Popoto, A Children's Story About the Endangered Maui Dolphin - Noemi Knight
About Noemi Knight
Noemi Knight is a military spouse, elementary school teacher, and author. Noemi has written a book about the critically endangered Maui dolphin. Noemi says the Maui dolphin is the smallest and rarest of the world’s dolphins. The dolphin is found in the waters off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Noemi’s personal story is proof that a person doesn’t have to be famous or accomplished in a field to become an important advocate for the ocean and her creatures. Listeners will be excited to learn about these rare whales and Noemi’s journey to write and publish Popoto, a children’s book about the critically endangered Maui dolphin. The book is available on Kickstarter during the month of February. Here’s a link to the Kickstarter campaign.
How Noemi Knight Turned a Family Photo Into a Children’s Book About Maui Dolphins
Noemi Knight says that her story begins in 2021 with a family photograph. She’d gone to her parents house to help clean and organize. Her son found some old scrapbooks dating back to Noemi’s childhood. On the back of one photograph was the date 1986. It showed Noemi in a paddleboat surrounded by dolphins. She had no recollection of the experience in New Zealand. Noemi went on line to research the whales and discovered that the Maui dolphins are a relation of Hector’s dolphin yet genetically different. She learned the Maui dolphin is critically endangered with less than 60 in existence. This knowledge led to her decision to write a book as she was amazed that an animal so unique wasn’t protected more. She’d come to believe that no one outside of New Zealand knew about the dolphins.
Noemi had never considered writing a book; however, she was intimately aware of the genre having been an elementary school teacher and the mother of a young son. Her first attempt at writing was over 5,000 words long which is too long for a children’s book which is by standard 32 pages long and between 500-1000 words. For the illustrations, Noemi sought one of her favorite via Instagram. Together Noemi and the illustrator developed the storyline and the colorful art.
Noemi is using the crowd sourcing app Kickstarted to launch her book. In her interview Noemi discuss how Kickstarter works and what backers get for their money – a hard cover, signed copy of her book, a bookmark and an enamel pin. She chose crowd sourcing because the traditional route would have taken too long between finding an agent, pitching the book, waiting for an offer to publish, and then the process of getting the book printed. Noemi says that because the Maui dolphin is critically endangered there wasn’t that kind of time to get the word out about the little whales. Without major conservation initiatives, she says the dolphins don’t have more than a decade or two before they become extinct.
Popoto book on Kickstarter beginning Feb. 9, 2022
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Pam Ferris-Olson (00:00): My guest today is Noemi Knight. Noemi Knight is a military spouse who worked as an elementary school teacher before her family was assigned to Italy. Italian work restrictions put her teaching career on hold. An unexpected consequence was that she has become an author. Noemi Knight has written a book about the critically endangered Maui dolphin. Noemi Knight says the Maui dolphin is the smallest and rarest of the world's dolphins. The Maui dolphin is only found in the waters off the west coast of New Zealand's north island. Noemi Knight's personal story is proof that a person doesn't have to be famous or accomplished in the field to become an important advocate for the ocean and her creatures. The Women Mind the Water podcast engages artists in conversations about their work and explores your connection with the ocean, through their stories, Women Mind the Water hopes to inspire and encourage action to protect the ocean and her creatures.
Pam Ferris-Olson (01:00): I'm really pleased today to have on the Women Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast. Noemi Knight is speaking to me from Naples, Italy. The story begins in the 1980s during a trip with her grandparents to New Zealand. The importance of that trip lay hidden until recently when Noemi Knight's son found a photo album of that trip Noemi Knight and photo of Noemi Knight's encounter with the Maui dolphins. Seeing the old photographs inspired Noemi Knight to learn more about the animals. She discovered that the Maui dolphins are critically endangered. This inspired Noemi Knight to write a book. Today, I want to explore her journey in writing the book and her message about the Maui dolphins. Welcome Noemi Knight, I think many listeners will be excited to learn about these rare whales. I also am sure there will be many listeners who will be interested to hear your journey to write and publish a book.
Pam Ferris-Olson (01:55): But before we get started, I want listeners to know that you are not only the wife of a service member, you are the daughter of parents who both served in the military. I want to recognize the efforts of your family on behalf of our country, as well as recognize the sacrifices you have made during their service. My heartfelt appreciation to all of you. Noemi Knight, why don't we begin by having you tell me the story of how you rediscovered the Maui dolphins. Tell me about how your son found the scrapbook, your feelings about seeing the photographs, and the research you did after seeing them.
Noemi Knight (02:32): Of course. And first I want to say, thank you, Pam Ferris-Olson, for having me on your show. I've watched several videos of your podcast, and it's really inspiring to be on this show with so many really inspiring women that have worked really hard to bring information to the world in their various ways, from art to writing books, to the research they have done. So thank you for that. So my story starts with a photo. In the summer last year, we went back to the States to visit my family because my father has been ill. He's recovering from pancreatic cancer. So one of the things I did while I was back in the states was to help my parents clean their house little and organize some old moving boxes. And that's when my son had found a bunch of scrap books from when I was a kid. And so he wanted to look through them.
Noemi Knight (03:14): So we went ahead and we took them out. We looked at them and in the back of one of them, we found a picture of me on a paddle boat with some dolphins. And on the back of it, it just said "1986, Auckland, New Zealand." And I had no recollection of this happening. And so my mother told me that was when my grandparents had taken me there, and we had gone to go see the dolphins, but she didn't know what kind of dolphins they were. And neither did I. So I went online and I search New Zealand dolphins. And that's when I discovered the Maui dolphins and the Hector's dolphins. They're related, but they're genetically different. And these were specifically the Maui dolphins. And when I looked further into them, I found that they were critically endangered. There's only between 40 to 62 of them alive today. So when I realized this, I knew I had to learn more about these dolphins, and I wanted to tell my son more about these dolphins. And that's when the idea of a book came up.
Pam Ferris-Olson (04:05): Okay. So you find out that the Maui dolphin is extremely rare. How does that knowledge lead you to want to write a book?
Noemi Knight (04:14): Honestly, it shocked me, because they were so interesting and so unique that I was surprised that they hadn't been more protected. The New Zealand does have protections in place, but they still have a lot of issues. The fishing industry conflicts with tourism, which conflicts with them needing to protect these dolphins, because the areas that they live, there's heavy fishing, there's heavy tourism, and that leaves the conflicts with the dolphin. So when I found this out and that not many people actually knew what Maui dolphins were outside of New Zealand, that's when I knew I had to do something. The only thing I could really think of was to write a children's picture book. I figure if more kids know who Maui dolphins are, then as they grow up as adults, they'll still continue to know who these Maui dolphins are and they'll want to help them more.
Pam Ferris-Olson (04:58): So had you ever considered writing a book before?
Noemi Knight (05:02): No, I hadn't. I used to teach, but writing children's books is not something I had ever considered for myself. I read tons of books, but the idea of writing one seemed like a massive undertaking, because you can only write so much in so many pages for children. It's limited to 32 pages and people recommend between 500 to 1000 words. So trying to take so much information and condense it in such a small little package just seemed impossible to me at the time.
Pam Ferris-Olson (05:34): Okay. So what was your first step? Did you start by writing a draft?
Noemi Knight (05:39): Yes. I started by writing a draft, and the very first I wrote would definitely not have made a good kid's book. It was about five to 6,000 words long.
Pam Ferris-Olson (05:48): Oh my.
Noemi Knight (05:48): Yeah, so it was a lot of information and it was extremely scientific, because as a teacher, I'm used to, these are the facts. We need to learn these facts. So taking this super large amount of scientific information and shortening it down to something that was more kid friendly was probably the biggest challenge, because I wanted children to know the facts about the Maui dolphins, but more importantly, I wanted to stress what has made them endangered and how we can help.
Pam Ferris-Olson (06:16): How did you find someone to work with you on illustrations?
Noemi Knight (06:20): Okay. I found my illustrator through Instagram. That was Alvin Adhi, and he's a really prolific artist. He does a lot of beautiful, gorgeous underwater art, bright, colorful. They would be perfect for a children's book, but I was afraid he wouldn't work with me because I'm completely unknown and he has thousands of followers and he posts all the time and he's constantly doing artwork with other people. So I started looking at other artists, and they sent me samples, but none of them were quite what I wanted. I had a very specific idea of how I wanted and, well, Alvin Adhi was who I wanted. So my husband told me, "Why don't you just go ahead and send him a message and see if he responds, and if that doesn't work out, then we can find someone else. We can try a few more people that you might like."
Noemi Knight (07:05): It's like, okay. So I sent Alvin a message and a day later he responded. He said, "Okay, I'm interested, send me your manuscript and I'll see what I think." And at that time it was still about 5,000 of words long. I hadn't finished condensing it. So Alvin, he read over it and he said, "This is fantastic. I really want to work with you on this." And I said, "Well, okay." And so we started working together and he not only did the art, but he also kind of coauthored because he gave me ideas on how I could cut it down, make it a little more kid friendly, because he has worked on a few other children's books. I think this is his first English language book, because he's actually from Java. He's Javanese. And so he's done a lot of books in his country, but this is the first time he's done an English book. And so we worked together. We bounced ideas back and forth to get the manuscript just the way we wanted. And then we started working on the artwork.
Pam Ferris-Olson (07:59): So how does collaboration with an illustrator work? Do you begin by explaining the story and the illustrator creates ideas of what they think the illustration should look like? Or does the illustrator take the images you have in your head and re conceptualize them in their own style?
Noemi Knight (08:18): For us it was a little bit of both. I already had some ideas while I was writing of what I want things to look like, so I have these really terrible sketches. I can hold one of them up here. For people that can't see it's these really blobby looking dolphins. They don't look like dolphins at all, but I had them in position of how I wanted them. And then, because I was thinking more in a science fact mind, I also have little things around them, like short nose, rounded fin, things like that. And so he went through and he took all those. And he came back to me and he goes, "Noemi Knight, I need to ask you to do one thing for me." And I said, "Yes, what is it Alvin?" And he said, "I need you to just trust me with the art, okay?"
Noemi Knight (09:01): And I said, "Okay, that's fine. We can do that." So he went ahead and he went through my manuscript after I shortened it down to where we knew we wanted it at the exact word count where no other edits were going to be made, and then he went through and he redid all of my sketch illustrations. So my blobs went from blobs to these lovely little images.
Pam Ferris-Olson (09:20): Nice.
Noemi Knight (09:21): And so people that can't see it, they're much nicer dolphins. They look like actual Maui dolphins.
Pam Ferris-Olson (09:26): They're very happy looking. They're very happy looking. I don't know how they make them happy, but they look happy.
Noemi Knight (09:32): Yes, he did an excellent job.
Pam Ferris-Olson (09:34): Would you share a picture or two from the book and discuss the look you were going for? And as you've been doing it wonderfully, describe the picture for those who are tuned into an audio only version of the podcast.
Noemi Knight (09:47): Okay. And so here was another page from the book that my original sketching, and it's two kids on a beach waving at the dolphins. Again, the dolphin does not look very much like a dolphin and it's making noises like click, click, chirp, chirp. And so Alvin fixed that for me. And then I had another scene where I wanted a kid by himself in a classroom. All of his friends have disappeared and he has no one to play with. So in my original sketch was this stick person standing in a hallway with some lockers around it. And they're all very badly drawn. My proportions are all wrong.
Pam Ferris-Olson (10:24): I think they're great conceptually. They're great.
Noemi Knight (10:28): Well, Alvin felt that that wouldn't work well, that it would work better if we had this. And so he sent me this, and it's a child sitting at a desk and he's looking very confused because there's nobody else around him in the classroom.
Pam Ferris-Olson (10:39): Right.
Noemi Knight (10:40): So that worked much better.
Pam Ferris-Olson (10:45): Okay. Can you tell me a little bit more about the story line?
Noemi Knight (10:49): Okay. So the story follows the dolphin Popoto, and Popoto is actually the Maori word for these types of dolphins. It means small or little one. So it's a perfect nickname. And it follows Popoto as he's telling us about his family and how much he loves being with them. And then it goes into about how, but things like fishing nets and pollution are affecting their livelihood and that if people would remember that they're there and do things to help prevent pollution, such is using reusable straws, reusable containers, remember to recycle their trash and sort it in the appropriate bins, and to prevent things from getting in the ocean, that everybody, including the dolphins and all marine life and people and the whole planet, could get along better and live healthy, happy and fulfilling lives.
Pam Ferris-Olson (11:37): Okay. So I understand that you're using Kickstarter to help produce the book. Can you explain for me what Kickstarter is and why you chose to launch your book on that platform?
Noemi Knight (11:50): Okay. Yeah. Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform. So what it is, is usually people, like myself, present their project to people on Kickstarter. They usually have a funding goal in mind, and it can be anywhere from a $100 to thousands of dollars. And the idea is that people, if they like your project and they want to see it come to life, they can make what we call a pledge. And the pledge is basically, in my case, it would be for pre-ordering my book. And they would get a copy of my book. The version they will get will be hard copy. And usually Kickstarter, the backers also get additional rewards. For instance, for my books, I have things like bookmarks. I have enamel pins that are made that say Friend of Popoto on them. So those will be only available through the Kickstarter.
Noemi Knight (12:37): So those are special limited edition type items. And then I also have things like tote bags, and I am working on getting a plushy made to go with the book. So that's exciting. So Kickstarter is great for crowdfunding. And the reason I chose to use Kickstarter was because when I looked into doing traditional publishing, it takes way too long. It can take upwards to two years to get an agent and then to present it towards publishers. And then it could take, who knows how long for them to decide if they actually want to publish your book. In the case of Popoto, these dolphins are critically endangered. And the scientists have said that they might not last past 2030, 2050. So time is of the essence. So I wanted my book out there right now, as soon as possible, so that people would know what Maui dolphins are, where they live, what their problems are, and for the awareness to be out there for them to be saved. So that's why I chose Kickstarter.
Pam Ferris-Olson (13:34): Can you tell people how they can go and learn about the offering? And is there a limited run to the copies and a limited time to participate in the offering?
Noemi Knight (13:44): Okay. Yeah. When you go to the Kickstarter link, it'll have the pledge. Some of the pledges are for single copy books. For $25, you get a hard copy book, bookmarks, printable activity sheets. Me and Alvin have created some coloring sheets and some activity sheets that go specifically with the book, as well as author signature on the book. And then I have rewards that go all the way up to $400 for schools to purchase. And then they can get up to 50 books, 50 bookmarks, the plushies, the enamel pins, the works, and so that's what I'm hoping to do with that. The Kickstarter campaign is for 30 days. So when it starts on February 9th, from then to 30 days, people can buy books. I'm planning to order a thousand books, but if I need more than that, then I can do that. But I'm not thinking I'm going to get a thousand books right off the bat. I hope I do. But my plan is at least a thousand of everything to start off.
Pam Ferris-Olson (14:41): Very nice. So what's your goal with the book?
Noemi Knight (14:45): My goal mainly is just to get the word out about the Maui dolphins, because they are correctly endangered. Last I heard from the New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust, there was only between 45 to 62 Maui dolphins, because it is calving season and they have spotted a few calves. So their numbers are hovering around 60, but the first year of life is the most dangerous for these dolphins because they're extremely small. A full grown Maui dolphin only weighs about 110 pounds.
Pam Ferris-Olson (15:15): That's tiny.
Noemi Knight (15:16): Yeah, they're really tiny. They're 110 pounds and around four feet long. So as big as my son. And you could pick them up if you wanted to. They're super tiny. And so because of that, they live close to the shore. They're not deep water dolphins. They don't go in water deeper than a hundred meters because since they're so tiny, they have to come up to the surface more than most other dolphins do. They come up to breathe maybe every four to five minutes. And so that's part of what puts them in so much danger with boating accidents and fish net accidents and fishing lines. And it puts them in direct contact with pollutants that are washing all off into the water because they live so close to the coast.
Pam Ferris-Olson (15:55): Right. When will you feel that your project has been a success?
Noemi Knight (15:59): I'll consider it a success if one day I walk into a school and a kid says, "That's a Maui dolphin. I learned about it from this book."
Pam Ferris-Olson (16:07): Oh, nice.
Noemi Knight (16:09): Because the biggest concern with these dolphins is, like I said before, not many people outside New Zealand know what they are. If you ask a New Zealander, they say, "Oh yeah, that's a Maui dolphin. I know what those are." But outside of New Zealand, nobody seems to have ever heard of these dolphins. Every time I bring it up, people are like, "Oh Hawaii." I'm like, no, not Hawaii.
Pam Ferris-Olson (16:28): Right. Because there's a Maui.
Noemi Knight (16:29): Not Hawaii. Yeah. And then some people have mistaken it for the Florida football team and I'm like, no, not those.
Pam Ferris-Olson (16:37): So before we end our interview, I'd like to ask you for ideas on how others can make a positive difference in the lives of ocean creatures. Excuse me. And as you are a mother of an elementary school child and a teacher, would you suggest things that adults can do with youngsters?
Noemi Knight (16:56): Yeah, of course. The best way to illustrate to youngsters what they can do is to lead by example. If you see trash on the ground, pick it up, take it to the nearest recycling bin. If you are using plastic straws, stop. Start using reusable straws. We went and we got a whole pack of reusable straws and we can just clean them, brush them out, and that's what we use every time now. Reusable shopping bags instead of plastic bags. Here in Italy, we like to use them a lot. I don't know how big they are in America anymore. I haven't been back to the States in a long time, but reusable shopping bags are a huge plus because you just fold them up, take them with you, load your groceries in, take them home, put them back in your car and reuse them the next time.
Noemi Knight (17:37): Other things that you can lead by example is if you see someone else littering on the ground, maybe remind them, "Hey, could you maybe take that over to the trash?" We've done it so often now that my son automatically does that now. When he's at the park and he sees water bottles and things laying around or face masks laying on the ground, he'll say, "Hey, we need to put that away from the Maui dolphins."
Pam Ferris-Olson (17:59): Nice. So, Noemi Knight, it's been a pleasure having you on the Women Mind the Water podcast. You're very passionate and it's very exciting to talk to you. I hope listeners will agree that this has been a most interesting discussion about a little known and extremely rare marine mammal and a valuable parameter on one way individuals can take the initiative to make a difference. I'd like to remind listeners that I have been speaking with Noemi Knight for the Women Mind the Water podcast series. This series can be viewed on WomenMindtheWater.com. An audio only version of this podcast is available on the Women Mind the Water website, on iTunes and on other sites such as Spotify and Stitcher. Women Mind the Water is grateful to Jane Rice for the use of her song, "Women of Water." All rights for the Women Mind the Water name and logo belong to Pam Ferris-Olson. This is Pam Ferris-Olson.
