Do You See the Differences? Why Details Matter by Elaine A. Powers, Author

I write science-based children’s books and I make the information in the books as accurate as possible.

However, they are picture books, so some creative license is allowed.  After all, I don’t know many lizards who speak English, though I do know one—Curtis Curly-tail,  of course! I’m always impressed by the details my illustrators are able to draw, especially all the scales on the reptiles. They must have an artistic eye, as well as an eye for detail.

I wrote a book about Bahamian boas. Since we didn’t have any live snakes to use as a model, the illustrator, Anderson Atlas, had to use photos. The image below shows what he created. Pretty magnificent, isn’t it?

The book was published and delivered to the scientists in The Bahamas. They loved the book, but one of them pointed out that the head scales were wrong.  The scales were those of racers, another more common snake in the islands. Since they hoped to use the book to educate the students, the head scales needed to be accurate.

Anderson rose to the challenge, not only redrawing the more detailed head scales, but he also widened the head to better reflect the shape of the boa’s head. The resulting detail is exquisite.

Now, when reading Bahamian Boas, you’ll never be confused as to whether that snake is a boa or a racer.