New Books in Children's Literature

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

Shelli R. Johannes is the prolific author of almost twenty books for youngsters (and more on the way!). In our interview, we celebrate the recent launch of Theo TheSaurus and the Perfect Pet (Viking, 2022), the second in her Theo TheSaurus series. We discuss her path to writing success, her creative process, and her sage advice for aspiring authors.Other books by Shelli include the Cece Loves Science series (with Kimberly Derting), and Penny (An Engineering Tale of the Fourth Pig) that also came out this summer. Her new chapter book in Chelsea Clinton’s “She Persisted” series on Florence Nightengale comes out in March 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Day I Became a Hurricane (Hooked on Books Jamrock, 2022) is a children's educational book on hurricanes written by Dr. Rose-Ann Smith. Based on current research on natural disasters and disaster risk management, the book aims to educate children on the development of a hurricane and its impacts. It introduces them to hurricane preparedness while seamlessly interweaving an underlying story about self-acceptance and self-identity. The book therefore manages to accomplish a lot, not only imbuing practical knowledge about hurricanes, but also teaching children important life lessons concerning the perils of peer pressure and getting carried away with power, as well as the importance of accepting yourself for who you are. The book is meant for children in grades 1 to 5 but can be enjoyed by persons of any age who wish to learn more about hurricanes, serving as a very creative means of information dissemination on the topic.Dr. Smith holds a PhD in Human Geography. She is a lecturer and consultant in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation based at the Department of Geography and Geology, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Dr. Smith is passionate about community development and community-based disaster risk management, with a strong focus on resilience building and sustainable livelihoods. Her other areas of interest include cultural tourism, eco-tourism, environmental management, and issues faced by indigenous populations and other highly vulnerable groups. She also believes that children are central to disaster risk reduction. The Day I Became a Hurricane is her first piece of children's literature, and marks the first in a series of books she hopes to develop to educate children on disasters.Aleem Mahabir is a PhD candidate in Geography at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. His research interests lie at the intersection of Urban Geography, Social Exclusion and Psychology. His dissertation research focuses on the link among negative psychosocial dispositions, exclusion, and under-development among marginalized communities in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. You can find him on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bea Birdsong is the author of I Will Be Fierce! (illustrated by Nidhi Chanani), Sam’s First Word (illustrated by Holly Hatam), How to Spot a Best Friend (illustrated by Lucy Fleming), and several forthcoming books, including Boop! (illustrated by Linzie Hunter) and Goat Is the Goat (illustrated by Kelly Murphy). In our interview we talk about her life, her writing career, her books and her tips for aspiring children's 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices