I am so excited that the cover for my book, “Trick or Treat, Bugs to Eat” is finally live! Illustrator Nancy Leschnikoff and the team at Sourcebooks Kids did such beautiful work on this book!
Here is a little video with the cover at the end that my agent, Carrie Pestritto, helped me put together!
To read about how I got the idea for this book, and enter to win a virtual call from amazing author Tara Lazar, head over to her blog, where the cover for this Halloween book was first revealed on April 8!
I am doing a preorder campaign for this book–if you preorder it, I will send you free stickers! I have details about that here. It comes out from Sourcebooks on August 1, 2021, with plenty of time before Halloween.
If you’re looking for some NEW books to read to or give to your kids, my friend Tamara Girardi has built an amazing list of books coming out in 2021! She has organized them by month, so you can preorder books for a kid in your life and know that they’ll have books every month of 2021 (yes, I am three months late in posting this, but I hope Tamara will do this for 2022 as well!).
What’s the cookie? If you submit each book you preorder to Tamara’s Google Form, she will enter you in a drawing for a $100 gift card.
The books range from picture books up to young adult, and they are, at a glance, from very diverse creators, featuring diverse characters.
Of course, as I know well, the original month of a book’s publication isn’t always the month it will come out, so why not order two per month to be safe? (;
Well, publishing my debut in a pandemic has caught up to me. Due to shipping delays, “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby” will now be releasing on….record scratch…April 13th, not March 16th, and not the original date of March 2nd.
The GOOD NEWS is that I have more time to reach my goal of donating a few hundred books to babies in need via ShareBaby! (I’m at 140 right now, spread the word and help me get to 300??)
If you ordered this book for a baby shower or any reason that makes it a pain that it’s delayed, please let me know! I will likely get my author copies closer to the original date and might be able to help you out.
When I was pregnant, I went to a friend’s baby shower, and she asked guests to bring a book instead of a card. At first, I was hesitant—weren’t books more expensive than a card? But then I found the wealth of baby books available for about the same price as a card (under $10, and in some cases under $5), and I knew I had to do this for my own baby shower, too! After all, it was so much better to have lots of books we’d use for years than a giant pile of cards we’d eventually throw out.
Now that my daughter is almost three, I am so glad I did this! We have so many books that are signed by friends and relatives. Every time we read them, we think of that person. This is something we will treasure for years to come!
So here are my 5 tips to have a great “bring a book, not a card” baby shower.
I did a “Bring a Book, Not a Card” baby shower, and it was absolutely wonderful! Every time we read one of the books my friends and/or family members signed, we think of them with love.
Of course, the trick to doing this without coming off as greedy to your family and friends is to find a bunch of inexpensive books to put on your registry! The good news is there is a wealth of amazing baby shower gift books to include.
The following list was compiled on 2/10/21, and it is possible that the prices of these books have changed since then. But at the time of this post, they’re under $10! These are all affiliate links. I will likely spend my commission on buying more books! If you’d like a longer list with options at more price point, I have listed some of the best baby shower books regardless of price here. None of them should break the bank!
Looking to join a community of writers and get some feedback on your work? Join “Writing a Brilliant First Page,” my monthlong virtual course with the Johns Hopkins University Odyssey program. This is a “lifelong learning” class that is open to anyone, anywhere. This is a LIVE, highly interactive course that will be limited to 20 students. I will, however, record each class, so if you have to miss one, it’s no big deal.
The last class I taught with JHU Odyssey filled up, so register before all the spots are gone!
“The first page of your novel, story, or memoir is key to capturing readers’ attention. In this class, students will analyze excellent first pages from published works of various genres and apply what they learn to their own work. Each student will have their first page critiqued by the class.”
Always wanted to write a picture book, but not sure where to start? Or maybe you’ve written a few and don’t know if they’re any good, or what to do with them now that you’ve written them.
Join me for a free class on “The Basics of Writing Picture Books” via the Orange County Library System on Tuesday March 9 at 6:30 to 7:30 pm EST. You don’t need to have a library card there to attend. Anyone can register at this link!
We’ll cover picture book writing basics, trends in the current picture book market, and what to do after you’ve written a book. Plus, we’ll do a fun creative writing exercise! Hope to virtually see you there!
Oh my goodness, the art for “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby” is so darn cute, and now your kids can color some pages in themselves at home! (I mean, adults can too. It’s a super zen activity!) Adèle Dafflon‘s illustrations are so fun and baby-friendly, I’m thrilled to have them in this format!
To get the full-size pages to print at home, simply sign up for my email newsletter! I promise I don’t email too often; only when I have fun giveaways or big news! You’ll get a link to download the pages in a thank you email from me.
Since “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby” is a great book for new babies and baby shower gifts, and babies don’t do much coloring, one fun way to use these coloring pages would be for an older sibling of the baby who is receiving this book.
Remember, I am donating a book to ShareBaby for every book that’s preordered before March 2! Simply email your receipt to tcgpreorders@gmail.com. More details here.
I sent hundreds of queries over the years of my search for a literary agent, and I had a darn good request rate (about 40%, on some projects!). I also read thousands of queries as a literary agent intern. While I didn’t end up actually getting my agent from cold querying (full story here!), I’m a pretty dab hand at writing query letters and helping other writers improve their letters.
So, here is my favorite format for query letters. Caveat: there is no one right way to write a query to a literary agent. You have to do what makes your book sound amazing. This is just what worked for me, and what I loved when I was going through the slush pile as an intern. Looking for info on writing picture book query letters? They’re much shorter! My guide for picture book queries is here.
I’ve also included a whole bunch of resources, including links to successful query letters, at the end of this post.
Books are amazing baby shower gifts! In fact, for my baby shower, I asked everyone to bring a book instead of a card (many board books are the same price as a nice card!). I put lots of books on my baby shower registry and my daughter has a wonderful library. Giving books as (socially distanced) baby shower gifts is an even better idea due to Covid-19, as many parents don’t have the same access to the library as before.
Full disclosure, I have two great books for baby showers that I wrote! There’s “Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby,” which, come on, is guaranteed to get a chuckle at a baby shower (in my unbiased opinion). However, unlike another personal favorite, “Go the F** to Sleep,” this is a board book you can actually read it to your child. And there’s “Call Your Mother,” which is a bigger, hardcover book, which made reviewers tear up in a bittersweet way. (Affiliate links.) A quick plug for “Call Your Mother”–it has a “This book is dedicated to” page where you can write the name of the mom-to-be you are giving the book to, and any wishes you have for their journey as a mother.
But of course you need more than a couple books for a baby shower registry! Thus I’ve listed some of my favorite new baby gift books. My aim is to go beyond the classics everyone already knows about, like “Goodnight Moon,” because I got 4 copies of this when my baby was born! She’s enjoyed them all in different spaces in our house, but it’s nice to have variety.
