At Growing With Science today we are featuring a timely new book for middle grades, Dark Matters: Nature’s Reaction to Light Pollution by Joan Marie Galat.
Set up a bit differently than most nonfiction, each chapter in Dark Matters starts with Joan’s reminisces about her childhood experiences with night and lights. The personal stories draw in young readers and help give perspective to the more technical informational sections that follow. They also remind the reader that our environment is changing from one generation to the next. Young children may never have seen the Milky Way because light pollution is so prevalent.
After establishing what light pollution is, Galat reveals how excessive artificial lights at night can harm not only nocturnal animals such as bats and fireflies, but also day-active animals, such as birds. In some places birds end up singing all night because they are confused by excessive lights. In other places migrating birds crash into tall building at night, plunging to their deaths in vast numbers. Throughout the book she reveals many examples of how our environment is being harmed by excessive artificial light.
Dark Matters explores an important topic that is relatively new and hasn’t received much attention. Check out a copy today.
Be sure to visit Growing with Science for a the full review, book trailer, related activities, and links to more information.
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