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WNDMG Author Interview: Charlotte Watson Sherman

By on February 11, 2026   /   Articles   /   Leave a comment

Let’s give a warm welcome to Charlotte Watson Sherman, a former librarian and author of children’s picture and middle-grade books. She’s going to dish about her latest works and share her best librarian recommendations for middle-grade readers to enjoy during Black History Month and beyond. So, settle in and enjoy!

Author Charlotte Sherman

Tell me about This Opening Sky. How did the idea for the book come about?

This Opening Sky is a middle-grade verse novel about two 12-year-old girls – one Black, one White – coping with the end of the Civil War. Aurelia, the daughter of a plantation owner, has lost both parents. Halle, newly freed, is searching for her parents. The girls decide to travel North together and confront misconceptions about each other as they depend on each other for survival.

 

The book came about after my co-author, Kelly Hollman, submitted a manuscript to Bushel and Peck Books. They liked the story’s premise, but wanted to include a Black writer. I had previously submitted a co-written board book manuscript that Bushel and Peck rejected, but they reached out to see if I’d be interested in co-writing the book with Kelly. After I read the early draft, I was intrigued by Kelly’s plot and excited to get involved.

What was it like collaborating with another writer? How did the writing and revision process work?

Collaborating with another writer was a journey. Sometimes an emotional rollercoaster for both of us. I wanted to be respectful of Kelly’s vision as the originator of the story idea. I could see that she loved both characters. I also believed that together, we could produce something fresh that hadn’t been seen in children’s literature before.

We had difficult conversations about race and history and stereotypes. I felt like I was constantly battling tropes from Gone With the Wind, Birth of a Nation, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Huckleberry Finn. I knew what it felt like to be a Black student in a classroom where the N-word was invoked dozens of times in a piece of literature. And I didn’t want a contemporary Black child to have to endure that type of trauma as a result of anything I’d helped bring into the world. Luckily, my co-author didn’t want to inflict that type of trauma either.

When we wrote the book, we alternated chapters. In early drafts, I solely focused on “my” character. I fleshed out her backstory and frontstory, gave her an inner life, and added scenes; my co-author did the same with “her” character. In later drafts, we needed to make sure chapters flowed seamlessly and revised to maintain the overall flow of the book. We set deadlines based on when the publisher needed the manuscript finished. Multiple sets of eyes provided feedback for revision.

When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?

I was hooked on books by third grade. I was a bookworm who read with a flashlight under the covers. The more adventurous the story, the better. I couldn’t wait to begin writing my own.

You’ve written for different age groups. What is your favorite part about writing for the middle-grade reader?

My favorite part about writing for middle-grade readers is how you can up the ante a little bit with subject matter and concepts and vocabulary. And fun. I also read books with my tween grandchild and enjoy the range of subjects we tackle. And the discussions about life that the stories allow us to have.

How (or does) being a former librarian impact what/how you write?

As a former librarian, I was exposed to a large swath of readers from different backgrounds and was able to see how different types of stories resonated with young readers. In library school, I focused on the information needs of youth and was able to immerse myself in reading children’s literature. That study informed the books I now write. I love research, so being a former librarian helps me use those research skills to write fiction and nonfiction about a variety of subjects. I never get tired of learning new things.

Also, leaning on your librarian experience, what middle-grade books would you recommend for readers during Black History Month?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s next for you? Any more middle-grade books on the horizon?

Learn, Baby, Learn: The Shindana Toy Factory’s Legacy of Black Pride, a picture book illustrated by Esther Stimphat, publishes March 2026. It’s the story of the nation’s first Black toy factory established after the Watts Uprising. I’m also working on a middle-grade verse novel and a couple of middle-grade biographies.

Bonus question:

If you could hang out with any middle-grade character in literature, who would it be and why?

My grandchild and I had so much fun reading the Operation Sisterhood books; it would most likely be that family because they have so many fun things going on. My grands actually started their own dog-walking business due to that family.

 

Thank you, Charlotte! It was a pleasure learning about your work.

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STEM Tuesday– Chemistry– In the Classroom

By on February 10, 2026   /   Chemistry, STEM Tuesday   /   Leave a comment

Cover of How Do Molecules Stay Together?How Do Molecules Stay Together?
by Madeline J. Hayes, illustrated by Srimalie Bassani

How Do Molecules Stay Together? is a picture book that introduces readers to some basic chemistry concepts. This could be a good read-aloud as an introduction to chemistry, although I suspect older students may find the call-and-response phrases a little too childish for their liking.

 

Marie Curie for Kids
by Amy M. O’Quinn

This is a book that’s great for readers who love history and activities. Follow Marie Curie’s life from a bright, young girl in occupied Poland through her Nobel prize winning discoveries. This book is packed from activities that explore a wide range of topics, including geography, culture, and science. I read this book in its e-book version, which had some formatting issues that occasionally made it challenging to absorb. This could be an opportunity to explore those areas with an activity. (See below)

The Radium Girls
by Kate Moore

What happens when people are exposed to light waves emitted from radioactive material? That’s what this book covers, by telling the stories of a group of women who worked with radium. This is not an easy read emotionally, but it tells a very important story. It’s referenced in Marie Curie for Kids, and would be a great follow-on book for that one.

 

Bonus Books:

Werewolf, dressed as an astronaut, standing on a scale. Scale reads: "Matter Meter: 100% Werewolf"Werewolves and States of Matter
by Janet Slingerland, illustrated by Angel Mosquito

For readers who love graphic novels and/or werewolves, this book provides a great introduction to chemistry. It explores the concept of matter, what states it can exist in, and how matter transforms from one state to another.

 

Cartoon character appears to create molecular structure out of sand with the help of another character with a bucket.Explore Atoms and Molecules! (with 25 Great Projects)
by Janet Slingerland, illustrated by Matt Aucoin

If you’re looking for activities that help explore atoms and molecules, be sure to check out this book. It covers lots of different chemistry topics, including atomic structure, the periodic table, and chemical reactions. There’s even a section that introduces readers to Lewis dot diagrams, a great way to visualize how atoms combine.

 

As always, there are lots of different things that can be done with these books. Be sure to check out the activities provided in the books. Some of the books also have educator materials or informative websites associated with them. Here are links to some of them:

There is a website dedicated to The Radium Girls. There is an educator guide linked on this page of the site: https://www.theradiumgirls.com/the-radium-girls-young-readers

The Atoms and Molecules page of my website has some links of interest: http://janetsbooks.com/atoms-and-molecules

There is a classroom guide and a free downloadable activity on the Nomad Press site: https://nomadpress.net/nomadpress-books/explore-atoms-molecules

Some of this month’s books are older, and the web links provided in them no longer work. However, since the authors thought they were worthy of inclusion, exploring them might be a good exercise. If a link no longer works, can you find the same information on another reliable website or page?

Here are some other ideas for activities.

Create a Timeline

As mentioned in the book descriptions, I had some difficulties with the book formatting in Marie Curie for Kids. This was particularly true for the timeline provided in the book. In order to better visualize the timeline, create one of your own. This could be done on a single sheet of paper, or it could be constructed so it wraps around an entire room. This can also be an opportunity to explore the use of technology in presenting a timeline, whether it’s created with a graphic tool like Canva, a slideshow like PowerPoint, or whatever your favorite tool is.

Students can choose what should be placed on the timeline, based on the books they’ve read. Including pictures or illustrations of the events helps everyone visualize the events better. This provides lots of opportunities to practice research skills. This is also an opportunity for students to work together to create it.

Here are some ideas of things that could be included on the timeline:

  • Major life events for the people involved in the science (the Curies, Mendeleev, Bohr, etc.).
  • Important discoveries, including elements, atomic structure, effects of elements, etc.
  • Key dates related to products using chemicals.
  • Major world events like the World Wars.

Get Messy!

Chemistry can be one of the messiest of the scientific disciplines. The books on this month’s book list include lots of experiments that explore chemical reactions. Here are a few popular experiments:

Elephant Toothpaste:

Erupting Soda:

Making slime:

Get Thoughtful

Scientific discoveries often have unintended consequences. The stories of the Curies and the Radium Girls are perfect examples of this. Here is an article from the Society of Physics Studies and the American Institute of Physics that addresses this topic:  https://students.aip.org/radiations/discoveries-unintended-consequences-and-the-values-of-science. After reading it, have some discussions about the topic. Does the scientific process help to address this?

This opens up the topic of the scientific process. This website from UC Berkeley has lots of information on this topic: https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/how-science-works

Explore (Largely Unsung) Scientists

Marie Curie was the first women to achieve many accomplishments. There are other groups of people who have historically faced huge obstacles to achieving things like college degrees and scientific discoveries. Often, discoveries made by women and minorities were attributed to others.

Explore some of the underrepresented people who have made great discoveries related to chemistry.

Each student could explore a different scientist and incorporate it into the timeline from above.

February is Black History Month. Here are a few lists of scientists to explore (there is some overlap between the lists):

March is Women’s History Month. Here are some lists of women scientists to explore:

Woman with short brown hair and glasses, smiling.Janet Slingerland has written over 2 dozen books for young readers, including Werewolves and States of Matter and Explore Atoms and Molecules! (with 25 Great Projects). To find out more about Janet and her books, check out her website: http://janetsbooks.com

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Author Interview – Anna James – Alice with a Why

By on February 9, 2026   /   Author Interviews, kidlit, New Releases   /   1 Comment
Alice With a Why by #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna James (Pages & Co., Chronicles of Whetherwhy), illustrated by Matthew Land. AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD!

cover of Alice with a Why featuring a nest with book print in the middle with a cutout of the main character AlycePicture of Author Anna James - woman with long curly red hair

In this enchanting standalone retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice’s granddaughter, Alyce—with a Y—finds herself tumbling down into a Wonderland at war. The once-whimsical world is now divided between the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon, and it’s up to Alyce, guided by familiar characters like the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat, to restore balance and find her way home.
As Kirkus raves, “This homage sparkles. Delightful in every way.” A pitch-perfect blend of literary nostalgia and fresh adventure, Alice With a Why both honors Lewis Carroll’s classic and reimagines it for a new generation.

 

Tell us why you decided to revisit Alice in Wonderland? Why was this story so inspiring for you?

I’ve always been fascinated by the original book – it’s such an important book for children’s literature and there aren’t many books that are as foundational to the collective imagination. The mix of wordplay and nonsense with so many iconic and beloved characters make it a really fun world to play in, but the relative lack of plot in the original allows a lot of space to create your own stories within Wonderland. 

I really enjoyed your mix of old characters (from the original Alice in Wonderland) with the new. How did you go about deciding who would be included from the original story and also what might compliment them with the new characters?

So firstly, I knew I wanted to only use characters that appeared in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (as opposed to Through the Looking Glass) so I had that list. And some were obvious like the White Rabbit and the Hatter who feel very integral to Wonderland, and I think people would hope to see. I really wanted to use the Caterpillar, but I only worked that out when a literal bookworm ate one of my books of poetry. Seeing all the tracks through the poems gave me the idea to make him a bookworm who has started smoking poetry instead of whatever he was smoking originally…! The main new character is the Fox, to whom my Alyce is sent, and who becomes her guide through Wonderland. This is a key difference between the original and my version, as Alice doesn’t really have anyone helping her; the Fox, while very much of Wonderland and its nonsense, is a steadier presence than anything that exists in the original.

So much of Alice in Wonderland is all the fun language choices, and you’ve captured that same feeling here beautifully. What was your writing process like to capture some of that essence of the original writing in Alice with a Why?

Thank you! This was both the hardest and the most enjoyable part of the whole book. I spent a lot of time just reading and rereading the original, and I also listened to a lot of nonsense poems on audio while wandering around the woods near where I live to try to get into those rhythms. I had a big list of idioms pinned above my desk as inspiration, too. I also really relied on Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice, which is a great resource for understanding all of Carroll’s references, so I went back to that often to try to sort of reverse-engineer that Wonderland feel. And then it was just a lot of trial and error—rewriting sentences until they had the right feel.

Some of the most vivid aspects of your story and the original is the setting. I think the setting is so important to your story, and I would love to know how you thought up the different settings in your story?

Wonderland really allows for a lot of flexibility; you can put almost anything in there.

Two of the key settings are the palaces of the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon, who are at war with each other. The Sun King was heavily inspired by Louis XIV of France, who was known as the Sun King and adopted the sun emblem as a symbol of power. He was also the king who transformed the Palace of Versailles and built the Hall of Mirrors, which is, of course, very Wonderland-coded. Accordingly, my Sun King also holds court in a hall of mirrors, although his courtiers are birds.

I took a lot of inspiration from history more generally; the place where Alice and Alyce live is inspired by Wrest Park, a stately home in Bedfordshire, England, that was used as a hospital during World War One.

What do you hope readers will take away from Alice with a Why (despite the ambiguous ending)?

As the last line suggests, I’m a big believer in letting readers take from books what they will but I certainly hope that readers who’ve lost someone will take some comfort from my Alyce’s journey through her grief at losing her father during the war. I think above all, I hope that young readers in particular come away feeling that words and language are a lot of fun. 

What are some of your favorite middle grade novels and why do you like them so much? 

My favourite middle grade author is Diana Wynne Jones who writes brilliantly quirky fantasy middle grade. My favourite classic is probably Anne of Green Gables, I think Anne Shirley is perhaps the greatest fictional creation of all time. More recently I’ve enjoyed reading Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell, Dragonborn by Struan Murray and Greenwild by Pari Thomson. 

Now that your book is out in the world, what’s the next step for you?

As we speak, I’m currently on tour in the U.S. to talk about the book. I love touring and meeting readers and booksellers! Once I’m home, I’ll be editing the third book in my Chronicles of Whetherwhy series (the second one is coming out in the spring in the U.S.), and then beginning to draft in earnest my second Wonderland book! I always wanted to write two to mirror the two Wonderland novels that Carroll wrote, so I’m excited to get properly started on that. I’m also working on my debut adult novel, a rom-com called Good Fortunes, inspired by Pride and Prejudice and coming out in spring 2027!

Is there anything else you want to share about Alice with a Why for our audience of teachers, librarians, and middle grade authors?

Alice With a Why is rooted in a deep love and admiration for the original, which I hope shows. I also hope that readers who already have a relationship with Wonderland enjoy returning there, and that readers who haven’t yet find a bit of magic there and are inspired to seek out Carroll’s original two books.

AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD!
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