BEAVERS!!! My Favorite Rodent Gets a Q&A with Alison Pearce Stevens and Natasha Donovan About When Beavers Move In

I just happen to really like beavers.

I mean, how could I not? They can create canals, they have see-through third eyelids, they store food at the bottom of ponds for the winter, and Javert wore them as a hat! What’s not to love about any of those facts?

But see, the problem with my enthusiasms is that they get out. Clever publicists then get wind of my obsessions and know precisely what books to pitch me. So when one of them pointed out to me that there was a new beaver book on the horizon WITH new information about their conservation involving the biologists of the Tulalip Tribes AND that beavers are now integral in fighting forest fires (whaaaa???)… I’m only human, people.

And yes! All that I just told you is true. It’s information you can get from When Beavers Move In by Alison Pearce Stevens (last seen on this site discussing Animal Climate Heroes), with illustrations from Natasha Donovan, out as of yesterday. Here’s a brief description from the publisher:

When beavers move in, they chew down a tree.
They nibble the bark.
And they drag the branches into a stream.

Beavers topple trees and build dams, which can cause floods and disrupt neighborhoods. So what do we do when beavers move in? In Puget Sound, we call the Tulalip Tribes. They send biologists to help relocate our furry friends to a place far from people, where the beavers can be free.

Poetic text and gorgeous art make this an irresistible read with gentle STEM tie-in.

Today we’re talking with both the author and illustrator of this book to find out everything that went into its beavery making:

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Betsy Bird: Alison, thank you so much for taking the time out to talk to me today. I’ve been enamored of beavers for years and years (all thanks to Rachel Poliquin’s Beavers: The Superpower Field Guide). But that’s just me. What drew you to them so much that you decided to turn them into the stars of your latest book? 

Alison Pearce Stevens: Thanks so much for having us here, Betsy. Beavers are amazing, aren’t they? I’ve been enamored with them since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until I read Ben Goldfarb’s Eager that I truly appreciated what they do and how they can heal landscapes. I became, as Ben says, a beaver believer.

I thought about including them in Animal Climate Heroes, but they didn’t fit neatly into that framework. Beavers are ecological superheroes, but the impacts they have on the landscape are so wide-ranging, they really needed a book of their own.

BB: You’ll hear no arguments on my end there. And Natasha! It is a delight and an honor to host you here today. I’ve been such a huge fan of your work over the years. I’ve been wracking my brain, but I think that this is the first time I’ve ever seen you illustrate a beaver. What drew you to this particular manuscript?

Natasha Donovan: I think a beaver or two has made its way into my work before, but this book definitely gave me some great beaver-drawing practice! I love working on stories that feature the interconnectivity of the natural world, and in particular, stories that explore the ways in which human relationships with nature are shifting in the Anthropocene era. And this book definitely ticked those boxes. 

BB: Alison, as a former scientist, I’m curious about what you specifically bring to a book like WHEN BEAVERS MOVE IN. How do you tackle an informational book for kids? Are there techniques you prefer? Types of research that you insist on? What makes your books a little different than others on similar topics?

Alison: My training is in behavioral ecology, which looks at animal behavior in the context of its surroundings, and that background infuses everything I write about. I think people often miss how interconnected nature is (including humans—we’re part of nature too!), so I try to knit things together to show the broader impacts of our actions.

When I research a book, I always start with scientific papers and interviews with scientists. I visit in person when I can. From there it’s a question of how to approach the story. I thought about this book for a long time, but it wasn’t until I mentioned it to my editor, Laura Godwin (another beaver believer), that it gained traction. She suggested writing it in the style of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and that was all I needed to get it on paper.

BB: Oh, clever. So, Natasha, how does one even begin to figure out how to most accurately draw the largest rodent in North America? Where do you tend to look for photographs? How do you conduct your research?

Natasha: I usually just start any book project by searching Google Images and creating a folder full of ideas and inspiration. For this book, I really starting noticing that I now need to pay special attention to the intrusion of Al-generated images in the results! Luckily there are some tricks to exclude those results. I also found that trail cam footage on YouTube was very helpful for this project; because beavers are often active at night (and they’re also just pretty secretive), it can be hard to find good images of some of the behaviours described in the book.

BB: Aww. Trail cam footage is such a good idea. Now, Alison, tell us a bit more about the Tulalip Beaver Project. How did you discover this organization? Did you contact them before writing this book? And why was it key to include them in your manuscript?

Alison: I first discovered the Tulalip Beaver Project while researching an article on rewilding. Rewilding focuses on returning animals to landscapes where they’ve been gone for some time. For a long time, biologists focused their landscape restoration efforts on plants. It’s only in the last decade or so that they’ve realized animals play important roles in maintaining those ecosystems. Indigenous groups, of course, have known this for thousands of years, and there are some incredible Indigenous-led ecosystem restoration efforts that deserve people’s attention; the Beaver Project is just one.

I initially spoke with one of the biologists who was involved in relocating the beavers. Once I had a draft of the story, she put me in touch with the Tulalip spokesperson, who passed the manuscript to their chairwoman. She approved the story and gave me the quote at the beginning. I wouldn’t have tried to publish this without their approval. Even though the story focuses on the ecological impact of reintroducing beavers, it mentions their work, and it was important that I didn’t misrepresent it in any way.

BB: It shows. And one of the most surprising facts that I really did not know prior to reading your book was the connection between beavers and forest fires. The fact that they can protect forests from these fires is just mind-blowing to me. At what point did you learn this incredible info?

Alison: When I was researching the book, there was a scientific paper that came out demonstrating this. There are aerial photos of green beaver-created wetlands surrounded by acres of charred earth. It’s incredible to see. And the more of these types of wetlands we have, the better protected the forests will be, because the wetlands soak up and store so much moisture that seeps out into surrounding areas and makes those areas less likely to burn.

When I first started researching rewilding, Washington State was one of the only places in the U.S. where it was legal to relocate beavers. Other states considered them a pest that needed to be killed, but—happily—they’ve since changed their tune. California, after so many wildfires, now has an active beaver relocation program. Molly Alvez, the biologist I interviewed from the Tulalip Beaver Project, now works for the state of California relocating beaver families up into the mountains.

BB: That’s incredible. Now Natasha, I appreciated that your beavers were consistently realistic, but also quite adorable. You never anthropomorphize them or anything like that. Did you run across any particular challenges, expected or unexpected, when drawing them?

Natasha: Beaver feet are surprisingly hard to draw, and it’s just as difficult to find good reference photos of them! 

BB: Ha! I kind of love that. You know, part of what makes this book so striking is just how lovely it is. How do you decide what kind of color scheme to use for a book of this sort? And what kind of input do you receive from the Art Director?

Natasha: Colour schemes are a largely intuitive process for me – sometimes I wish I could be more methodical about it, but for me it’s really just a matter of testing things out until they look right. Art directors often have invaluable feedback, sometimes just about the placement of the text (which I frequently forget to properly account for!), but also they will suggest different perspectives or layouts to try in subsequent drafts. Picture books are such a collaborative process, and it can be so helpful to get multiple sets of eyes on an image that you’ve been staring at for a long time.

BB: Absolutely. Alison, tell us a bit about the research that you conducted for this title. Did it change any of your preliminary drafts?

Alison: For this book, I read scientific papers and interviewed the people doing the relocations. I would have loved to go visit but it wasn’t an option at the time. I research my books pretty obsessively before ever writing a word. I have to feel like I have a complete understanding of a subject before I try to write about it. And this was one of those rare books that, because I thought about it for so long, when I sat down to write it, I only needed an afternoon. I added back matter later, but the story itself came out pretty much as it is in the book. (It doesn’t usually work that way!)

BB: On a related note, Natasha, was there anything you tried early on and didn’t work, or did this pretty much pan out perfectly from the moment you started working on it?

Natasha: I’d be very impressed (and a little intimidated) to meet an artist who’s immediately satisfied with their work! I always go through many rough drafts before I feel comfortable moving on to final colour. In this book, most of the spreads have quite a bit going on in order to demonstrate the complexity of the beavers’ lives and how they impact everything around them. I went through a number of rough drafts trying to find a good balance between including as much as possible and creating simple legible images. 

BB: Speaking of which, Alison, you’ve been paired with the incomparable Natasha Donovan on this book. Were you aware of Natasha’s work prior to working alongside her? And how do you feel about the final product?

Alison: It was super important to me that the book had an Indigenous illustrator, and it took us a while to find the right person. I wasn’t aware of Natasha’s work until I read A River’s Gifts, written by Patricia Newman and gorgeously illustrated by Natasha. I immediately sent her name to my editors, and they agreed she would be perfect. I’m so grateful she agreed to illustrate BEAVERS. I can’t imagine any other artwork bringing the story to life the way Natasha did. I love the final product so much. When I first saw the finished art, I cried.

BB: Completely and utterly understandable. Finally, for the both of you, what else are you working on these days? What’s next for you?

Natasha: I worked with Karina Iceberg on her lovely debut picture book, A Good Hide, which was recently released. I also worked with Richard Ho on his story Slow and Steady, which is a delightful retelling of the fable of “The Tortoise and The Hare” – that one will be out in 2027. I also recently finished illustrating Indigenous History from A to Z by Traci Sorrell.

Alison: I have a book about rewilding the Chicago River that’s slated to come out later this year (I think; the timing is still a bit fuzzy). The Wild Mile showcases the work of Urban Rivers, this scrappy nonprofit (I say that with utmost respect—they’re an amazing group!) that’s creating the world’s first floating eco-park in the heart of Chicago. Their floating gardens are already attracting wildlife that’s been absent from the river for a long time: fish, beavers, river otters, and so much more. The Wild Mile isn’t too far from you, Betsy. You’ll have to check it out!

BB: I had no idea! I’ve never heard of it. And I have every intention in checking that place out, as well as ALL of these books you two mentioned!

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Many thanks to Natasha (the aforementioned A Good Hide is seriously worth your eyeballs) and Alison for taking the time to answer my questions today. Thanks too to Kelsey Marrujo and the team at Macmillian Children’s Publishing Group for helping me put all these answers together. When Beavers Move In is, as I mentioned, out now.

Beaver believers of the world, unite!

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026, Interviews