New Books in Children's Literature

Today I speak to the wonderful literary agent Leslie Zampetti, who recently launched her own agency, Open Book Literary. A former librarian in special, public, and school libraries, Leslie’s focus is on the right book at the right time for the reader. We talk about her 'chocolate box' experiences as a champion of great children's stories. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel...

Miriam Halahmy has published 9 novels for children and teens. Her new book A Boy from Baghdad (Green Bean Books, 2024), tells the story for children the first time in English, of the exile of the Iraqi Jewish community 1949-1951 to Israel and their subsequent difficulties in the Promised Land. The book was inspired by Miriam's husband's family who are all Babylonian Jews born in Baghdad. About the...

Louise Lareau is the award-winning Managing Librarian at The New York Public Library and currently leads the Children’s Center team at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. She calls herself a 'book detective. We talk about makes a great picture book, differences among cultures and languages, the role of the library in bringing books to the children of their community, and how silliness, and th...

In this fun interview, we celebrate Renée M. LaTulippe's wonderful poem picture book The Crab Ballet (Cameron Kids/Abrams, 2022) and talk about her career and thoughts about children's literature, the importance of poetry in lyrical writing, her love for theater, and advice for aspiring authors.  Renée's upcoming book is Limelight: Theater Poems to Perform (Charlesbridge, 2025). She also has poems...

Isabel Estrada, Ph. D., is an author and speaker with an extensive background in music and education. Today we celebrate her recently-published picture own-voices book, La Mariachi (Sleeping Bear Press, 2023), and talk about rerouting her original hope of becoming an opera singer to her dream-come-true publishing journey. Mel Rosenberg is a professor emeritus of microbiology (Tel Aviv University)...

Charlotte Offsay was born in England, grew up in Boston, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. In our conversation, we celebrate her new picture book Challah Day, illustrated by Jason Kirschner (Holiday House, 2023) and talk about her author journey and advice for aspiring picture book writers. Charlotte is also the author of Eight Sweet Nights, A Festival of Lights...

Lita Judge is the award-winning author and illustrator of three dozen children’s books (!) including Flight School, Penguin Flies Home, Red Sled, Red Hat, Good Morning to Me!, Born in the Wild, Even the Smallest Will Grow, When You Need Wings, as well as her much celebrated, illustrated young adult novel, Mary’s Monster. In our conversation, we celebrate her new picture book, Don't Worry, Wuddles ...

In this, our second interview, I talk with award-winning children's author Tara Lazar about her new picture book, Flat Cat (Flamingo Books, 2023), illustrated by the also-illustrious Pete Oswald. We talk about where ideas come from, and the process by which the finished text leaves the author's hands and becomes an illustrated picture book. We also discuss her fabulous children's (everyone's, actu...

Alex Zablotsky is the Managing Director of PJ Library, a philanthropy that donates millions of books on Jewish themes to children around the world every year. We talk about the confluence of Jewish and universal themes, the similarities and differences between PJ Library and its Israeli sister, Sifriat Pajama, which shares hundreds of thousands of picture books in Arabic, as well as in Hebrew, the...

Jennifer Unter has worked in many aspects of the publishing industry for over three decades. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she began her career at Henry Holt & Co. in the editorial department before moving on to the Karpfinger Agency as a junior literary agent, while also attending law school at Fordham University School of Law. In 2008, she started The Unter Agency, LLC, a ful...

Sandra Sutter is the owner/publisher at Gnome Road Publishing (aka "Top Gnome"). A former attorney, counselor and author, she has found her way to making great books with great people. The key concept at Gnome Road is "re-readability". Sandra is also a mom and chauffeur to two curious kids, a crazy cat lady, and a fan of kind people. We talked in detail about her publishing process, the books she...

Marisa A. Corvisiero is the founder and CEO of the Corvisiero Literary Agency, and its Senior Literary Agent. During the few years prior to starting her own agency, Marisa worked with another well known New York City Literary Agency, where she learned invaluable lessons and made a name for herself in the industry. She is also a Literary Consultant, Speaker, Author and continues to practice law in...

Bea Birdsong is the internationally-celebrated author of I Will Be Fierce! (illustrated by Nidhi Chanani), Sam’s First Word (illustrated by Holly Hatam), and How to Spot a Best Friend (illustrated by Lucy Fleming), In this, our second conversation, we celebrate her new interactive picture book (illustrated by Linzie Hunter) Boop! (HarperCollins, 2023). We talk about the pros and cons of writing fi...

An autistic mom of three autistic kids, Dr. Jen Malia is the author of the children’s chapter book series The Infinity Rainbow Club and the picture book Too Sticky! Sensory Issues with Autism. Jen is Professor of English and Creative Writing Coordinator at Norfolk State University. She has a Ph. D. in English from the University of Southern California. We talk about her books, and her advocacy to...

Liza Fleissig, with her partner Ginger Harris-Dontzin, opened the Liza Royce Agency (LRA) in early 2011. From picture books through adult projects, fiction and non-fiction, LRA welcomes strong voices and plot driven works. In our animated and exciting conversation Liza and I discuss her career, some of the books she has sold recently, her advice for aspiring authors, and her thoughts about the rol...

Amanda Hall has been a children’s book illustrator since the mid-1980s, with some fifty books published in 26 countries. After a period in London and abroad, she returned to live in Cambridge, England, where she had trained. In our animated interview, we discuss the recent book (by Jennifer Berne) which she illustrated, How the Sea Came to Be (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2023) her life (starting with the mag...

Melissa Stewart has written more than 200 science-themed nonfiction books for children, including the Sibert Medal Honoree Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen. In our interview, we celebrate the launch of her wonderful new book Thank You, Moon: Celebrating Nature’s Nightlight (Knopf, 2023), illustrated by Jessica Lanan. We also talk about her advocacy for mo...

A wonderful interview with Kristen Daniels, Executive Director of Bernie's Book Bank. Since 2009, Bernie's Book Bank has provided 24 million books free of charge to children in the Chicago area. In our conversation, Kristen talks about what they do, how they do it, and how we can help out with this incredible initiative. Before joining Bernie’s Book Bank, Kristen held a variety of leadership roles...

Julie Hedlund is back as our guest on New Books Network to talk about her brand new picture book, Song After Song: The Musical Life of Julie Andrews published on Sept 5th by Little Bee Books. It recounts, with love and lyricism, Julie Andrew's childhood leading to her breakthrough as a young teenager. Julie shares the story of how the book came to be, as well as her thoughts and advice on the chal...

Mónica Mancillas authors books for children of all ages, as well as adult fiction. In our lively interview, Mónica discusses two of her picture books that launched during the summer: How to Speak in Spanglish (Penguin Workshop, 2023) and The Worry Balloon (Roaring Brook Press, 2023). Monica received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley before pursuing a decade-lon...

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Philadelphia, Jannie Ho is the illustrator of the early reader graphic novel Fry Guys (Andrews McMeel Publishing, launching September 26, 2023) written by Eric Geron, which will launch in just a few days. She is also the author/illustrator of Happy Chinese New Year, A Festive Counting Story, Bear and Chicken, and The Lost Mitten. Jannie is the creator of the comic S...

Michael Leventhal is the publisher of Green Bean Books, which focuses on Jewish children’s books. He is author of The Chocolate King and co-author of Jews in Britain, After twenty years publishing military history books, he wanted to try something new and work on books that his own young children would enjoy reading. In our interview we discuss Michael's journey towards become a successful kidlit...

Sister Mary Josefa of the Eucharist is a Benedictine nun in Missouri; she and the sisters of her community recently wrote a charming children’s book, Brides of Christ (Sophia Institute Press, 2023), which invites the reader into the rhythms of their contemplative life through the course of the day and cycle of the year. She talks about this life with me and also the discernment that drew her into...

Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has already raised more than $27,000,000. In this interview, Andy Hunter, founder and CEO discusses his journey to creating one of the most revolutionary new organizations in the book world. Bookshop has found a way to retain the convenience of online book sho...

Savannah Brooks started her agenting career as an intern with the Jennifer De Chiara team in 2017, moving to associate agent in 2018. In 2022, she joined the KT Literary as an agent, where she now works full-time representing all of kid lit and most adult fiction. She’s especially interested in stories that teach her something new, add to a larger sociopolitical conversation, and highlight underre...