On October 8, the New York Times printed a front-page article describing the decline of picture books in favor of chapter books. My first reaction to this news was sorrow, not because yet another body-blow had been dealt to the wounded children’s book industry, but because the reason given was so short-sighted. It seems that [...]

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 [...]

I am an author-mother in a predicament: I need to ask my son to stop reading. That’s right, to stop reading. My son wasn’t one of those very early or very precocious readers, and there were moments when I wondered if he’d take to it at all. Well into first grade, he was happy to [...]

All of Your Messages Have Been Erased. Miss Fox’s Class Earns a Field Trip. Incomparable treasure, gifts from beloved friends, these books on my desktop inspire me to write. And intimidate me to silence: peering down at the covers hovering on the ledge above my keyboard, words seem inadequate. Vivian Shipley arrives for dinner with [...]

I’m sorry that these photos don’t show every step in our creation of George, the Scribble, at the  Zigler Head Start Center, in New Haven, Connecticut last month. Because he is quite a character: he wears a hat, plays the trumpet, and rides a motorcycle. A dozen different preschoolers helped draw him, beginning with one scribble. When is [...]

Waiting for the print-publishing world to settle down and start buying again a a real downer. You can start to spend way too much time trying to read the minds of editors and publishers. You wonder if you should change your style. Switch subjects? Do a complete rewrite of the manuscript you love?  And surely [...]