Stephanie Gibeault is the author of picture books and middle grade nonfiction including Toby Tootles; Can’t Get Enough Dog Stuff; Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities; Making Sense of Dog Senses: How Our Furry Friends Experience the World; and the upcoming Dogs Versus Humans: A Showdown of the Senses and The Dog Who Saved the Bees.
Her books have been honored by the Junior Library Guild, Eureka! Nonfiction Awards, and The Canadian Children’s Book Centre. She has her Master of Science in animal behavior and is a former biologist and certified professional dog trainer who lives outside of Toronto. She is represented by the Tobias Literary Agency. To learn more about Stephanie and her work, visit her website: stephaniegibeault.com. Or, find her on social media: X (Twitter) / Instagram
1. What was your favorite book when you were a child? Why?
I loved the Nancy Drew series when I was a child. Solving puzzles has been a lifelong hobby of mine, and there’s no better puzzle than a mystery. I enjoyed collecting clues and trying to piece together the culprit before Nancy revealed them. I had to read the series in order (a quirk I still have about books in a series), but I can’t remember how many I read before graduating to Agatha Christie.
2. What three things bring you joy?
Time at the family cottage has always brought me joy as I’m surrounded by nature there. When I was young, I would search for snakes and race turtles. But now I love writing beside the lake. Animals also bring me joy – learning about them, observing them, and cuddling them when they let me. I have loved animals all my life, which explains my earlier work with gorillas and monkeys, but also why I write about animals now. Finally, chocolate-covered almonds bring me joy. I always have a bag beside my desk.
3. What kind of student were you? What were your favorite subjects?
I was a keen student who wasn’t satisfied with anything under an A+. I loved learning new things but also the challenge of a test (odd, I know). Thanks to my love of animals, my favorite subject was biology. I just inherently understand it in a way I didn’t for physics or chemistry. And although I took math all through high school and into university, I never appreciated it until I wrote Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities. If you told me back in high school I would write a book about math, I would never have believed you.
4. Where did you get the idea for Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities? What was your inspiration?
Since my days as a biologist, I’ve been fascinated by how animals think, and it always struck me that we underestimate them. People often conceitedly assume we are superior because of our brains. But the differences between human and animal cognition aren’t so cut and dried. I was inspired to write this book to explore one facet of that so called dividing line – the use of numbers. Plus, math is a subject that many children dread, but this was a chance to explore some mathematical concepts in a fun and exciting way.
5. What was the most challenging thing you faced while researching and writing your latest book?
The research for Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing Mathematical Abilities was intense. I not only had to collect information about each animal in the book, but I needed to dig deep into mathematical concepts and how the ability to understand those concepts develops in both animals and humans. For example, I needed to learn the history of zero as a number, the four steps to understanding it, when children first grasp the concept, and how to test animals to see if they get it too. I loved learning so much new information, but it did require some heavy reading and research rabbit holes.
6. If you read this book to a room filled with kids, what message would you want them to leave with?
I want to leave kids with a new appreciation for mathematics. Rather than being intimidated, I want to spark their interest to see numbers in a new way. I also hope I leave them with a sense of awe about what animals can do and how like us their minds can be. If a parrot can use Arabic numerals and a chimpanzee can add and subtract, what other talents might animals have? I hope my book convinces kids that the dividing line between humans and animals isn’t a line after all, and therefore it’s important we protect animals and become better stewards for the planet.