MID-DAY: Why did you decide to write Dancing Frogs and Other Creatures in Verse? 
ZAI WHITAKER: SINCE the time writing became a serious pursuit, my target audience has been children, and the focus, wildlife and conservation. As for verse, I turned to it — and especially light verse — as entertainment for my then terminally ill sister; we laughed and discussed rhymes and reasons together, ironic times of merriment during her terrible illness. I continued writing silly-billy poems after her death, and I think she would have liked that.

MD: While planning the chapters, which were some of the surprise packages that made it to the final list? And why?
ZW: I was expecting Funny Bones to be rejected by the editors because of its slightly gruesome message but stalwart editor Sudeshna Shome Ghosh didn’t bat an eye, for which I’m very grateful. And I surprised myself by writing about the debris orb spider (below, left), because its untidy web had never impressed me.