GENRE: STEM/STEAM, Non-Fiction
WORDS: 1000
Query:
Dear Agents and Editors,
I am pleased to submit a sample of my 1000-word playful, nonfiction picture book exploring funky animals named after foods FRIED EGGS AND COCONUTS.
You’ll be amazed to discover that fried eggs are found floating in the sea and that coconuts have mighty pinching claws. This fun picture book with a scientific, yet child-friendly-underpinning is brimming with facts explaining these bizarre creatures while capturing the wonders of ecosystems. The backmatter delves into the world of taxonomy and the role of a biologist as well as the importance of scientific names. Exploring themes of ecology and biodiversity, the dual-layered text with the rhyming couplets highlighting the importance of scientific names and the informative secondary text underscores fascinating characteristics specific to each unique creature make this nonfiction book a fantastic, fact-filled, read-aloud.
Children aged 5-10 years who loved the combination of lyrical rhyme and nonfiction in ‘Fourteen Monkeys: A Rain Forest Rhyme’ by Melissa Stewart (Simon & Schuster), and the animal relationships in ‘Just You and Me: Remarkable Relationships in the Wild’ by Jennifer Ward (Simon & Schuster) as well as the compelling, page-turning facts in ‘Peculiar Primates: Fun Facts about These Curious Creatures’ by Debra Shumaker (Running Press, U.S.) will love Fried Eggs and Coconuts.
I’m a primary school teacher with a specialization in Geography and a children’s picture book author. As part of the 12 X 12 community, Mighty Kidlit, Inked Voices, and SCBWI, I continue to develop my passion for writing children’s nonfiction and fiction picture books. My love of nature, conservation, and biodiversity drives my nonfiction content. I adore using lyrical language and a strong voice within my manuscripts. My work as an educator influences my character-driven, fiction picture books.
Recently, I signed a contract for a lyrical nonfiction picture book with Tilbury House Publishers U.S. which is set for publication in summer 2025. I have another informational fiction picture book at acquisition stage with the same publisher.
My lyrical nonfiction “I AM BLUE: The Lifecycle of a Colorful Iceberg” was awarded the SCBWI Ann Whitford Paul Writer’s Digest honorable mention for “The Most Promising Nonfiction Picture Book of 2023”.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Excerpt:
A wibbly wobbly jelly egg is floating far and wide,
Pushing,
Pulsing
in the water, giving crabs a ride.
Look…it’s a Fried Egg Jellyfish
(Cotylorhiza tuberculate)
The Fried Egg Jellyfish gently floats in the ocean or pulses its bell to travel distances in water. It looks like a fried egg on top with a cluster of tentacles on the bottom. But don’t worry, its sting is very mild.
What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:
As a primary school teacher I aim to present funky facts in a fun, child-friendly way. This idea came to me in my classroom when a child working on a food recipe stumbled upon an image of a fried egg jellyfish and we began researching animals named after foods. A new PB idea in mind, I rang my zoologist friend with a gazillion questions and a rhyming couplet in my head.
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