Valerie -Welcome to Bookworthy. Today we're talking with author Annette Whipple about her book, Quirky Critter Devotions, 52 Wild Wonders for Kids. This devotional is for kids eight to 12 and is designed for curious minds interested in God's animal kingdom. Full of wildly weird
Animal facts and zootastic activities, Annette reminds kids of God's amazing creations, which include them too. Welcome to Bookworthy, Annette.
Annette - Thank you so much, Valerie. It's good to be here. It really is.
Valerie -It is a pleasure. Well, to start us off, we have to ask the random question of the week, but it may not be quite so random for you, because you have written several nonfiction books about God's wonderful creations in your Truth About series, so I have to ask you the hard question. What is your favorite animal?
Annette - That is a really, really hard question. I think I'm going to say two different ones because one is hard, isn't it? Because they're all so amazing. I'm going to say owls are amazing and that's why I Who Knew the Truth About Owls? It was the first book in that series.
Specifically, Quincy was a huge Eurasian eagle owl that I was able to hold bigger than a great horned owl, just a huge owl. So Quincy might be my favorite owl, but owls are one of them and fireflies are another. I think fireflies are amazing as well.
Valerie -Those are a pair of amazing creatures. And it's one of those like with owls. I got to, we went to a zoo event where we got to have the glove and an owl on our arm. And I was shocked at how light they are. I mean, it's just, they are so, you know, especially great horned owls, which are common here in Texas. Cause and that's what was on my arm, but they're so big, but they're so... was weightless, mean, less than my backpack. And it was just amazing to think that this big animal, I don't know, it was so light and could fly, but I mean, still.
Annette - Right, and they might have hollow bones, but that's not really what makes them light. They seem reallyothers are big, but those hollow bones paired with them are pretty much nothing but fluff. They're fluffing feathers. They are just almost like you said almost weightless they're amazingly light the owl that I held is even larger than the great horned and was a male so males are a little bit smaller it weighed four and a half pounds so that's less than a gallon of milk I mean that's like I I don't know that's probably like the weight of a dictionary.
Valerie -I don't know, the dictionary might be more, but it is amazing how God created so many amazing creatures that are so different and so diverse. And I love what you've done both in your Truth About series and in Quirky Critters because you've come up with 52 devotions of 52 different animals, but they're not the normal animals, or the go-to animals, I might say. You have, instead of, you know, the lion, the tiger, the bear, which we kind of, kids kind of know pretty well, but you have the blobfish, the
, the praying mantis, kind of these odd, like in the title, quirky critters that fascinate children. What inspired you to kind of conquer the quirky critters in this emotional book?
Annette -Well, it started with fireflies. I was writing about fireflies. And Quirky Critter Devotions is my first faith-based book. So my first book for the Christian audience. My other books are for the general audience. But I wanted to write about fireflies for the Christian audience. And then I changed it and I wanted to write about insects. For the Christian audience. And then I'm like, and I did, I wrote several insect devotions that made it into the book. But as I was developing the idea more, I realized, I think I just, don't wanna limit it to insects because there are so many amazing critters out there. And there are some that we think we know about. But maybe there's more to learn. But there are others that are just new to us or exotic or something that we might not know anything about. Like the Watson. Yeah.
Valerie -Cause you have a lot of, right? You have a lot of characters in there that a kid might see on a day-to-day basis, like the garter snail and not the snail snake. You know, it's the ones that are pretty common at least in our neck of the woods. And you do have some very unique creatures that, kids are not going to come across on their day-to-day, but it makes nature interesting and exciting. You know, it's not just, ew gross! It's like, ooh, I read about this and it makes it really engaging.
Annette -Yes, and you know, so I live in Pennsylvania and the critters we have here are going to be pretty different overall than what you have in Texas. And you know, you see reptiles. I don't. I wouldn't have to go a little bit south for that. I shouldn't say that. Not not. I see reptiles. I see turtles. I see snakes. Not I'm not going to I'm not going to see it. I'm not going to see a lizard I'm not going to see a lizard. So, you know, it's just yeah, no geckos here unless it's a pet Not in my house.
Valerie -You don't have geckos crawling around your door. No geckos there. Alright. We have one of those upstairs too.
Annette - So, you know, it's just a little bit different. And so if you're already trying to reach a broad audience across North America, why not go across the world and some of those fascinating animals that we may never even have heard of? So I think it's a lot of fun.
Valerie - It is a lot of fun. You know, I have three boys and so anything gross and crazy or quirky, they're going to love. And so I love how my boys have really dove into this book and really kind of seen God in a new light. Like, I can think about God when I'm digging around in the dirt for earthworms. You know, it's, it's made God a little bit more tangible to my crazy little boys.
Annette - I love that and that's you know, that's part of the inspiration is it why I wanted to write it just to kind of bring this world closer and make that connection between God the Creator and the creation and us
Valerie - I love that. Go ahead. It's one of those, you know, science and nature and, you know, God and religion have kind of been on opposite paths for a long time in both education and even in the church. And I've enjoyed in the last, I don't know, five years seeing these two worlds come back together and to see that God is both creator and He is aware of the creation and loves his creation, and his creation points to him. And that's been fun to watch that because I have a love of nature myself and you know, I'm probably digging in the dirt just as much as my kids, but it's just one of those to see God in everything and to be so tangible is so fun to expose our kids to even if they're not getting that in their classroom.
Annette - Right, right. And, you know, this is written for kids. but we need it as adults, that science and faith connection, teenagers need it. And so I have three teens and when I got my author copy, we read it as a family. And they may not have been interested in doing all the little, you know, all the journaling and the activities, but some of them we did And we could still have fun with it, but we were still learning. They didn't know a lot of it. Some of it seemed familiar, but it's I think we all need that science and faith connection.
Valerie -I think so too. And it's neat to see books like Quirky Critters kind of stepping into that space. And even in your Truth About series, you know, it may be for a general market, but there are just such wonderful bits of science that you just open those eyes of amazement to all the different creatures. Now, tell me a little bit about the Truth About series. Which animals have you done?
Annette -Both of them I think they do something to you and something to you. Tell me a little bit about them. Okay, so owls came first. That was who knew the truth about owls? And then yes, of course. And then we had wolf the truth about dogs. And I didn't realize like when we talked about when Raycraft Books and I talked about it becoming a series, I envisioned wild animals only. But then we had wolf the truth about dogs followed by scurry the truth about spiders, which was fascinating to write. And then we had Meow, the Truth About Cats, and Ribbit, the Truth
About Frogs. Yeah. So that's...
Valerie - And you also have one that's, I can't remember exactly when it's coming out, but Chomp the Truth About Sharks too, right?
Annette - October 15th, 2024. So by the time your listeners hear this, yes, that will be out and ready for readers to take a bite out of.
Valerie - Well, I have a future oceanographer who is waiting impatiently for that book. Well, what do you hope to communicate to, we kind of talked about this a little bit, but communicate to kiddos through, this quirky Kirchner's devotional book.
Annette -Animals are amazing. Because God made them and he made them with such creativity. Even though, you know, I tried to include lots of variety,
but you know, if I included like, you know,
two birds, two songbirds even, they're still going to be so different and there's still a lesson in everything. And I was a teacher once upon a time, so maybe finding those lessons isn't so hard. But I would challenge readers to take a look at this world and just kind of try to find some of those faith connections, those God connections. Huh, that's kind of interesting. When I think about that, I can also think about fill-in-the-blank because those connections can keep us going when faith feels hard.
Valerie -Yeah, I love those little reminders that God can give us in nature, just, you know, the bee buzzing by or, you know, a bird singing, or was it cardinals are kind of something that pop around here, just here and there, but there's something special about a cardinal that's just different than the house finches that seem to eat all my bird food. But it is God just a rain-made nature to be reminders of him. And the more that we're in it, the more that we explore it, the more we will see him in all those things. And I love that. Now you also have some resources that go along with this devotional as well, correct? Tell us a little bit about those.
Annette - I do. So. Okay, it's a mouthful to say, so I'll try. So on my site, annetteWhipple.com, I have quirky critter question cards. So 52 animals in the devotional. And so there are 52 cards.
Like baseball, baseball card-sized cards that you can print out. And there's going to be, you know, a photo of the animal, there's going to be two questions for every animal. One question is going to be related to what they read about the animal within the devotional. The other question is more personal. It might be faith-based, but maybe not. It might, you know, it's it but it's going to be something that only the only the kid can answer. Only the person reading the card can answer unless you're asking someone else, you know, hey I've got this card, you've got that card, let's quiz each other. But each of those questions or each of those answers would be an individual answer.
Valerie -I love that just to, again, kind of taking that science and nature and making us introspective about it. How does it affect us? How do, how can we relate to this, I think one of them in the book was the goon, a particular type of bird. Can't remember what it was, the loon. And, you know, just kind of just those different questions of, you know, how are you speaking to people? How are people speaking to you? And, you know, just those awkward, quirky things that we love about animals and directing them towards our hearts. So I love that about this divisional book. Now, when did your writing journey begin, Annette?
Annette -Not as long ago as most people would say probably. So a lot of authors would say, I was born with a pen in my hand. That was not me. I did not like reading. I did not like writing for a long time. By fourth grade, I did like reading. But as a kid, as a teen, the only writing I liked to do was letters to my friends. We wrote notes, we wrote letters, and I sometimes didn't understand why my friends didn't like to write me letters back during the summer or something like that. And I now understand a little bit more. I like writing. Just not necessarily stories. But in 2009, I began blogging. And I was blogging mostly about home and family matters, My daughter had a speech disorder so I wanted to kind of be an encourager to others who were dealing with some of those early special needs and soon I realized I wanted to write more and you know maybe write for magazines so I took a class and then I took more classes and I did write for a couple of magazines but then in 2014, I had my first book idea. And that
Was cool. I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia with my kids. And we had a companion guide to go with it called Roar by Heather and David Kopp. And as I'm reading this companion guide, my kids loved it. I loved it. And it wasn't long before I was like, I want to write a book about books, you know, about a series of books. And it didn't take me long to realize I wanted to write about the Little House books. Think some books are important with all you know the first-hand history but some things need to be discussed within these books, but they also, just pair perfectly for discussion, for learning more. And so it took six years, but in 2020, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion, A Chapter by Chapter Guide became a
Book. So that was really, so that was my first book idea. I think once I focused more on the writing of magazine articles and then, later on, hoping to be a published author at some point, that was really when I became a writer-writer. So before that, I was a writer of letters and emails. It is.
Valerie - It's a very important part of the writer's journey to be like, am a writer. Sometimes it takes a long time to get there for sure. Now, most of the time when people think about writing, it's usually in the fiction space, but you have done a lot in the nonfiction space, even some biographies. What, I guess, led you to more that direction than fiction?
Annette -I've never been asked that I never had a desire to write fiction. My first, you know, I just shared my first book idea and it was going to be a book about books. And with that, I also included 75 activities and those would even be considered nonfiction. But I think facts are fun. I want to celebrate curiosity. I was a teacher once upon a time so I feel like Writing nonfiction is kind of my new way to teach. It's just, that instead of saying it, I'm typing it out and I get to revise it and revise it and revise it 20 more times before I share it where I might mess up if I
Just say it once. So it works very well for me. It works well with my curiosity and wanting to learn more. And some of the books that I've written were assignments from editors where Do you want to write a book about insects for fourth through sixth graders? Yes, please. You know, that's my answer. But you know, when I was asked, do you want to write about plants? One of the books I wrote was about flowers specifically. But the other book in the series that I wrote was about soil and how soil supports plants And I was thinking, how am I going to make soil interesting? But it was. I learned so much through the research that it was exciting to write about it too. And I think because I do enjoy learning about so many different things, nonfiction is a really good fit for me.
Valerie - And I love that you're in that space and engaging those curious minds because there are those kids that are more geared towards facts but to find facts fun is not typically where people lean in the broad spectrum of things but making them fun through the different books that you have written is even talking about soil. I mean, some kids are going to be going into agriculture and helping Annettewhipple.comand careerscreate fields that help plants prosper because of an interest in something that most people would not find interesting. But I love that you have provided a space where nonfiction is fun and interesting rather than how it's usually portrayed as just boring and like textbooks. You're making this a lot of fun. And I love that for the curious creative readers in my own home and out in the world today too.
Annette - Yeah, children's nonfiction has changed dramatically in the last 20 or so years because of the internet. If a child can, and so many children have the internet at their fingertips whenever they want it, but if a child can get the answers to their questions, can find out facts about something whenever they want books, nonfiction books today have to be different. have to draw in a reader beyond the topic. It has to go beyond that to keep them engaged and keep them interested in what they are reading.
Valerie - That is very true because yeah, they could find facts with a swipe of a finger, but they need to really engage in the topic and go below the surface to dig a little deeper. That's what we want to encourage in our kids; it is just that natural-born curiosity that leads to future discoveries and careers and just keeps them wanting to discover more. And I love that about your books. Well, what can we expect next from you here in 2025?
Annette - Well, you mentioned. OK, so we mentioned Chomp the Truth About Sharks and Flick the Truth About Lizards is coming in 2025. Yes, in January. So, so nice and early.
Valerie -Way fun. Okay.
Annette - But that is what's happening next and I'm very excited about that. Lizards are something that I don't get to encounter on a walk in the woods. It just doesn't happen for me, but they're fascinating. They really are.
Valerie -I know, what was it? Think two years ago, my middle son wanted a lizard and it sent us into this deep dive of discovering all the things and we picked the type of lizard we wanted to have in our home. Despite my husband's not wanting that to happen, we do have an eyelash-crested gecko and it's been fascinating just to learn about her, find out how she was her and all the things, all the discussions that come with owning a pet of any kind, but a lizard is different than what we normally experience.
Annette -Yeah. And a bit of I don't know that maintenance is the right term, but there's a lot of equipment that you need to have to give it a proper home. And they sure do need a lot more space than most of us would anticipate. But is your gecko friendly? Is it kind of, I don't want to say cuddly, not going to be a lap lizard necessarily, but is it one that you get to handle easily and that sort of thing? Yay.
Valerie - Yes. So she's kind of small. So she's kind of like the length of my hand. And because we got her when she was just a month old, we made it a point to get her out regularly to hand feed her to have positive experiences with us. And that led her to be a very friendly little lizard. And it's been a lot of fun to watch my son bring his friends over and get the lizard out. And they're just like fascinated. I'm just like, how do we get more? And I'm like, my husband says no.
Valerie -We do have to have those people in our lives that put a lid on the crazy because yes, too fun. Well, that will be a really fun book to come out and I know my lizard lover will enjoy that as well. Where can people find out more about you and your books Annette?
Annette - And annettewhipple.com is probably the best place to find me. And on there, I actually also have teacher guides, along with those quirky critter question cards that you can download. I also have teacher guides for the wild animal books, and then a debate guide for the cat and dog book. I was a teacher once upon a time, so it's a lot of fun to create comprehensive materials for teachers, homeschoolers, and families to use because when we invest in a book, we want to read it more than once. And so that's one way we can do it. If I can help out a family or help out a teacher, I'm happy to do that.
Valerie - I love that you're taking it beyond the pages of your book to, you know, helping kids and parents just explore a little bit more. Well, thank you so much, Annette, for being with us today.
Annette - Thank you. This has been so much fun. Thanks for chatting with me.
Valerie - It's my pleasure and thank you for joining Annette and me on this episode of the Bookworthy Podcast. Check the show notes for any books or links that we discussed and let us know in the comments what is your favorite animal. Be sure to like and subscribe to discover more great books together.
Happy reading!
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