So happy to be taking our raven, Westerly, on a Pacific coast tour. Official tour dates and full details will come a bit later but for now, look for me in San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Boise, Anchorage, Seattle and Poulsbo! The tour will run from September 28th to October 13th. If you would like to have a bookstore or school visit, please reach out through the contact form on this website. I will be doing events for A Raven of the Rainforest from mid October all the way through the spring. I’d love to come to your town.
If you are hoping to preorder and have a signed and personalized copy, please use the link to my local bookstore Annie Blooms.
I cannot say enough good things about the illustrator of A Raven of the Rainforest. Howard Gray is brilliant; he brings depth and nuance and personality to this story in a way words alone cannot. Thank you Howard!
A Horse Named Sky is out in paperback this week. I’m thrilled to see a little sneak preview of A Wolf Called Fire in the back of this edition. Big thanks to Kirbi Fagan for her gorgeous art. I’ve been doing radio interviews all day chatting about this book, so here on the blog I’d like to take a moment to highlight some other new horse books that I think young readers will love.
First up is Sierra Blue by Suzanne Morgan Williams. It’s a story about a girl with a unique ability to connect with injured horses and a race horse that desperately needs her.
Fans of history will love the well-researched and thrilling story of how the famous Lipizzaner horses of the Spanish Riding School were rescued from the bombing of Vienna during WWII. It’s called They Saved the Stallions by Deborah Hopkinson.
I’ve long been a fan of the Phantom Stallion series by Terri Farley. It’s set in the same ecosystem as A Horse Named Sky. Terri is a life long advocate for wild horses and her writing in this series is brilliant. I’m so happy so see it reissued.
Finally, if you are looking for a good riding academy story you’ll love Jessica Burkhart’s new series, Saddle Hill Academy. The first four titles are out and I hope there will be many more.
And because I’m such a fan of picture book non fiction, I can’t pass up the opportunity to sing the praises of Horse Power: how horses changed the world, written and illustrated by the brilliant Jennifer Thermes.
Friends, I’m thrilled to announce that my next middle grade novel, A Wolf Called Fire, will be available on February 4th, 2025. The story will be illustrated by the brilliant Mónica Armiño and the luminous cover below was created by Cindy Derby.
For years young readers of A Wolf Called Wander have asked, often plaintively, “but what about Wander’s brother?” “Why did he have to die?” “Where did he go?” It’s a rare gift to find readers so invested in someone who was not even the main character. I know that Wander had to think his brother was gone forever or he would never undertake his great journey. But I couldn’t bear for him to see his brother die, so (against the urging of my editor) I left that part of the story open; I’m so glad I did.
It has been more than ten years since I did the research for A Wolf Called Wander which came out in 2019. We’ve learned a lot about wolves and about wolf pack dynamics in the years since. The character of Fire was inspired by Wolf 8, one of the first wolves brought back to Yellowstone Park 29 years ago. Like Warm, who grew into his adult name Fire, Wolf 8 was the omega of his pack. He was small, not especially handsome, and frequently bullied by his brothers. He grew up to be a wise and compassionate leader, a gifted mentor of pups, and a fierce competitor who never killed a wolf he defeated. Wolf 8 became the patriarch of the largest and most powerful pack in Yellowstone’s history the mighty Druid Peak pack. From that lived example of leadership, I created a young omega who listens well to his mother and learns from hard earned experience the first thing she ever told him: “Big is not the only good thing a wolf can be.”
I hope this story will inspire readers to love the wilderness and to become what ever kind of leader they were meant to be.
Many thanks to my talented and tenacious agent Fiona Kenshole of Transatlantic, the wonderful team at Greenwillow, including my editor Virginia Duncan and art director Sylvie Le’ Floc’h, my critique partners, Nora Ericson and Michael Gettle-Gilmartin, and my patient and supportive family.
BIG TRUCK DAY on the littlest vehicle of them all, a Vespa!
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.
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.
