Grandmother Fish

06/15/2026

Here in Seattle, young crows are out there begging for food. This app shows you how to identify their distinctive cry and spot crow families in the field. Kids love finding out about animal families in their neighborhoods. Free & ad-free.

Crow Scientist is a free app (also ad-free) available in Google Play and Apple App stores. Crow Scientist is also now available online as a web app. The app asks young students to observe crows the way a scientist might and is designed to support simple science projects. What behaviors do they exhib...

11/03/2025

For years I pondered how to make a game about evolution, and my answer is Clades. Players match animals according to their positions on the evolutionary tree of life. Everyone plays at once so it’s fast. FWIW, I get royalties on this one. Kids love animals!

Available from Atlas Games.

Clades at a Glance A pattern recognition game for one or more players.Make sets of three similar animals (such as mammals) in this fast-paced card game.Fun and educational at the same time! [Clades] manages to help teach evolutionary concepts in a relaxed and organic way that has children asking dee...

10/29/2025

Ten years ago, this blog post by Barbara J King put Grandmother Fish on the map. It went viral, and my small run of self-published books sold out. Wish I'd printed a lot more copies! This question is just as timely today as it was 10 years ago.

Anthropologist Barbara J. King explores a new storybook that aims to teach 3- to 7-year-olds about their "grandmother fish" as a way into the concept of evolution.

01/25/2025

Bailey is back with another kid-friendly project related to evolution.

Join Stardust and Darwin on an extraordinary adventure to the Galápagos as they discover the wonders of evolution!

08/14/2024

My talk about evolution for kids is scheduled for Saturday. It's the last talk at Broadview Library. Here are the books I'll bring as cases in point, teaching both common descent ("evolution") and Darwin's theory of natural selection. Come meet Susan Gerbic & say Hi to me.

07/15/2024

Ten years ago, Karen & I raised money on Kickstarter to self-publish Grandmother Fish. The experience of running a Kickstarter was good in surprising ways.

http://www.grandmotherfish.com/10-years-ago/10-years-ago-grandmother-fish-on-kickstarter/

06/10/2024

Ten years ago, Karen Lewis teamed up with me to do Grandmother Fish. She’s a devoted children’s science illustrator, and she helped me make the book a lot better. Thanks, Karen!

http://www.grandmotherfish.com/10-years-ago/10-years-ago-karen-lewis/

06/03/2024

Planets are lining up tomorrow morning, and you can use the pieces from Planet Voyagers to help kids understand why the planets are always in line, never forming a triangle or rectangle like stars often do.

http://www.grandmotherfish.com/resource/why-are-the-planets-in-a-line/

05/21/2024

Ten years ago, I decided to make Grandmother Fish a physical book and to raise money for it on Kickstarter. In the fall of 2013, I figured I would self-fund a digital version of the book, and that way I didn’t have to pay for printing. I even drew a couple animated GIFs as a proof of concept. What changed my mind in 2014 was the lights that appeared in parents’ eyes when would I told about Grandmother Fish. I’d say, “Evolution for preschoolers,” and they’d react with surprise and delight. They recognized it as a good idea that they’d never heard of before, and that gave me the confidence to go on Kickstarter raise money for printing. And that’s how Grandmother Fish got where it is today.

See the animated GIF at www.grandmotherfish.com.

02/06/2024

Jupiter is high in the evening sky, perfect for pointing it out to kids. You can use pieces from Planet Voyagers so show kids why Jupiter appears where it does in the sky. http://www.grandmotherfish.com/resource/jupiter-in-the-evening/