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Editor Spotlight: Tara Weikum

By on May 30, 2025   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight   /   Leave a comment

Tara Weikum has worked in publishing for decades.  Starting as editorial assistant with ALA Booklist Magazine in 1996, she then spent three years  as an associate editor with Disney Publishing. In 2000, she moved to HarperCollins where she’s been ever since. Beginning as an editor, she became editorial director in 2009, and vice president, editorial director in 2013. In 2024, she was promoted to vice president, publisher of HarperCollins’ new Storytide imprint. From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle-Grade Authors borrowed Tara for a quick chat to learn more about her career, influences, and Storytide in general.

headshot of Tara Weikum, vice president and publisher, HarperCollins' Storytide imprint

 

MUF: Thanks for agreeing to speak with us, Tara. Congratulations on launching this new endeavor. First off, what can you tell us about the Storytide imprint? What’s its focus or specialty?

TW: The Storytide imprint publishes powerful and distinctive stories with commercial, bestselling potential as well as literary merit, across all genres. Our focus is on middle-grade and teen fiction.

MUF: What has your career path been like so far? How did you get into publishing in general, and editing in specific? What was your educational background?

TW: Like many in publishing, I was an English major. I grew up in the Midwest and after college I attended the Rice University Publishing Program, which is no longer around. That immersive experience was what convinced me to take the leap and move to New York, after a year of working at the American Library Association in Chicago, to look for opportunities in publishing.

MUF: What sort of duties and responsibilities do you fulfill in your current position?

TW: Editors wear many different hats. I currently oversee the Storytide imprint and team of editors. We are focused on shaping the imprint identity with the books and authors we publish.  I manage budgets, acquire new projects, edit manuscripts, write copy, review design and marketing materials—the list goes on!

MUF: Did you always know you wanted to work with this aspect of the field?  Did you ever dream of being an author?

TW: I’ve always dreamed of working with books in some capacity. I never aspired to be a writer myself but I devoured everything I could get my hands on when I was growing up, and I was always the person that friends asked for advice about their English assignments and personal writing. I grew up on a farm in a rural area so bookstores and even libraries were hard to come by. My childhood reading appetites were fed with a wide-ranging variety of books I could scrounge up from friends and relatives by authors such as VC Andrews, Shel Silverstein, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Danielle Steel; series like Harlequin Romance; and classics like the Trixie Belden and Bobbsey Twins books, supplemented by books that were assigned at school and birthday gifts. The adage of “reading widely” was true for me by necessity and I believe it helped inform my ability to love all kinds of books across genres.

MUF: What books have inspired you along the way, whether growing up or as an adult? What books do you wholeheartedly recommend at any given opportunity?

TW: Books by authors such as Jandy Nelson, Franny Billingsley, Jacqueline Woodson, Alison Bechdel, and Casey McQuiston are some favorites over the years. Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life and Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow are two adult novels that were wonderfully devastating. And of course from my own list of middle-grade I’ll hand any of Katherine Applegate’s incredible novels to any child or adult, as well as Thanhha Lai’s award-winning verse novel Inside Out & Back Again.

MUF: What do you look for in books and submissions? What catches your attention and calls to you?

TW: If a premise feels fresh and offers a unique twist on an idea, and the writing is engaging and compelling, I’m often open to considering manuscripts. Since I’m drawn to a variety of genres I like to consider a range of subjects.

MUF: Do you have a favorite age range or genre to work with?

TW: I’m drawn to contemporary realistic novels; romance; magical realism; and light fantasy across middle-grade and teen.

MUF: What sort of tips, tricks, and advice do you have for aspiring writers, editors, or even agents?

TW: Reading widely in the area in which you’d like to write or work is definitely the top piece of advice. As a writer, what will help you see how and where your future books might sit alongside current books, or how they can be set apart in an intriguing way. And as an editor or an agent it’s important to be knowledgeable about the market. And for aspiring writers in search of an agent, research who represents your favorite writers as a first step to finding a good fit for your own work. For future editors and agents, internships will provide incomparable insight into the ways in which all manner of publishing works, and can help guide you to find out where you’d like to work.

MUF: Do you have any interesting hobbies or interests? How do you unwind and relax?

TW: I work remotely and live in Hawaii, so everything water-related is a favorite of mine, from snorkeling to swimming to stand-up paddleboard. I also volunteer regularly at the local humane society and take shelter dogs on hikes and to the beach.

MUF: Do you have any upcoming Storytide releases you’d like to plug? Any juicy announcements?

TW: Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner is a raucously funny and romantic teen novel publishing in early June; The Haunting of Bellington Cottage by Laura Parnum is a gently spooky middle-grade novel coming in July; No Sam! And the Meow of Deception, Drew Daywalt’s sequel to the NYT bestseller They Call Me No Sam, is coming in September; and Thorn Season by debut author Kiera Azar is a sharp and sexy romantasy also publishing in September, in both hardcover and a gorgeously spec’d out deluxe limited edition.

Cover of Inside Out & Back Again Cover for No Sam and the Meow of Deception Cover for The Haunting of Bellington Cottage

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STEM Tuesday– Natural Disasters– Author Interview

By on May 27, 2025   /   Natural Disasters, STEM Tuesday   /   1 Comment

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Today we’re interviewing Jessica Stremer, author of Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires a middle grade nonfiction book that examines how animals and plants detect and respond to wildfires as well as the role humans play during these widespread natural disasters.

Fire Escape has been named:

  • A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
  • An NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book
  • An ALA Sustainability Round Table Top 10 Selection
  • Named to the Missouri Dogwood Reading List

And now, let’s find out what sparked the idea for this book for a better earth!

Emily Starr: I would love to know more about the evolution of this book’s outline. How did you move from the questions about wildfires you described in the acknowledgements to a book that includes such a wide variety of information. I never considered how a zoo responds to a wildfire!  

Jessica Stremer: You’ll often hear nonfiction picture book writers joke about not getting lost down the research rabbit hole. The great thing about writing long-form nonfiction is that you have the freedom chase different rabbits. Fire Escape started as a picture book, but the more I researched, the more I realized I couldn’t contain the story to forty pages. When I first begin researching, I use different search phrases to see what different responses I get. Often those responses will lead me down another rabbit hole of searches. When I felt I had chased enough rabbits, I organized everything into potential chapters. Of course, there’s always more questions that come up and more research to be done. 

Emily Starr: You include a lot of specialized wildfire response information! What was your process for contacting experts and conducting interviews?  

Jessica Stremer: I made a list of different people whose names I found while researching, then I put on a brave face and emailed them. In my emails I mention a little bit about myself, the project I’m working on, and ask if they’d be willing to chat to help me learn a little bit more and clarify or fill in holes in my research. I also mention that I will credit the interview in the book and send them a copy when its published. 

Emily Starr: Wildfires can be a scary topic for some students–especially those living in fire-prone zones. What was your thought process when considering how to present the information in a way that was realistic yet not too frightening? 

Jessica Stremer: Kids can handle more than we give them credit for. We need to have honest conversations with them by meeting them where they’re at. That’s what I tried to do in Fire Escape. I think a lot of it comes down to voice, word choice, and sentence structure. I shared facts about wildlife and wildfires, and tried to be careful to not go too into detail or include information that I didn’t think kids would find interesting or engaging. Chapter two contains a trigger warning as there are a few graphic photos of injured wildlife.  

Emily Starr: Climate change is such a complicated topic, yet you make it understandable for children. What were your considerations when deciding how much and what type of climate change information to include?

Pine pitch cones release their seeds only after fire exposure. Dmccabe, CC BY-SA 4.0

Jessica Stremer: There are a lot of books about climate change out there, so while I did think it was important to mention, I didn’t want to spend too much time on that topic. Climate change does play a part in the frequency and severity of wildfires, but it’s not the only reason we experience fires. I include mention of climate change in the chapter on megafires, but the real takeaway I’m hoping for is that people see that not all fires are bad. In fact, one of the reasons we’re experiencing so many destructive fires is because we’ve worked hard to prevent fires from happening. Much of the landscape needs fire, and I hope kids see that after reading this book. 

Emily Starr: Throughout the book, you illustrate how we are all part of an interconnected ecosystem. I especially appreciated the inclusion of ways humans help animals after wildfires and how animals help humans prevent wildfires. Were there any animals that didn’t make it into the book? 

Jessica Stremer: Most of the wildlife in Fire Escape can be found in North America. I didn’t have room for it in this book, but there are plenty of animals in different continents that also experience wildfire.  

Emily Starr: The layout of the book makes the information accessible–small blocks of text interspersed with photographs, illustrations and fire fact sidebars. What was your involvement in the layout and/or choosing the photographs? 

Jessica Stremer: I used the Fire Facts as a way to include additional information that I couldn’t fit into the narrative. I put them in places where the break felt natural, for example when transitioning from one idea or topic to the next. For the photographs, I tried to include two to three per chapter, knowing there would also be artwork incorporated throughout. Some were easier to find than others! I presented a handful of photo options for each chapter to my editor, and she told me which ones she preferred. The layout was all her! 

Emily Starr: What do you hope readers understand about wildfires by reading your book? 

Jessica Stremer: While I never want to downplay the human loss experienced from wildfires, I hope that readers see another side to wildfires that’s different than the doom and gloom portrayed on the news. I hope they understand why wildfire is an important natural event and learn about some of the benefits fire brings to the landscape. I also hope it encourages them to spend time outdoors and exploring the world around them. 

Emily Starr: Do you have upcoming projects you can share with our readers? 

Jessica Stremer: I have three picture books publishing this year! They are PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: HOW SCIENCE SAVED A SPECIES, WONDERFULLY WILD: REWILDING A SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY, and TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT: HOW SCIENTISTS UNEARTHED A CITY’S PREHISTORIC PAST. I love nature and science and hope readers consider picking up some of my other books. 

Jessica Stremer is an award-winning children’s author who combines her love of science and writing to create books that inspire kids to explore and think critically about the world around them. Her titles include GREAT CARRIER REEF (a NY Public Library Best Book of the Year and JLG Gold Standard selection), LIGHTS OUT: A Movement to Help Migrating Birds, FIRE ESCAPE: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires (a JLG Gold Standard selection), PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: How Science Saved a Species, TRAPPED IN THE TAR PIT, and WONDERFULLY WILD. Jessica obtained a B.S. in Biology, with an emphasis in Ecology, from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She was a recipient of the 2023 Stephen Fraser Encouragement Award, a 2023 finalist for the Russel Freedman award, and received honorable mention for the 2021 Ann Whitford Paul award. When not writing you can find Jessica cheering from the sideline of her kids’ soccer games, spending time outdoors, and planning her next family adventure.

 

As a former fourth grade teacher and founder of StarrMatica, a STEM publishing company, Emily Starr has developed award-winning K-5 science curriculum and professional learning materials for 20 years. She is a member of the Iowa State Science Leadership Team, a peer reviewer for the National Science Teaching Association’s journal Science and Children, and a frequent presenter at state and national education conferences. Her debut middle grade nonfiction book will be released in 2025 from the Iowa Ag Literacy Foundation.

 

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Longer Picture Books Are “Gateways” for Middle-Grade Readers

By on May 26, 2025   /   Articles, For Teachers, From the Classroom   /   1 Comment

On a middle grade blog, I feel the need to confess up front: I love picture books. As a fourth-grade teacher, I read picture books to my class nearly every day. As a mom of two elementary-aged boys, I read picture books to them every day. And as an author of picture books, I read picture books every day! So many picture books, in fact, that when I check out books at my library, they give me a cart to wheel them to my car.

So why am I talking about picture books on a middle-grade blog? Because longer picture books can be “gateway” books for our middle grade readers–particularly our more reluctant readers. I think of gateway books as a bridge between picture books and traditional middle grade books. Gateway books are still in that familiar large book (usually hardcover) format. They are still highly illustrated yet have more text per page, which makes for a longer read.

Examples of “Gateway” Books

Battle of the Butts by Joselyn Rish is an example that always comes to my mind. At around 6,000 words, it is definitely not a traditional picture book. (Traditional nonfiction picture books are typically less than 1,000 words, though some are longer.) Engaging writing draws readers into a topic that is sure to interest middle grade students. Plus, the book features the interactive element of rating each butt on a scale from “Boring Backside” to “Terrific Tushie.” A butt that can breathe?! I think that’s one “Remarkable Rump.” How about you? Be sure to check out the sequel: Battle of the Brains.

Spooky Lakes by Geo Rutherford is an oversized picture book with dense text on each spread. The pages contain enough intrigue to captivate middle grade readers whose interest will be piqued by the haunting illustrations. Beware! These pages mention dead bodies!

Plants: The Sneaky Ways They Survive is another oversized picture book. Even though it contains longer blocks of text, the book leaves plenty of room for stunning illustrations. And there is loads of intriguing information to keep older readers engaged. I mean, who doesn’t want to learn about rats that use flowers as toilets?

Sensational Senses: Amazing Ways Animals Perceive the World by Rebecca E. Hirsh is aimed at an older audience, yet still packaged in a picture book format. Photographs, diagrams, and sidebars break the text into manageable chunks. The information will fascinate students and keep them reading. Did you know star-nosed moles blow snot bubbles underwater and then suck them back in to “smell” the water? What?!

The Wisdom of Trees: How Trees Work Together to Form a Natural Kingdom by Lita Judge pairs poems about trees with detailed expository information. These chunky blocks of text are packed with interesting information. I’m fascinated every time I read about how trees communicate and share resources underground.

The Scientists in the Field series is a set of texts written more specifically for middle grade. (The suggested grade level is 5-7.) Yet because this series is in a picture book format with lots of illustrations, the books can be more approachable for reluctant readers.

For some readers, longer, high-interest, nonfiction picture books with colorful illustrations and interactive elements can seem more manageable than staring at an entire page of words. By incorporating gateway books into your classroom, you are helping students to find books that, to them, are less daunting and more delightful. Bottom line: you are doing everything you can to help your students develop a love of reading (and perhaps, their knowledge of butts.)

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