NEVER GIVE UP: AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR DEBBIE DADEY AND ILLUSTRATOR JULIANA OAKLEY

Meet Hungarian American biochemist Katalin “Kati” Karikó. She became fascinated by science as a child and grew up determined to find a way to use messenger RNA—a copy of a part of DNA that provides cells with instructions to make proteins—to help fight illness. Never Give Up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the Race for the Future of Vaccines follows her journey from her childhood in rural Hungary to leading the way in the creation of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

Today author Debbie Dadey and illustrator Juliana Oakley join us to discuss the inspiration behind their work and their hopes for young readers as they discover Dr. Karikó for the first time.

In May 2019, researchers on a lake in northern Wisconsin made a strange discovery: a pair of loons seemed to be raising a mallard duckling! Normally loons and mallards are rival species, but somehow these three—two childless parents and an orphaned chick—found each other. Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons, by author Laura Purdie Salas and illustrator Alexandria Neonakis, tells the true story of this unlikely family through intriguing verse and striking illustrations. To learn more about how this heartwarming picture book about animal cooperation came together, read on.