If you like children’s literature and you’re looking for a way to help folks in Japan, you can make a donation that will benefit children affected by the earthquake and tsunami while also purchasing  some neat children’s literature swag. Beginning at 9AM EDT on Monday March 21st, the Kidlit4Japan site  will feature a children’s and [...]

Indian summer in Connecticut- time to close up swimming pools, juggle soccer games with football practice, clean sticks out of gutters. For a children’s book author it means time to return emails to teachers, phone calls to PTOs, time to conjure up exciting ways to captivate classrooms, cafeterias and libraries filled with energetic, yet sometimes [...]

The Greenwich Workshop Press has just released Horse, Indian, Wolf featuring the art of Judy Larson, and written by our very own Kathleen Kudlinski. The book is filled with concealed pictures in 25 of Judy Larson’s spectacular paintings about the American West (do you see the eagle on the cover?). It is accompanied by text [...]

Today is the official release date for Come Fall. I’m very excited. The novel has gotten great reviews from Publishers Weekly (starred!) and Horn Book Magazine. I’ll be throwing a book party on August 28 at the Alphabet Garden Bookstore to celebrate its release. But today, nothing much happens. There won’t be confetti. Or a [...]

Years ago, I met Jerry Spinelli at a conference. He was warm and helpful. In between workshops one afternoon, while sitting on the steps in the sun, he told me about a manuscript he had spent a long time writing and that he thought had terrific promise. He had sent it to his editor, sure [...]

The Tassy Walden New Voices in Children’s Literature Awards ceremony is a stellar event. I mean it, this hard-earned recognition for a writer is a moment when the clouds clear and the stars shine and shimmer not on everyone, or that one, but on you. I was a finalist, and after a friend suggested I [...]