Editor / Agent Spotlight

Editor Spotlight: Thalia Leaf from Calkins Creek

By on October 29, 2021   /   Articles, Editor / Agent Spotlight  

Today, we have a treat for readers who are especially interested in history and historical fiction for kids. Recently, I was delighted to interview Thalia Leaf, who is an associate editor at Calkins Creek. Thalia offered several insights into her publishing imprint and what she looks for in submissions. So let’s get started!

 

Dorian: How did you get involved in children’s publishing?

Thalia: I always wanted to work in children’s publishing, but I got here in a roundabout way. Before I worked in publishing, I taught English abroad. It was so fascinating to see the way kids responded (or didn’t respond) to certain books—it’s so important for kids to have books that are interesting and relevant to them. When I came back to the U.S., I interned at a literary agency where I worked on a pretty wide range of children’s books, which I loved. My first job in publishing was in adult books though—I worked on very serious history books for a handful of years. I was really delighted when an opportunity came up to work on U.S. history-focused fiction and nonfiction at Calkins Creek. It combined the work I’d been doing on history books for adults and my dream of working on children’s books.

 

Dorian: Can you tell us a little bit about Calkins Creek?

Thalia: Calkins Creek is an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers. Our list includes fiction and nonfiction for kids and teens. We focus on publishing books about American history, which might sound sort of narrow, but within it there’s potential for books on a huge range of topics from science and art to racial justice and political activism. We love books that highlight an untold story about a person or an event that kids really ought to know about. Of course, it’s most important that our books are exciting, kid-friendly, and beautifully produced. Some of my favorite Calkins Creek books are Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Fay Duncan; Dorothea’s Eyes: Dorothea Lange Photographs the Truth by Barb Rosenstock; Without Separation: Prejudice, Segregation, and the Case of Roberto Alvarez by Larry Dane Brimner; Buzzing with Questions: The Inquisitive Mind of Charles Henry Turner by Janice N. Harrington;  Race Against Time: The Untold Story of Scipio Jones and the Battle to Save Twelve Innocent Men by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace; and Blood and Germs: The Civil War Battle Against Wounds and Disease by Gail Jarrow.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: They all sound fascinating. Have you always been interested in books about history and historical fiction, and what books sparked your interest in the genres?

Thalia: Yes, I have! What I love about historical fiction is that it has same escapist appeal of sci-fi and fantasy, but you also get to learn something! As a little kid, I was pretty obsessed with the 19th century thanks to the Little House books and Caddie Woodlawn, which my mother read to me starting in kindergarten. I was very into dressing up in 19th century clothes and was always asking my parents to take me to living history museums like Old Sturbridge Village. When I got a bit older, I read historical fiction on my own; in middle school my friend Ana and I read every book we could find on the Tudors. Some of my favorite middle grade and YA historical fiction books were The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Sally Lockhart series, All of a Kind Family, and The Devil’s Arithmetic. I wish I’d had books like Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte and Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park when I was a kid.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorian: With so much misinformation in various media, it must be challenging to edit books that deal with history. How do you meet that challenge?

Thalia: The prevalence of misinformation is exactly why I think publishing great children’s books on historical subjects is so important. Our understanding of history affects our understanding of the present. Much of American history is difficult and ugly and uncomfortable. But we don’t make things better by avoiding talking about them. Kids don’t need things sugarcoated for them—and they’re pretty good at detecting BS.

 

Dorian: What are some of your favorite middle-grade books you’ve worked on and why?

View from Pagoda Hill by Michaela MacColl is probably my favorite Calkins Creek middle-grade book. It’s based on the author’s family history. I’m relatively new to the imprint, so the books I’ve actually worked on have yet to come out.

 

Dorian: What middle-grade books do you have coming up that you’re excited about?

Thalia: They’re still in the early stages, so I can’t say too much. I’m especially excited about a book we have on a woman who worked as a spy during World War II and another about a young girl who solves the mystery of a Revolutionary War-era diary she finds.

 

Dorian: Very intriguing! What subjects or historical time periods are you particularly interested in seeing in your submissions box from agents?

Thalia: I want to find untold stories that urgently need to be told, and these come from all historical periods and are about all topics. At the moment, though, I’m especially interested in stories of immigrants, as well as books that deal with more recent history (1975-2008). I’d also love to see manuscripts on Jewish topics that break the mold a bit. Manuscripts that deal with LGBTQ+ themes would be especially welcome, as I think there’s a massive amount of untold history there. Graphic novel submissions would be especially welcome. I’m constantly updating my manuscript wishlist, which you can find here.

 

Dorian: What advice do you have for authors who’d like to write about historical events (nonfiction or fiction)?

Thalia: First, do your research! The best books come from discovering a person or an event that no one knows about but everyone ought to know about. Sometimes you’ll read a newspaper article or see something on social media that intrigues you and makes you want to dig deeper and find out if there’s a good story there. Second, make sure your story has a proper narrative arc, even if you’re writing nonfiction. When writing history, it’s hard not to make a book just a recitation of the facts, but it’s so important that you shape the story you’re telling. Even in nonfiction, your characters need to have “wants” or goals, encounter obstacles, and succeed or fail in a way that changes them or their world.

 

Dorian: Great advice! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thalia: Calkins Creek only accepts agented submissions and all submissions must include a bibliography.

This has been wonderful. Thanks so much for taking the time out to give our readers such great information about you and Calkins Creek.

Find Thalia’s wishlist and more about Calkins Creek by following her on twitter. 

 

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Author Spotlight: Andrea Davis Pinkney… plus a GIVEAWAY!

By on September 30, 2020   /   Author Interviews, Editor / Agent Spotlight  

Today, I’m beyond thrilled to welcome acclaimed children’s author Andrea Davis Pinkney to the Mixed-Up Files!

Andrea is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of nearly 60 books for young readers, among them The Red Pencil and A Poem for Peter, as well as several collaborations with her husband Brian Pinkney, including Sit-In and Hand in Hand, which received the Coretta Scott King Book Award.

Her latest book, Loretta Little Looks Back: Three Voices Go Tell It, is a series of dramatic monologues narrated by three members of the Little family, Loretta, Roly, and Aggie. B. The novel has received four starred reviews to date – from Kirkus, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist. Entertainment Weekly called the book “prescient” and a must for your anti-racist reading list. The book is illustrated by Brian Pinkney and available from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

A glimpse into Loretta Little Looks Back:

“Right here, I’m sharing the honest-to-goodness.” — Loretta

“I’m gon’ reach back, and tell how it all went. I’m gon’ speak on it. My way.”— Roly

“I got more nerve than a bad tooth. But there’s nothing bad about being bold.” — Aggie B.

Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B., members of the Little family, each present the vivid story of their young lives, spanning three generations. Their separate stories–beginning in a cotton field in 1927 and ending at the presidential election of 1968–come together to create one unforgettable journey.

Through an evocative mix of fictional first-person narratives, spoken-word poems, folk myths, gospel rhythms and blues influences, Loretta Little Looks Back weaves an immersive tapestry that illuminates the dignity of sharecroppers in the rural South.

Inspired by storytelling’s oral tradition, stirring vignettes are presented in a series of theatrical monologues that paint a gripping, multidimensional portrait of America’s struggle for civil rights as seen through the eyes of the children who lived it.

Q&A with Andrea Davis Pinkney

MR: A hearty welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Andrea! First and foremost, I must tell you how much I adored Loretta Little. Not only was the format highly original, each of the three narrators—Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B.—has a remarkably distinctive voice. As a writer, this is no mean feat. What’s your secret for getting inside a character’s head?

So happy to be here, Mixed-Up Files! Thank you for inviting me to your party. I’m glad you enjoyed Loretta Little Looks Back. Actually, I don’t get inside characters’ heads – they inhabit my thoughts. And they bury themselves in my heart, too. I feel like Loretta Little Looks Back wrote itself. These kids just started talking to me, each in their own brassy ways. One by one, they walked up, stared me down, and spoke. And they wouldn’t stop! That’s when the writing began. Roly, Loretta, and Aggie B. compelled me to share their stories with other kids like them who are passionate about what they believe is right.

Balancing fact and fiction

MR:  Speaking of Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B., I read in your author’s note that the characters are based on members of your family. Aggie B., for instance, is a composite of your aunt Katherine and your mother, Gwen.  Real-life historical figures are featured in your novel, too, including civil-rights activists James Forman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Charles McLaurin. The rural setting—Ruleville, Mississippi—is also real. What is the biggest challenge of blending—and balancing—fact and fiction?

Yes, this book’s branches come from the roots of my family tree. They spring from the lives and times of the kinfolk who raised me. I come from a long line of grass-roots civil rights organizers. When I was growing up, I heard my family’s stories on porches and at the supper table. Many of these ended up on the pages of this book. My late father marched with Dr. King, and my mom was one of the first Black members of the League of Women Voters, so blending fact and fiction came naturally.

Historical ground

MR: In this novel, you cover life-changing historical ground—particularly, the struggle for Black Americans to secure the right to vote. To point out one example, young social activist Aggie B. becomes one of the youngest members of SNCC (the student wing of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, organized by Ella Baker and SCLC’s founder, Martin Luther King, Jr.), and she later sustains a brutal beating as a result of her activism. What parallels do you see between the events you describe in Loretta Little Looks Back and the current call for racial equity via the Black Lives Matter movement?

One of my favorite scenes in Loretta Little Looks Back happens in 1964, when young Aggie B. accompanies her Aunt ‘Retta to a local SNCC meeting that is seeking volunteers to register to vote. It’s the Jim Crow south, so folks are reluctant. When they ask for a show of hands, nobody is brave enough – except Aggie. She says:  My hand had a mind of its own. It raised itself so far, I thought my palm and fingers would fly off the top of my wrist! I knew that being only twelve years old, I was too young to register to vote. But my hand didn’t care about the age a person needed to be to help make things better. 

This scene is punctuated by a painting of Aggie B. with an exaggerated hand that reaches its way off the page to bring visual power, affirming that the future is the hands of our kids. This is exactly what kids are doing today. They’re raising their hands to becoming change-agents. It’s young people who are out there right now on the sidewalks and streets, letting the world know their voices are important. These are the voters of tomorrow. It’s up to us adults to pull up a chair, and let them talk to us – and to listen!

Trust, hope, and stars

MR: Loss is an important theme in Loretta Little. The loss of a parent, of a spouse, of land, of basic human dignity, of hope…  As Aggie B. says, “You can only see stars when the sky is the darkest.” What is the message you are trying to convey?  

The Little family endures so much injustice.  They transcend and triumph, too. One of the narrative elements that appears throughout their stories is the concept of “can’t see,” which refers to the dark hours right before the sun rises, when there are still stars in the sky, reminding us of hope. Daybreak always comes. Trusting in that is what hope and stars are all about.

Brian Pinkney and “the three C’s”

MR: As most kidlit afficionados know, you and your husband, illustrator Brian Pinkney, have published nearly 60 books between the two of you — Brian is you collaborator in art, and in life. [The Pinkneys have been together for 30 years and have been dubbed a “Picture Book Perfect Author-Illustrator Couple” by NPR.] How do you maintain a work/life balance? Also, how do you and Brian decide which projects to tackle? I’m guessing arm-wrestling is not involved. 🙂

Working with the one you love can be a beautiful experience — or a fast track to disaster! Brian and I have come up with some great strategies for making books while staying happily married. We have a weekly “meeting” each Saturday at our dining room table to review our projects, and to sit down together to talk about them.

Before and after the meeting, we don’t discuss work at all. Our weekly meetings are when we brainstorm project ideas. We have a running list. The ones that keep bubbling to the top are those we work on first. Others can linger for as long as a decade, and then, suddenly, something happens and we move ahead with one or two of those. At every stage of the creative process, we abide by “the three C’s”  – Courtesy, Communication, Commitment. These simple words have been the key to keeping our love at the center of our creative lives together. We steer clear of arm-wrestling!

Andrea’s many hats

MR: In addition to writing children’s books, you are the Vice President and Executive Editor at Scholastic. This is a tricky balancing act as well. How do you separate “Andrea the Editor” from “Andrea the Writer”?

I like accessories, which is why I enjoy wearing a few different hats — author, editor, and publisher. These “hats” are all completely different. I’m seldom wearing more than one at the same time. As an early riser, I start writing when it’s dark outside around four in the morning, until around six, when the sun starts to rise. By full daylight, the “writer hat” comes off, and I slip into publisher/editor mode.

Writing is a solitary discipline that’s very introspective. As an editor and publisher, my primary purpose is to serve other writers. I’m the one who holds the flashlight while they do the digging. As a graduate school professor who teaches writing, I’ve become very accustomed to working with students, helping them tell their stories. The same rules apply with authors. I’m like the midwife. They’re the ones doing the hard work.

MR: And finally, I’m curious: There are three narrators in Loretta Little Looks Back. Why did you choose to single out Loretta in the title?

Loretta is the family griot, the storytelling presence that ignites the story, and keeps the narrative threads moving forward – she’s a powerful root of the Little family tree. Since the book is written as a series of theatrical monologues, Loretta is the first to present herself to the audience of readers. And she was the first to introduce herself to me on a cold early morning when she stepped up to my consciousness and said, “This is me, talking to you.”

MR: Oh! Last thing, Andrea. No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? A Red Delicious apple.

Coffee or tea? Scalding water with lemon.

Favorite song? This Little Light of Mine.

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? Big NAY!

Favorite word. Love!

 

Favorite place on earth? London, England.

You’re stranded on a desert island, with only three items in your possession. What are they? My husband and our two kids (who are neither “items” on “in my possession” but we have so much fun together, especially in island settings).

MR: Thank you for chatting with me, Andrea—and congratulations on the publication of Loretta Little Looks Back. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I know MUF readers will too!

Thank YOU, and happy reading!

And now… a fabulous

GIVEAWAY!!!

For a copy of Loretta Little Looks Back, comment on the blog–and, if you’re on Twitter, on the Mixed-Up Files Twitter account–for a chance to win! 

Andrea’s bio

ANDREA DAVIS PINKNEY is the New York Times bestselling an award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. Her work has received multiple Coretta Scott King Book Award citations. She is a four-time nominee for the NAACP Image Award, and has been inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Andrea is the recipient of both the Regina Medal and the Arbuthnot Honor Award for her distinguished and singular contribution to the field of children’s literature. She has been named among the “25 Most Influential People in our Children’s Lives” by Children’s Health magazine, and is listed among the “25 Most Influential Black Women in Business” by The Network Journal.

Andrea is the librettist for the Houston Grand Opera’s The Snowy Day, an opera based on the beloved bestselling children’s picture book classic The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. She has served on the creative teams for several theatrical and audio productions based on works for young people, including those drawn from her acclaimed books, Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, The Red Pencil, and Rhythm Ride: A Trip through the Motown Sound. Andrea lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and frequent collaborator, illustrator Brian Pinkney, and their two children. You can find Andrea on Twitter and Facebook.

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Editor Spotlight: Meet Carol Hinz of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books at Lerner Publishing

By on July 22, 2020   /   Articles, Diversity, Editor / Agent Spotlight, MUF Contributor Books, STEM  

Carol Hinz is Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books, divisions of Lerner Publishing Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She acquires and edits picture books, poetry, and nonfiction. Books she’s edited include Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Storyby Caren Stelson; A Map into the World by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Seo Kim; Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko; and Tracking Pythons: The Quest to Catch an Invasive Predator and Save an Ecosystem by Kate Messner

Hello Mixed-up Filers, today we’re featuring Editorial Director Carol Hinz for our Editor Spotlight. I was fortunate enough to meet and work alongside Carol at Lerner Publishing and saw the many wonderful books she publishes for Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books. Thanks for joining us on the blog today, Carol!

Thank you so much for inviting me here, Karen. I’m excited to talk about all things middle grade!

Can you tell me a bit about how you ended up in your role at Lerner? And what you love about it?

Sure—as you’ll see, it evolved over time. Way back in 2003, I began working at Lerner as an editor, focusing primarily on series nonfiction for the school and library market. Lerner acquired Millbrook Press in 2004, and after Millbrook cofounder Jean Reynolds decided to scale back her role, I got the opportunity to become editorial director for the imprint, which I began late in 2007. And I added Carolrhoda’s picture books and nonfiction to my job duties a decade later.

I love that I get to be involved with such a variety of books and that I get to work closely with so many immensely talented authors, illustrators, and photographers! I also feel fortunate that since I’ve started as editorial director, there’s been increased interest in high-quality nonfiction for young people and a great deal of innovation in how authors are approaching nonfiction topics. It’s truly a fascinating time to be making nonfiction!

What was the first middle-grade book you edited? Did you have any challenges with it?

Oh, wow! If I recall correctly, it was Ghana in Pictures by Yvette La Pierre, which was part of the Visual Geography Series. Because I was so new to editing nonfiction at the time, my big challenge was figuring out how it was supposed to be done! We had to make sure the text was at the correct reading level while also conveying important information about Ghana’s landforms, history, government, and people.

Editing that book really taught me just how challenging it is to create engaging nonfiction for young people. Authors need to present complex information while being mindful of vocabulary, sentence structure, sentence length, and what sort of background information a reader might need to fully understand the topic.

Can you tell us about your editorial process now, from acquisition to print?

Um . . . do you have all day? As a book geek, I also love the creation process, but I’ll try to keep this brief. Most of the time with MG nonfiction, I acquire based on a proposal. So once the acquisition is approved, the author needs to go off and write the full book.

After the author has written the manuscript and sends it over to me, I read through it and then ideally will set it aside for a month or more. One of the reasons for this is that I find I do my best editing after I’ve had a chance to percolate on the manuscript. The process from there always involves certain key steps, but there’s also a lot of individual variation depending on the book and the author.

For some books, my feedback will include requesting that the author write new chapters or reorganize information. Once the structure is solid, I’ll focus in on the flow of information within paragraphs as well as phrasing and word choice. I’ll also look for places where I think the author needs to fill in a little background information or context for our readership. I’m all about the track changes feature—I try to ask lots of questions and throw out lots of suggestions as I go. My goal is not for an author to simply agree with everything I say; instead, I want them to engage with my comments. I love when an author understands where I’m coming from and then responds with with an even better idea than what I suggested.

While the author and I are finalizing the text, someone in our photo research department will be searching for just the right photos. If the book needs diagrams, either our in-house illustrator or a freelance illustrator will start working on those elements. My fabulous colleagues in the art department start working on cover designs, and and after the final (well, mostly final) text is typeset, they’ll start putting the layout together. The author sees the layout at several points along the way to give input on photos and any diagrams, write captions, and just generally ensure that everything is coming together well. I really enjoy the collaborative nature of book making—both working closely with authors and working with my Lerner colleagues.

No manuscript is perfect, so what qualities make it feel right for fixing to you? What do you think can be fixed? What makes it unfixable?

Oooh, that’s a good question! No matter what, I think the premise of the manuscript needs to be solid—both what the manuscript is about and how the author wants to present that topic. And I can’t fix insufficient research or a lack of interest/enthusiasm on the author’s part. But as long as the author is up for it, I can work with them on structure, reading level, and plenty of line editing. So much really comes down to having a shared vision for the book. As long as the author and I have that shared vision—and the time to really dig deep and work together—we can create a great book!

 

What have been some of your favorite MG books you’ve worked on and why?

Gah, this is such a hard question!

Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson: Making this book was a powerful emotional journey that took me all the way to Japan. (Read about it here: https://lernerbooks.blog/2017/01/dispatch-from-nagasaki-visiting-sachiko-yasui.html)

 

 

Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem by Patricia Newman (one of our STEM Tuesday contributors!): This book is a fascinating story of scientific discovery that taught me the phrase trophic cascade and makes me feel smarter every time I read it.

 


Monstrous: The Lore, Gore, and Science behind Your Favorite Monsters by Carlyn Beccia: Edited by my colleague Shaina Olmanson, this book offers a unique and compelling look at famous monsters and the history and science behind them—and has awesome illustrations and infographics to boot!

 

 

Tracking Pythons: The Quest to Catch an Invasive Predator and Save an Ecosystem by Kate Messner: earlier this year, my younger son became obsessed with this book. It was magical to see a book I’d edited spark such curiosity in him! (I talk about it here: https://lernerbooks.blog/2020/03/tracking-pythons-science-up-close.html)

 

Journey into the Deep: Discovering New Ocean Creatures by Rebecca L. Johnson: I learned a lot about making an ambitious MG book from this book—it’s a 64-page look at recently discovered ocean creatures scientists found during the ten-year Census of Marine Life, and it’s packed with fantastic photos as well as rich text that takes readers from the ocean’s surface down to its depths. The book came out in 2010, and it’s the first book I ever edited to receive a starred review. I still remember the thrill I felt the day that review came through. (CHeck out the review here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rebecca-l-johnson/journey-deep/)

 

Having been at the epicenter of the George Floyd protests, how has the Black Lives Matter movement affected Lerner? And children’s publishing in general? Do you think children’s publishing has changed or is changing in response?

Lerner’s downtown Minneapolis offices were boarded up for about a week at the height of the protests, but in a lot of ways, that’s the least of it. While this is not the first time we’ve had internal conversations about publishing diverse voices and what we’re doing to make our workplace more inclusive, in the aftermath of the protests these conversations took on new urgency. And I believe that’s true across the industry as well.

In children’s publishing, the creation of We Need Diverse Books in 2014 spurred a number of important changes, but it’s clear right now that we still have more to do to make this industry more equitable.

While a lot of the conversation about diversity in children’s books has focused on picture books and fiction, I think we in the nonfiction community need to take a very serious look at just how few BIPOC authors are writing nonfiction (especially MG and YA) and find ways to bring in new authors from more diverse backgrounds. To this end, I am working on an idea that includes an open call for MG nonfiction, but I’m not ready to share specifics just yet. (Check back in the fall!)

Another outcome of the protests is that we’ve seen a surge of interest in books such as Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Gwen Strauss, illustrated by Floyd Cooper; Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls; The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem’s Greatest Bookstore by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie; and Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini.

            

What are some under-represented MG topics you’d like to see more of?

Books about areas of science other than biology! As much as I adore animals, I’d love to see some smart authors write about chemistry, physics, engineering, and all manner of other science topics in ways that engage MG readers.

I would also like to see books that highlight the work of BIPOC scientists. We’ve published some great narrative nonfiction about individual scientists—including Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators That Saved an Ecosystem by Patricia Newman—and I’d love to see something along those lines focusing on the work of a scientist of color.

What advice can you give authors?

If you want to write truly ambitious nonfiction for kids, don’t think about your book as existing in isolation. Rather, imagine your book as being in conversation with other books that are in the same space as your book.

As an example, when I was editing Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson, I thought a lot about the book Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. Sheinkin’s book wraps up pretty quickly once the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, whereas Stelson’s book covers fifty years of aftermath, as it plays out in Sachiko Yasui’s life. Reading the two books together will enrich a reader’s understanding of them both.

Do you have any upcoming middle-grade books that you’d like to tell our readers about?

I’m really excited about a book coming out this October, Bionic Beasts: Saving Animal Lives with Artificial Flippers, Legs, and Beaks by Jolene Gutiérrez. It’s a STEM-themed book that brings together biology and engineering through the stories of five different animals from around the globe that are thriving thanks to their prosthetic body parts. There’s Lola, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, Mosha, an Asian elephant, Cassidy, a German shepherd, Vitória, a greylag goose, and Pirate, a Berkshire-Tamworth pig. Each of these animals was at risk of dying due to their circumstances, but humans intervened, and using a variety of techniques and technologies including surgery, 3D printing, and more, they were able to create prosthetics that enabled these animals to survive. The book also includes hands-on activities in each chapter so readers can better understand the engineering concepts involved.

Is there anything else you’d like to add

To support excellent MG nonfiction for kids, please be sure to buy these books! You can also request them from the library, review them, and share them with others.

Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today, Carol!

Find Carol on Twitter: @CarolCHinz.

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