Congratulations, Lisa Varchol Perron, on WONDER WHY!

Thank you so much for sharing the release of WONDER WHY with us! Young readers love STEAM books and I’m sure yours will find many happy readers. Can you share with us a bit about the inspiration for this book? What was your initial spark?

Thank you for having me on your blog, Nancy! Two distinct moments came together to inspire WONDER WHY. The first was driving with my daughters on a beautiful day and looking out the window at a stunningly blue sky. I spoke directly to the sky and asked, “Why are you so blue today, sky?” Then a version of the opening stanza of the book started to form in my head. I kept repeating the words aloud until we arrived at our destination, and I could write them down. (My kids aren’t exactly fans of this writing method, but they’re accustomed to it!) I only had one stanza and didn’t know where it would go from there. Then, a few weeks later, I heard a commercial on the radio. A young girl asks her dad why the sky is blue, and he replies, “To match your beautiful eyes.” Ugh! Then the child tells him that he’s wrong, and she goes on to explain Rayleigh scattering. I’m pretty sure I clapped when I heard her response! I kept thinking about how kids are not only incredibly curious, they’re also incredibly capable of understanding complex concepts. So that was the spark for turning that initial stanza into a picture book, with a kid asking questions about our natural world and getting direct, accurate answers from nature.

Writing STEAM books requires a substantial amount of research. Often it is the most fun part of our writing process. Did you meet any challenges in your research journey? It can be challenging to distill scientific information and communicate it in a clear and engaging way for readers, but it’s a challenge I enjoy. Sometimes when I’m starting a new STEAM project, I’ll start with a stack of books from the library before I start writing. Other times, I’ll dive into the writing to get a better sense of the research I need to do. This book was a bit of a mix. I wrote some of the “question” spreads and then turned to journal articles, websites, and books to help inform the answers. Once I had a complete draft, I asked a meteorologist from MIT to read it, and she provided feedback on the scientific explanations and sent me a few more articles to read. I did my best to incorporate her suggestions while also working within the space constraints of a picture book. Often one of the most difficult parts of crafting our books is not deciding what to include, but deciding what to leave out. What did you choose to leave out of this book and why?

That’s very true! For this book, I decided to use the arc of a day with a storm brewing, and from there it became clear to me which weather phenomena I would include—starting with a kid marveling at the blue morning sky until it becomes windy, clouds form, thunder rumbles, it rains, and finally, a rainbow appears. The explanations in the main text needed to remain succinct to fit with the rhyme and meter, and I wanted them to match the “personality” I imagined for the sky, cloud, thunder, and so on. I also knew that it would be helpful to have back matter or sidebars to expand on each of the explanations provided in the main text. In early drafts, I struggled to pare down the back matter. For example, I initially included a detailed discussion about the polarization of charges that create lightning, but thanks to my critique partners, I realized that I needed to simplify. It helps to remind myself that my goal is to deepen kids’ understanding of how things work in our natural world, and not to write a textbook. What tip can you share with teachers who want to use your book in the classroom? WONDER WHY has curricular tie-ins with the Next Generation Science Standards (ESS2.D: Weather and Climate). If the class has already done some pre-reading about weather, consider having students look at the question pages first and consider how they might answer. For younger students who are new to the science concepts, you can focus on the personification of nature in the book and ask students to write a short poem from the perspective of a natural phenomenon, like a cloud, thunder, or a rainbow.

Congratulations on this book release! What comes next for you? Can you give us a peek at what you are currently researching? Thank you so much, Nancy, and thanks again for having me! Most of my books so far have been STEAM, but the next two are very different. In September, THE LITTLEST SOLSTICE TREE (illustrated by Ahya Kim) releases with Beaming Books. It’s a picture book about a young evergreen who longs to be crowned “Tree of the Year” during the annual winter solstice celebration, and there is some brief back matter about the history of trees in winter solstice—and Christmas—celebrations. I also have a soon-to-be announced fiction picture book coming out in 2026 that deals with mental health issues. In addition to writing, I’ve worked as a psychotherapist for almost twenty years and am passionate about challenging any stigma around mental health struggles and treatment.

About the author: Lisa Varchol Perron is the author of several books and more than seventy poems for kids. In addition to Wonder Why, her current books include the Junior Library Guild Selection Patterns Everywhere, All the Rocks We Love (named a 2024 Best Science Book for Kids by NPR’s Science Friday), and the board books My Love For You, Tell Me About Oceans, and Tell Me About Space (an NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book). She lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts with her family. For more about Lisa and her writing, please visit https://lisaperronbooks.com/