Who’s Afraid of Children’s Books?
This essay was written for the print only periodical, THE APPROACH, in Fall of 2025 and has been republished here with their permission. There’s a phrase book banners use a lot: Parent’s rights. They borrowed it from the anti-masker/anti-vaxxer crowd, and while the venn diagram of those demographics isn’t a perfect circle it’s close. Parents […]
No One Is Coming: ALAN Award Acceptance Speech on Behalf of Authors Against Book Bans
Thank you ALAN and NCTE for recognizing Authors Against Book Bans for this award. On behalf of our national board, Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Gayle Forman, Alan Gratz, Joanna Ho, Kelly Jones, Adib Khorram, Maris Kriezman, David Levithan, Katherine Locke, Sarah MacLean, and Colleen AF Venable— as well as founding members without whom this group […]
A Love Letter to East Bay Booksellers (But All Indies, Really)
I wrote this for a fundraiser for East Bay Booksellers that happened shortly after their store burned down in a fire. And while it’s very much about that store, it’s about indies in general, of which I am a forever supporter. Happy Independent Bookstore Day to us all, except Jeff Bezos. Of Pigeons and Bookstores […]
An Open Letter to My Fellow Book Creators
Inside me there are two wolves: the one that understands that the best activism happens behind closed doors and that everyone does what they can and that not everyone can be asked to do the same things, and that we need to trust others to fight for what we do not know how to fight […]
2024 Minidoka Pilgrimage Keynote
I was honored to be asked to give the keynote address at the Minidoka Pilgrimage this year. Over 200 descendants and survivors come from all over the country to visit and discuss what the incarceration means to us. The keynote is meant to set the tone for the weekend. This is that speech. I’d like […]
The Answer is Still No.
I would prefer, in all of this, to just take the licensing deal. I would like that better than solidarity, or kind messages of support, or retweets, or that flurry of sales that accompanied my initial blog post about what had happened. I still want that distribution, that reach that only Scholastic can provide. I […]
Scholastic, and a Faustian Bargain
Recently, I got an email with an offer from Scholastic’s Educational Division to license Love in the Library for an AANHPI narratives collection, I was thrilled. If you’ve been in kids’ books for more than ten minutes then you are aware of the staggering reach of Scholastic. And since I’m not published by Scholastic this […]
Stuck / Unstuck
I introduced Noah to STUCK by Oliver Jeffers a couple nights ago, and we’ve read it 8 times since then. For his last book before bed, and after school. In the morning after breakfast. It came out in 2011 when I was a bookseller, and I hosted Oliver for an event at Books Inc. in […]
Why We Keep Telling You Not To Rhyme
You have an idea for a picture book! That’s great! And you want it to rhyme! Why is everyone running away from you? Here’s a handy list of reasons why KidLit experts will reflexively push you away from rhyme. Does this mean you CAN’T do it? Never! Rules are meant to be broken. And there […]
Spooky Scary Stories for All Ages (Beyond Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark)
Tis the season to be spooky! Here’s a list of recs for some Kid Lit Halloween reading at all ages. Disclaimer: I have not read Gretchen McNeil, the reigning queen of teen slasher novels, and this is a ME problem, not a HER problem, so if you’re looking for updated Christopher Pike, then look to […]