The House on the Canal by Thomas Harding, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup and published by Candlewick Studio reminds you why picture books are so important. The gorgeous illustrations are like framed pieces of art. It is wonderful in its ability to educate readers about the famous home where Anne Frank hid, and also deep in its meaning. It is the kind of book that teaches you as much about the present as it does the past and is as much for children as it is for adults. It is the kind of book that elevates your experience as a reader and…
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Happy 2025! As I mentioned in The Inspiring Bee, if January is any indicator of the rest of this year, it will be a challenging one for all of us. As a picture book creator, it’s hard to not venture into the world of politics when books are being banned to erase history. It’s been happening for a long time. Many generations have been raised without awareness of slavery, colonialism and annihilation of indigenous people and loss of their land. But continuing to share picture books about diverse cultures and perspectives is one way to stand up against it, which…
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I am beyond honored to have Asian American mental health advocate Yvonne Liu on the blog today. Yvonne has a slew of accomplishments from her viral HuffPost essay to being The OpEd Project ambassador. Her writing is powerful, beautifully honest, captivating and searing in it’s ability to render the Asian American experience. In this Q & A, we talk about how she became a writer, whether a degree is needed to write, and what to do if you’re afraid to share your story. Thank you so much Yvonne! Your words are so needed now more than ever. Your Huffpost essay,…
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I met Kamalani Hurley online years ago when I sold my first picture book and she was just beginning to submit hers. Fast forward a handful of years and Hurley who is a kanaka maoli (native Hawaiian) writer and professor emeritus, is publishing inspiring children’s literature that we all need to read. Her debut picture book Kaho’olawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People illustrated by Harinani Orme, was a Junior Library Guild Selection before it officially came out. It also won a starred review from the School Library Journal. I knew early on that it would be…
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I’ve been doing a lot of research for a picture book idea I’ve held for a while. Research was my job for many years. I worked for various organizations researching diabetes in youth, healthy aging and the criminal justice system for different parts of my life. But I find the most joy from history, particularly understanding my past. Belonging I was born and raised on Oahu. I’m Japanese American, so I never felt like I belonged in Japan, but I’m not from this land either. It’s a weird place to be especially in the times we’re living now. Listening to…
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Here is PII with my conversation with Kamalani Hurley. Check out the first post where she described her book on the history of Kaho’olawe. It’s something I didn’t even know and never learned in school despite being born and raised in Hawaii. In this second post, I learned even more. You’ll see that Kamalani is a wealth of information and you can tell she’s a natural teacher by heart. I am so grateful and honored to share her story and wisdom with you. Anything you wished you knew before you started writing for children? Not that I wished I knew…
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I am so excited to have Kamalani back on the blog especially to share her amazing book and all of her success and accomplishments. She is someone I look up to because she’s wickedly smart, extremely ambitious and knowledgeable, but also has such a good heart. I learned so much from our talk and I know you will too! Please support Kamalani by sharing and commenting on this post as well as preordering her book. Congratulations on Kaho’olawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People! Can you tell us a little bit about what your story is about? Thanks…
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My Climatebase fellowship has taught me so much. I’ve learned, for example, about companies that intentionally dumped toxins in the Amazon forest, killing indigenous people and the land. It’s happened multiple times throughout history so much so that there have been movies about it. Yet, it still happens. I also learned that most of us are nutrition deficient because our soil is depleted. An orange eaten generations ago has the same nutritional value as four oranges today. There were a lot of statistics, facts and tables that all end up with a pretty dire near future for us and the…
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Forgive me for this non-picture book review related post. But I recently started a new fellowship with Climatebase. It’s been a lifelong dream or shall I say worry about the earth that led me here. I nearly majored in Environmental Science, but I was never good at the left-brain stuff so I ended up with an English major, Ethnic Studies minor and later went to grad school to get my Masters in Counseling Psychology. This fear of the earth’s health never left, however, and only grew stronger the older I got, as I became a mother, and as natural disasters…
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Sometimes I Cry written by Jess Townes, illustrated by Daniel Miyares and published by Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, is a picture book that I wish I wrote. I say that a lot. But I have two boys who when they got to a certain age, suddenly believed it was not okay to cry anymore. Townes shows readers that it’s not only okay for boys to cry, but that there are a multitude of reasons why they would. That sometimes we cry because we hurt, but sometimes we cry in laughter. I love books that normalize emotions because…