New Books in Children's Literature

“We’re not monsters, Mom. We’re goddesses—smart, fearless, and beautiful.” That’s the voice of Ava, the superpowered protagonist of Katherine Marsh’s captivating novel for children, Medusa (Clarion Books, 2024). Our discussion focuses on Marsh’s feminist retelling of the Medusa myth—and on the wider topic of the direction of children’s literature at a time when it has become a challenge to pull any child (or adult) away from the siren of social media. Marsh recognizes the challenges but remains optimistic that children’s literature, which has always drawn heavily on the eternal allure of myths, has a vibrant future. Veteran journalist Paul Starobin is a former Moscow bureau chief for Business Week and a former contributing editor of The Atlantic. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications. His most recent book is Putin’s Exiles: Their Fight for a Better Russia (Columbia Global Reports, 2024). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this heartwarming interview with Laura Bower, we celebrate the launch of her brand new, debut picture book, The Imposter, illustrated by Kerisa Greene, and published by Sandra Sutter, Gnome Road Publishing (2024). Laura talks about her life and writing career, the story behind The Imposter, and her advice for aspiring authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Knudsen is the New York Times best-selling author of fifty books for young readers of all ages, including the award-winning picture books (and personal favorites) Library Lion and Marilyn's Monster. In this, our second interview we celebrate the launch of her new picture book, Luigi, the Spider Who Wanted to Be a Kitten (Candlewick, 2024), a poignant story of mistaken identity and revelation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Devash Megillat Esther (Hadar Press, 2024) includes the full Hebrew Megillah text, an original kid-friendly English translation, and carefully selected commentaries from 2,000 years of Jewish tradition brought to life in newly accessible ways. Devash unlocks sophisticated texts for learners of all ages and backgrounds, encouraging deep questioning and growth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sue Fliess ("fleece") is the award-winning, bestselling author of over 50 children's books including Sadie Sprocket Builds a Rocket, How to Trap a Leprechaun, Mary Had a Little Lab, Rumble and Roar, the Beatrice Bly's Rules for Spies series, the Kid Scientist series, the Magical Creatures and Crafts series, and many Little Golden Books. Her books have sold over 850k copies worldwide and have been translated into many languages. In our interview we celebrate the publication of her newest picture book, Octopus Acrobatics, illustrated by Gareth Lucas and just published by Albert Whitman & Company (2024). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Barth Isler is the author of AfterMath, an award-winning middle grade novel, and of the forthcoming picture book Always Enough Love. In our interview, we celebrate the publication of her second middle grade novel, The Color of Sound (Carolrhoda Books, 2024), the story of Rosie, a musical prodigy with synesthesia. We talk about her transformation from child actor to blogger to author, and the unique perceptions of each and every one of us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erin Kraan has illustrated over half a dozen children's books, with more on the way. In our interview we celebrate her latest illustrated picture book, Buffalo Fluffalo (Random House Studio, 2024) written by Bess Kalb. Erin talks about her life and career, and explains her unique process of carving her characters into wood and seeing how their quirky and whimsical identities come to life through the ink in the prints. We talk about the role played by the illustrator in making picture books come true. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Suzanne Slade is the Sibert Honor author of more than 170 books for children. A mechanical engineer by degree, Suzanne writes about STEM topics, fascinating figures in history, and occasionally lyrical fiction. Her newest books include Some Days are Yellow, Shining Star: Vera Rubin Discovers Dark Matter, Behold the Octopus!, and Dazzilin' Dolly: The Songwriting, Hit-Singing, Guitar-PIcking Dolly Parton.  In our interview we talk to Suzanne about her new books, and celebrate the centenary of the first performance of Rhapsody in Blue, beautifully recounted in her award-winning book The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue (Calkins Creek, 2016). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heather L. Montgomery writes for kids who are wild about animals, masterfully employing yuck appeal to engage young minds. Her 17 nonfiction books include Something Rotten: A Fresh Look at Roadkill, What's in your Pocket? Collecting Nature's Treasures, and Bugs Don't Hug: Six Legged Parents and their Kids. Here we celebrate Heather's brand new book, Sick!: The Twists and Turns Behind Animal Germs (illustrated by Lindsey Leigh, Bloomsbury Children's Books) and talk about her life and career, why she loves to write, and her advice for up-and-coming children's authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lucinda Halpern is a literary agent with over 15 years’ experience in both the publicity and agency sides of publishing. Before founding Lucinda Literary, she worked in the Publicity division of HarperCollins, where she assisted on the media campaign for Freakonomics among other New York Times bestsellers. She currently represents authors writing in the categories of business, health, lifestyle, popular science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and upmarket fiction. Here, we celebrate the launch of her brand new book, Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author (Hay House, 2024). Lucinda shares her experience as an agent, her advice for authors, and her own (unagented!) journey in getting a publishing deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laurie Wallmark is the award-winning author of picture book biographies of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) as well as fiction. In our second interview, we celebrate Laurie's new picture book, Journey to the Stars: Kalpana Chawla, Astronaut, co-written with Raakhee Mirchandani, illustrated by Maitreyi Ghosh (Illustrator) , published by Beaming Books (February 13, 2024).  We also talk about other recent books including The Queen of Chess: How Judit Polgár Changed the Game (July 2023), Rivka's Presents (July 2023), and Dino Pajama Party: A Bedtime Book (2021), attempting to understand the differences and commonalities between non-fiction and fiction, including the universal importance of passion and storytelling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Swann is an award-winning producer and director of documentaries, a playwright, author and editor. In our lively interview we discuss his career, his thoughts on creativity, his friendship with two legendary geniuses: author-illustrator Maurice Sendak, and composer conductor Leonard Bernstein, and the monumental films which these friendships led to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this wonderfully candid conversation with children's book author Rebecca Gardyn Levington, we celebrate her new book Afikoman, Where'd You Go?: A Passover Hide-and-Seek Adventure from Rocky Pond Books (2024) and illustrated by Noa Kelner. This is her third published picture book (her previous books are Brainstorm! and Whatever Comes Tomorrow), with six additional rhyming picture books forthcoming. Her poetry and articles have appeared in various anthologies, newspapers, and magazines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Victoria Selvaggio, books have always played an important role in her life. From an early age, she could easily be found reading in a corner with stacks of books or the opposite, crafting her own. Victoria was introduced to SCBWI (The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). Once again, she was hooked! Like all passions, Victoria immersed herself in all things publishing. She volunteered for her local SCBWI chapter and subsequently became a Regional Advisor, a role that also empowered her and provided a new path of becoming a literary agent. After interning for The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, she joined the agency in 2013 as an associate agent and subsequently joined the Storm Literary Agency as agent, and then as owner in 2022. Her list features both debut and award-winning authors. She represents all age categories and all genres except Erotica Romance. Currently, she is closed to submissions but does plan to open for a limited time in 2024 (Victoria does accept and opens for submissions as a presenter at conferences). In our discussion, we talk about how she managed to combine her business acumen with her love for books and the publishing industry, and her advice for authors seeking to become traditionally published. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Betsy Bird is the Collection Development Manager of Evanston Public Library and the former Youth Materials Specialist of New York Public Library. She writes for the School Library Journal blog A Fuse #8 Production and reviews for Kirkus. She is the host of the Story Seeds podcast as well as the co-host of the Fuse 8 n' Kate podcast that she creates with her sister. Betsy is the author of nonfiction, picture books, anthologies, and the historical middle grade novel Long Road to the Circus (Knopf, 2021), illustrated by David Small. Her new picture book Pop Goes the Nursery Rhyme is out Fall 2024. You can follow Betsy @fusenumber8 on Instagram, Threads and TikTok or @fuse8.bsky.social on BlueSky. In our animated conversation, we talk about what makes a great picture book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I speak to the wonderful literary agent Leslie Zampetti, who recently launched her own agency, Open Book Literary. A former librarian in special, public, and school libraries, Leslie’s focus is on the right book at the right time for the reader. We talk about her 'chocolate box' experiences as a champion of great children's stories. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 260,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Miriam Halahmy has published 9 novels for children and teens. Her new book A Boy from Baghdad (Green Bean Books, 2024), tells the story for children the first time in English, of the exile of the Iraqi Jewish community 1949-1951 to Israel and their subsequent difficulties in the Promised Land. The book was inspired by Miriam's husband's family who are all Babylonian Jews born in Baghdad. About the book:  It's 1951, and twelve-year-old Salman Shasha is happy with his life in Baghdad. But trouble is brewing. Salman and his family are Iraqi Jews and their government has been turning against their community for years. Things become so dangerous that the whole family are forced to leave Iraq for Israel, the "Promised Land". Once they arrive, however, they realize that things are not what they dreamed they would be. Taken to a refugee camp, the Shasha family try to make the best of their situation. But the dominant group in the country - the Ashkenazi Jews - look down on families like Salman's and treat them horribly. Salman decides to focus on his greatest passion, swimming, and beating his rivals in a race. Facing taunts from his bullying peers, Salman feels defeated, but he soon realizes that with hard work and determination anything is possible. An inspiring, atmospheric tale about the power of perseverance, friendship and family in the face of hardship, hatred and change, A Boy From Baghdad is an important story of diversity in the modern world. Essential reading for any child 8 years and over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Louise Lareau is the award-winning Managing Librarian at The New York Public Library and currently leads the Children’s Center team at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. She calls herself a 'book detective. We talk about makes a great picture book, differences among cultures and languages, the role of the library in bringing books to the children of their community, and how silliness, and theatricality prevail! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this fun interview, we celebrate Renée M. LaTulippe's wonderful poem picture book The Crab Ballet (Cameron Kids/Abrams, 2022) and talk about her career and thoughts about children's literature, the importance of poetry in lyrical writing, her love for theater, and advice for aspiring authors.  Renée's upcoming book is Limelight: Theater Poems to Perform (Charlesbridge, 2025). She also has poems published in many anthologies including the upcoming No World Too Big (Charlesbridge, 2023) as well as Night Wishes and School People (ed. Lee Bennett Hopkins), National Geographic’s The Poetry of US and NatGeo’s Book of Nature Poetry (ed. J. Patrick Lewis), One Minute Till Bedtime (ed. Kenn Nesbitt), Poems Are Teachers (ed. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater), ThankU: Poems of Gratitude (ed. Miranda Paul), A World Full of Poems (ed. Sylvia Vardell), several editions of The Poetry Friday Anthology books (ed. Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong), nine award-winning leveled educational readers (Moonbeam Children’s Books Silver Award, Mom’s Choice Gold Awards), a collection of poetry titled Lizard Lou: a collection of rhymes old and new (Moonbeam Children’s Books Silver Award for poetry), and the workbook All About Homophones (Finalist, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards) for All About Learning Press, where she is also the editor. Renée developed and teaches the online course The Lyrical Language Lab, provides free lessons and Peek & Critique sessions for children’s writers on her YouTube channel, and blogs on children’s poetry at NoWaterRiver.com. She earned her BFA in acting/directing from Marymount Manhattan College and her MA in English Education from NYU; worked and played in the theater for almost two decades; and taught English, theater arts, and public speaking in NYC. Originally from upstate New York, she lives by the sea in Italy with her family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Isabel Estrada, Ph.D., is an author and speaker with an extensive background in music and education. Today we celebrate her recently-published picture own-voices book, La Mariachi (Sleeping Bear Press, 2023), and talk about rerouting her original hope of becoming an opera singer to her dream-come-true publishing journey. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University) who fell in love with children's books as a small child and now writes his own. He is co-founder of Ourboox, a web platform with some 260,000 ebooks that allows anyone to create and share flipbooks comprising text, pictures and videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices