Here’s a sneak peek at the cover of my newest novel A Horse Named Sky. The art is by the very talented Kirbi Fagin. Can’t wait to see what she does with the interior art. The book will be published September 5th, 2023.
So thrilled to be celebrating my debut picture book today. In the darkest days of the pandemic my daughter and I started a picture book and song writing zoom and BIG TRUCK DAY is the happy result. I was inspired by the Big Truck Days that my public library sponsored where firefighters and garbage collectors and farmers and police persons and utility & construction workers all brought their vehicles to celebrate the care of the community. There was even a blood mobile!
Niki Stage is the illustrator and this is also her debut. Her art brought such energy and joy to the page. I appreciate her vibrant and inclusive style. I’m also grateful to Lindsay Delaney, librarian extraordinaire, who encouraged me to put in a page of back matter to answer the question, What’s a bookmobile? which was bound to come up at story time.
Many thanks to the brilliant team at Greenwillow including editor Virginia Duncan and art director Sylvie Le Floc’h. Thank you to Fiona Kenshole and the team at Transatlantic for their ongoing support. And thank you to booksellers and librarians everywhere for bringing books and kids together.
I just received the most amazing news and on my birthday too! A Whale of the Wild is now a New York Times Bestseller! I’m so proud of this story and of Lindsay Moore’s brilliant illustrations that do so much to bring the tale to life. It was first published in the depths of the pandemic, September of 2020, when my home was shrouded in wildfire smoke. And yet people found my story and loved it and shared it with others. When the paperback edition went on sale we were in the thick of the Delta wave. Still people found my story. And now after all this time, when people were out there thinking about what book they wanted their child to have this holiday, they thought of Vega and Deneb and the Orcas of the Salish Sea. I could not be more thrilled. I hope a legion of eager readers grow up to be wayfinders and defenders of the ocean.
Many thanks to my agent Fiona Kenshole of The Transatlantic Agency who never gave up on these stories and has represented them around the world with vigor and warmth. My thoughtful and savvy editor Virginia Duncan has been a dream to work with as has the whole team at HarperCollins. Most of all thanks to the booksellers and librarians and teachers who work so hard to bring books and children together in the most challenging environment of my lifetime. Thank you!
It’s been more than a decade since I’ve had a picture book and so I’m thrilled to announce that Big Truck Day! is coming in 2022. It’s a romp of a story celebrating a Big Truck Day like the ones the Beaverton City Library hosted when my kids were young. It’s an homage to community workers and the importance of library access for everybody.
I’m thrilled to be paired with debut illustrator Niki Stage for this project. Her art is sweet, joyful, and energetic. Just the vibe I was hoping for.
When I was in grade school in the late 70s, I had a friend who, like debut author Waka T Brown, traveled to Japan to stay with grandparents regularly in order to keep his language skills current and connection to his culture fresh. I remember his complex feelings about the whole thing. Pride in his culture and love for his grandparents who seemed fiercely strict to me. But sadness at missing summer camp with his scout troop. I remember that kids teased him about his proficiency in martial arts. (This was before the movie Karate Kid made martial arts popular.) But I also remember how impressed we all were by his fluency in Japanese and the way he drew kanji with a brush pen. I loved how While I Was Away by Waka T Brown captured all the beautiful complexity of being a bicultural kid moving between Kansas and Japan and finding things to love in both places. The fastest growing group of children in America are biracial, bilingual, and bicultural kids. I’m always happy to find a book that celebrates them. The publisher is Quill Tree Books an imprint of HarperCollins.
