Susan Johnston Taylor dreamed of writing since the age of nine, when she won a magazine contest. In our interview we celebrate the launch of her picture book, Animals in Surprising Shades: Poems about Earth’s Colorful Creatures (Gnome Road Publishing, 2023). Her book is composed of poems (each in a different style), each about a colorful animal. As a freelance writer for over a decade, Susan's written over a dozen titles for the educational market and published nonfiction articles in children’s magazines including FACES, Highlights for Children and Scout Life. In our conversation, we talk about her journey in publishing her debut book with a traditional publisher, and her tips for aspiring authors.

Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University, emeritus) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 240,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos.

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