For Lindsay Moore, a trip to the Toledo Zoo ended up being more than a family outing.
The visit inspired the author and illustrator from Bowling Green to begin Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival, which was released late last month by Greenwillow, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books.
Sea Bear follows a lone polar bear as she makes her way across the melting sea ice in search of food. At times, the bear is forced to swim for days. Hungry and exhausted, she perseveres and eventually finds land and gives birth to cubs. As they wait for the sea to freeze again, the bear vows to teach her young how to survive.
Lindsay Moore, who recently published 'Sea Bear,' works on an illustration. (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)
“I want to convey awe of the Arctic,” she said of her book. “It’s this treacherous, beautiful ecosystem that’s worthy of our admiration and protection and the animals living there — through darkness, through storms, through dramatic seasonal changes — are unique and invaluable. I hope this book inspires children to ask, ‘What can I do?’ and ask their parents, ‘What are we doing to help the situation?’”
At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Moore will share her story and sign copies of her debut book at Gathering Volumes as part of the bookstore’s National Polar Bear Day celebration.
A native of northern Michigan, Moore studied marine biology and fine art at Southampton College on Long Island and figure drawing at the Art Students League in New York City. She later received a master of science in medical illustration from the Medical College of Georgia, now called Georgia Regents University.
Though her background might not immediately suggest children’s author and illustrator, she said writing was something that she always wanted to do.
“Around middle school, I kind of thought writing was for special people and I was like an ordinary person, so I should pursue an ordinary study,” she said. “So I decided to study science. I didn’t want to drop art completely, and it just kept pulling me back, and I really liked my English classes.”
She said she turned to medical illustration because it allowed her to tell science stories with images.
As a medical illustrator, she worked on material for a range of audiences including doctors and surgeons and their patients, even pediatric ones. She said she enjoyed “taking complex information and relating it to the appropriate audience.”
There were signs that suggested what her future might hold.
Lindsay Moore's new children's book 'Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival.'(THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)
Moore said that while a student in Georgia, a professor compared her pen-and-ink style to drawings by Maurice Sendak, the writer and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are.
In the medical setting, it wasn’t meant as compliment, and she said the criticism allowed her “to grow up a little” in her illustrations.
Moore said she and her husband, Tim Davis, moved frequently as he continued his studies and work as a researcher, complicating her ability to find a job as a medical illustrator. (Davis is an associate professor of biology at Bowling Green State University and a lead researcher at the Lake Erie Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health.)
The couple have three children, ages 8, 6, and 5.
“As I was reading contemporary children’s books, I began thinking, ‘This is what I’ve always wanted to do, so why am I not just doing this?’” she said.
Moore’s idea for Sea Bear came in 2014, when her visit to the Toledo Zoo led to a fascination with the lengths polar bears could swim to ensure their survival in a challenging ecosystem. She worked for a year on it, before being told that it was a little too serious for children. She shelved the story for about a year and wrote other things, one of which helped her secure an agent.
“When that [manuscript] didn’t work out and there wasn’t a lot of interest in it, we ended up pulling [Sea Bear] out,” Moore said.
Though Sea Bear was originally deemed too dark for children, Moore said she didn’t change much from her original story. (Her editor did recommend removing a dead seal.)
“I think sometimes people don’t take children seriously enough,” Moore said. “I don’t think all books need to make kids laugh. … I was a really serious kid in a lot of ways. I laughed at funny books, but I really liked to be taken seriously and that’s where I was coming from.”
An illustration from Lindsay Moore's new children's book 'Sea Bear: A Journey for Survival.' (THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH)
Though Sea Bear contains an element of climate change, the story is designed for children ages 4 to 8.
“I didn’t want to overwhelm them with sad news,” Moore said. “I really wanted to highlight the remarkable ability of polar bears. Even before people in North America realized what was going on, these animals were built to swim long distances. It’s just the way that they are made. I wanted to highlight that so that I could gently go into the idea of climate change.”
At times, she said she felt the story was too depressing and took multiple passes at the ending. “I was really conscious about it not being laden in tragedy,” she said.
One of Moore’s favorite authors, Madeleine L’Engle, ended up providing a surprising lesson in perseverance.
“I found out that she had something like 30 rejections for A Wrinkle in Time, and I thought she was amazing, so if it took her that long to get that book published, then there’s no hope for me. She must have known to have stuck with it.”
Though L’Engle’s story originally discouraged Moore, her views changed as she grew older and she read more about other authors.
“I realized you could be an author and a normal person and that you didn’t have to know that it would work out,” she said. “You have to go into it hoping that it will work out.”
Moore said she’s working on another children’s book with Greenwillow Books, but the story is still up in the air.
Lindsay Moore will read and sign copies of her books from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Gatherin Volumes, 196 E. South Boundary St., Perrysburg. The National Polar Bear Day celebration also includes a read aloud of “Little Bear Dreams” (11:30 a.m.), an educational polar bear program by the Toledo Zoo (1:30 p.m.), cupcake decorating (4:30 p.m.), and an ice tower competition (5:30 p.m.). For more information, call Gathering Volumes at 567-336-6188.
First Published February 20, 2019, 11:15 a.m.