Six Bookish Questions
From our favorite book covers to the best questions kids have asked us
Apparently we like the number six lately! This week we’re each asking each other three questions. You can join in the fun too in the comments!
P.S. This is a long one with lots of images so if you’re reading this in your email you might want to click through to substack to read the whole thing. You can leave us a heart ❤️ or comment there too.
Christine: Which book(s) do you wish you’d written?
I wish I’d written one of my favorite picture books, Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen. I find it such a perfect picture book and I still love reading it aloud over a decade after I first read it.
Vicky: I can think of so many for different reasons, it’s hard to pick! I do have a love for the Olga books by Elise Gravel. They are so smart and funny, with science concepts woven in through a bit of fantastic storytelling—as you know I love to do with my own STEM stories!
Christine: What are some of your favorite book covers?
Sophie Blackall’s book covers are amongst my favorite, especially Hello Lighthouse and Farmhouse.
I also love love love the wooden cover on the special edition of The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris.
Vicky: I love Matthew Forsythe’s art, and his covers are stunning, like this one for Pokko and the Drum.
Christine: What is your ideal writing routine and set up?
My ideal would be to work from a bustling cafe for the whole morning with multiple drinks and snacks on hand (and a couple of co-working friends). But I also love working from my couch with a coffee and a bowl of snacks close by (as long as my puppy is asleep). Basically there needs to be snacks. Then after a productive morning of writing I would spend the afternoon on emails and other tasks. The reality is that my days rarely look like this but I wish they did!
Vicky: I also love writing cafés! But I’m generally not very productive when my friends are there because I end up chatting too much (Christine: can attest to this 😂). So if I’m serious about getting writing done, I like to spend the morning in a café, by myself, after I’ve finished all my busywork tasks like marketing/promo/emails stuff.
Vicky: Now it’s my turn for questions. What’s a recent kidlit book you read and recommend?
I recently read Rex Ogle’s Road Home, which was heartwrenching and so well done. I need to go back and start the trilogy from the beginning now.
Christine: I loved Kate O’Shaughnessy’s The Wrong Way Home recently. Kate’s writing is so beautiful and you fall in love with the main character, Fern, and root for her to figure out what’s happening and to make the right decision!
Vicky: What’s the best question a kid has asked you at one of your school visits?
I have two favorites that come to mind. One was a first grader who was so excited about the visit that she sat in the first row and repeatedly asked “Is this real or am I dreaming??” 😂 The other came from a 5th grader who asked “What kind of book can you write to have the biggest impact in this world?” I meet so many amazing kids, and they always find ways to surprise and impress me.
Christine: Such a good question. One that sticks in my mind is “Do you ever feel like you’ve failed at writing?” I said that no, I feel like everything I’ve ever written has helped make me a stronger writer. And that even if it was rejected, didn’t sell, or even never left my google drive, I might come back to it in the future and rework it, combine it with another idea, or it might inspire something else.
Vicky: What upcoming kidlit book are you looking forward to (other than our own, of course)?
One that comes to mind: I’m looking forward to The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang by Stan Yan, because the premise of bad luck based on Chinese superstition around her birthday sounds hilarious to me.
Christine: That sounds so fun! I’m a sucker for books about books and a sucker for Dan Santat’s art. That paired with two wonderful authors, Joanna Ho & Caroline Kusin Pritchard means that I’m excited for The Day the Books Disappeared which comes out in July.
Over to you: What are your answers to our six questions?
Oh! Thanks so much for highlighting my upcoming book, Vicki!
This is such a fun set of questions! I won't answer them all because it's late and I should go to bed, but I wish I had written Casey Robinson's "Small Things Mended" illustrated by Nancy Whitesides because it's lovely and feels like a warm hug. I have read it several times and it doesn't get old. There are so many others I love and feel this way about, but that one was on my mind today.
I am moving in a few weeks so I'm going to have to find a new writing space and routine, but in this house it's been really nice writing in my office with Charlie under my desk and having the blinds up on the only window so I get some daylight but not a lot to look at so very few distractions. If I am writing in the morning, I'm drinking coffee and not snacking but later in the day there can be snacks of all kinds - homemade trail mix has been a favorite.
Best question at a school visit was when I was asked if I had done the experiment in Aliana Reaches for the Moon to make sure it worked (she uses the light of the full moon to create the surprise at the end of the book) and I told the students, No. I hadn't tried it. Science is about trying things to see if they work and the important thing is scientists keep trying different things even when they fail. The following day I received an email from the superintendent thanking me for explaining what real scientists do and why it's important to try things even when we might not succeed.