A few years ago, as my daughters began voraciously reading chapter books, I fell in love with the genre… all over again. It had been a while (30 years) since I’d consistently read chapter books. But when I was my girls’ age, I devoured Nancy Drew and The Baby-Sitters Club. Without a doubt, chapter books were the titles that built my identity as a reader.
As a student and forever-fan of picture books, I have found exploring today’s chapter books to be such an exciting and fun journey of discovery! The adventures, the friendships, the family dynamics. The humor, tone, personality. From Dory Fantasmagory and Jada Jones, to Yasmin and Ivy and Bean, each series and title has its own vibe, vibrancy and vocabulary.
Then one summer day, while traveling in the family van, a brand new character arrived in my mind and world: An imaginative, theatrical, disabled girl, and her family and school day stories. Letter by letter, word by word, she emerged in a Word doc on my laptop. Gosh, I loved hanging out with this cool girl.
It’s with great joy that this week, we can at last announce that the first of these tales will be releasing next year — with two books in Fall 2024, and a third to follow in Spring 2025. So, soon you too can meet… STARLIN!
As reported in this week’s Publishers Weekly Rights Report, the books were sold by my agent Stephanie Hansen of Metamorphosis Literary Agency to Andrea Hall of Beaming Books, an editor I had the pleasure of meeting in person at Geneva Commons in 2021, when she visited to support author and friend Norene Paulson, who was in town for Kids Day Story Time during Swedish Days.
I’d also seen Andrea in a panel on disability in kidlit in 2022. She has a great passion for disability representation in children’s literature, and her conceptualization of the Starlin series has given me the space to make each chapter more robust and detailed. I’m absolutely thrilled to be partnering with her and the Beaming team to bring Starlin to life!
Another tremendous joy of this project has been teaming with the brilliant illustrator Katie Crumpton. I love Katie’s fresh palettes and sparkly characters and their charming lifestyle accouterments, and her compositions are so colorful and energetic —the absolute perfect match for Starlin! I am very honored to partner with fellow Aquarius, thunderstorm fan and hula hooper Katie, whose work you can check out on her illustrator website www.katiecrumptonart.com and on Instagram at @katie_crumpton.
Art by Katie Crumpton
We are currently working intensively on book one, which I can’t wait to tell you more about! The first manuscript will soon be reviewed by sensitivity readers for each disability experience in the book. For anyone unfamiliar with this process: Starlin is a wheelchair user. So the story will be reviewed by an editor who also is a wheelchair user. Starlin also is a multimodal communicator, who uses a communication device and also speaks aloud. So an editor who is a multimodal communicator will read and edit the story, as well. Sensitivity editors will also review the manuscript for the experiences of scoliosis and hearing loss. I’m so grateful for their efforts and partnership!
The coming months will bring more news about STARLIN book #1, as well as details about my next picture book, WILLOW AND BUNNY, illustrated by Christopher Denise, which is due later this year or early next.
PS: If you don’t yet have Christopher’s new picture book KNIGHT OWL… grab it! Critics and readers alike have hailed and embraced this adorable tale — a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2022, which was recently back on the New York Times Best Seller list and is now getting much-deserved Caldecott buzz. Huge congratulations, Christopher!
Soooo much fun stuff in store in 2023 - I’ll share more soon. Until then, happy winter reading to you and yours!