ATHABASCA — What do you do if you can’t find the book you're looking for on a specific topic? If you’re Joan Marie Galat, you write one.
While Galat and her family lived in the Athabasca area in the 1990s, she wanted to teach her children about the stars, but finding a book that included everything she wanted them to learn wasn’t available, so she wrote her own.
“I lived out in the country near Baptiste Lake where it was very dark at night, and I could see the stars and I wanted to teach my own kids how to find the constellations,” she said in a Nov. 15 interview. "I tried to buy books that partner the constellations with ancient mythology, because I thought it would be really fun to point to Orion and then say, ‘OK, this is the story, this is why there’s a giant hunter up here. He's chasing the Seven Sisters and the scorpions after him and there's the scorpion over there,’ but I couldn't find a book that did it. So that was the first book I pitched to a publisher that sold.”
There are now six books in the Dot to Dot series ranging from stories of the Aurora Borealis to stories of the planets and the moon.
“Stories in the Clouds, it's a book about weather because when I was researching my astronomy myths, I found so many great stories about weather,” said Galat. “And what's so great about that book is Georgia Graham is the illustrator and she lives in the Lacombe area so those are Alberta clouds on the cover.”
And Galat has fun writing, even producing challenges she’s sent to National Geographic explorers, and to scientists and engineers for feedback and to include their ideas in the book Solve This: Wild and Wacky Challenges for the Genius Engineer in You.
“What is engineering? It's all about solving problems,” she said. “And then my challenge to write the book was, ‘OK how do I make this fun for kids?’ and my idea was that if you had a kid friendly problem that you had to solve, how could you use engineering to solve problems?”
One example is, only using found objects in your home, how do you soundproof your room so your parents can’t hear you and your friend stay up all night talking.
“There's a few rules: you can only use what's on hand, no shopping. You can only use what's in the house or the garage. No power tools, damage, and so on,” said Galat. “And then to help them along I interviewed National Geographic explorers and scientists and engineers and sent my challenges to them and then they tried them, and they came up with their ideas. So, I interviewed them, and I have their responses to the challenges.”
Her latest book though, Mortimer: Rat Race to Space, was published in September and allowed Galat to travel to do research about the rat who gets to be an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS).
“At NASA in Houston, I was able to go behind the scenes and see things like the Orion capsule which will house astronauts on the Artemis mission now going to the Moon,” she said. “I later visited Cape Canaveral to see a SpaceX Falcon Heavy lift off and attend astronaut-led tours and events where I could ask questions. This in-depth research allowed me to write about the ISS with greater perspective.”
And Galat loves writing about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects.
“STEM-themed books like Mortimer: Rat Race to Space give teachers the information they need to teach science in a fun, innovative way,” she said. “Research shows that students who are interested in science are going to learn valuable critical thinking skills and be more likely to finish high school and go on to further education. We don't need every child to grow up to become a scientist, but we do need all kids to grow up knowing how to think like one.”
She was also awarded the prestigious Martha Weston grant given to a children’s author who is inspiring change in the genre.
All of Galat’s books are available through her website, joangalat.com, or any bookstore, but she is still looking for a place to officially ‘launch’ Mortimer.
“The Edmonton Rocketry Club, a member built me a scale model of the SpaceX rocket … and I've done this four times, this will be my fifth time to put the book in a rocket and I literally launch my book to celebrate,” she said. “So, I'm actually looking for a school that would like to have me come out and launch rockets.”
Maybe it’s time to return to Athabasca, where it all started, for the launch.
