhere - she even brought a crocodile to school! When Joan grew older, she became the Curator of Reptiles at the Natural History Museum. She went on to design the Reptile House at the London Zoo, including a home for the rumoured-to-be-vicious komodo dragons. There, just like when she was a little girl, Joan hosted children's tea parties - with her komodo dragon as the guest of honour. With a lively text and vibrant illustrations, scientist and writer Patricia Valdez and illustrator Felicita Sala bring to life Joan Procter's inspiring story of passion and determination.

Read more about Komodo dragons on the National Geographic kids web site. And at the San Diego Zoo page. 

The library I visit each week has a fabulous comprehensive collection of picture book biographies for the youngest readers. Every time I borrow one of these books I discover people who have done such interesting things and people who I may never have found if it were not for these terrific books. In US schools the genre of biography is explicitly taught and so publishers have taken advantage of this and that is why so many very high quality picture book biographies have emerged in recent years. 

One word-inspirational. Joan found her passion at a young age and proved her worth as a woman scientist. This book follows her journey of finding her reptilian passion and demonstrating perseverance in her personal and professional journey. In this biography, the reader learns about a scientist who not only studies animals, but also diagnoses and treats them to their best health. Overall, a must add to your library and future read alouds for all readers. Latinxs in Kid Lit

You can see other books illustrated by Felicity Sala here. And here are some of the illustrations from this book too. Here is an interview with the author Patricia Valdez about the writing of this book.