I hope all the mommas out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend! My unintentional two-day celebration (a practice I’d be happy to make a tradition) included a date night with Dan, brunch the following day, church with my family, the sweetest homemade gifts, cousin + sister fun, porch swinging, and writing time. So, you could say my tank is full. Sending extra hugs to my mom, Cheryl Rowe! We clearly share a love of the loose fit trouser.
Speaking of mothers…
I don’t think a mom ever forgets the first book her child reads independently. That’s why I’m so emotionally linked to the picture book GO FISH! by Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Zoe Waring (HarperCollins). GO FISH! was the first book read alone by not ONE of my daughters, but TWO! I shared the magic of my youngest daughter’s first solo story mission in this ‘lil tweet…
All three of my girls are now avid readers - a dream come true! - and as an enthusiastic passenger on their reading-life journey, I can clearly see the link between their first cherished book and these enduring feelings of literary ownership and confidence.
If you wanna grab the attention of young readers and show them just how fun and engaging stories can be, look no further than the books of Tammi Sauer. Story after story delivers pure reading joy. Her character-driven narratives are brimming with witty delights, silly sentences and perfectly time punch lines, evoking smirks, smiles and allllll the LOLs.
So get ready to guffaw because Sauer’s latest picture book - NOT NOW, COW, illustrated by Troy Cummings (Abrams Appleseed, April 2021) - delivers precisely the color, charisma and comedy that fans of Sauer’s stories have come to enjoy. Here’s the season-defying cover… (PS: We ALL know cow, don’t we?)
NOT NOW, COW is a super funny story about a cow, who (despite many signs and signals from nature) cannot get on board with the weather. The book opens in the midst of cheery, bright, blossoming Spring. Spirited animals skitter across pink, yellow and green scenes, doing seasonally appropriate things. Duck happily waters budding plants. Sheep leaps and flies a kite.
Goat splashes through puddles, umbrella in hand, as a rainbow stretches across the sky. And Cow…
Well, Cow is… not on the same page.
NOT NOW, COW tickles funny bones with bouncy, playful rhyme, a cast of familiar-feeling friends, and humor that grows funnier and funnier with each page turn. Sauer tees up jokes just so, then WHACK! Anticipation soars up, up, up and… plop! The punch line lands in perfect position on the literary green. Often, for a hole in one.
Sauer is truly a master of the craft. I had the pleasure of attending an SCBWI conference a few years back, where Sauer presented and offered critiques. Her remarks - both in person and in the margins of my story - were dynamic, kind, exceedingly helpful and unforgettable. I’ve long hoped to have her on my blog, and… here she is! I hope you enjoy my Author Spotlight with Tammi Sauer:
3 Questions with Tammi Sauer
Several of your books - such as NOT NOW, COW and GO FISH! - are perfect for new readers. How do you approach crafting stories for the very youngest among us?
For books like Now Now, Cow and Go Fish!, I had a specific audience in mind. I wanted to give young kids who are at the very beginning stages of reading opportunities to feel like accomplished, real deal readers. To do this, I kept the text in these books to a minimum and invited the art to tell most of the story. I also made the stories a bit silly because I think little kids are often big fans of silliness.
An added perk to Not Now, Cow is that it rhymes. Paired with the art, the simple, rhyming text invites young readers to make successful predictions. When young readers find the confidence that comes from reading a book like Go Fish! or Not Now, Cow, they are more likely to reach for the next book.
Covid has made connecting with students in person super challenging. How have you adapted your author visits, since last spring, and what does 2021 hold?
It turns out it took a PANDEMIC to get me to do virtual visits. Kate Messner's webinar series "Reinventing the Author Visit" helped me to see it was doable, and Janee Trasler, one of the members of my critique group, acted as my personal guide as I learned how to navigate my way through Zoom and Google Meet. In addition, it was comforting to know there were a lot of people who were in this very same boat. The Facebook group called "Create Engaging School Visits" has been around since before the pandemic, but, this past year, it's been especially helpful for us authors and illustrators to have a place to share strategies for developing and doing virtual visits.
Even though I can't feed off the audience like I would normally do in an in-person visit, I always go into a virtual visit with the idea that I am presenting to the most engaged kid in the world. I have also made parts of my presentations interactive, and that has worked out well despite the confines of a virtual visit.
I'm hopeful that the 2021-2022 school year will bring with it a return to in-person visits. I already have a lot of visits on my calendar! I will, however, continue to do virtual visits as they are an easy, affordable way for schools to connect kids with authors.
Look at that stack of books! What advice can you share for picture book writers, who dream of writing many (many!) stories for children?
My favorite bit of picture book advice comes from a Cynsations interview that I was lucky enough to discover early in my career. Cynthia Leitich Smith had asked author Lynne E. Hazen a question regarding her main considerations in writing a picture book.
And THIS was Lynne's response:
"My main considerations for any picture book are humor, emotion, just the right details, read-aloud-ability, pacing, page turns, and of course, plot. Something has to happen to your characters that young readers will care about and relate to. Oh, and you have to accomplish all that in as few words as possible, while creating plenty of illustration possibilities. No easy task."
So good, right?!
I think about this quote every time I write a picture book.
Thank you for visiting the blog, Tammi! (That quote is going on the wall in my writing space!)
Tammi Sauer, a former teacher and library media specialist, is a full-time children's book author. She has 30 picture books with more on the way. In addition to winning awards and earning starred reviews, Tammi's books have gone on to do great things. Chicken Dance, Your Alien, and Nugget & Fang were made into musicals that toured the nation. Wordy Birdy was named a Kids’ Indie Next List book, the 2021 Book Choice for Read Across Oklahoma, and a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year. And Your Alien, an NPR Best Book of the Year, was released in Italian, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and French which makes her feel extra fancy. Visit Tammi’s website at tammisauer.com, and be sure to follow her on Twitter at @SauerTammi.
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