Who’s Afraid of the Light?

Discussion questions 

• Why do you think Fergus always hides from the lights?

• Where do you think all the other creatures are disappearing to?

• As you get clues about Fergus’s characteristics, ask students to predict what he looks like. If reading on a projector, you could have students draw details on the screen.

• Read the back matter about deep-sea exploration. Would you ever travel to the deep sea? Why or why not?

• Read the back matter about bioluminescence. Which bioluminescent adaptation would you choose to have and why?

Vocabulary (definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary)

• Deep-sea: the deeper parts of the ocean, especially those beyond the edge of the continental shelf.

• Pitch black: ​completely black or dark. 

• Mucus: a thick liquid that is produced in parts of the body, such as the nose, by a mucous membrane.

Video content

• Learn how to draw an anglerfish with the author: How to draw an anglerfish, with Anna McGregor (YouTube 5:03m)

• Learn more about deep sea exploration: How do Scientists Explore the Deep Sea? | KiwiCo (YouTube 3:50m)

• Learn about all sorts of deep sea creatures on this National Geographic Kids Deep Sea Creatures YouTube Playlist.

• Incredible video of Nautilus scientists catching a gulper eel on camera with it's jaws open (there's a lot of "oh my god's" in the audio so you can play it with the sound off, but they are pretty funny too---so you should preview it a few times with sound on!) Gulper Eel Balloons Its Massive Jaws | Nautilus Live

Publisher content 

• Coloring page and quiz from the author (PDF)

• Book Trailer (Vimeo, 30s)

Activities

• Make some scratch-off art! Color all over a piece of cardstock with oil pastels (press hard), then paint over with black tempera paint with a drop of dish soap in it. Let dry, then use a toothpick, skewer or chopstick to scratch your own deep sea creature on the page. https://craftprojectideas.com/make-your-own-scratch-art-2/ You can also use the same painting technique on the reflective side of CDs as a way to make an up-cycled scratch art craft.

• Play 20 questions with animals. Just like the narrator gathers clues about what Fergus looks like, you can group students in pairs and have them choose an animal. Then group them with another pair and take turns trying to guess the animal with less than 20 questions.

• Dig into research and learn more about deep sea creatures introduced in this book, or about submersibles and  the frontier of deep sea exploration. 

• Connect this book to your robotics explorations, using small school robots such as BeeBot, Edison, or Lego robots. Create a “deep sea” for the robots to explore, with obstacles and creatures they need to program their robot to discover.