Daniella Ferretti / Children’s Book / Lights On! Glow-in-the-Dark Deep Ocean Creatures

Daniella Ferretti was commissioned to illustrate a new book for young readers about bioluminescence. Lights On! Glow-in-the-Dark Deep Ocean Creatures is about a journey to the mysterious world of the deep sea where fascinating creatures make their own light. It was an attractive and even magical theme for this illustrator that grew up and lives by the sea. 

Daniella worked months on the book, composing pages and trying to bring the darkness of the ocean and the light of the creatures on each page.  The sketching process started in January in Chile, next to the Pacific Ocean that included some personal visual memories: walking in Galicia, sunsets in the Mediterranean ocean, and a lot of other references. 

Readers will be delighted to learn and discover many of the amazing creatures like the viperfish, that hunts with a blinking beacon to attract unsuspecting prey into its mouth,  the glowing fireworm, rising from the depths in a glowing cluster to search for a mate and discover how the bioluminescent vampire squid evades predators with its twinkling lights.

The book was written by Donna B. McKinney and edited by Yeehoo Press, and it will be for sale in March 2023.