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Grandmother Fish: a child’s first book of Evolution

Created by Grandmother Fish LLC

“Grandmother Fish” teaches preschoolers to love the idea that we are descended from animals. Can you wiggle like a fish?

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Crow-Watching Science for Kids!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 04, 2020 at 10:56:07 AM

Hello backers of Grandmother Fish!

Karen and I hope that you are managing to stay safe and sane in these difficult times. Thank you again for funding Grandmother Fish back in 2014. That wonderful book is now available in Italian, Chinese, and Japanese. Today we launched a Kickstarter for Crow Scientist, a free crow-watching app for kids. We are working with well-known crow researchers and authors John & Colleen Marzluff here in Seattle. Backers who pledge $5 get a name in the credits and immediate access to the beta version of the app.

https://bit.ly/crowScientist

For children to understand natural selection, they need to understand the cycles of life, breeding, and death. Crow Scientist shows children how to see these cycles playing out in the neighborhood park or even a parking lot. With schooling disrupted for so many children, we see this free app filling a real need for educational enrichment.

Please tell friends, teachers, and kids about Crow Scientist. Thank you!

—Jonathan

Grandmother Fish in Tokyo
about 4 years ago – Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 10:09:42 PM

Grandmother Fish is one of the children's books featured in a new exhibit in Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science. Here you can see the creator of the exhibit, Dr Makoto Manabe, giving a tour. Dr Manabe is also the one who translated Grandmother Fish into Japanese. The story of Grandmother Fish is everybody's story, and Karen and I are honored that our story is reaching children in Italy, China, and Japan. Thanks again for funding us back in 2014. You helped make this all possible. 

Dr. Makoto Manabe leading a tour

Thank you!

—Jonathan

More evolution in the same mobile game
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 09:55:48 AM

Hello, backers of Grandmother Fish!

After tossing lots ideas around for years, Karen and I are bringing a bunch of kid-friendly science concepts together into a new book project. We’ll share some details when we get the thumbs-up from our agent. Grandmother Fish, the book you funded, has now been translated into Chinese as well as Italian, and a Japanese publisher is working on a translation. 

Many animals from the tree in the back of Grandmother Fish also appear in our mobile game, Clades Solo. The recent update added dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and more. We also added more science notes and made the existing notes easier to find, and there’s even a how-to-video. We don’t have an advertising budget, so if you like Clades Solo, please tell a friend, a teacher, or a parent. 

iTunes

Google Play

Amazon Kindle Fire

Which card completes the triple?
Which card completes the triple?

Thanks for believing in Karen and me and giving us our start as evolution communicators for kids. 

—Jonathan

Clades Solo app is live
about 5 years ago – Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 10:53:30 AM

Karen and I have big news—our first app. Clades Solo is a mobile app that lets you play a quick, single-player version of our evolutionary card game, Clades. We’re announcing it officially on Darwin Day, February 12th, but the app is available now, and we’re letting you know early. 

We’d love to see some reviews online from fans!

How fast can you post the triple?
How fast can you post the triple?

In other news, Karen and I have a good, new direction for the next children’s book we’re working on. There’s nothing to show now, but we’ve got big plans. 

If you’d like to hear from us more often, please look for Grandmother Fish on Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter: @GrandmotherFish 

Facebook: grandmotherfish 

www.facebook.com/grandmotherfish

—Jonathan

Grandmother Fish for teachers
over 5 years ago – Sun, Aug 19, 2018 at 06:49:20 PM

Karen and I have exciting news about Grandmother Fish, the book that you helped us create. The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science has posted my online video webinar about how to use Grandmother Fish in classrooms. If you know any teachers or other educators, please forward this link to them. The webinar discusses the various evolution activities that I run when presenting Grandmother Fish to groups, and teachers can do these activities themselves, with support from our web site.

Here’s the URL for the free webinar.

https://www.richarddawkins.net/2018/08/ties-webinar-jonathan-tweet-author-of-grandmother-fish/

And here’s the URL for the activities page that goes along with it.

http://www.grandmotherfish.com/resources/

The webinar also covers our new evolutionary card games, Clades & Clades Prehistoric. These animal-matching games teach evolutionary relationships among “clades”, for ages 6+. These games are available in game stores, from online retailers, and direct from Atlas Games. Teachers ordering 6 or more copies can also arrange a discount through Atlas.

Order Clades or Clades Prehistoric direct from Atlas: http://bit.ly/CladesPreorder

Atlas Games page for bulk orders for schools: http://bit.ly/bulkCladesOrders

What’s next for Karen and me? We have kicked around some ideas for the next book we do, but we won’t have anything to announce for a while. As always, we love to hear from supporters, and we are easy to find on social media. Stay in touch.

—Jonathan