Category: Author and Illustrator Spotlight

Postcards from an Octopus

Love Agnes book cover

By Libby Stille, Publicist

Have you ever wondered what sea creatures would write if they could send postcards? And by chance did you want to see this in picture book format? Or maybe you’ve just always wanted a different take on an animal life cycle book.

Love, Agnes: Postcards from an Octopus is a fresh look at a saltwater cephalopod mollusk life cycle. Readers follow Agnes as she discovers a postcard under the waves and begins corresponding with a human boy, a cantankerous crab, and more friends and foes. This epistolary picture book also tracks Agnes’s life cycle as she makes her home in a jar, lays eggs, cares for the eggs, and says goodbye to her children. Read More

Can I Touch Your Hair? and the N-Bomb: What is appropriate for children?

By Carol Hinz, Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books

A customer on Amazon recently expressed concerns that the book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship is not appropriate for elementary students because it includes a poem called “The N-Bomb” that references the existence of the N-word (though doesn’t spell it out). Coauthors Charles Waters and Irene Latham and editor Carol Hinz wanted to share their thoughts about the poem, the word, and tackling difficult topics with children. Read More