Writing

Author Guest Post: “Me, Myself, and My Five Senses” by Sarah Suk, Author of Meet Me at Blue Hour

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“Me, Myself, and My Five Senses”

I spend a lot of time inside my head. This is something that’s always been true about me. As a kid, one of my favourite pastimes was playing pretend, letting my imagination run loose and turning my ideas into dramatic plays for my stuffed animals to star in or for my friends and I to adopt for the afternoon. Today we are princesses and Pokémon trainers—both, at the same time. Tomorrow we’ll be spies, detectives, dragons on a mission. I could spend hours outside with a bouncy ball, just bouncing it up and down the street while I spun stories inside my head.

Now as an author, many of my days are much of the same, though the rhythm of the bouncy ball has turned into the tapping of keys on my computer. And while I can say that letting my imagination run loose and turning my ideas into dramatic scenarios for my characters to star in is still one of my favourite things to do, there are times when being in my head feels more tumultuous than not. When the feeling of stuckness seeps in and spirals into a state of overthinking and then overthinking the overthinking (as one does), I begin to feel more like I’m in the passenger seat of my own mind than the one behind the wheel.

Something I’ve been trying to do lately is to spend a little less time in my head and a little more time in my body. One of the ways I’ve been doing this is pausing to make note of my five senses in real time. I’ll ask myself, what do I see? A chunky mug, red spines on the bookshelf. Hear? Construction outside my window. Smell? Leeks in the pan, my daughter’s baby scent. Taste? Water, cold and refreshing. Feel? The couch beneath me, holding me up. It brings me back to the moment in a tangible way that reminds me that I’m not actually falling no matter how far my mental spiral seems to go. I’m simply right here.

Curiously, the senses have made an appearance as key details in my most recent young adult novels. The Space between Here & Now follows the story of a teenage girl who has a rare condition that causes her to travel back in time to her memories when she smells a scent linked to them. And in my upcoming book Meet Me at Blue Hour, memories are erased through sounds collected on a mix tape.

While I didn’t necessarily or purposefully plan to write these novels centering the senses, I found that’s where my ideas naturally took me. And in writing these stories, I found something else: leaning into the senses is great for worldbuilding! There’s nothing that makes a setting feel more alive than being able to vividly see what your characters see, hear what they hear, taste what they taste. I recall receiving this writing tip from an author friend of mine years ago, but as someone who often gravitates toward scenes with two talking heads in a description-less room, I feel like I needed to write these stories with the senses as a focal point to truly grasp my own style with it.

Now, no matter what I write, I find this exercise helps ground me in the reality of the story, just like how it grounds me in the reality of my own life. So whenever I’m feeling stuck in my head or stuck in the words, I go back to the senses. I take a breath. I plant my feet on the ground. And I remember that I’m here.

Publishing April 1st, 2025 by Quill Tree Books

About the Book: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Past Lives in this gripping, emotional story of two childhood friends navigating the fallout of one erasing their memory of the other, from acclaimed author Sarah Suk.

Seventeen-year-old Yena Bae is spending the summer in Busan, South Korea, working at her mom’s memory-erasing clinic. She feels lost and disconnected from people, something she’s felt ever since her best friend, Lucas, moved away four years ago without a word, leaving her in limbo.

Eighteen-year-old Lucas Pak is also in Busan for the summer, visiting his grandpa, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. But he isn’t just here for a regular visit—he’s determined to get his beloved grandpa into the new study running at the clinic, a trial program seeking to restore lost memories.

When Yena runs into Lucas again, she’s shocked to see him and even more shocked to discover that he doesn’t remember a thing about her. He’s completely erased her from his memories, and she has no idea why.

As the two reconnect, they unravel the mystery and heartache of what happened between them all those years ago—and must now reckon with whether they can forge a new beginning together.

Sarah Suk profile image

About the Author: Sarah Suk (pronounced like soup with a K) lives in Vancouver, Canada, where she writes stories and admires mountains. She is the author of young adult novels Made in Korea and The Space between Here & Now, as well as the co-writer of John Cho’s middle grade novel Troublemaker. When she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the water, taking film photos, or eating a bowl of bingsu. You can visit Sarah online at sarahsuk.com and on Twitter and Instagram @_sarahsuk.

Thank you, Sarah, for this writing exercise to bring our writing to life!

Author Guest Post: “Using Storytelling to Flip the Script on our Fears” by Adam Rosenbaum, Author of The Ghost Rules

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“Using Storytelling to Flip the Script on our Fears”

I used to be afraid of sharks when I was a kid. Like, really afraid. And maybe still am? Okay, that’s a lie. I am definitely, 100% still afraid of sharks, across the board, all the time. I blame a way too early viewing of JAWS and a wildly active imagination. But instead of facing my fears head-on back in the day, I am now an adult with children of my own who won’t venture more than a few feet into the ocean because a 30-foot great white shark might pop out of the depths and turn me into a morning snack.

There are so many amazing ways to help kids face their fears. And while I am by no means an expert on emotional health (see: my inability to swim in an ocean), I’d like to throw out a suggestion that might help some kids view their fears from a different angle. And it involves a little creativity!

My debut Middle Grade novel, The Ghost Rules, is about a boy named Elwood who can see ghosts. But in my book, ghosts aren’t scary at all. They aren’t haunting the living or terrifying children at night. My ghosts are goofy and annoying and drool a lot and are kind of obsessed with coffee. I took another fear of mine from when I was a kid (I was an anxious child, believe it or not), put a funny spin on it, and built a story around it.

Which is exactly what you can do!

I’ve brought this simple exercise into schools and nonprofits and have been blown away at the creativity and vulnerability of the kids who participate. Not only do some of the kids genuinely confront their fears, they also end up revealing those fears to one another before turning what they’re afraid of into something a little less scary.

If that sounds like something that could be valuable, here are some suggestions for how you can encourage the kids in your life to face their fears through storytelling:

1) IDENTIFY A FEAR

Some kids are MORE THAN happy to share their fears. Other kids have kept those fears bottled up for so long that to even utter them out loud is too much. So I usually say, “Let’s pick something that can be scary. It doesn’t have to be your own fear. Maybe it’s something your little brother or sister is afraid of, or something you used to be afraid of.” And I usually give my fear of sharks as an example to kick things off.

2) FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT SILLY

For The Ghost Rules, I made my ghosts bumbling, forgetful, and covered in ghost drool. To extend my shark example, I ask the kids how we can make something like a shark a little less scary. The ideas they’ve come up with have been so fun and imaginative: a shark who can’t see underwater and needs glasses, or a shark that only wants to eat pickles.

The opportunities here for fun, creative discussion are endless.

3) BUILD A STORY

When crafting a story with kids, I narrow it down to 3 basic things: a main character, a problem, how the main character overcomes that problem.

Sometimes they build a story together in smaller groups, sometimes the kids want to go off on their own and write and illustrate by themselves.

4) SHARE OUR STORIES

The best part of the whole exercise is when we come back together to share our stories, and the kids reveal what fear they chose (individually or as a group) and how they made it goofy. I give extra points to the kids who also illustrate their stories.

To state the obvious, I doubt any child walks away completely changed and fear-free. But it’s pretty amazing to see a kid smile and laugh as they’re talking about something that just minutes earlier had made their voice quiver.

And hopefully it’s a good first step toward their own emotional health so they avoid turning into a 40-something who still can’t swim in the ocean.

Published August 13th, 2024 by Holiday House for Young Readers

About the Book: Twelve-year-old Elwood McGee never asked to have “ghost-sight,” and it involves a lot more drool-dodging than he expected. Ghosts are the WORST—and they’re all over the place in this sharp-witted middle grade debut novel.

Did you know that ghosts love coffee? They’re not trying to be scary. They’re just deprived of an appropriate amount of caffeine! They also bump into things by accident, are occasionally nosy, and get a little nervous when they’re seen by the living.

Elwood McGee knows these ghost facts because he’s one of those rare people with the gift of ghost-sight. And it turns out ghosts are everywhere! Especially in the small Tennessee town where Elwood and his family had to move following the death of his big brother Noah, which Elwood thinks was his fault.

Once Elwood figures out he can see ghosts, he becomes single-mindedly determined to use his powers to see Noah and talk to him once last time. With the help of two girls who live on his street, Elwood embarks on a journey through the surprisingly funny world of ghosts and faces the realities of letting go.

At once hilarious and heart wrenching, Adam Rosenbaum makes his middle grade debut with a supernaturalish novel about grief that’s perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Dan Gutman.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Thank you, Adam, for this exercise to use with students to face fears and do some writing!

Author Guest Post: “The Powerful Nature of Graphic Memoirs” by Claire Lordon, Author of One in a Million

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“The Powerful Nature of Graphic Memoirs”

I think graphic memoirs are so powerful because not only are you reading a story but you can also visualize things as well. When I was thinking of creating my graphic memoir One in a Million there never was a doubt that it was going to be in graphic memoir format. I wanted to show what I went through. I knew I would have a hard time conveying what depression felt like in writing, but with my illustration background I sure knew how to show it.

Graphic memoirs are just that, memoirs that are created with graphics. While creating this book I first called it a “graphic novel memoir” just because I hadn’t heard the term graphic memoir, and because it gave people an idea that it would be similar to a graphic novel. The term “graphic novel memoir” always seemed like a misnomer because how can something be a novel and a memoir? It was only since Jarret J. Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo that I started hearing the term graphic memoir in use. It fit and since then I’ve heard many other books use that term too. I made sure that the term graphic memoir was on the cover of my book because I needed people to know that it’s a true story.

Since I started working on my book I have also learned about the term “graphic medicine”. This is a subgenre of comics, graphic novels, and graphic memoirs that depict or have themes relating to healthcare. One of the interesting ways graphic medicine is being used is in the medical humanities at medical schools. Medical students can gain an understanding of what a patient’s perspective may be.

The importance on memoirs, including graphic memoirs is that they give the reader an insight into another person’s life and perspective. This can help create compassion and empathy for others. My hope is that my book helps others that are going through something similar. I also hope that others gain some understanding of what being sick as a teen can entail (especially if someone looks “normal” on the outside). Everyone has a story to share. What will be yours?

Some of my favorite graphic memoirs:

  • Smile by Raina Telgemeier
  • Hey, Kiddo by Jarret J. Krosoczka
  • A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
  • Parenthesis by Élodie Durand
  • Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
  • In Limbo by Deb JJ Lee

Writing prompt

Everyone has a story to tell.

Create a short comic about an event in your life. It could be as simple as to your morning routine today to a big life event. Don’t worry about your art skills. Stick figures will work (see xkcd.com).

Some prompts: What is the happiest memory you have? What is the saddest memory you have? What was your day like yesterday? Draw a comic of your most recent birthday.

Create a grid on paper could be 4×4 or more, depending on how long you want your story to be (some comics are even just a single panel! I encourage starting with a 4×4 so you can show time passing). You can work on creating your characters separately or you can just jump into creating. Draw your character(s) and make sure to leave room for the text (if needed). Remember in comics half the story is in the art. So if you want to show someone putting on their shoes you don’t need to state it in the text (ex. ”…and then I put on my shoes.”) We don’t need the text because we can see it. Happy creating!

Published October 10th, 2023 by Candlewick Press

About the Book: Debut graphic novelist Claire Lordon’s medical misfortunes may be one in a million in this relatable memoir, but so is her determination, grit, and passion to beat the odds and reclaim her life.

Something is wrong with Claire, but she doesn’t know what. Nobody does, not even her doctors. All she wants is to return to her happy and athletic teenage self. But her accumulating symptoms—chronic fatigue, pounding headaches, weight gain—hint that there’s something not right inside Claire’s body. Claire’s high school experience becomes filled with MRIs, visits to the Mayo Clinic, and multiple surgeries to remove a brain tumor. But even in her most difficult moments battling chronic illness, Claire manages to find solace in her family, her closest friends, and her art. A deeply personal and visually arresting memoir that draws on the author’s high school diaries and drawings, One in a Million is also a sophisticated portrayal of pain, depression, and fear that any teen or adult can relate to. With a sensitive preface and an author’s note connecting past to present, this true story of resilience strikes a moving balance between raw honesty in the face of medical and mental trauma and the everyday musings of a teenager.

About the Author: Claire Lordon is an author, illustrator, and designer who creates children’s books, comics, murals, maps, and greeting cards. She is the author-illustrator of Lorenzo, the Pizza-Loving Lobster, the Taking a Walk series, and other picture books. One in a Million is her first graphic novel. Claire Lordon lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Thank you, Claire, for these writing prompts to get our students creating!

There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, Illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey

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There Was a Party for Langston
Author: Jason Reynolds
Illustrators: Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey
Published October 3rd, 2023 by Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Summary: New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds’s debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to Word King, literary genius, and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes and the luminaries he inspired.

Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his word-children, to write their own glory.

Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and more came be-bopping to recite poems at their hero’s feet at that heckuva party at the Schomberg Library, dancing boom da boom, stepping and stomping, all in praise and love for Langston, world-mending word man. Oh, yeah, there was hoopla in Harlem, for its Renaissance man. A party for Langston.

Praise:

Melding celebratory text and kinetic, graphical art, the creators underscore the power of the subject’s poetry to move and to inspire. – Publishers Weekly, *STARRED REVIEW*, 8/14/2023

Evocative and celebratory words float around the dancers like strains of music, all the way to a culminating whirl of letters, laughter, and joy. Who knew these esteemed literary lions could cut the rug like that? – Booklist, *STARRED REVIEW*, 08/01/2023

Reynolds and the Pumphrey brothers take readers on a dazzling journey through Langston Hughes’ legacy … A bar set stratospherically high and cleared with room to spare. – Kirkus Reviews, *STARRED REVIEW*, 08/01/2023

This book is an absolute textual and pictorial glory of people, places, word-making, song-singing, storytelling, history-making moments, and images that are unforgettable. A beguiling, bedazzling collaboration that will send children to the shelves to learn more about all the names within, especially Hughes. – School Library Journal, *STARRED REVIEW*, July 2023

About the Creators: 

Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ain’t Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

Jerome Pumphrey is a designer, illustrator, and writer, originally from Houston, Texas. His work includes It’s a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor—all of which he created with his brother Jarrett. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’s There Was a Party for Langston. Jerome works as a graphic designer at The Walt Disney Company. He lives near Clearwater, Florida.

Jarrett Pumphrey is an award-winning author-illustrator who makes books for kids with his brother, Jerome. Their books include It’s a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor. They also illustrated Jason Reynolds’s There Was a Party for Langston. Jarrett lives near Austin, Texas.

Review: This book may just be perfection. All of it–the words, the story, the inspiration, and the art.

First, we have Jason Reynolds’s verse, written with a rhythm that is screaming to be read aloud (I can’t wait for the audiobook). The story is a celebration of Hughes about a celebration of Hughes, so the love is truly emanating off the pages. And the story of Reynolds’s inspiration is just so wholesome and a snapshot into history that deserves this book.

Second, the cherry on top is the pieces of art that illustrate Reynolds’s words. The Pumphrey brothers use handmade stamps to create spreads that complete the book into the complete package that it is. I loved how they included Hughes’s words and Reynolds’s words within the art as well.

I highly recommend reading Betsy Bird’s Goodreads review because she is so much more articulate and detailed than I am about this book in all of its glory.

Tools for Navigation: This text should be combined with Hughes’s work. His words are intertwined within the book which lends directly into picking up Hughes’s work to read alongside it. Readers could also find words within the illustrations and find which of Hughes’s work it comes from and look at why that particular section would be included at that point.

Additionally, other beloved authors were introduced to the readers, not only Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka but James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ashley Bryan, Octavia Butler, Countee Cullen, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Ralph Ellison, Nikki Giovanni, Alex Haley, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright. These introductions could lend themselves to be the start of an author study, including asking why Reynolds and the Pumphreys would have chosen to include these specific authors.

Discussion Questions: 

  • Why did Langston Hughes have a party at the library?
  • What are some ways that Reynolds captured the excitement and glory of the evening with his words?
  • How did the illustrators use words in their art? What does it add to the book?
  • How did some of Hughes’s purposes relate to issues we’re still facing in America?
  • What inspired Jason Reynolds to write this book?
  • How is this picture book biography different than others?

Flagged Spreads: 

Read This If You Love: Poetry, Langston Hughes, Jason Reynolds

Recommended For: 

classroomlibrarybuttonsmall 

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**Thank you to Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing for sharing a copy for review!**

Author Guest Post: “Where Story Ideas Come From & Why Personal Narrative Writing Works Best for Me” by Charlotte Offsay, Author of Challah Day!

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“Where Story Ideas Come From & Why Personal Narrative Writing Works Best for Me”

One of my favorite questions to ask other authors is where their story ideas come from. It fascinates me that everyone seems to harness creativity differently. Some authors I know will take two things that ton’s typically go together and combine them into a story, for example mashing vampires and a beach vacation lead author Laura Lavoie to write Vampire Vacation. Other authors will create lists – emotions, settings, types of narrators etc. – and challenge themselves to combine them into a story.

Personally, I prefer Personal Narrative Writing and tend to mine my own life for story ideas. I find that when I write from experience or from the heart, it shines through in my writing and brings out my best work. Since I write picture books, I like to take my own personal experiences and then channel them through a child lens and onto the page.

Take for example my upcoming picture book Challah Day! illustrated by the talented Jason Kirschner (8/1/23 from Holiday House). The idea for Challah Day! was born out of a personal experience close to my heart – my love of baking challah with my two young children.

Book Description: Challah Day! is a joyful, rhyming story about a Jewish holiday food that’s baked with love. From kneading sticky dough to gathering with family around the table, Challah Day! celebrates family, food, heritage, and tradition! Join this happy family as they bake delicious braided egg bread for their Friday night Shabbat dinner.

I began making challah with my two young children when they grew old enough to stop trying to eat the raw dough. Making Challah with them has brought clouds of flour, broken eggs, endless laughter, delicious bread and a beautiful timeless tradition into our home. Channeling my joy of baking together led to my writing the first draft of Challah Day! after one particularly giggle-filled baking session.

I sat down and wrote an upbeat, rhyming story about a family baking challah together for Shabbat. I included fun details from my own life, for example one page reads:

Crack the eggs – one… two… three… four
Extra if some hit the floor.

These lines were inspired by the countless eggs my children broke while learning to master cracking eggs.

The lines…

Chocolate? Raisins? Which to use?
It’s not hard for us to choose!

…come from my daughter who loves to try and fit an entire bag of chocolate chips into her challah dough.

And the lines…

Grandma lights the candles bright.
She and Grandpa hold us tight.

…were inspired by my in-laws who still scoop my children close every time we light the Shabbat candles together.

Mining personal experiences for story ideas can be a great way to help students create their own stories – everyone has a story to tell! Students can choose to stick close to their personal experiences the way I did with Challah Day! or they can use the concept as inspiration and then take artistic license.

Personal Narrative Writing Prompts:

  1. Write about a food that you love to cook or bake with your family.
  2. Describe a favorite tradition or holiday.
  3. Where is your favorite place to visit and why?
  4. What was the best day you have ever had?
  5. Write about your first sleepover
  6. What is something that you are proud of?
  7. What is the silliest thing that has ever happened to you?

Steps:

  1. Pick a personal narrative writing prompt.
  2. Who are the characters in your story?
  3. What are the steps or order of events in your story?
  4. What fun personal details can you add?
  5. Write an opening line that will introduce your character and make your reader want to keep reading. For example, “The silliest thing that ever happened to me was ____” Or “I am proud of ____ because _____.”
  6. Write about the events that happened in your story while keeping the action moving forward. Follow your order of events using words such as: First, Next, Then, Finally.
  7. Incorporate your fun personal details as you write just like I did for Challah Day! Add adjectives/describing words and answer the following questions within your story: Who, What, Where, Why or How.
  8. Conclude your story with one of the following:
    1. How things ended
    2. What you learned
    3. What you will never forget
    4. How the story changed you/made you look at the world differently
    5. What you look forward to doing next time

Happy creating!

About the Author: CHARLOTTE OFFSAY was born in England, grew up in Boston, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Through her work, Charlotte hopes to make children laugh, to inspire curiosity, and to create a magical world her readers can lose themselves in time and time again.

Charlotte is the author of The Quiet Forest, illustrated by Abi Cushman (Paula Wiseman Books, 2024), Challah Day!, illustrated by Jason Kirschner (Holiday House, 2023), A Grandma’s Magic, illustrated by Asa Gilland (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, April 2022), The Big Beach Cleanup, illustrated by Kate Rewse (Albert Whitman, 2021), and How to Return a Monster, illustrated by Rea Zhai (Beaming Books, 2021).

Learn more about Charlotte’s work at charlotteoffsay.com and follow her on Twitter and Tiktok at @COffsay and on Instagram at @picturebookrecommendations. Charlotte is represented by Nicole Geiger at Full Circle Literary.

Thank you, Charlotte, for this post about your process and ideas to help kids with theirs!

Author Guest Post: “Fridge Problems” by Josh Funk, Author of Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast #5: The Great Caper Caper

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“Fridge Problems”

First, thank you, Ricki and Kellee, for inviting me to post here at Unleashing Readers! It’s an honor to share on your awesome site.

As the fifth Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast adventure, The Great Caper Caper, was just released, I thought I’d share a little bit of what I talk about with students when I visit schools.

After reading one of the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast books and discussing how I wrote it and how Brendan Kearney illustrated it and how long (three and a half years) it took from the time I came up with the idea until it was available on bookshelves, I like to get some volunteers and create some characters. I’ll usually ask students to share their favorite foods and jobs they want to have when they grow up – and then we mash them together and end up with Doctor Pizza. Or Professor Cupcake. Or President Peanut. And we’ll make up a little story with these characters, but it doesn’t really get good until we introduce the most important ingredient: Conflict.

I tell students that in a story, we always need our characters to encounter some sort of challenge. Or something bad has to happen that they have to overcome. Or maybe we need … a villain (at which point I’ll rebrand the principal or librarian or some faculty member to be someone’s least favorite food mixed with a super scary animal/monster/creature. Say hello to Evil Mushroom Spider. Or Moldy Broccoli Vampire).

But conflict isn’t always a villain. In fact, when I write the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series, the conflict rarely is a villain (at least not directly). It’s usually a fridge problem. And I always try to keep them relatively kid-relatable.

I ask myself (and students) the question: What is a problem that could happen in a fridge?

  • Have you ever fought with a sibling over the last slice of pizza or last cookie or last drop of syrup? That’s what happens in the original Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast (the two titular characters race for the last drop of syrup).
  • Have you ever opened the fridge and smelled something kind of funny? That’s what happens in The Case of the Stinky Stench (a rotten smell threatens to take over the fridge)
  • Have you ever opened the fridge and things were too cold and starting to freeze? That’s what happens in Mission Defrostable (the fridge starts to freeze over).
  • Have you ever been excited to eat something, but when you took it out of the fridge it was all moldy and spoiled and gooey and gross? That’s what happens in Short & Sweet (Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast start to go stale).

And in the newest book in the series, The Great Caper Caper, fridge problem is: Have you ever opened the fridge and the light bulb had gone out?

I believe it’s important that conflicts have high stakes (pun intended). The higher the stakes the more satisfying the ending will be when the characters overcome the challenges. Sometimes the conflict affects the entire fridge community. Other times it’s more personal and affects only our main characters, but those stakes can be just as important.

So when it’s time to break out a pencil and paper and everyone creates their own characters, I always try to ask one question as I go around to see what all of the students have come up with:

What is the worst thing that could happen to your character?

And when they answer that all of the ketchup and mustard and relish paint was stolen from Art Teacher Hot Dog’s classroom, I tell them that that is the story they should write. And I can’t wait to see how their characters solve those conflicts.

Published November 15, 2020 by Union Square & Co

About the Book: Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are back in a Las Veggies heist for the ages!

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast awake one morning to near-darkness. Who could possibly have stolen the fridge light? And what if the fridge is—gasp—dark all the time? Not to worry; Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast are on the case! Along with their friends, they assemble blueprints, collect supplies, and investigate. Will they bring the fridge back to its bright self, or will they have to live in semi-darkness . . . forever?

About the Author: Josh Funk writes silly stories such as the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series (including sequels The Case of the Stinky Stench, Mission Defrostable, Short & Sweet, and The Great Caper Caper), the How to Code with Pearl and Pascal series (including How to Code a Sandcastle and How to Code a Rollercoaster), the It’s Not a Fairy Tale series (including ​It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk, It’s Not Hansel and Gretel, It’s Not Little Red Riding Hood, and It’s Not the Three Little Pigs), the A Story of Patience & Fortitude series in conjunction with the New York Public Library (including Lost in the Library and Where Is Our Library?), Dear Dragon, My Pet Feet, and more.

Josh grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes manuscripts. Since the fall of 2015, Josh has presented (or virtually presented) at over 650 schools, classrooms, and libraries.

Josh is terrible at writing bios, so please help fill in the blanks. Josh enjoys _______ during ________ and has always loved __________. He has played ____________ since age __ and his biggest fear in life is being eaten by a __________.

For more information about Josh Funk, visit him at www.joshfunkbooks.com and on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @joshfunkbooks.

Thank you, Josh, for this fantastic idea as well as your always present and loveable humor!

Author Guest Post: “Bring the Text to Life: Baking the Cake” by Stephen Savage, Author of Moonlight

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“Bring the Text to Life: Baking the Cake”

In 2004, when I began my career in children’s books with a book called Polar Bear Night (published by Scholastic, written by Lauren Thompson), I thought I had it all figured out. I was of the mind that picture books were mainly about the visuals (why else would they call them “picture books”). And as crazy as what I am about to say sounds, I didn’t really understand how the text functioned. I knew it filled blank spaces in the illustrations, but that’s about it. It seemed like “the icing on the cake”. Little did I know.

Then in 2010, I decided I wanted to bake a cake and ice it, too. My daughter had just been born, and I felt inspired to write a story about her. One morning, as I stumbled across the Gowanus canal on my way to my studio in Brooklyn (I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before), I spotted a tug boat. “That’s my story”, I thought. I could see the visuals perfectly. 

But what about those blank spaces in the images? They’d need words! By this time, I had illustrated three books, visited a few classrooms, gotten to know the reading habits of kids, and was starting to figure things out a bit. I was learning that picture books were read-alouds, and that the words were very important (duh!).

I was on to the fact that words could be fun to say. Words could engage. More importantly, words could create a beginning, middle, and end in a book. I had so much to learn. I spent months writing my ideas down on index cards, until the cards fell together to form Little Tug (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan).

This summer, my seventh book as both author and illustrator comes out. It’s called Moonlight. And I’m sure if I showed the book to my 2004 self, he’d scoff at the text. At only 85 words, he’d regard it as a very thin layer of icing on top of an already yummy cake.

But here’s what I’d say to my old, uniformed self: effective picture book text may seem effortless, but that’s not the case. I’d point out all the craft that went into the writing, a discussion of which, could be used to stimulate discussion in the classroom.

I’d point out FOUR examples of writing tools I used to bring the text to life:

  1. PERSONIFICATION: The book opens with the line “Something is on the move”. Personifying the moonlight, turning it into the protagonist in the story, was one way I put a new spin on the traditional lullaby/nighttime theme. 
  2. VIVID VERBS: Words like “slithering”, “drifting” and “tumbling” give the reader a sense of action and adventure. They create excitement and drama.
  3. ALLITERATION: “Sliding down silvery tracks” may just be my favorite line in the book. Why? It’s fun to say. And I have my editor, Neal Porter, to thank for that alliterative line. He replaced my original word, “Icy” with “silvery”. PS: I think it’s nice for young readers to hear how professional artists get help from their teachers (er, I mean editors 😉
  4. SENSORY LANGUAGE makes a story relatable. I used the line “Then it rests for a while, next to you” for a rush of emotion at the critical moment in the story when the moonlight journeys into the child’s bedroom. Certainly, the image of the cat snuggled up against the child reinforces this ‘touch’. 

So now that I’m thinking about it, this “icing on the cake” analogy doesn’t really apply anymore. In picture books, images always work together with text to tell the story. I had to work hard to figure this out, and luckily my editors and mentors have been generous with their advice and suggestions. Like most things in life, writing is about practice and good guidance. And a little piece of cake and a glass of milk while you’re working never hurts!

NOTE: Special thanks goes to teacher/reading specialist Renee Davis of Glastonbury, Connecticut (my sister-in-law) for acting as a consultant on this post.

Published August 23rd, 2022 by Neal Porter Books

About the Book: A lyrical bedtime read about the captivating effects of moonlight and its nightly journey.

“Something is on the move.”

When moonlight shines, it’s not like most light. In the quietest hours of the night, it swings through trees and slithers down rivers. It drifts in the wake of steamships and catches on the propeller of a passing plane. It blankets neighborhoods before coming to rest by your side.

In this bedtime picture book, Stephen Savage, author and illustrator of And Then Came Hope, Babysitter from Another Planet, and the Geisel Honor book Supertruck, presents a lyrical text and illustration full of dramatic light and shadow to pay homage to the mysterious moon and the unique ways it reveals itself each night.

About the Author: STEPHEN SAVAGE is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator whose accolades include a New York Times Best Illustrated Book (Polar Bear Night) and a Geisel Honor (Supertruck). Polar Bear Night was a New York Times bestseller. He also wrote and illustrated And Then Came Hope and Babysitter from Another Planet. He teaches at the School of Visual Arts and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, daughter and two dogs. 

https://www.savageillustrator.com/
@savageillustrator on Instagram
@savageartist on Twitter

https://holidayhouse.com/book/moonlight/
@holidayhousebks on all platforms

Thank you, Stephen, for sharing sharing your analogy that can move writing to the next level!