We are grateful to high school students Charles Bales and Madelyn Kim, the young creators behind Orbiting Objects, for donating copies of their book to the STEM Gift Drive.
We love putting STEM books into the hands of young people. There is something particularly STEMtastic, though, about young people creating those books—and then choosing to share them with other young people.
Orbiting Objects explores the satellites, spacecraft, and other objects circling our planet, combining Charles’s interest in writing and the space industry with Madelyn’s artistic talent and fascination with the natural world. Through Charles’s writing and Madelyn’s detailed illustrations, readers learn more about what’s orbiting above us—and the science and engineering that put it there.
Together, Charles and Madelyn created something designed not only to teach, but to spark curiosity about what exists beyond Earth—and what might be possible for the young people reading it. Publishing a book required their time, talent, research, persistence, and plenty of work. They then chose to use what they created to help open that world of discovery to others.
A friendship—and a perfect balance of talents
Charles and Madelyn have known each other practically their entire lives.
“Our parents are friends, so we were raised along the lines of cousins,” Charles explained.
For Madelyn, that long friendship helped make their collaboration a natural one.
“What inspired us to work together was the fact that we have the perfect balance of talents,” she said. “He’s a great writer and I’m a great artist.”
The inspiration for Orbiting Objects also grew from experiences they shared long before they became author and illustrator.
Madelyn remembers lying outside with Charles and another friend, looking upward at a star-filled sky.
“I remember how we would speculate as little lights slowly danced across and how we would sometimes sit in dead silence, the sky being enough to fill the quiet,” she recalled.
Those nights looking upward helped inspire the subject of the book.
For Charles, that interest in space now extends to a possible future career. He sees the rapidly changing space industry as somewhere he might eventually find his own place.
“It is changing and growing more than any other industry right now,” he said. “I wanted to inspire the next generation to become involved in the space industry as it grows as well.”
Sharp Logic Meets Soft Beauty.
Creating Orbiting Objects required both imagination and research.
Their process was collaborative. Charles outlined the objects they wanted to cover and what illustrations the book would need. Madelyn researched and created the artwork, and Charles developed the text around the illustrations.
“Writing the book consisted of outlining what Maddie should draw and then finishing the words around the illustrations to make everything fit,” he explained.
The publishing process brought its own lessons. Charles said one of his biggest surprises was discovering how much editing and revision were necessary to prepare an illustrated book for Kindle Direct Publishing.
“Most of what I thought would be difficult was easy and vice versa,” he said.
Madelyn experienced the science of the book through a different lens.
While creating the illustrations, she found herself examining technology in extraordinary detail. One image in particular—the Zvezda Service Module—required hours of careful work.
“I spent hours making sure I didn’t miss any small detail,” she said. “This gave me newfound knowledge and appreciation for the complexity of such an amazing piece of technology.”
That intersection between scientific precision and creativity is part of what makes STEM so fascinating to her.
“There’s something about learning about the natural world that is almost artistic; it has a beauty to it,” Madelyn explained. “This stark contrast between sharp logic and soft beauty is what draws me in.”
This is a great reminder of how many different doorways there are into STEM.
Her curiosity extends well beyond space. In her free time, she researches animals and plants and creates anatomical diagrams in her sketchbooks to better understand what she is learning. In the future, she is considering becoming either a doctor or veterinarian.
Charles also has a thoughtful view of what STEM represents.
“To me, STEM is a career that seeks to add to human knowledge and/or apply that knowledge to real-world problems, where the constraints are the universe,” he said.
Creating something takes more than an idea
The finished book also represents persistence.
Madelyn was balancing the project with cross-country practice and other parts of her summer. Some days began early with running and continued with hours spent inside painting.
“Illustrating this book was hard,” she said. “Regardless of how hard it was, however, in the end I love making art.”
The experience taught her something larger than illustration.
“This book means a lot to me because it proved to myself that I can do the seemingly impossible,” she said. “It taught me that all I need to succeed is the guts to try in the first place.”
Her advice to other young people is equally direct.
“Pursuing your passions is a mental game, and your opponent is yourself,” she said. “You have to be consistent and show up even when you don’t feel like it.”
Charles approaches that same challenge by focusing on momentum.
“If any student feels they cannot do something, I think they should do something—specifically read a book—that really energizes them and makes them feel excited, then use that excitement to make some small step towards progress.”
Sparking Glittering Curiosity
Publishing Orbiting Objects wasn’t the end of the project for Charles and Madelyn. They have also been donating copies to organizations around the country to help get other young people interested in space.
“We decided to donate copies to the STEM Gift Drive because we want to get children interested in space,” Charles said. “The STEM Gift Drive aligns with our book’s goals.”
Madelyn sees the donation as an opportunity to pass curiosity forward.
“By donating to the STEM Gift Drive, we get to educate many young children on the world that exists beyond our world,” she said, with the hope of “sparking glittering curiosity.”
Sparking “glittering curiosity” is exactly what we hope a STEM gift can do.
The STEM Gift Drive provides young people with STEM toys, games, books, and other resources that invite them to explore something new. Orbiting Objects brings another dimension to that mission: it was created by young people who followed their own curiosity, created something from it, and then chose to share it with others.
We often refer to “future innovators” – but the future can be right now. Young people don’t have to wait until adulthood to write, create, research, build, illustrate, experiment, or contribute to STEM.
With their book, Charles and Madelyn demonstrate what can happen when curiosity becomes action, and when that action becomes something that makes a difference for others.
The exploration continues
Although another book is not currently in the works, both Charles and Madelyn continue to explore their interests.
Madelyn would happily return to illustration if another book idea emerges, while continuing to explore science, art, animals, plants, medicine, and the natural world.
Charles remains active in space-related opportunities for students, including the National Space Society’s Global Space Debates. He writes about aerospace and related topics through his blog, EcoAero.org, where he is a writer as well as the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief.
Years ago, Charles and Madelyn were lying in the grass, looking up at little lights moving across the night sky and wondering what was up there – then translated their curiosity into a book that can inspire others.
Where might that lead for another young person? Maybe to questions about what’s beyond Earth. Maybe to an interest in science or engineering. Maybe to writing a book, picking up a paintbrush, or deciding to turn an idea of their own into something real.
That’s the fun of curiosity: it’s a mysterious, unpredictable journey.
Thank you, Charles and Madelyn, for sharing Orbiting Objects with the world, and for helping put a little more curiosity into circulation.
