The science behind the mermaids of Miri Attwater: octopus camouflage

In celebration of the release of Book 2, Miri Attwater and All that Glitters, I thought it would be fitting to go a little into the science behind the magic of the Miri Attwater series.

Science is amazing. It's better than magic! Because it's real.

When I first started the Miri books, my intention was to write pure fantasy, with magic and everything. Magic makes things easy. Yeah, I know you have to come up with rules but -

Need something? Make up a rule and -

Bam!

You have something. It's magic!

The problem was, every time I got to the point in the story where Miri's legs magically turned into tails, it just didn't feel right to me. Even though other writers used it - in fact the original myths even used it - it still felt hollow and unbelievable. I mean, how could legs turn into tails?

Really.

I mean, I knew it wasn't "real," but still my brain wanted to understand exactly how that could happen.

The answer?

An octopus.

Now you might be thinking, "Ew! What could an octopus possibly have to do with mermaids! That's gross!" just like Miri. But it wasn't just the octopus itself, it was octopus camouflage.

I saw a video of octopus camouflage. And I believed it was possible for mermaid legs to turn into tails.

Watch. And believe.

 

Want to learn more about octopuses? Check out these websites. (Ask a parent's premission before clicking on the links below.)

Squid and Octopus Switch on Camouflage at bbc.co.uk
8 Feet of Justice at ScienceFriday.com

A kid's review of Miri Attwater the the Ocean's Secret

This review is special to me because it's my first official kid's review of Miri Attwater and the Ocean's Secret!

Holly is in 3rd grade. She says, "I like mermaids and I loved the bubble world in the book."

I am so glad you enjoyed that part, Holly, because I really had fun dreaming up the underwater world of Kai Kaona. When I decided that mermaids were going to be mammals it created an obvious problem. If they were going to be hiding at the bottom of the ocean, how were they going to breathe?

I decided I needed some way to get oxygen from the ocean water. And, if I could have the building walls themselves collecting oxygen, I could have lots of area to do it with. Somewhere in there my imagination landed on the idea of giant bubbles! (In the book, Fisk explains a little about how the bubbles work.)

Also, I wanted the mermaid world to be beautiful.

Link to a gorgeous commemorative pop-up book

When I was about the same age as Holly, I started reading all of the Wizard of Oz books. (Okay, I think I was actually older than Holly when I started doing that. I was not an early reader.) I was hoping that Dorothy would visit another place just as beautiful as the Emerald City. She never did. I think the only thing that came close was maybe where Glinda the good witch lived? But in any case the description was not any where detailed enough for me.

Another favorite of the books from the school library that I read over and over was Witches, Ghosts, and Goblins: A Spooky Search for Miranda's Cat. Oh, how I loved this book. Let me assure you, if I loved it, it was not scary, in spite of its title. Aside from all the color pictures (remember, I said I wasn't an early reader!) I loved the description of the gem caverns that they traveled through. I loved this book so much I located a copy for my own kids and I was surprised to see that the description was only one or two lines! My imagination did a lot with those two lines.

So, all that to say, when I started dreaming up Kai Kaona, I wanted to make it the beautiful mystical world I longed to visit in books when I was a kid.

You can read the rest of Holly's review at V.K. Finnish's blog where V.K. posts a regular feature "Reviewed by Kids."

Thanks Holly!

Do fish really come in that color? Yep, really!

Photo By Adrian Pingstone, Wikimedia Commons

This is a photo of a yellow tang, like Miri saw at the aquarium park. See the tiny white spot at the base of its tail? That's the piece of bone that is as sharp as a surgeons scalpel! Another name for tang is surgeonfish.

When I went snorkeling for the first time off the Big Island of Hawaii, we looked down on the rocks in the water and noticed bright yellow stripes. We thought it was really nice of the local swimmers to paint them so  newcomers would know the best place to enter the water. But when we got in, the "stripes" swam away! They were a bunch of yellow tangs! They were so bright that they seemed to glow like the yellow stripes on the road at night.

The aquarium wasn't the only place Miri saw Yellow Tangs. Can you remember another place she saw them?

A reader asked if I have a preview of the cover of Book 2. Sadly, I do not. I'll tell you what I do have, though. And excerpt of Book 2 coming next week! So don't take your eyes off this blog!

Speaking of watching the blog, usually I would say to sign up with the Followers gadget in the right side bar so you won't miss any posts. But the official gadget provided by Blogger does not seem to be working. From my search of the forums, lots of people seem to be having trouble with this. I apologize, but if the gadget kicks you off the Followers list, please sign back up.