For the Fun of It - one book / one community

and what I've been up to!

May 26, 2024

I'm back! I took a little unexpected hiatus last week because I was traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee for the Children's Festival of Reading! It was my first time in Tennessee and I couldn't have had a warmer welcome.

I was so lucky that Shelby & Watts: Tide Pool Troubles was chosen for Knox County's One Book program!!

It was my first time hearing of a program like this too, so it goes a little like this- each child in Knoxville got a copy of Shelby and Watts (around 30,000 copies!). There are videos made of celebrity readers reading the book! There are TONS of activities!

It was one thing to hear that, and another to actually be at school and have every student in an assembly have read your book. It was surreal and wonderful. There were lots of Shelby and Watts-themed school projects, and fan art. It takes some supremely skilled and dedicated organizing. I am in awe of the people who put this together! Shoutout to the amazing librarians, teachers, Knox County Schools, Education Foundation. More on their event in just a bit.

my first visit, where I realised that all these children had read my book!!! :O

ALA offers some resources for One Book, One Community programs, but it's harder to find a list of all the one book programs across the country, and across the world!

I'm hoping to reach out and volunteer for programs like this in my community, because it was truly astounding to see the impact first hand.

I started my trip with visits at schools!

In a time where kids are often watching completely different things from each other, it was amazing to see them chatter amongst each other about the book. It really felt like a community!

They'd also woven Shelbvy and Watts into all sorts of things- curriculum! (like above). A scavenger hunt around the city with 3D printed versions of Fred (a collab with a high school program, over a hundred Freds were made!).

my mom almost mugged a child for one, until they gave her a Fred of her own. She sat him next to her in the car the rest of the trip.

It all culminated in the Children's Festival of Reading. Listen, I live in LA and I've been to all sorts of festivals, but Knoxville, Tennessee really lived up to its Read City name!!!

There were 6 awesome authors (including Deb Pilutti and Gale Galligan above in the PARADE OF BOOKS, and Antwan Eady, Alan Gratz, and Cozbi Cabrera ), and a line for my signing which went for ages- I was signing books all day!

I have some author signing tips but I'll save those for next week. I had a blast though. A parent came up and said that Shelby and Watts was the first book their child had ever read all the way through by themselves.

I try to hold onto these moments, in the sea of uncertainty that we're all in. I love telling stories for kids because what an honor to have someone's first book, to help someone turn those squiggles on the page into letters. I keep writing for kids because it’s something I enjoy, and something I’m (hopefully) good at, but also because I think it’s important work.

Then I popped over to Dollywood (Dolly Parton’s theme park), where my parents, my mother-in-law, her friend, and me, got to eat SO MUCH CINNAMON BREAD and wonder at Dolly and how she can have a whole ass park to herself. Oh also, a kid recognized me at Dollywood and called me the author and I swear I almost lost it. CELEBRITY STATUS??

Onto Nashville, for a quick stop. I was lucky to be able to meet up with online picture book friend and superstar Kayla Stark (her work is both funny and intricately beautiful, a rare combo)_ Also, it was CICADA-GEDDON (Does substack have a way to spoiler bug photos?? I guess we'll find out. Maybe I'll put it at the very end so if you're scared you don't have to look.)

Anyway there were a cubic butt-ton of cicadas because of the double brood that emerged. Also, there's this NEW CICADA FUNGUS, it's an STD and a mushroom grows out of their butt and then they become sex-crazed and then eventually their butt falls off. (I am sad this can never be a Shelby and Watt's book, but now you, dear reader, get to know that fact).

An anti-social media post this week! I've been stuck back in lately, I think being tired from traveling makes me want to scroll. Here are some things which have been helping me…

-Hide the candy. Similar to the idea that a clear glass candy bowl makes you want to eat more candy, what you do here is group your apps in folders. No, not properly named organized folders, I'd say just chuck them anywhere. You want to try to make it so that you have to search if you want to open a social media app. Those few seconds make you rethink.

-Speaking of re-thinking, I've used both Screen Time, and one sec as methods of helping me rethink opening apps. It's not perfect (I definitely just blast through the walls sometime anyway), but everything helps.

TWO THINGS if you made it this far!!
One- I’m going to try closing my shop for a couple months and reopen in August! I plan on doing more “quarterly” drops, on the recommendation of some friends. That way, it’ll be open for just a couple weeks, pause, and so on!! We’ll see if it works with my sustainable-practice vibe of running a shop. ANYWAY if you want something, you have til next Friday the 31st to order!! Art & Fluff!

I have more art supplies to recommend but instead... WHO WANTS TO SEE CICADAS.
Putting them after a few stars so if you're scared you don't have to look. Might be overkill but IDK they're big bugs!!
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