GENRE: *Character Driven, Lyrical
WORDS: 538
Query:
A child’s new book is filled with – blank pages? What’s going on here? All the other books have stories about dinosaurs and princesses and snowy days, and Book longs for a story, too. Why is Book so different?
Such is the premise of “Book’s Story,” a 538-word picture book manuscript about the most unusual book in a child’s room, and the story it longs to tell. Written in loose, lyrical prose, the text allows plenty of opportunity for an illustrator to share in telling the narrative.
I have a dozen children’s books to my credit, including the Kirkus-starred “Flashlight Night” (Astra Young Readers, 2017) and “I Am Today” (POW! Kids Books, 2022), recipient of the 2023 NH State Literary Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. Meanwhile, my poetry can be found in anthologies like “The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry” (National Geographic Kids, 2015), the NCTE-Notable “The Mistakes that Made Us” (Carolrhoda Books, 2024), and my own debut anthology, “A Universe of Rainbows” (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers), due out this April.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration, and I hope you enjoy the story!
Excerpt:
Once upon a time, a book was born.
And because all the best stories begin with “once upon a time,” this book was especially excited to see those words on its cover.
Alas, those were the only words in the entire book.
Book wondered why.
All the other books were filled with words. They told tales of pirates and unicorns and snowy days and wild things…
What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:
I was talking to my 11-year-old daughter a couple of months ago about books – she does not like reading at all, alas, but does enjoy drawing art in her journal – and it occurred to me that perhaps an empty book might be the most treasured book of all, for some children. Hence, my story began.
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