Fiona Bayrock has always enjoyed playing with words, but was well into adulthood before discovering her passion for science. She has since written books for educational and specialty markets in Canada and the U.S., as well as 60+ articles, stories, and poems for children's magazines such as Highlights for Children, Odyssey, KNOW, and YES Magazine.
Over the years, Fiona has chased questions through most of the "ologies," talking to scientists around the world about everything from palindromes and frogs to solar wind and bubbles. Her goal is to inspire kids to ask questions about their world, to have them make connections and create their own Eureka! moments by "checking stuff out." She loves to share her excitement about science, and relishes hearing: "That is so cool!" from her young audience. She enjoys speaking at schools and conferences.
The idea for a book about animal bubbles began with Fiona's "idea file," a mishmash of newspaper and magazine clippings, hand-scribbled notes, and other bits about things she finds cool and might want to write about some day. While going through the file looking for a book idea, she came across a Scientific American article about dolphin bubble rings, and a photocopied page showing a spider bubble home. In her writing, Fiona looks to connect information in new ways, and the bubble connection between such different animals certainly fit the bill. She thought about other animal bubbles she'd seen--spittlebugs in the garden and recent science news about herring farts. She decided to search for other animals and soon had a sizeable list of animals that use bubbles--and boy, did they use them in some downright amazing ways. She just had to put them together in a book.
Fiona was born under the prairie sun, grew up with her toes in the Pacific Ocean, and threw snowballs "North of 60" for many years before moving back south to the west coast. She now lives with her family in a mountain forest in southern British Columbia, Canada, not far from many of the animals about which she writes.
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Books by Fiona Bayrock
