Karen Jameson: Hi, my name is Karen Jameson, and I'm the author of Time to Shine: Celebrating the World's Iridescent Animals, illustrated by Dave Murray, and brought to you by Groundwood Books. I'm a retired teacher. I taught for over 30 years. And when I was a child growing up, I didn't like science at all. I thought it was really boring and the textbooks were really boring. But when I became a teacher and I had to teach my own students, I discovered that science was really pretty interesting if you teach it in the right way. So when I taught third grade, I taught a unit about animal adaptations and how animals use their colors to survive and thrive in nature. But one of the things I could not find was a book about iridescent animals. And iridescence is the sparkly rainbow-like glimmer on an animal's feathers or scales, or insect bodies. And I was really surprised that I couldn't find anything to read to my students about this. So when I became an author, I decided I would write that book.

I decided to make it rhyme because I thought that would be an interesting way for kids to get this information, and then just to provide details in the sidebars. Every stanza uses some kind of clothes, like a cape for the butterfly, a jacket for the beetle, and so on. And that seemed to me to be a way that kids could relate to these animals and how they use their colors and sparkles in their life. I honestly thought, when I first wrote this book, that it would probably be photo-illustrated because it's really hard to capture these sparkles on animals. But Dave Murray did an outstanding job of showing the light and sparkle on each animal, so I'm very appreciative that he was given the job. When you go out in nature, stop and look around. You're going to see some of the animals in this book. You're going to see a hummingbird and insects that shine and are iridescent. And when you see them, just remember that they sparkle for a reason. It's not just to be beautiful, it's because it helps them to survive, to get away from predators, to find a mate, and all kinds of other purposes, which you'll read about in my book. And now, I'd like to read aloud from Time to Shine: Celebrating the World's Iridescent Animals.

Each iridescent creature knows just how to rock its sparkly clothes to draw attention, speed away, or just survive another day. Butterflies make quick escapes in brilliant iridescent capes. A sequined costume works just great to land the hummingbird a mate. When their jackets flicker flash, beetles seem to dart and dash. A regal peacock loves to reign by fanning out his feather train. Reed frog takes some time to rest in its sun-reflecting vest. Smooth and dry in shiny armor, rainbow boa's quite the charmer.