After throwing the biggest wedding of the year and spending the rest of the summer bopping around Europe, Lauren Sánchez is ready to get back to work. On Tuesday, Mrs. Bezos announced her new children’s book, The Fly Who Flew Under the Sea, in a People exclusive. For those of you who don’t keep up with Sánchez’s literary oeuvre, this is a follow-up to her 2024 book, The Fly Who Flew to Space.
This time around, Flynn the Fly (who may or may not be inspired by Sánchez’s former yoga teacher’s idea for a cat who goes to space) makes “a wrong turn at Cape Canaveral” and winds up in the ocean, where he learns all about marine life. If you can’t get to the first one by the time the sequel comes out in March, I think you’re fine to just jump right into the series. You won’t be that confused.
Also on Tuesday, the Bezos Earth Fund announced a $37.5 million grant “to accelerate ocean protection and support Pacific Islanders as they safeguard” 835,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean. “I’m proud that a story kids will love can sit right next to real action for the planet,” Sánchez told People.
The helicopter pilot went on to share some of her opinions on the power of children’s books and her belief that AI can’t replace reading a physical book to a child. “Here’s my slightly spicy take: I’m a tech optimist … who still believes in paper at bedtime,” Sánchez said. “Books, not bots. AI can summarize, but it can’t snuggle your babies.”
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“I believe wonder builds muscles, curiosity, resilience, and courage,” the author continued. “Kids’ books aren’t just cute, they’re gym class for the mind and heart. I’m excited that this story makes the ocean feel close, like a neighbor you want to protect. And yes, I’ll beat this drum: Books, not bots. Tech can be brilliant, but attention is precious. If Flynn can pull a kid off a screen and into a story, that’s a win for parents and life.”
Books, not bots. A sentiment so nice she said it twice! These quotes were hitting my ear in an odd way, so I did some checking. GPTZero, an AI detector, was “highly confident” that Sánchez’s quotes were AI-generated. Of course, there is no surefire way to determine whether or not Sánchez had a bot help her write about books; maybe she just talks like that. We’ve reached out to a representative for Sánchez and will update this post when we hear back.
In any case, congratulations to Sánchez on her latest book. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but where will Flynn fly to in the third installment? I fear that sending him to space and the ocean means that she’s knocked out the two most interesting places for a fly to go. Everywhere else is just on land. She might have to get real freaky with it next time. The Fly Who Flew Into the Amazon Web Service Servers has a nice ring to it.
