Exciting news! My picture book biography about Jane Addams, DANGEROUS JANE (illustrated by Alice Ratterree) releases from Peachtree Publishers September 1st — just in time for Jane’s birthday on September 6th! So I’d like to celebrate Ms. Addams by sharing a bit of my research, interviewing illustrator Alice Ratterree, and offering a …
Hello, all, and happy April! I’m so pleased to have my fabulous agent, Jennifer Mattson, with us today. Before joining Andrea Brown Literary in 2008, Jennifer held various positions as an editor, book reviewer and bookseller—excellent preparation for her current profession (you’ll find her bio and literary tastes here). I …
Hello again, it’s Barb Rosenstock. PBB asked me to return to fill-in for Pat Zietlow Miller for a few months. I decided to develop a series of posts on picture book editors by interviewing the style-makers and award-winners—the folks who run their own imprints. I hope you learn as much …
We’ve had all sorts of good news around PBB lately, and I’m thrilled to keep it going. Today, author Anika Denise is here to chat about her new book, Monster Trucks (HarperCollins), illustrated by Nate Wragg (who we all know, of course, from the wonderful Elwood Bigfoot written by our own Jill Esbaum). Publishers Weekly gave …
Last month I posted about Elise Gravel’s I Want a Monster, and I loved her work so much I had to visit her website (which, by the way, is available in both English and French. Cool, eh?) to see what other books she had in the pipeline. When I saw that …
I am beyond thrilled to have Jane Dyer with us today to celebrate the arrival of our new book All We Know (HarperCollins). As I write this, though, I’m struggling with which adjectives to use to describe the many books Jane has illustrated—more than fifty of them—since her first was …
I love hearing people’s path-to-publication stories. I mean, who doesn’t love a tale of struggle, heartache, and resilience in overcoming steep odds? So when my friend Susie Wilde—writing coach, teacher, and Kid Lit Ambassador Extraordinaire—told me her student Lucy Rozier recently had her first book published, I knew I wanted her to visit …
Spring is right around the corner, and I can’t wait to watch my flowerbeds unfold, leaf by leaf. The weeding that soon follows? Meh. But that dirty work is rewarded when I come upon a toad hiding in a shady spot. Good to know they’re in there, eating the slugs …
Three years ago, when Random House editor Maria Modugno was considering illustrators for my manuscript Henry Wants More!, she shared a sample of Brooke Boynton Hughes’s work. Well, I was smitten. And I’m hardly alone in my admiration. Brooke has won SCBWI’s Mentorship Award and two Portfolio Honor Awards in …
I’m so excited to have author/illustrator Rebecca Bond here today to talk about her gorgeous book, Out of the Woods – A True Story of an Unforgettable Event (FSG, 2015). What a treat! When I read that Out of the Woods was based on a family story passed down from Rebecca’s …