New Books in Children's Literature

Today my incredible guest is the quirky, pun-derful, award-winning picture book author, Tara Lazar who is celebrating her dozenth (!) book, Time Flies: Down to the Last Minute(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022). We talk about her path to success, her craft and her tips for aspiring writers (concentrate on the story, not the query letter; learn all about the craft, create dummy books, find critique partners who can teach you, make a digital note of all your ideas, never give up). Tara is also the creator and motivator of Storystorm, the highly successful free initiative in which authors come up with thirty story ideas throughout January. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From governesses with supernatural powers to motor-car obsessed amphibians, the iconic images of English children's literature helped shape the view of the nation around the world. But, as Translating England into Russian: The Politics of Children's Literature in the Soviet Union and Modern Russia (Bloomsbury, 2021) reveals, Russian translators did not always present the same picture of Englishness that had been painted by authors.In this book, Elena Goodwin explores Russian translations of classic English children's literature, considering how representations of Englishness depended on state ideology and reflected the shifting nature of Russia's political and cultural climate. As Soviet censorship policy imposed restrictions on what and how to translate, this book examines how translation dealt with and built bridges between cultures in a restricted environment in order to represent images of England. Through analyzing the Soviet and post-Soviet translations of Rudyard Kipling, Kenneth Grahame, J. M. Barrie, A. A. Milne and P. L. Travers, this book connects the concepts of society, ideology and translation to trace the role of translation through a time of transformation in Russian society. Making use of previously unpublished archival material, Goodwin provides the first analysis of the role of translated English children's literature in modern Russian history and offers fresh insight into Anglo-Russian relations from the Russian Revolution to the present day. This ground-breaking book is therefore a vital resource for scholars of Russian history and literary translation.Polina Popova is a Ph.D. student at the history department of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conversation (one of my favorite interviews ever), I talk with Noah Askin of the University of California at Irvine about why some popular children's books, songs, and movies seem to last forever. Is it because the successful ones are similar but different? Is it a fluke? Is it the marketing? Or is it the story that the song/book/movie/anything tells, or is, or is it perhaps the story we make of it. Noah Askin is Assistant Professor of Teaching Organization and Management at UC-Irvine in the Paul Merage School of Business. Prior to his arrival in Southern California, he was an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, where he directed and taught multiple Executive Education programs in addition to teaching the organizational design and leadership core course in the MBA program. He has a popular TEDx talk on what makes popular songs succeed.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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When she finds a feather, Grandma Dot adds it to her collection. Feathers, she tells her two granddaughters, remind Grandma Dot of people she’s lost. At first, the girls see the feathers as fun to play with. But soon, Grandma Dot’s feathers take on larger meanings – of comfort, remembrance, and love.A Gift of Feathers (Feiwel & Friends, 2023) will inspire readers of all ages to make memories and traditions part of their own family stories.ken Schept received his MFA from Columbia University, enjoyed a successful career as a journalist and business writer, and now writes children’s books and literary fiction.Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Richardson is an award-winning children’s book author. Today we talk with her about her debut picture book, Little Dandelion Seeds the World (Sleeping Bear Press, 2021), which won the Growing Good Kids Book Award from the American Horticultural Society and the Junior Master Gardener Program for connecting children to nature. When Julia was young, she was in the lowest reading group and wrote every letter upside down and backwards. Today she is an established author with another new book just out, and hopefully many more on the way. She also shares her advice for upcoming authors hoping to break into the traditional publishing world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helen H. Wu is a children's book author and illustrator, author of Tofu Takes Time, illustrated by Julie Jarema (Beaming Books, 2022) and Long Goes To Dragon School, illustrated by Mae Besom (Yeehoo Press, 2023). In this, our second interview, we talk about her role as publisher of Yeehoo books, and the challenge of creating books that appeal to both Chinese and American children and culture.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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, Mel Rosenberg discusses his love for children's literature, what makes for a memorable picture book, and the company he created, Ourboox. Ourboox is a free site that allows people to create online flipbooks and picture books. Mel's collection is available here. 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.Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our exciting conversation with author-agent Jonathan Rosen we talk about his recent anthology, Coming of Age: 13 B'nai Mitvah Stories (Albert Whitman & Company, 2022), his funny and scary middle grade horror book, Night of the Living Cuddle Bunnies, and his new career as a literary agent for the Seymour Agency, where he helps other writers achieve the same dream of publication that he has fulfilled.Jonathan grew up in Brooklyn, Mexico and Israel and now makes his home in southern Florida, where he is agent by day and writer by night. Late night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carrie Finison writes picture books with humor and heart, including Dozens of Doughnuts (Putnam, 2020), a Junior Library Guild selection, Don’t Hug Doug (Putnam, 2021), an ALA Notable Children’s Book, which received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, and Lulu & Zoey: A Sister Story (Running Press Kids, 2022). In our interview we talk about her career and celebrate her most recent picture book Hurry, Little Tortoise, Time for School! (Random House Studio, 2022) in which Little Tortoise tries his best to arrive to school in time, and not be the last one there. Carrie lives outside of Boston with her husband, son, and daughter, and two cats who permit her to work in their cozy attic office. Visit her online here and or follow her on Twitter & Instagram @CarrieFinison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I speak with Annette Bay Pimentel about her writing career, and celebrate her new book, Before Music: Where Instruments Come From (Abrams, 2023). Annette grew up mostly in Utah in a large, boisterous family. She graduated with an undergraduate degree from University of California Berkeley and a graduate degree from Brandeis University in English literature. She and her husband raised six musical-instrument-playing children.Annette’s books are often on state young reader’s lists and have been Junior Library Guild Selections. All the Way to the Top won a Schneider Honor from the American Library Association. Pura’s Cuentos won the Goddard/Riverside Social Justice Award. Mountain Chef won the Carter G. Woodson Award. She is also the author of Girl Running. She is represented by Kathleen Rushall of Andrea Brown Literary.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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices