This title immediately grabbed me. Don’t Eat the Cleaners! sounds like a Poison Control PSA. But the eye-catching cover tells a different story. Have you ever considered how ocean animals get clean? Or how they get dirty in the first place? Susan Stockdale provides an engrossing primer on all things …
From the flap copy: An old blue van may not look like much, but it holds everything one girl’s family needs. There’s an outdoor kitchen, a hammock-closet above the family bed, and a cozy library full of favorite books. But sometimes living in Old Blue makes her feel like she’s …
Hello, Picture Book Builders people. I have a new name and that name is Gam-Gam. Back in February, my daughter had TWO babies. (She has always been an overachiever.) Of course, I have been giving those adorable baby boys lots of books. This is the latest one–The Baby Who Stayed …
Hello Picture Book Builders Family! What a treat it is to be able to celebrate the book birthday (TODAY!) of my latest picture book, I WILL ALWAYS BE…! It is especially sweet because I get to celebrate it with my fabulous creator-in-crime, illustrator Rahele Jomepour Bell! Before I get into the interview …
I bought piles of picture books before I ever had children. And well before I wrote my own books. I read those books myself, of course, reveling in each word. And, when my two daughters — who are now 27 and 23 — arrived, I read to them. When Gwen …
Cuteness alert! I asked my friend Charlotte for a peek at her new book, Hard Hat Hank and the Sky-High Solution, and was I ever glad I did! This is one of those books that, while scrolling down the pages of the PDF, I kept thinking, “Ooh, the boyos are …
Quiet books don’t always need the same structure that other picture books have. Quiet stories are often told without true arcs or without wild swings in the action. Or without any action at all. Sometimes they are just vehicles to explain the way things are, or to express a feeling. …
Hey Picture Book Builders! I have the sweetest and fluffiest treat for you today, just in time for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which is coming up on April 12th! I am thrilled to have the amazing Jenna Waldman with us to celebrate the release of her newest rhyming picture …
The poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “How can the biographer know when enough is known, and known with sufficient certainty? What about secrets, what about errors, what about small black holes where there is nothing at all?…And what about the waywardness of life itself—the proclivity toward randomness—the sudden meaningless uplift …
Beth Anderson is sort of a regular over here at Picture Book Builders, because, well, she is just so darn good at building picture books! I’m so happy that she’s joining us to talk about her latest book, HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: KATE WARNE AND THE RACE TO SAVE ABRAHAM …