New Books in Children's Literature

George Brown is the executive director of the Highlights Foundation, scion to the Myers family, which created Highlights Magazine. The Highlights Foundation runs workshops for small groups of authors and illustrators in its bucolic surroundings, the homestead of Garry and Caroline Myers, who co-founded Highlights for Children in 1946. George discusses his fascination with children's books and the people who create them, offering tips based on his lifelong experience.

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In this lively interview with author Sarah Aronson, we celebrate her brand new picture book, Abzuglutely!: Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug, illustrated by Andrea D'Aquino ‎ (Calkins Creek, October 15, 2024), which focuses on Bella's determination to fight for what is right, as part of her belief in Tikun Olam (repairing the world). We talk about Sarah's life and career, and her own quest for Tikun Olam through writing and helping other authors. We also discuss her biography on Rube Goldberg (Just Like Rube Goldberg, illustrated by Robert Neubecker), and the importance of pursuing our passions, and finding joy in the creative process. The interview is interspersed with Sarah's sage advice for authors.

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Pat (Patrick) Gracey is a senior librarian at the Toronto Public Library where he is a children's services specialist, leading the team that selects new picture books for 17 downtown locations (!). 

In our interview, Pat talks about the magic inherent in picture books, and focuses on some of his favorite Canadian (and semi-Canadian) picture books, including The Log Driver's Waltz by Wade Hemsworth, Illustrations by Jennifer Phelan , Think Again by JonArno Lawson, Illustrated by Julie Morstad, Nana's Cold Day by Adwoa Badoe Pictures by Budshra Junaid, Down by Jim Long's Stage: Rhymes for Children and Young Fish by Al Pittman Illustrated by Pam Hall, Canada Counts (A Charles Pachter Counting Book), Canada in Words by Per-Henrik Gürth, The Night Gardner by The Fan Brothers (Terry and Eric), A Face is a Poem by Julie Morstad, Sleep Little Creep by David Quinn and Ashley Spires (illustrator), The Paper Boat by Thao Lam, and What Happened on Thursday by Ayo Oyeku, illustrated by Lydia Mba.

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In our three-way interview, I celebrate with world-renowned children's authors Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple (who is also Jane's daughter), their brand new picture book, We Celebrate the Light, published last week (October 8, 2024) by Rise x Penguin Workshop with the 'luminous' illustrations of Jieting Chen (Illustrator). We talk about the process by which Jane and Heidi write their books together, their separate and joint writing careers, thoughts on writing, craft, and their recent reconnection with Jewish themes and subjects.

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Tina Shepardson and I celebrate her wonderful new picture book The Sorry Seeds, just published (two days ago!!) by Gnome Road with gorgeous illustrations by Bong Hyun Shin. In our candid conversation, Tina reveals the true childhood story that led her to write the manuscript, and discusses her own journey from child to teacher to author, the critical steps she took to become a published children's author, how she felt when she first saw the visualization of her main character, Courtney, by the illustrator, and her advice for writers aspiring to break through. We also discuss the importance of having a particularly strong story arc, especially when the teaching message is obvious, as in the present story.

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Are you ready for the story of a credit card that takes cash on a spending spree? In my interview with picture book author Kimberly Wilson, we celebrate brand new book, A Credit Card Takes Charge, published just last week by Page Street Kids (Oct. 1st, 2024). It's third in her series of hilarious, punniful picture books dealing with all things monetary, with a fourth (a piggy bank book) coming out next year. Kimberly talks about her journey, from the eight year-old story writer, through a career in marketing, and returning to her passion of writing stories for children. One intriguing tip from this exciting interview - considering writing the pitch of your picture book story before you sit down and write the story.

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In this, our second interview, Cathy Stefanec Ogren talks about her brand new, wonderfully written and illustrated (by Alexandra Thompson) picture book, The Little Red Chair, just published by Sleeping Bear Press (August 1, 2024).

We discuss Cathy's journey to success, the challenge of writing a picture book manuscript that 'begs' to be illustrated, and Cathy's advice for authors and secret sauce (writing plays?).

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Professor Yirmi Pinkus celebrates with us the rerelease of the classic Hebrew children's book, 100 Rooms by Haya Shenhav, in a new American edition (Kalaniot Books, 2024), published (May 1st, 2024) by Kalaniot Books, with his stunning new illustrations. We also discuss his career as an illustrator alongside being an academic teaching the subject, and his thoughts on what enables the illustrator to create beautiful and appropriate artwork to the already existing text.

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In this, our second interview with prolific author Ruth Spiro, we celebrate the publication of her brand new book, One Small Spark: A Tikkun Olam Story (Dial Books, 2024), with the stunning illustrations of Victoria Tentler-Krylov. Ruth talks about her remarkable career, writing scientific board books for toddlers (25 and counting!), as well as stories of inspiration to repair the world, and how the two might be intertwined.

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Dan Gutman is the renowned, prolific author of some 190 books for kids from kindergarten up to middle school. His books include Rappy the Raptor (picture book) and the "My Weird School" series (early readers) about kids who go to a school in which all the grownups are crazy. Over thirty five million books have been sold . He has also written “Wait! WHAT?” a series of biographies that focus on the unusual aspects of people like Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, and Teddy Roosevelt. 

In our interview, we celebrate his book, The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle (Holiday House, 2024) which was published last month by Holiday House. We also talked about his unique journey on the way to his success, and his tips for aspiring authors.

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