JULY ISSUE
Our July line-up includes interviews with Katie Weaver, Peter Raymundo, Kimberley Lovato, Joseph Kuefler, Gail Oxford, Chad Otis, R.W. Alley, and Idris Goodwin! Conrad Storad is bird watching, Judy Newman is going for a swim, and Nick Spake reviews IF.
And be sure to check out our newest book reviews and summer reading list. It's all inside!
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FEATURES
One to Read:
Katie Weaver
by Raven Howell
“I’m quirky. I have a lot of energy and I have a hard time sitting still for too long.” Enterprising children’s author Katie Weaver is tireless, and she’s exuberant. “I’m always busy, always dreaming up and trying new things. Part of that is having ADHD, the rest is just being a mom and wanting my children to take in as much as they can.”
“Most, if not all things in my life, I stumbled upon haphazardly. Then I fell in love with kidlit and the author community. Some of my very best friends are children’s book authors. What’s great about publishing, especially for someone like me who has trouble staying interested in something for a long time, is that it’s different every day. Today I might be working on optimizing my Amazon ads, tomorrow I may help another author design their book, and the next day I could be working on writing my next book. It’s different every day and there’s so much to learn,” she says.
Katie’s first picture book, When the Sky Roars, was published in 2021 by A Little Offbeat Publishing, LLC. It picked up several awards and tons of good reviews. “What took me by surprise was how much joy it would bring me to see children reading and enjoying my book. It made me cry the first time I witnessed a child (other than my own) reading it and smiling ... and I’m not a crier.”
Peter Raymundo
Invites Readers into the World of Speedcubing
by Raven Howell
“I think today’s graphic novels are amongst the most powerful forms of communication and expression in the world,” says award-winning author and former Disney animator, Peter Raymundo. “They are uniquely paced and accepted in a way that allows potentially life-changing stories to reach a formerly unreached audience.” Peter is celebrating his new graphic novel, Lucky Scramble, a playfully dramatic story delving into the world of competitive speedcubing.
His professional career began in 1996 at Walt Disney Feature Animation. He worked on huge box office films such as Mulan, Tarzan, and Lilo & Stitch. When Peter began writing and directing his own short films on the side, it led him to storyboarding. From there, it wasn’t long before he transitioned into writing and illustrating books.
“My first book, The Monkey Goes Bananas, started my whole career in publishing,” relays Peter. “There’s no way to calculate how important that book was for me.” The almost wordless book, in slapstick humor, is about a determined monkey who spies a banana tree across the water and will stop at nothing to get to it. This first book sparked a follow-up, 2015’s The Monkey and the Bee.
Kimberley Lovato
Leans into Her New Picture Book
by Raven Howell
Kimberley Lovato is happily celebrating her first children’s picture book release, PISA Loves Bella: A Towering Tale of Kindness. A native Californian with a successful career as a freelance journalist, personal travel essayist, and author of several guide and travel books, she points at her own wanderlust as the initial emotional motivator to tackle writing a children’s book.
“It’s a dream to publish PISA Loves Bella. Writing children’s books is something I have long wanted to do. I finally carved out time in my life to make it happen. So perhaps this is my new path. The dream would be to complete several books in this “landmark” series, have millions of people love them and shower the books with accolades, and then move on to the next idea, and the next. Dream big, right?” she says cheerily.
But the inspiration for writing her new book was well grounded. “Being teased as a kid influenced my story,” she recounts more somberly. “I have red hair and freckles. I had a tooth so crooked it was backward in my mouth, and my pre-married last name was Dumm, pronounced ‘dumb.’ So, yeah, the jokes basically wrote themselves. Luckily, like my character Bella in the book, I had kind friends and a supportive community to lean on.”
Joseph Kuefler
Pens a Picture Book Series that Kids Will Really Dig
by Raven Howell
From popular author-illustrator Joseph Kuefler comes the perfect bedtime book for fans of big machines and the fourth of his Digger series. After a long day’s work, Digger and the other big trucks are ready to tuck themselves into bed. They wash, they brush, and they sing a goodnight song. But before they can fall asleep, two mischievous raccoons appear. And they are not tired—at all. Surely, just a few more minutes of playtime won’t hurt ... will it? We need to find out!
Tell us a bit about your background/life growing up.
I don’t think there’s a grand story to tell. I had an unremarkable childhood in Minnesota. I have always been curious and creative, and I’ve always been a self-starter. Those qualities have led me through a varied and amazing career outside of books—through music, branding, technology, etc. Those same qualities brought me into publishing.
Tell us about your career and where you’ve worked before you became a writer/illustrator. What inspired those career choices?
Writing has always been a hobby for me—a quiet and personal little corner of the world to do what I want to do. By day, I run two agencies and incubate other companies, largely in the technology and healthcare space. I previously helped to found businesses in music technology, coaching technology, and education technology. Prior to all of that, I worked in brand agencies.
Gail Oxford
Takes Little Readers on a Journey Out of This World
“My students inspired me to write my book,” says Gail Oxford, author of the children’s book, A Purpose for Patches. Though retired now from her 45-year teaching career, Gail still spends as much time as she can doing what she loves. My motivation for all these years is hands-down, the children. I have always said teaching is a passion, not a job.”
A Purpose for Patches follows the journey of a guide dog in training. The story is written so that the reader will find they traverse through lessons and learn right along with the main character, Patches, as he trains to become the devoted guide dog to Sam, his blind owner. Gail says, “I wanted my book to be educational and show compassion and empathy toward visually impaired children, to have color words and the signs of the city so that children would learn the survival signs to be safe. Patches has a purpose that includes devotion, empathy, kindness, compassion, and safety for Sam. He learns all he can in his guide dog training to protect Sam.”
Gail was born in Mansfield, Ohio. When she was two, her parents “decided to get out of the snow country of Ohio and travel West to the sunny desert of Glendale, Arizona. I remember sitting in the back seat and looking out my window expecting that any moment I would be able to see cowboys, horses, Native Americans, and cattle going by. My parents were exceptional and the best parents a child could ask for,” she says.
photo by Cathy Shoaf
Chad Otis
Creates a Doggone Messy Tale for Little Readers
by Raven Howell
Nick has always kept things tidy and organized and it’s what makes him feel most comfortable. Any kind of mess or noise or other havoc triggers his anxiety, and often that means he chooses to be alone in his own carefully controlled bedroom. But suddenly a big, drooly, energetic dog joins the family, and as much as he tries, there’s nothing Nick can do to control the doggy mess. And so, he decides he would rather avoid the pup altogether ... or does he find that love is the neatest thing there is?
As fellow owners of large, messy dogs, we had to know more about this heartwarming book, so we went straight to the source: acclaimed author and illustrator Chad Otis!
Tell us a bit about your background/life growing up. A little birdy told us that you lived on a school bus?!
It’s true! My family lived on a school bus that my parents converted into our home. We lived on the bus for about four years, and I didn’t go to a conventional school with other kids until third grade. My family continued to move around a lot after that, but I put my foot down my freshman year in high school and decided to stay put in Washington when they left for California in an R.V. I lived with four different families while I was in high school and worked at a convalescent home and a nuclear submarine base during summers to make money for college. It was all pretty messy, but I think things turned out pretty neat in the end. I even made a book about it called The Bright Side!
photo by Felicia Rose Chavez
Q&A with
Idris Goodwin
by Julianne Black DiBlasi
Boredom … sigh. The kryptonite of children, yet coveted by many adults, boredom is a space we are all familiar with on some level.
What can you do when you’re stuck at home on a rainy day with no friends to play with? A lot, actually! Unfortunately, in my house, the walls were a victim of many crayon murals. But thankfully, in Idris Goodwin’s story, Your House Is Not Just a House, paper towel rolls become microphones, closets turn into teleportation chambers, and the living room furniture makes a fort that can keep out warthogs!
Idris is a storyteller who has won many awards for his work on stage, audio, screen, and in books, and is the artistic director of Seattle Children’s Theatre, where he writes, directs, and creates fun and interesting shows for people of all ages. Reading through Your House Is Not Just a House, his background shines through each page, creating a story only he can tell.
As an accomplished backbeat poet (no surprises there), Idris gives his text a strong rhythm, with words flowing in a fun, fast-moving swing dance of syllables and imagery. The steady, well-chosen pulse makes it so much fun to read aloud, and I’m convinced this will become a storytime favorite!
The Book Bug
R.W. Alley
Welcomes Us to Breezy Valley
by Raven Howell
Creating an anthropomorphic town for children is definitely all it’s cracked up to be when the author/illustrator is the incredibly talented, world-renowned R.W. Alley. Welcome to a community of busy, happy characters in a town called Breezy Valley! The critically acclaimed first book in the series, Firefighters to the Rescue! (Astra Books for Young Readers) will soon be followed by Hospital Heroes Save the Day!
Storyteller R.W. Alley (also known as Bob) has written and illustrated many award-winning books, as well as illustrated over one hundred titles by other authors, including the Paddington Bear books, popular for generations. Paddington Bear has delighted readers with his earnest good intentions and cute misadventures. Bob first began to illustrate the books in 1997.
Bob describes his illustrative style as “less line-defined” for the youngest. He uses pen and ink with watercolor for the picture books, and looser, pen and ink sketches for novels.
“When I go to a bookstore or library or classroom to talk about making picture books, I draw with crayons and use lots of colors,” he says. “It’s important that the kids in the audience have crayons, too, so they can follow along and come up with their own creations. However, I find the grown-ups in the audience need to be encouraged to crayon. Often, they have forgotten how much fun it is to color with no lines.”
MONTHLY COLUMNS
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Monsters at the Movies
IF
by Nick Spake -
Life of a Reader
Swim Club
by Judy Newman -
Conrad‘s Classroom
Urban bird watching
by Conrad J. Storad -
Liv On Life
How One Woman Put American Fashion on the Map
by Olivia Amiri -
Kids Corner
Crossword Puzzle
Firefighters to the Rescue
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