Author writes book to explain complex science to toddlers

Many parents and teachers know of the deep and often complex questions children ask when they are trying to figure out the world around them. Lots of ‘whys’, ‘whats’, and ‘hows’ invade our daily lives, often without warning and without a ready answer.

Author KC Land, aged 24, recently wrote and self-published her debut storybook Negan The Stardust, which attempts to explain one of the first and most important questions we ask: what are we made of, and where did we come from?

Land’s story is of a brave stellar atom named Negan who wanders with her friends Carbon and Hydrogen towards Earth after her own home is destroyed in a catastrophic explosion called a supernova.

The idea first came about when the author-whose real name is Casey Keene Stakland- was dealing with intense questions from her son.

“My son started asking some big questions such as ‘Why are we real?’ and ‘How did we get here?’ at the tender age of three. I tried at first to explain simply that we are real because we can make choices and that we all came from our mothers’ tummies, but he was obviously not satisfied with these answers and continued to ask.”

The author continued: “I started to look for books that could help explain to young children such concepts, I couldn’t find anything. I wanted to share with him what we know from a purely factual and unbiased viewpoint. The books that I did find that represented this were written for older children and riddled with facts. They had little to no story plot. In other words, not very awe-inspiring for truly the most awe-inspiring facts that we know.”

Land taught herself how to use Photoshop and Illustrator, and produced her own science book for small children. She self-published her book Negan The Stardust on Amazon in December last year (find the links below), and is currently working on a Negan series.