Hena Celebrating Local Children's Authors

CELEBRATING LOCAL AUTHORS

RIF of NOVA celebrates new(ish) books by writers and illustrators with a Northern Virginia area(ish) connection, with interviews, background, and author information. If you have published a book for, about, or that helps children...and you have a NOVA connection (lived here, worked here, born here!), please let us know! We'd love to talk with you and introduce our community to your new(ish) work(s)! Email us at [email protected].

Celebrating Culture, Community, and Family -- Author Hena Khan

Credit: Zoshia Minto

Growing up, Hena Khan read a lot. A whole lot! But, said the author in a RIF NOVA interview, "I never saw myself in the books I read." As a Pakistani-American Muslim girl, she said books never featured anyone from her South Asian culture or background. She spent a lot of time in her hometown Rockville, Maryland public library reading stories about children who looked nothing like her, written by authors who also looked nothing like her -- including favorites like Ramona from the series by Beverly Cleary and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. When she grew up and became an author herself, she realized she could change that.

After several years working in nonprofit health organizations, Hena Khan got the chance to write for children with Scholastic book clubs for series like Spy University, Space University, and others. "I realized at that point that I loved it and that I had stories of my own that I wanted to share." The feeling became more acute when she sought books to read to her young son and "couldn't find anything that looked like me or my son. It ignited my pride in my identity and reminded me of the impact of not being seen as a child."

In 2008, she published her first picture book, Night of the Moon, about the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, earning a 2009 Booklist Top Religion Book for Youth award.

After that, it was game on! Over the course of the last 20 years, Hena Khan has written or co-written more than two dozen books in a range of formats, including picture books, middle grade fiction, pick-your-path adventures, and graphic novels, many of them award winners! Among the awardees is Khan's middle grade fiction book, Amina's Voice, which won 2017 Best Book awards from the Washington Post, NPR, and Kirkus Reviews. The author says her middle grade books focus on characters who face all kinds of realistic situations that are relatable to children of all backgrounds. "I hope that by presenting multi-layered kids with families and lots of elements in their lives, readers will understand them as complex, full characters and see how much they might have in common."

Amina's Voice features a Pakistani-American girl facing all the challenges of middle school, including a best friend who suddenly starts hanging out with the "cool" kids. Its companion novel, Amina's Song, won the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Award for Children's Literature.

Inspired by one of Khan's favorites, Little Women, this tribute to the original updates the story but keeps some of the original elements like four sisters, financial troubles, and a health scare. Both books have a main female character who is a writer -- but in very different eras!

Asked about her favorite book, "I'm partial to Zara," said the author, "because it's based on my actual life as a kid." The series of three books (so far) focuses on Zara Saleem and her many adventures including trying to win a Guinness World Record and starting a not-always-successful treasure-selling business.

Hena Khan's first graphic novel was published in August 2024. We Are Big Time was inspired by the real life story of a hijab-wearing high school girls basketball team from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Aliyah is the book's central character. She is a new recruit -- new to the area, new to the team (which stinks!), and trying to fit in. Along the way, she learns that teamwork and self-confidence are what define true success.

Why a graphic novel? "Many children find them more accessible and less intimidating than a book filled with words." For the author herself, writing a graphic novel was a rewarding experience. "You get two levels of storytelling, the words and the art," she noted, "which for the writer and the reader requires a lot of critical thinking."

Hena Khan's latest book was published in November 2024 as part four of a series -- Best Wishes -- by author Sarah Mlynowski. Each book features a different main character and a different setting, but the same magic bracelet transfers from book to book.

In Khan's installment, Washington, DC native Maya Amir receives a mysterious bracelet in the mail from Lucy, a girl in Fort Worth, Texas. Not knowing the bracelet's power, Maya mistakenly wishes to be head of her school's environmental club. Soon things get out of control, and she becomes her classroom's teacher, then the school principal, and ultimately president of the country! Hilarity ensues as Maya untangles the bracelet's magic and learns what it means to be a real leader.

"It's really fun," said Hena Khan about writing books in so many formats. "Writing about different adventures and for different kinds of readers allows me to flex different writing muscles." She has many projects in the works, including a second graphic novel, set for release in 2027. Other middle grade novels are also in various stages of production. "I like writing for middle grades," she said, "because kids are still really open to new ideas. It's a joy to go back and reexamine the world through the eyes of a 'tween. Everything is exciting and new. There is a freshness to it!"

To find a complete list of Hena Khan's books to date, please click here. The author also participated in the RIF NOVA Authors in Our Schools program in October 2024 and shared one of her pick-your-path adventures with 4th graders from Alexandria's Polk Elementary School. Find that post by clicking here.

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All the lessons are in losing! -- Author Fred Bowen

So said the author of more than two dozen sports books for children. Author Fred Bowen noted in an interview with RIF NOVA that sports "create a safe place for kids to lose and deal with disappointment." Parents and teachers are so positive, he continued, "but sports are a harsher teacher. You are not always going to win. Okay, you lost a game. How you deal with losing and come back and improve is a huge lesson."

Write what you know best -- Fred Bowen is a lawyer turned columnist turned book author with a lifelong interest in sports. He says he had a "sports happy childhood," playing backyard football and driveway basketball with his dad and brothers and as a Little Leaguer playing second base. Much later, when reading books to his own son, he thought he might have the skills to write children's books himself. His first attempt to write a book was about a teenage romance, and "it failed miserably," he laughed. An agent suggested he should write about what he knew best -- which is sports. To date, he has written 29 mostly fiction books for children ages 7 to 13 about soccer, basketball, football, and baseball.

Jot down your ideas as you go along -- Fred Bowen had a wealth of real-life ideas from writing sports opinion columns for 23 years for the Washington Post "KidsPost" on themes like fairness, citizenship, honesty, and getting along with others. In his baseball book Winners Take All, for example, a player cheats to win the game. That idea came from from an actual event when a professional player who caught the ball out of bounds held it up as if he had caught it. "But in reality, he dropped it," says Bowen, "and that's cheating." His book captures that theme and raises some "tricky kid-sized moral dilemmas" that always trigger a lively debate for young readers.

Why sports? -- "Sports are an important part of our culture," Bowen notes, "as important as literature, music, or art. People look down on sports," he continued, "but sports are a matter of great interest to millions." With more and more children playing youth sports, socialization and lessons about being a good sport and a good citizen are even more important, the author noted.

I write for boys -- "I've been a boy most of my life," the author joked. In all seriousness, he noted that getting boys to read is part of his calling as an author. "Boys read much less than girls, he said." They are failing in schools and failing to launch and spending too much time on videogames. "I'm trying to reach boys through sports, which is an area of interest to boys. I want to get them to think 'what's going on in these games,' maybe interest them in sports history. I want to convey the idea that it's fun to read a book and get lost in it." The bottom line, he says is that reading sets the floor for academic achievement. "If you don't read, how can you possibly succeed?"

More reading leads to better writing -- In his many visits to schools in the Northern Virginia and broader DMV area, Fred Bowen tells children that more reading leads to more and better writing. "Read whatever you write out loud," he suggests. "When you read out loud, you are training your ear to hear what sounds right." He says he read every one of his 1,000 KidsPost columns out loud. "Every time you write, it's practice." He also tells children to write with their own voice and about their own interests. "Authenticity is important, too!"

Kris's older brother Dylan is a starter on his high school basketball team. Kris wants to be just like him on his 8th grade team -- but he is stuck on the bench no matter what he does in practice or in the games. Kris's feelings about being "the first guy off the bench" change when he learns about the history of the "sixth man" and how legendary coach Red Auerbach used a super sub to spark his Boston Celtics to multiple NBA championships.

Twins, Aiden and Ava, play soccer in their county's under-14 boys and girls leagues. They want their teams to win the league championships so their team names will be on the county trophies. Aiden and Ava learn that the original championship trophy disappeared from the county library years ago and has never been recovered. As they work to solve the mystery, they discover some surprising things about their town, its people, and its past.

Tim Beeman is the "new kid" at Hilton Prep. He is also the fastest kid in the freshman class. So fast, he's called him the Speed Demon. The Hilton football coach and some of the other kids are pressuring Tim to play football. They say with his speed, Tim will make a terrific wide receiver. Tim is tempted because football is a big deal at Hilton. But he is not sure he will like taking the hits that wide receivers take after they catch the ball. What will Tim do?

Trey Thompson is pumped when he makes the Ravens, a travel baseball team. Trey is full of superstitions; he never steps on a baseline, he always touches the four corners of home plate for every at bat and is convinced he made the Ravens because of his "lucky charm" – a piece of blue sea glass. When Trey loses his lucky charm, his hitting and fielding start to slip. How can he get his magic back?

Fred Bowen's next book, coming out in 2025, is about a boy who wants to be a wide receiver but is better suited as a defensive back. How does he match his main interest with his best ability? Stay tuned to find out! To find a complete list of the author's books to date, please click here. The author also participated in the RIF NOVA Authors in Our Schools program in October 2024 and presented to middle graders at Alexandria's Patrick Henry K-8 School. Find that post by clicking here.

On the Line -- with Author Barbara Carroll Roberts

Barbara Carroll Roberts's book, Nikki on the Line, is centered on basketball. But it's about so much more! In this middle grade novel, Northern Virginia author Roberts tells the story of 13-year-old Nikki Doyle, a star point guard who moves up from her county team, where she was a star, to a higher level team -- where she is no longer the strongest player. Her new coach asks her to play an unfamiliar position, requiring her to learn a whole new skill and where she is no longer confident of herself and her abilities. Nikki starts to question everything. Should she quit her new team? Or should she stay and find a new way to shine?

When I wrote about Nikki, Roberts said in a NOVA RIF interview, "I saw a character who is scared and worried and who asks herself, 'Am I going to give up or dig in because I love playing this game?'" The author continued, "I wanted to write a book not about winning and losing but about real life, where most kids who choose to play sports are not the stars but instead struggle to find their place and, sadly often give up." Her key takeaway -- "If you really love doing something, don't let other peoples' opinions stop you from doing it!"

The author wrote the book for another reason, too. In an interview with Bookends Blog, she said she wanted to write a book with actual sports in it. "When I was trying to find books about girls who play sports for my sports-loving daughter, I noticed the same lack of actual sports action in the very few books I found that had a female protagonist and a 'sports theme.' Instead, in most of the 'sports books' about girls that I found, the sport was simply a background element of the story. But my daughter and the other girls on her teams were passionate about playing sports. So I decided to write a book for and about those girls."

The author's daughter as a high schooler, about to hit a 3‑pointer in a state tournament game. She now coaches basketball.

Barbara Carroll Roberts

Writing a book in which basketball is such an integral part of the story took a great deal of research, up to and including watching training videos of stars like Steph Curry and Sue Bird. Said Roberts, "It's a huge commitment to do anything really well, so this kind of a deep dive was important to my writing about the sport." She also wanted to emphasize how much work it takes to be a star athlete. "People forget about this when they watch LeBron, or Caitlin, or Curry. They all worked hundreds of hours to make it look so effortless and be that accurate."

The on-and-off process of writing and publishing Nikki On the Line took almost 10 years while the author focused on her work as a PR and marketing writer and raised her children and supported them in their sports activities. In that decade, much has changed, and for the better. Now, says Roberts, there are many more books about girls in sports where sports are central to the book and not just the story's backdrop. And more are coming, she says, about girls in swimming, softball, track, and more. "It's so exciting!" she exclaimed, to see a proliferation of actual sports books. "There's so much buzz right now!"

Opportunities for girls and women to play sports have changed, too, thanks in large measure to a federal law — Title IX (Title 9) of the Education Amendments Act — which states that boys and girls should have access to the same opportunities in public education, including sports.

Roberts (#11) on the blacktop -- instead of in the gym -- with her high school basketball team

Roberts started playing high school sports two years before Title IX was passed. At that time, she noted, "our team was only allowed to play in the gym if the boys weren’t using it. All the rest of the time, we had to practice and play outside on the blacktop...it still made me angry that we were treated like second-class athletes." Now, when she talks to kids about pre-Title IX, "they can't understand it. 'What do you mean girls couldn't use the gym?' they ask." They are even more astounded that, at one time, female players could play only a half court game because women and girls were considered too delicate to participate in full court basketball.

On her website, Barbara Carroll Roberts details her family's experience with basketball, starting with her mother-in-law and leading up to her daughter and the girls and women of today. She notes that Nikki on the Line was written: "For all the sports-loving girls like my daughter. And for the girls my mother-in-law and I had once been." She hopes the 4th through 8th graders who read this book will be inspired to continue doing what they love -- whether they are the star -- and particularly if they are not!

A Rose Named Peace -- How Francis Meilland Created a Flower of Hope for a World at War

Did you know there is a "Peace" rose? Barbara Carroll Roberts didn't either, even though they proliferated in her California garden. Fortunately, an elderly neighbor and gardener knew exactly what they were and told the writer the story of these extraordinary flowers.

A young Frenchman, Francis Meilland, cultivated flowers on his family's farm. In his teens, as the world was facing the start of World War II, he continued grafting and experimenting, determined to create a rose no one had seen before. As the war began, he sent cuttings to rose-growing friends around the globe so that his rose might survive. After the war, he learned that not only had the hybrid survived, it had flourished in gardens around the globe -- and people had started calling it the Peace Rose.

When author Roberts moved to Virginia and was completing a degree from Hamline University's Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program, she remembered the story and has turned it into a picture book for children ages six to nine. With beautiful illustrations, it is an inspirational work sure to please not only children but gardeners and history buffs everywhere.

Barbara Carroll Roberts's website can be found by clicking here. Her third book -- The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter -- is scheduled to be published in spring/summer 2025. It's another middle grade novel, this time about a girl who is interested in bugs and plays badminton.

Author Amina Luqman-Dawson
Building an Understanding of Race, Culture, and Community

In January 2023, Arlington, Virginia author Amina Luqman-Dawson got a call from the American Library Association. Her book Freewater had just won the prestigious Coretta Scott King Award, which recognizes outstanding books for young adults and children by African American authors and illustrators that reflect the African American experience. That same night, she got a second call. The book had also won the John Newbery Medal, given annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Luqman-Dawson is the first woman to win both awards. Set in the early 1800s, the novel follows 12-year-old Homer, his sister, and other members of a community of Black people who had escaped slavery to settle in the Great Dismal Swamp. The village they create is called Freewater.

Amina Luqman-Dawson writes on her website that she loves using writing to tell stories and to build an understanding of race, culture, and community. Her published writing includes op-eds in newspapers, magazine articles, travel writing, and book reviews. She’s authored the pictorial history book Images of America: African Americans of Petersburg. She has a BA in Political Science from Vassar College and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley. Ms. Luqman-Dawson, her husband, and 15-year-old son, reside in Arlington, VA. The above information is from her website's bio.

But when children ask her questions, Ms. Luqman-Dawson shares so much more! Here is a sampling of the questions asked by fifth graders during the author's visits at two Northern Virginia schools in February and April 2024 -- Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary and Randolph Elementary, both in Arlington. Her visits were part of the NOVA RIF Authors in Our Schools program.

Q: What inspired you to write Freewater?
A: As a kid, I learned about slavery. It was scary, and that fear stayed with me a long time. I have a son, and I did not want him to feel that way. I wanted you kids to be better than us. I wanted to teach about it to make everything better.

Q: Are any characters based on people you know?
A: One is based on someone I met in 5th grade! He was quite a character so I remember him from all those years ago.

Q: How do you make the reader feel what the characters are feeling?
A: I spend a lot of time thinking about what the characters say or do. I have literally typed hundreds of thousands of words trying to make the characters say and do what fits. There are 49 characters in Freewater. I love books that put in (lots of) characters.

Q: What kinds of things did you have to learn to write this book?
A: Freewater came from my imagination, but it was inspired by an amazing history of maroon communities around the world. I had to learn about that and about the Great Dismal Swamp where enslaved people lived in resistance communities.

Q: As a kid, did you ever think you would be a writer?
A: No. Authors came from "book land" somewhere. I never met an author growing up.

Q: What is writing really like?
A: It's not glamorous! Sometimes I write in my bathrobe!

Q: If you didn't do Freewater, what would you be doing?
A: I would go back to school to become a school librarian!

Q: Do you want to write other books? Will you write a sequel?
A: I'm trying! A book is like a little baby. You keep it home. You feed it until it grows strong enough to be in the world. My current work is still a baby. I hope to write a sequel. I might even be writing a sequel now!

Q: Will it take 10 years to write the next one? A: Gosh, I hope not! I'm hoping for three years. But writing takes a long time. It has to be something that makes my heart beat.

Q: Do you want Freewater to be made into a movie or mini-series? A: I'm always in favor of the book over the movie because nothing beats your imagination. But it would be fun to do!

Q: Are you addicted to writing?
A: Sometimes! Sometimes I think I'm allergic! But writing Freewater was the best thing I have ever done in my life.

Winning both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award was a huge surprise, to say the least, said the author. She attended the 2023 American Library Association Conference to pick up her honors and wrote, "I had the time of my life!"

Reaction to winning the Coretta Scott King Award (as quoted in the Washington Post):

“I’m so extraordinarily surprised and shocked,” Luqman-Dawson told KidsPost after the announcement. “The best feeling is that hopefully Freewater will give teachers, parents, and especially kids a new way of talking about history, [about] the terrible hardship of slavery — and also the resistance to it, the strength and love of Black people back then.”

Reaction to winning the 2023 Newbery Medal (Acceptance written by author Luqman-Dawson)

"I’ve been asked more than once why, given the fascinating history behind Freewater, I hadn’t chosen to write a nonfiction book instead. I’m a storyteller. I lured the reader in with a lesser-known history — maroons. Enslaved people who escape and manage to live secret and clandestine lives in the wilderness. It’s super-cool history. However, I’m really in the business of restoration — restoring voices of silenced enslaved people, injecting life and experiences where they have been erased. In Freewater, it’s the children who really do that work. Little kids, both formerly enslaved and free, each with their own personalities and ways of seeing the world. We hear their hopes and fears and watch them make mistakes, and we listen to them tell their stories. Their journey seeps in between the cracks of our fears and discomfort. And creates a bridge across disconnected space."

The full text of Ms. Luqman-Dawson's Newbery Medal acceptance speech can be found by clicking here.

Author Pat Tanumihardja -- Ramen (and a lot more) for Everyone!

Pat Tanumihardja calls herself an immigrant twice over. Born in Jakarta to Indonesian-Chinese parents, she grew up in Singapore before eventually moving to the United States. Her exposure to many cultural traditions and types of cooking played a huge role in her eventual success as an author -- of four cookbooks and three children's books, to date. A fifth cookbook about Indonesian cooking launches in summer 2024.

Pat started writing children's stories over 20 years ago. Her first published children's book, Ramen for Everyone, was inspired by her son Isaac, shown below at age 9. He loved noodles as a child, and at 13, he still loves them! In the story, the hero, a boy named Hiro, aspires to make a bowl of ramen as delicious as his dad's, but he runs into some unexpected surprises on his first attempt and has to try again. Pat loves that the story not only features a message about trying again after failure, it also features the love between a boy and his dad. That part, she notes, is based on the real life bond between Isaac and his dad Omar in their Springfield, Virginia home.

Pat Tanumihardja has two other children's picture books to her credit -- with many ideas in store for more! What does she love most about writing children's books? As quoted in Washington Family, "Being a person of color, being able to see kids who look like me see themselves reflected in books is totally amazing. The biggest joy is interacting with the kids who are reading and enjoying my books."

Ms. Tanumihardja was part of the RIF of NOVA Authors in Our Schools program in January 2024 and presented her ramen book to children at Fairfax County's Mount Eagle Elementary School, while showing them how to use straws as chopsticks. The kids had a ball giving that a try! See pictures of her visit by clicking here. At the same link, you can also see photos of her visits to John Adams Elementary School in April.

In this new children's picture book, a group of baking fairies called "bakerinas" bake multicultural treats for kids all over the globe, having fun and learning the values of teamwork with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Gingerbread Man. A recipe is included in the book to add to the fun.

Jimmy Choo was born in Penang, Malaysia to a family of shoemakers. In this 2023 picture book, Pat tells his inspirational rags-to-riches story as he became a famous designer and the shoemaker to a princess.

Pat Tanumihardja's cookbooks feature recipes from many Asian traditions, including Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Indian, with ingredients translated and sized for use in American kitchens. The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook, for example, pictures a range of dishes with recipes handed down over generations -- from grandmothers to children to grandchildren! In Farm to Table Asian Secrets, the author has translated a variety of Asian recipes into vegetarian and vegan options with the same flavors, textures, aromas, and colors as the non-vegetarian originals. Click on the book covers below for more information about each one.

There's a New Author in Town! And She's 11!

Courtesy: Post Hill Press

In the summer of 2021, then nine-year-old Julia Taylor Brandus asked her dad, "How can I write a book like you?" Dad, Paul Brandus, a presidential historian and author of several books, was a good person to ask. "I thought we might write a book about dogs," Julia said. But her dad suggested to his young daughter that they should collaborate on a book that would be challenging and inspiring on the topic of women's empowerment. Paul cited to Julia some of the dismal statistics about women in the working world. For example, how only 10 percent of S&P 500 companies have a woman chief executive officer, how women represent just 13 percent of U.S. patent owners, and how women represented just 14 percent of solo startup founders in 2021 and received just 2.1 percent of the venture capital deployed in 2022.

The resulting book is called, Girl to Boss!: Advice for Girls from, 50 of America's Most Successful Women. It captures the stories of 50 women in a variety of professions and offers their advice on how to succeed in fields as wide-ranging as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, philanthropy, marketing, and the military. Julia conducted interviews with famous and not-so-famous women over 18 months, leading to the book's debut on September 5, 2023! Most bios include a picture of the candidate as a young girl along with a current photo so young readers can picture how they might look both now and in the future.

Julia and her dad, Paul Brandus

Julia, with her beloved "Poppy," thought she and her dad might write a book about dogs!

In each of the 50 profiles, Julia asked such questions as:

• What skills are the most important for you to know to do your job?

• What do you like best about your job? What is the one best piece of advice you have for young girls who will be going to high school, college, and joining the workforce in the next decade or so?

• Can you tell me about a professional or personal setback you had, how you overcame it, and what you learned from it?

• Is there a quote, an inspirational thought, or anything like that that motivates you each day?

In a NOVA RIF interview, Julia was asked what she learned from writing her book? She says the motivational advice is useful for readers of any age. Never give up! Say yes to learning new things! Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it. And asking for help is not a sign of weakness. "I also learned about the various phases of writing a book from first draft to the first cover to distribution online. It was so exciting!" And did any specific career appeal after doing all those interviews? "A lot of things sound interesting," she said. "I like to debate and make money. So maybe a criminal defense attorney, a judge, or something in civil rights."

Girl to Boss may be purchased by clicking here. Julia and her family donated 100% of net proceeds from the first printing to Fairfax Inova Children’s Hospital where Julia was born.

Opening Closed Doors -- One Person Can Change the World
Author Linda Sittig

Not that many decades ago, public libraries in Virginia were not so public. It would take the courage of a young African American woman, Josie C. Murray, to challenge that.

From a young age, Josie felt the injustices of the Jim Crow South — ordering ice cream inside a restaurant and continuing her education beyond the seventh grade were opportunities she was denied during her childhood. Josie was surrounded by closed doors, barred from opportunities available to white people. But in 1957, when she was denied the ability to check out a book from the Purcellville Library because of the color of her skin, Josie took action.

With the help of her husband Sam Murray, Oliver E. Stone, a lawyer who took her case pro bono, and even President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Josie built a case and became the catalyst for all public buildings in Virginia to desegregate.

Writer Linda Sittig tells Josie's story in the creative historical nonfiction book Opening Closed Doors, The Story of Josie C. Murray (Brandylane). Before a recent move to North Carolina, Sittig lived for 50 years in Purcellville, Virginia. Her home was just two blocks from the town's “color line," effected during the Jim Crow era to keep Loudoun County neighborhoods segregated. On a walk one day, Sittig noticed dozens of flowers placed on the sidewalk outside a demolished home. When she asked a passerby, she was told the home belonged to Murray. As a writer, Linda Sittig was intrigued. Just who was Josie Murray? Linda talked with many townspeople to find out, including Josie Murray's niece Linda Jackson King.

Josie and Sam Murray

It turns out, she was an incredible seamstress whose talents were sought out by people from as far away as Washington, D.C. In December 1956, a woman named Mrs. Moore asked her to make Austrian shades. Josie, 34 at the time, said she didn’t know the pattern for the shades, but the woman said she could find the pattern at the local public library. That library was “whites only” at the time, meaning Josie couldn’t check out books. But she was determined and set out to get a book anyway.

The first week of January 1957, she and husband Sam got dressed up in their church best and went to the library but, as they expected, were denied from checking out a pattern book. Murray called Mrs. Moore to say she couldn’t make the requested shades. Mrs. Moore, upset at the situation, said Jose Murray should hire a lawyer. Further, she said she’d be making a call to her brother-in-law -- who just happened to be Dwight Eisenhower, the president of the United States! With White House backing, Josie Murray got connected with a Quaker lawyer who took on the case pro bono.

The case took months and divided the town of Purcellville.
Finally, after months of debate and some financial pressure, the library was desegregated, becoming a catalyst for the rest of Virginia. Ultimately, Josie Murray did get to sew the Austrian drapes for Mrs. Moore. In the aftermath of the case, Josie was invited by President Eisenhower to sew drapes for his farm home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They are still there! In addition, she got a commission to sew the drapes for the Blue Room of the White House.

Josie Murray's story is told in Linda Sittig's new book, aimed at fourth and fifth graders and published in May 2023. "I wrote it so that a child would be able to identify with the injustice," Sittig said. "I really wanted to get this story into the hands of schoolchildren because I want them to realize that one person’s power -- and courage -- has the capacity to change the world."

Linda Sittig holds B.A. in History and a Masters Degree in Reading. An educator of merit for 36 years in both Fairfax County public schools and Shenandoah University (VA), Linda has numerous published articles on family literacy, a fifteen-year weekly newspaper column on community literacy, a blog on strong women currently followed in 64 countries, and five published books. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and other publications. Linda was named the Greater Washington Reading Council Teacher of the Year, the Virginia State Reading Association Teacher of the Year, and the International Elementary Language Arts Teacher of the Year.

Whitney Truitt illustrated Opening Closed Doors. As she writes on her website: I am a freelance Illustrator for children’s books. I studied at Thomas Nelson Community College and transferred to Christopher Newport University to earn my Bachelor of Arts degree. My artwork mainly consists of portraits and landscaping in traditional art style. My preferred medium is charcoal and pastels, but I have experience with other mediums such as printmaking and digital media. My first self-published children’s book is titled Wisdom of Xingfu, which contains a collection of positive affirmations from fortune cookies. The book is based around Chinese culture and promotes self love and motivation. Learn more about the illustrator by clicking here.

Linda Sittig’s sincere belief that every woman deserves to have her story told shows through her historical novels: Cut from Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, and Counting Crows. In her blog, Strong Women in History, she highlights the stories of women who should have become famous but whose stories were never told. Find Linda's blog at www.strongwomeninhistory.com. Learn more about Linda Sittig on her website at https://lindasittig.com/.

Cut From Strong Cloth, set in 1861, focuses on Ellen Canavan as she struggles to become a successful Philadelphia textile merchant while the Civil War tears the nation apart.

In Last Curtain Call, Annie Charbonneau strives for justice in 1894 Western Maryland as miners' wives are preyed upon by an unscrupulous coal company.

As the 1918 flu pandemic cripples New York City, Maggie Canavan advocates for the young women of local NYC sweatshops in a book called Counting Crows.

"Words Can Be My Superpower" -- Author Hanh Bui

At eight years old, Hanh Bui and her family left war-torn Vietnam for safety and a new beginning. After nine days at sea, they were rescued by the United States Navy. Hanh came to the United States as a refugee. In April 2023, this local teacher, author, and advocate released her first children's book, The Yellow Áo Dài. Not only is the book a celebration of Bui's Vietnamese heritage, it's also a way to portray her immigrant experience in a way that is authentic and positive. "Words can be my superpower," Bui said, "to combat hate and divisiveness. I want to show the best of who we are."

On Teachers, Librarians, and Coming to America:

Hanh Bui's first "home" in America was at Fort Indiantown Gap, an Army base in Pennsylvania that had been converted into temporary housing for Vietnamese refugees. A shy child, she has vivid memories of being in an overcrowded camp and shortly thereafter in a Lancaster, PA school with no English and no connections. A 19-year-old teacher, "Miss Marilou," took Hanh under her wing, started teaching her English, and made her feel "safe" and "seen." "That's how she made me feel," Bui said. "Coming from wartime, being scared, not speaking English, she made me excited to go to school because of her."

Local librarians had a huge impact, too, Bui noted. Because she looked different from most of the area children, the local library became a safe space where she could escape to enchanted lands and begin to imagine endless possibilities. "When you go there, it doesn't matter if you wear second-hand clothes and can't speak the language." The librarians helped her find books so she could grow in her interests and English language acquisition. Bui particularly loved the easy-reader Frog and Toad book series. "Frogs are lucky in Vietnam," she said. "I could share these with my grandmother and translate them to her because they had short sentences. My world was made bigger and richer with my visits to the library."

Because of Miss Marilou and the librarians in her childhood community, Hanh knew she wanted to be a teacher, which she ultimately became, attending first Northern Virginia Community College and later GMU for her undergraduate and master's degrees.

Why The Yellow Áo Dài?

An áo dài is a traditional Vietnamese dress usually worn for special occasions. (It's pronounced "ow yai," said Bui, and rhymes with "now fly!") In the story, little Naliah is excited to perform a traditional Vietnamese fan dance at her school’s International Day. When she finds that her special áo dài no longer fits right, she goes to her mom’s closet to find another. She puts on a pretty yellow one — only to accidentally rip it while practicing her dance. She’s horrified to discover that this was a very special áo dài that her grandmother had worn to dance at the Mid-Autumn Festival in Vietnam. But with a little help from her mom’s sewing kit and her grandmother’s loving legacy, Naliah learns not only how to mend the yellow áo dài but also how to believe in herself and make it her own.

"I wanted to capture the authenticity of my culture in this story," Bui noted. Not only is the style of dress important, but so is the sewing and mending. "The ability to sew and mend was passed down from generation to generation to repair clothes. Refugees could bring only a few dresses with them when they escaped, and they are treasured gifts, with holes fixed by mending and embroidery."

Reaction since the book's debut in April 2023 has been unanimously positive, as captured in this review: "Bui weaves a tender tale of a family honoring memories and heirlooms but also creating new traditions. (Minnie) Phan’s buoyant and beautiful illustrations convey the protagonist’s emotions. ... A charming contemporary celebration of family and heritage."
-- Kirkus Reviews

On representation and why she has become an author:

Bui says she decided to become an author herself when she found that there were few children's books with Asian themes and fewer still with stories about Vietnam.

Bui is quoted here from School Library Journal: "Representation in children’s literature is important in order for us to celebrate the experiences of families from all different cultures. In doing so, we can show more children that they matter and foster empathy for others. As a child, I didn’t see myself between the pages of books. Even now, there are few books that portray the experiences of today’s Vietnamese Americans with authenticity. I want to normalize not only our refugee and immigrant experiences, but to also share our family stories. I believe that stories like mine will help readers of all ages appreciate the many layers of our experiences as Vietnamese Americans. It is my hope for all children to see themselves in books."

What's next:

Bui's second children's story -- Ánh's New Word -- was published in May 2024. It tells the story about the first English word she learned -- a word that helped her to be brave, overcome her shyness, and know she could be whatever she wanted to be. "With my words as my superpower, I can help make a change. I want to inspire other kids to know they have that superpower and hope, too."

Hanh Bui at age 9 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Teacher "Miss Marilou" Shaida Adams holding Hanh Bui's debut book

Gracie and Ruby, Hanh Bui’s writing buddies

For more about Hanh Bui's story, please click her website and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages, along with the following links:

How to be the Helper that Today's Children Need from Highlights for Parents

The Yellow Áo Dài, A Talk with Hanh Bui and Minnie Phan (Illustrator) from School Library Journal

In the News -- Hanh Bui, a Refugee's Writing Journey from The New Hampshire Writer's Project

60+ Countries, 40+ States, and a World of Stories -- Author Leah Henderson

Her website says, "Where there is adventure, there is story." Meet children's book author Leah Henderson. Throughout her life, "it took nothing for her family to jump in a car, hop on a plane, climb on a camel, huddle in a rickshaw, or step aboard a dhow in search of adventure to learn, explore, and discover." "'Why do you want to sit on a beach all day?' her dad often asked. "'Let's go!'" And go they did.

Leah has traveled to 60+ countries and most of the U.S. states.
Her travel experiences -- and her curiosity -- have informed her writing. "I was able to see the world in so many ways beyond what we could see in our own community." The early books she read did not reflect her community either. But when the book Corduroy came home, "one of the things that struck me first was that little black girl -- that little girl was me -- going to the store and shopping with my mom. That was SO my life! To see that on the page. I couldn’t get enough. It left a lasting impression…that excitement to be recognized in a book by someone who didn’t know me!"

Now, as a children's book author herself, she notes that there is "nothing better than getting a letter from a kid asking you to autograph one of your books and saying: 'You saw me.'"

The journey to becoming an author didn't happen overnight. In fact, her first book took 10 years to come to fruition as she started and stopped the project along the way. But finally, in 2017, Leah's debut middle grade novel was published. "Remember, I'm stubborn," she laughs. One Shadow on the Wall is based on an actual experience in Senegal, when she saw a lone boy on the beach and wondered, 'What happened to him before this moment? What took place later?' In her imaginings, an orphaned Senegalese boy named Mor must decide between doing what is right and what is easy as he struggles to keep a promise he made to his dying father to protect the family. The book, described as "stirring" by School Library Journal, was recognized as a Children’s Africana Book Award notable and a Bank Street Best Book.

Since then, several fiction and nonfiction picture and middle grade books have followed. The thread that connects them all is Leah's interest in making sure that young people can see their possibilities in the world. "How can I weave in the things that most kids don’t get to see? I like to reframe places and events so others can step into that space with me."

The Magic in Changing Your Stars follows a boy back in time to 1930s Harlem to meet his young grandfather in order to help them both change their stars. A Kirkus review called it: “A fast-paced story about family, bravery, and the arts, this story will have readers wanting to visit Harlem and tap alongside Ailey, Grampa, and Bojangles himself.”

In Mamie on the Mound, Leah captures the true story of Mamie ‘Peanut’ Johnson, who went from pitching on her grandmother’s farm in South Carolina to becoming the only female pitcher in the Negro Leagues.

Daddy Speaks Love was inspired in part by the words of George Floyd's daughter when she said, "Daddy changed the world." Leah expanded it to include her own experiences. "Every page was something my dad and others like him brought to my life. It's definitely a love letter to my dad."

Together We March is a nonfiction picture book about protest movements throughout history, spawned when Leah walked outside her door in Washington, D.C. in 2017 and saw so many protests. "I looked at young people who were out there protesting and wondered about marches that came before them." Her research yielded 25 little known protest movements, including the 1917 Silent Protest Parade in New York City, when an estimated ten thousand African Americans walked down the street to protest racial discrimination.

The Courage of the Little Hummingbird, a folktale to be published in April 2023, focuses on how someone small can accomplish big things. The bird's courage spoke to Leah Henderson. She says, "I hope it will speak to others, too"

Leah Henderson holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing, where she is also on the faculty. Born in Richmond, Virginia, she grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and now calls Washington, D.C. home. Find her on Twitter @LeahsMark or at her website: leahhendersonbooks.com.

"We Latinos bring richness and beauty to the American fabric!"
Author Lulu Delacre

So notes bilingual New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Lulu Delacre. Her works as an illustrator and then author/illustrator of children's books highlighting Latin cultural heritage celebrate her point.

From her earliest days, Lulu Delacre loved to draw. Even her kindergarten teacher said she would someday be an artist, always asking her to go to the blackboard to draw illustrations for her classmates. "I was always most at home when drawing," she says. "It's like going into another world." Lulu grew up in Puerto Rico, the daughter of parents from Argentina and a grandmother from Uruguay. As a child, there were no children's books or even libraries near her home, but her upbringing was rich with the oral retelling of colorful folktales going back 500 years and more.

Lulu's first encounter with children's picture books happened at the age of 22. While studying graphic arts in Paris, she went into a gallery exhibiting the illustrations of Maurice Sendak. "A light bulb went off," she says. "This is the path I need to follow."

Becoming a children's picture book artist, however, took a great deal of work, patience, and persistence. All of Lulu's contacts were in Puerto Rico or France and not even remotely from the children's book field. So she started "from scratch," went to the center of book publishing in New York City and shopped her portfolio to publishers one by one. At a time before the internet, she made 22 appointments by phone and stayed at the Y "because it was cheaper." By the end of five days, she had her first freelance job at what was then Sesame Street Magazine.

Credit -- Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; Author/Illustrator, Lulu Delacre

Lulu published Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America in 1989, the first of a line of books celebrating Latino heritage. "Scholastic published it," she says, "but did not think of it as an investment. But it's now in print for 33 years. Quite the accomplishment!" she exclaims about a book once consider a niche work.

Does Lulu write in English or Spanish? And is it words first or illustrations first? "It varies," she says. "When I started, it was a clumsy attempt in English. I pasted the drawings and then added the words. Now, I write first and then create the illustrations. A picture book is really an art form where half the story is told by the word and half by the picture."

With 42 titles now to her credit and two new books in the works, this three-time Pura Belpré Award honoree is proud of the impact her books have on Spanish-speaking children and of her role as a Latina author. "I delight in creating books that portray my own culture with authenticity in both words and pictures. And if painting Latinos true to their own beauty, fosters respect, or if sharing some of their stories builds bridges among children, I want to keep on doing it. Because for me, that is the true measure of success. ¡Viva nuestra herencia!"

Credit -- Publisher: Philomel Books; Author/Illustrator: Lulu Delacre

Luci Soars is Lulu Delacre's latest book.
Luci was born without a shadow. Sometimes, the other children tease Luci and often make her cry. But when the shadow-less girl learns to look at what makes her different as a strength, she realizes she has more power than she ever thought, and that what sets someone apart is often what makes them great.

Credit -- Publisher: Lee & Low Books; Author/Illustrator: Lulu Delacre

In 2013, when Lulu searched for alphabet books in Spanish, there were only 17 versus 17,000, she says, in English. So she created one: Olinguito, from A to Z! With lyrical text in both Spanish and English, readers can travel to the magical world of a cloud forest in the Andes of Ecuador and learn about the elusive olinguito, the first new mammal species identified in the Americas since 1978.

Credit -- Publisher: Penguin Random House; Author: Sonja Sotomayor; Illustrator: Lulu Delacre

As the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor has inspired young people around the world to read. Out of a number of contenders, she chose Lulu Delacre to illustrate her book, Turning Pages. "It was an honor to do the illustrations for this autobiography," Lulu notes. "I looked for ways to show the Justice’s love and respect for her Puerto Rican heritage," along with her love of books and reading.

Lulu Delacre lives in Washington D.C. and can often be found doing author visits and events in the Northern Virginia area, offering teacher guides, activity kits, games, cooking and writing workshops, and much more for children, teens, families, and adults. Please check out her website -- here -- for more information about author visits.

Several workshops explore the creative process involved in writing and illustrating a children's book. On her website, she describes the process of illustrating her latest book, Luci Soars. "From the moment I started writing the story, I saw Luci's world going from one in black and white to one in full color. I chose monoprints for the technique of the book. I wanted to add interest to the black and white images with layers of textures. Painting on glass and transferring the image onto paper allowed for varied textures. At times, there were mistakes that added to the richness of the image. Each of black and white texture and each color required a different layer of paint on the glass." Find out more about Luci Soars and all of Lulu Delacre's works by clicking here! 2023 will see two new picture books -- Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees and Veo, Veo, I See You! So much fun ahead!

Credit -- Lulu Delacre; used with permission

"English is Beautiful -- Don't Dumb Down the Language!"
Author Karen Schaufeld

Children's book author Karen Schaufeld is guided by this maxim. As she read books to her own kids when they were young -- some of the same books they requested over and over -- she realized that children's books could be more interesting for both the reader and the child if the language used were not so simple. "No parent wants to read books to their children with dumbed-down language." So when Karen started writing books, she wrote them so that "depending on your age, you could interact with it and enjoy it at any age ... and so that parents don't dread reading it 100 times!"

Karen's books include words like magnanimous and connoisseur that she says children will learn in context. Her books are not meant to teach reading, she says, but are meant to be read to a child so the child can learn and use new vocabulary. The stories feature some pretty interesting characters and topics, too. Her fourth and latest book is Vultures, A Love Story about a vulture who was born with a limp and an unusual feather on his head. The tale focuses on "appreciating our differences and our skills and recognizing that we all deserve love." Karen lives on a farm in Leesburg, Virginia with her husband and several dogs. From this vantage point, she sees elements of nature in their purest form. "If you travel the roads, you will see dead animals and vultures on the side and appreciate how critical they are to the ecosystem. It made me think about why we have ideas about things that are so wrong, like despising vultures, when we need to appreciate them."

Karen describes the development of her books as “the exhausting process of holding a story that lives in your mind until you are forced to put it on paper.” She published her first children’s book, The Lollipop Tree, in 2013, followed by Larry and Bob in 2016, and How to Eat a Peach in 2019. She says everyone will react differently to the stories depending on their ages. Young children might like the colorful illustrations and find the insect on every page. Older children may understand other meanings like sharing, overcoming challenges, and being open to meeting new people.

Fine artist Kurt Schwarz has illustrated all four of Karen Schaufeld's books. She had several of his oil paintings in her home, and when it came time to illustrate her books, she wanted him to take on the challenge of turning her book characters into personalities. "I did not want Disney cartoons," she says, "but wanted creatures with perspective and identity."

An entrepreneur, philanthropist, and lawyer, Karen Schaufeld is also co-founder of All Ages Read Together, an organization dedicated to educating children in need with free preschool programs. She is also founder and president of 100WomenStrong, which uses strategic philanthropy to improve the lives of residents in Loudoun County. Learn more about Karen and her books at http://www.karenschaufeld.com/.

"Little One" -- A Poem for a Friend

Meet Emily McDermott, our local author pick for April 2022. Emily is author of the children's book Little One, a blogger about simplicity and minimalism, and the creator of a course for young moms who may be overwhelmed with their mom responsibilities. She also writes custom poetry for birthdays, weddings, retirements, anniversaries, and even maid-of-honor and best-man speeches! In her own words below, Emily tells more about the process that led to the publication of Little One.

The background:

Little One is a poem I wrote back in 2005 when my friend was expecting the birth of her first child, a baby boy. I didn't do anything with the poem until ten years later, in 2015, when I decided to hire an illustrator and self-publish it as a children's book through Amazon Create Space (now Kindle Direct Publishing). It's interesting because the book is about a mother's anticipation about the arrival of her baby boy, and I ended up having two boys (although we didn't find out the gender in advance for either of them).

Finding an illustrator:

Since I already had the poem, the first thing I did was find an illustrator. I was a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, so I found Hannah Adams through the Illustrator Gallery. I reached out and explained the types of illustrations I wanted for the book, which were scenes of loving mothers and their children. In the meantime, I launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise money for the costs of the illustrations and publishing of the book.

The process was actually quite easy since I gave Hannah a good amount of creative freedom, and I loved her work. My main concern was completing the book before my baby was born in May 2016. We started working together in the summer of 2015, and the book was published three days before my son Andrew was born.

Credit -- Author, Emily McDermott; Illustrator, Hannah Adams

The audience:

The audience for the book is parents of young children, as well as people who know parents who are expecting a baby boy. Overall the feedback has been wonderful. I haven't done a ton to promote it; I did some local book fairs and have donated the book to some local libraries, but it's mainly been through word of mouth. It was more of a passion project rather than something where I wanted to make a lot of sales, and I'm fine with that.

Emily's background:

I grew up outside of Pittsburgh, PA and went to undergraduate and graduate school at American University in Washington, D.C. Although I went to school for International Relations and International Communications, I have always been a writer and have written poetry since I was about eight years old. I always wanted to write a children's book, so I'm happy that I was able to do that before Andrew was born. I've been a stay-at-home mom since 2016. I blog about minimalism, simplicity, habits, and intentional living at Simple by Emmy and also created a course called Moms Overcoming Overwhelm for moms of young kids. I also write custom poetry for people, and I love using these passions and skills in my day-to-day life.

Advice for writers:

My advice for aspiring writers is to remember that writing is something that can serve you in different ways throughout your life. Writing is how I process my emotions and the world around me. I love that I can look back at a blog post or a poem and remember what I was feeling in that moment and how much I've learned. The desires of your heart were put there for a reason. It's up to you to do something with it.

Little One is available for purchase at this link.

"Ick! Don’t make me do any math problems!" -- Author Ann Marie Stephens

So exclaims the Manassas a just-retired first-grade teacher who does not like math -- in fact, claims math anxiety -- but has now written two book series about math and math-related concepts for young children. Meet Ann Marie Stephens, our March 2022 local author, and her picture books featuring the Arithmechicks -- ten chicks plus their mama who add, subtract, calculate, and generally have fun doing everyday life math problems.

"As a teacher, I am a fan of trying to find different ways to teach math in the real world...on the playground, on vacation, at the beach. I thought it would be fun if I could have cute, fuzzy chicks doing addition and subtraction problems." Plus, the stories emphasize working together to solve problems. "When something is hard," she notes, "you don’t have to do it alone. You can invite others to help and work together." And that's just what the Arithmechicks do!

Ann Marie's upcoming book -- Arithmechicks Take a Calculation Vacation -- will be out in May. While at the beach, the 10 chicks play games and learn about how addition and subtraction work together in fact families (example: 2+3 = 5, 3+2 = 5, 5-2 = 3, 5-3 = 2). Prior books in the series include Arithmechicks Add Up and Arithmechicks Take Away. Arithmechicks Play Fair, which demonstrates the concept of fractions, will be published in August. Two future books in the series will focus on the concept of greater than/less than and on ordinal numbers (first, second, third...).

Credit -- Publisher: Astra Young Readers, Author: Ann Marie Stephens; Illustrator: Jia Liu

"I’m trying really hard to reach every kind of kid," she says, "so in my math books, I want kids to feel they can make mistakes and not know something in math and find the answer somewhere. Even a very small child with no knowledge of math can count the number of chicks on the page as a way to get started."

Ann Marie has been an elementary school teacher for over 30 years and plans to retire at the end of this school year. She has absolutely loved being a teacher, she says, noting that some of her former students are in their 20s and 30s, and she has been to their weddings and met their babies. But she has always wanted to be a children's book author, too, and juggling the two careers has been difficult. She is looking forward to writing more books, participating in speaker engagements, and making a difference in new ways.

"Picture books are like a low-cost, unforgettable vacation for the brain," she says. "Kids are under so much pressure these days with too much homework, tests, technology, and more tests. They need outlets and adventure. I’m just one of the many travel agents, a.k.a. kid lit writers out there, ready to hand kids an escape." And we are guessing that through Ann Marie's books, the kids will not only escape but learn something, too!

To learn more about Ann Marie Stephens, click here or find her on Facebook (AMStephensAuthor) and on Instagram and Twitter @AMStephens_.

Credits -- Publisher: Astra Young Readers, Author: Ann Marie Stephens; Illustrator: Jenn Harney

Nine kittens go on an exciting boating adventure that’s a (funny) catastrophe in a picture book that demonstrates the key math concept of patterns. Future books in the CATastrophe! series will focus on estimation, shapes, and more!

Credits -- Publisher: Little Bee Books; Author: Ann Marie Stephens; Illustrator Jess Golden

Scuba Dog is me, says Ann Marie. A scuba diver herself, she loves to imagine making friends with underwater creatures. In her tale, Scuba Dog gets his diving certification in order to be friends with a whale.

Credits -- Publisher: Boyds Mill Press; Author: Ann Marie Stephens; Illustrator: Tracy Subisak

Cy Makes a Friend is story about a Cyclops who can build amazing things but can’t make a friend. In the end, he finds out that just being himself is more than enough.

My Granny Fought for Freedom

January 2021's featured author, Sheila Adams Gardner, has a new book in February 2022! It's based on her mother's experiences as a civil rights activist in Wisconsin in the 1960s. My Granny Fought for Freedom tells the story of Milwaukee civil rights activist Juanita Adams from the view of her five-year-old granddaughter. Also included is an autobiographical statement by Juanita Adams, "In Her Own Words," detailing her experiences.

Juanita Adams (on right) with best friend and fellow civil rights activist Arlene Johnson

How did this book come about? It was a lightning fast turnaround!

Says Sheila, "Believe it or not, it was completely unexpected! I went home to Wisconsin during the week of the 2022 Martin Luther King, Jr. observance. On Friday, I had the idea of teaching my grandnieces and nephews about my mother, their 'Granny,' who was a civil rights activist in Milwaukee.

"Remarkably, during my preparation for a story suitable for ages two to six, I realized I had the makings of a children’s book. I used Canva and a paint app to make the pictures look child-friendly, and I published the book on Sunday!

"I included a short autobiographical statement my mother made in 2015 about her experiences in civil rights, just before her death in 2016. It was so fulfilling to see her great-grandchildren so excited and proud. It was also healing for me to honor her in this way. It truly poured out of me."

The new book is available on Amazon at this link. Please scroll down to see two other books by Sheila Adams Gardner. Sheila is a member of the RIF of NOVA board.

Sharing African Culture Through Children's Books (and Fitness)

Ada-Ari is passionate about sharing her Nigerian and African heritage with the world. She is also on a mission to promote diversity and inclusion in children’s literature. A self-published children’s author who grew up in Falls Church, she is "virtually" touring the African continent and reaching out to people from various tribes to learn about -- and retell -- their most cherished folktales, many of which have been passed down for centuries. As she writes on her website: "These are stories that every child of African descent would have grown up with and had in their hearts/memories if they had grown up on the continent."

Ada's first book, The Spider’s Thin Legs, is a retelling of an Anansi story. Anansi the spider is an African folktale character who is associated with skill and wisdom and often triumphs over foes larger than he. Anansi is one of the most important characters of West African, African American, and Caribbean folklore, originating in what is now Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Ada was inspired by her two- and four-year-old children. As she started reading to them, Ada realized that though they are being raised in the U.S., she wanted them to enjoy the tales from Africa that her grandmother and other family members orally shared with her. As Ada remixed these stories to apply to her children contextually, she unearthed a deeper dream – to share these stories with children of all backgrounds.

Ada's second book, The Turtle’s Cracked Shell, is set for release in February 2022 and is a remix of a famous Nigerian Igbo folktale. As with her Anansi story, it includes a fun geography lesson on the back cover, showing the part of Africa where the story originated. Her books also include fun fact cards to teach young children about the various tribes that brought each story to the world.

Ada is also co-founder of KOLI & OLUM, a publishing brand dedicated to introducing young children to African languages. The brand's “My First Words” series includes several board books that translate easily-recognizable animals, body parts, and things around the home into African languages including Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, and Amharic. The series is engaging for young children of all backgrounds who are attracted to the bright images and engaging colors. Pronunciation guides are available on the KOLI & OLUM website. Ada's books are available by clicking here. RIF of NOVA is thrilled to share this new author and her books as our first local author pick of 2022!

Here's the fitness part! In 2015, Ada founded AdaAri Fitness, a fitness brand that connects exercise lovers to workouts with a background of Afrobeat music...as another way to share and promote African culture. Give it a look and listen (and maybe get your toes tapping) by clicking on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AdaAri.

Maria Gianferrari and her beloved rescue Becca (photo: Monogram Arts)

I'm a Nature Girl at Heart!

So writes Maria Gianferrari, a "picture book reading/writing, tea-drinking, dog-loving, bird-watching" former resident of Northern Virginia who now lives in Massachusetts with her scientist husband and dog, Maple. In a house encircled by trees, Maria writes fiction and non-fiction books that "honor our bonds with creatures both domestic and wild and that celebrate the natural world around us." Many of her books star dogs as main characters and were inspired by her late and beloved rescue dog Becca. Some of her dog-centered picture books are the Penny & Jelly books, Officer Katz and Houndini, Hello Goodbye Dog, Operation Rescue Dog, and the forthcoming (April 2022) Being a Dog, a Tail of Mindfulness from HarperKids books. To Dogs, With Love is scheduled for release in 2023 and will be a love letter to therapy dogs for all the joy and support they bring.

Maria Gianferrari's most recent nonfiction book -- and our December 2021 choice for New(ish) Books with a NOVA Connection -- is Be a Tree!. Illustrated by Felicita Sala, the book captures the majesty of trees and what humans can learn from them. A Kirkus starred review noted: "This book has the advantage of lyrical, accessible poetry and vibrant watercolors from an ever changing palette...Strong heartwood." A Publisher's Weekly starred review said: "By foregrounding living beings that exemplify grace, strength, and endurance, Gianferrari gives readers a new way to think about their individual and collective existences."

Other recent nonfiction Gianferrari titles include Whoo-Ku Haiku (Putnam), the story of a great horned owl family told in haiku, and Play Like an Animal (Lerner/Millbrook) which explains why critters splash, race, twirl, and chase. According to School Library Journal, Play Like an Animal is a "fun way for children to realize that animals play just like them." You and the Bowerbird, scheduled for release in 2023, follows two bowerbirds and their very colorful adventures.

No doubt more books are planned by this prolific author! Follow her by clicking here.

Credit -- Publisher, Abrams; Author, Maria Gianferrari; Illustrator, Felicita Sala

Calling All Superheroes!

July 2021's featured author has a new book! Heather Gutierrez has just published the second book in what she hopes will be her "Hard to Sleep" collection: It's Hard to Sleep When You're a Superhero. In this new edition, readers can join William and his mama as they explore how kindness and strength of heart can help set the universe at ease and finally allow the book's superhero and his pals to enjoy a good night's sleep! Heather says the book's main character is based on her real-life son William. At age 5, she says, he is all about kindness and finding ways to encourage other children to help each other by being nicer to each other.

If you have a little superhero in your life and want to encourage kindness and resolving conflict through positive action, this book is for you! Find it by clicking right here!

Credit: Author Heather Gutierrez; illustrator Eva Rodríguez

Superhero William Gutierrez

"I had to learn to speak dog!"

Andre Gatling has had a long and successful career in the entertainment business as a stand-up comedian, among other roles. But his real love in life is rescuing and training an array of animals, particularly pit bulls. Andre has spent well over 25 years working with animals and much more time growing up around pit bulls. He realized he had a unique approach to changing the behavior of aggressive dogs from his personal experiences with dogs and his time working with quarantined dogs in animal shelters. In his own words, Andre will tell you, "Aggression in a dog is similar to aggression in a human. We're both scared of what we don't understand, and our need to protect leads to aggression. Changing that aggression in a dog is more complex because the dog doesn't speak English, so I had to learn to speak dog." And in the process, he also wrote a children's book: Penelope's Bully. Andre tells his story in this interview with RIF of NOVA.

Credit: Author Andre Gatling; illustrator Agus Prajogo

Why did you write this book?

Honestly, it all kinda happened by accident. I would run around performing standup, and I had an act where I would argue with a pitbull about who went through more discrimination than the other. I thought that act would be a great adult animation considering I was already filming pilots to pitch to TV networks. A literary agent that I knew thought it would be a good kids book and could potentially help my advocating for that particular breed at the same time.

How did you make it happen? Were you self-published?

Well, that agent had presented it to a few major publishers that were very interested but one wanted to change the breed of dog and the other wanted to change the similarity of the kid and the dog being discriminated against. As a comedian, we like to stay true to our truth whether it's hard for people to digest or not so I shopped around for a publisher who would share my vision regardless of subject that I was addressing. Mascot Books not only shared my vision, but they advised me on the best route to take the story without changing the true purpose behind it.

How did you arrange for illustrations and who did them?

I have to admit, I had read a lot of children's books to get the gist of how these books were written and created. I knew I was using real people and true events to create my story so I wanted a very realistic artist but still fun within their illustrations. Agus Prajago stood out to me from the very beginning. His work was so vibrant and fresh, I was more worried if we were going to be able to commission him considering how he was a major commodity in this arena.

What do you hope to "teach" kids through the book?

There's so many different lessons in the book that I try to relay to not just the children but also the adult reading it. When I work with people and their dogs, the main lesson for them is Compassion, Empathy, and Understanding. I hoped to create that with this story for the kid and the adult. A lot of times, we have perceptions of something we fear without having a true understanding of it, whether it be a black kid from the projects or a pitbull. This has a lot to do with why we bully altogether. I felt If I could put someone, indirectly, in that situation from a story, they may see how they could be bullying something else totally different than the story itself and maybe find sympathy to change their ways for the better.

Did you ever hope to be an author?

Honestly, I never aspired to be an author. If anything maybe more a writer for comedy or a journalist if I had the immediate choice. When I had an article published in the Post, that too was an accident. My English teacher basically challenged me to do it because he saw something in me that I didn't even see. The only thing I would write back then were lyrics to become a rapper, lol!

What has surprised you most about this journey?

Outside of the constant messages of love for the book and the thanks from dog lovers, the biggest surprise has been the intellect of the children who've read the book and relay what they thought of the story, I purposely hide a lot of things that referenced racism and how it can affect the victim, within the illustrations for the adult to understand that I felt a child wouldn't necessarily get because they wouldn't have had the experiences to quite process. And to my surprise, children understood the gravity of it...some more so than the adults.

Is the story based on characters from your own life?

The book has people and dogs that are real and the stories are real situations that me, Penelope and dogs have gone through. Penelope is my longtime girlfriend and her mother who's always been a big pitbull lover is actually Zelda Robinson (who now past). The dog catcher is Penelope's actual father Harry Robinson who also loved his dogs. Chloe and Jordan in the book are my actual dogs, and Cinnamon is their actual mother. I wasn't able to save Cinnamon in real life and she was euthanized in a shelter along with three of her puppies. The story includes my grief at not being able to save her but also my promise to make sure Chloe and Jordan live a loving life. I tear up anytime I think about all the dogs I couldn't save so maybe if I save the humans, it'll make it better for dogs in the future.

A RIF connection!

Growing up my mom would always give me money to buy books from the RIF order sheet in our school, and it's so humbling and such an honor to be connected to you guys now!!!

It Started on a Post-it Note...and Now It's a Book!

Heather Gutierrez will tell you that in a hectic life, finding time to write an idea on a Post-it note may indicate the idea is important. If the idea gradually turns into a full-fledged story that you tweak and revisit over and over, it could REALLY be important. In fact, it could turn into a book! In Heather's case, that's exactly what happened. From pink Post-it note to published book...It's Hard to Sleep When You're an Artist is now a reality! And it's our July RIF of NOVA local author book pick.

An early childhood educator from Haymarket, Virginia, Heather Gutierrez spent over 20 years in the classroom and as teacher coach and preschool administrator. That, and having two children of her own, taught her the immeasurable value of reading with young children. As an author, her goal is "to help create connections between children and their caregivers, while exploring the world around them or dreaming up a worlds of their own."

A dream world of her own is the setting for this sweet nighttime story, which was inspired by Heather's then five-year-old daughter, Lily. Lily's passion for painting and her desire to "visit" someplace new each night before bed yielded a series of mother-daughter "conversations," during which a little girl asks questions like:

"Can we be mermaids together and sing and play with pink dolphins in our dreams, Mama?”

“I can’t wait to swim with you, my sweet mermaid,” Mama replies.

Each page of this new book yields a new dreamscape -- vibrant rainbow paintings in the sky, magical fields with sparkling butterfly wings, and mystical beaches where wild horses run and dance.

Getting to a published book was a bit of a dream in and of itself. Heather had already written several children's books but had not ever published one. One sleepless night, she stumbled upon a children's book editing site: https://www.wildflowerbooks.net/. "I decided to email the owner Shannon and inquire -- nothing to lose right? As luck would have it, my insomnia pairs nicely with her Australian home time zone, and she quickly responded. Before I knew it, my manuscript was off to the races of editing and polishing."

Credit: Author Heather Gutierrez; illustrator Eva Rodríguez

The next step was to choose an illustrator. From a list of choices, Heather and Lily chose Eva Rodríguez, an illustrator based in the south of Spain. Lily was so excited because Eva was able to base several of the book's illustrations on Lily's original paintings. To know more about Eva and her art, please visit: https://artworkbyevarodriguez.com.

What's next? See above! Heather published a sequel in her "Hard to Sleep" collection with her five-year-old son William as the main character. It's Hard to Sleep When You're A Superhero was published in November 2021. Meanwhile, Heather is reading to children at classes and events throughout Northern Virginia. She also encourages budding artists to take part in her website's "Artist's Corner," where children can post their artwork. Find information about that, about Heather, and how to buy It's Hard to Sleep When You're an Artist on her website: https://www.heathergutierrezauthor.com/.

Heather -- and Lily -- had a lot of fun and learned a lot from their book publishing experience. Their best takeaway: "You can do anything if you dream it!" So true!

Heather and now 6-year-old Lily Gutierrez celebrate their new book -- perfect for bedtime reading!

June is, er, cicadas are busting out all over! And there's a children's book for that!

Yep! In June 2021, we feature a particularly timely work about the every-17-year Brood X cicada onslaught in the Mid-Atlantic! The book -- Cecily Cidada -- came about in 2004, the last time the cicadas paid the region a visit. The book has been refreshed with a new cover and new illustrations in a recently released 2021 edition. The book moves readers through the cicada's life cycle and takes the fear out of the process, guided by a little cicada nymph named Cecily!

Who could not love the poetic descriptions as Cecily begins life in a:
“dreary, earthen hole ‘neath the sassafras tree
On Huidekoper Street in Washington, D.C.”

And continuing:
“In seventeen years you’ll know what to do
And something amazing will happen to you.”

The book concludes with an acknowledgement of the 17-year time gap before the next amazing cicada spectacular takes place:
When you see a cicada, please give her a smile
‘Cause you may not see one again for a while.
Just look at the grown-up who’s reading to you.
When the cicadas come back, you’ll be a grown up, too!

In 2004, little Eevee Murdoch saw a cicada at a Washington, DC park and, well, freaked out. Evee's mom and grandmother, Kita Helmetag Murdock and Patsy Helmatag respectively, got to talking about Evee's reaction to the strange red-eyed creatures. There should be a book to help explain the cicada phenomenon to other frightened children, they said to each other on a road trip.

Discovering there wasn't one, they wrote, illustrated, and self-published one themselves. The mother-daughter team thought they would never sell out the minimum order of 4,000 books required for the first run. But when 7,000 books sold out, they knew they had a local hit on their hands.

In advance of the 2021 Brood X arrival and stuck at home due to the pandemic, Patsy totally redrew the illustrations, bringing even closer attention to the miracle of this periodical event. And the book is now available via Amazon and several local bookstores. The Washington Post featured the book and its genesis in an article on April 28, found here.

Originally from Washington, DC, author and illustrator Patsy Helmetag now lives and works in Annapolis. Daughter Kita Helmetag Murdock writes YA fiction and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.

The Cecily Cicada cover -- 2021 edition

A page from the newly released Cecily Cicada

Kita Helmetag Murdock (l) and Patsy Helmetag

Additional titles by Patsy Helmetag. Click each photo to learn more about each one!

Squeakestered: Authored by Patsy and granddaughter Noni while sequestered 2,000 miles apart during the pandemic

Slothy and Nomi: One small sloth’s struggle with slumpiness and the girl who helped him sit up straight

The TransAm Grannies: Patsy Helmetag doesn't like to bike, but she rode cross country and published this tale!

I write sad books...and I love it!

Few readers would describe Lizzy Mason's second YA novel, Between the Bliss and Me, as a happy book. It tackles some pretty tough issues -- from mental illness to the ups and downs of young romance to the impact of family history on future goals. As 18-year-old Sydney contemplates college at NYU, she comes face to face with the reality that her father has schizophrenia and lives on the streets of New York City. What could this mean for Sydney? Is mental illness in her future, too? In order to learn more, she seizes the opportunity to get to know him, to understand who he is, and learn what may lie in store for her.

Between the Bliss and Me is Lizzy's second novel after The Art of Losing, a debut work that explores issues of addiction, sisterhood, and loss. A third novel is in production. "I write sad books, and I love it! I feel like that's what I was meant to do," Lizzy notes. "I write about mental health because that's something the people don't like to talk about in daily life." Her hard-hitting contemporary YA novels, with realistic and authentic characters, spring from her own life experiences and deep research. "I've never done as much research (about mental health) as I did for this book," she says, "because I wanted to make sure I got it right. It made the book much more realistic."

Despite the serious topic, Lizzy's sophomore book is "filled with compassion and hope," wrote one reviewer, continuing, "Readers will finish the last page knowing that love, acceptance, and self-care are the keys to living one's best life." Publisher's Weekly noted: "Mason’s care in portraying the complexity of the mental disorder, as well as her exploration of genetic legacy and inherited emotional baggage, is laudable.” Lizzy says Bliss will appeal to teen and young adult readers and be useful for teachers and librarians as well. "It's the kind of book that librarians and educators will want to recommend to the right students."

Lizzy Mason lives with her two cats in Alexandria, Virginia (acknowledging that they are distracting and not always helpful to her writing process!). Between the Bliss and Me is available for purchase by clicking this link.

Author Lizzy Mason (photo: Meredith Rich)

Between the Bliss and Me is Lizzy Mason's second YA novel, with a third coming out soon.

In this wide-ranging and honest interview featured by One More Page, an independent bookstore in Arlington, Lizzy Mason shares some of the more serious parts of her own life, including being a sad teenager, dealing with depression and anxiety, and more recently the death of her husband Karl. Lizzy is interviewed by NYT bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer.

Breast Cancer -- Two Books, Three Voices

When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she is not the only one affected. Children are affected, too, even if they don't always -- or don't know how to -- express their feelings of confusion, helplessness, and sadness. Fifth-grader Madison Lyublanovits was quite troubled by her mom's breast cancer diagnosis in May 2019 and the treatment that followed. As she watched her mom go through chemotherapy and radiation treatments for stage one ductal carcinoma (a common form of breast cancer), she and her stuffed monkey Mollie stood by her mom's side, trying to figure out what was going on and how to help.

Out of many conversations, a book was born. Okay Mommy, I Will Help You: Oh No! My Mom Has Breast Cancer! is a children’s picture book completely based off of Madison’s experiences and written by the young author. It's a unique perspective from a youth's point-of-view on how to deal with a parent's cancer diagnosis, and it provides a candid but inspiring message for kids who may be faced with a similar circumstance.

“Everything’s literally verbatim," said mom Shon Lyublanovits. "I think she held a lot of that stuff in and wasn’t really sure how to process it all. So putting that book together helped with that.” While the focus is on the author's personal experience with her mother's cancer diagnosis, this book can be a source of guidance and comfort for children who have parents, grandparents, siblings, or any family member or friend who has been diagnosed with a serious illness. The book has been endorsed by the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation, the American Breast Cancer Foundation, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, Sharsheret.org, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Author Madison goes to Covington-Harper Elementary School in Prince William County. In addition to writing, she is a dancer and loves to sing. Madison's book may be purchased via www.verkallosmedia.com and through Amazon at amazon.com/author/mnl. Note: Madison's mom Shon is a RIF of NOVA board member.

Off Our Chests won a National Indie Book Award in 2022 in the category of non-fiction: cancer

John and Liza Marshall

Dr. John Marshall used to see breast cancer as the enemy. As a gastrointestinal cancer specialist at Georgetown University, he envied the amount of attention other oncologists and medical leaders put on breast cancer, wondering why the cancers he treated — which are the deadliest — were not an equal priority in standard training and funding. But, as he notes, if he had been successful in driving attention away from breast cancer, Liza Marshall — his wife, mother of his two children, and love of his life for 40 years — would be dead. In 2006, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a type that can be more aggressive and difficult to treat.

In their memoir Off Our Chests: A Candid Tour Through the World of Cancer (IdeaPress Publishing), John and Liza provide an intimate, and sometimes even humorous, look at cancer treatment as husband and wife through the eyes of Liza, the patient, John, the caretaker, and occasionally, their children Charlie and Emma. "One thing we learned during Liza's diagnosis and treatment is that transparency and honesty are key when talking with your children about a cancer diagnosis," John noted. "When children know something is going on but don't know what it is, their imaginations can run wild. Explanations don't need to be complicated though. Simple and matter-of-fact works well."

“The emotional load of cancer for all those involved is frequently overwhelming,” the Northern Virginia couple said in a statement. “We wrote the book to help others learn about what a diagnosis of cancer means for a patient, for a family, for a caregiver, and for an oncologist so that those who walk that path together might find both support and insight to help light the way.” Their book is available at: https://www.offourchestsbook.com/buy.

Happy Happy After!

Local author Barbara Leary has three granddaughters...and each one has a book in her name or honor. All three books are our picks for March 2021. "Nothing goes together better than kids and stories," Barbara notes, "so having little ones in my life gives me an opportunity to share my love of storytelling. Storytelling became our 'thing' — a way to keep the girls entertained and encourage their own creativity and imagination. These days, they do a lot of the storytelling themselves. All I need to do is give them a prompt ('Tell me all about your day, but make half of it up!') and off they go."

Barbara Leary grew up in Arlington and Fairfax and now lives in Purcellville. She is a management consultant specializing in change communication and teaches graduate-level communications courses at Georgetown University. For more about Barbara and her books, here's the link!

I wrote Caroline and the Not-Mama for my granddaughter Caroline, who regarded me with great suspicion for the first two years of her life. The very sight of me coming through the front door would cause her to scream and run to her mother. Of course, she had pieced together that my presence likely meant her parents were leaving but apparently hadn't yet worked out that they planned to return. I eventually won her over with oranges and books — just like the story. Now Caroline is happy to see me and always wants me to read her book. It’s a good book for talking about feelings.

I wrote Virginia Loves Dogs for Virginia, who is every bit as high-spirited as the protagonist and just as crazy about dogs — so much so that I worried she’d get bitten. So in creating the character Virginia, I just took my granddaughter's irrepressible, cheerful quality and exaggerated it and made the book about doggie manners. When I was reading an early draft to Virginia, I asked her how the story should end. She didn't miss a beat: "Happy happy after!" she exclaimed. I used that as the title of the collection.

The Climbing Tree is dedicated to Eleanor. When she was about three, just as in the book, we must have passed the tree in her front yard a hundred times before realizing she was just tall enough to climb it — with a little help. It wasn't easy for her, but Eleanor is nothing if not persistent. Pretty soon, she was racing home from school and climbing up her tree, where she would stay until her parents called her to dinner. When the family moved, it broke her heart to leave her beloved tree, and that became the basis for this story. The Climbing Tree took first prize (out of 1,800 entries) in the Writer’s Digest annual Self-Published Book Awards.

"The Accidental Author"

February 2021's new book picks are...Pretty Hair and Everyone, Just Like Me, both written by Northern Virginia author Carylee Carrington. Pretty Hair is Carylee Carrington's latest book. After watching two of her family members grow up with hair that differed from their peers, she wanted to ensure they knew just how special they were and how important it is for them to love the hair they were born with.

This picture book helps young girls understand there are an amazing variety of styles and textures of hair and no one type is the definition of “pretty.” Pretty Hair was reviewed in an article in Northern Virginia magazine. Find that here.

Carylee Carrington's first book is Everyone, Just Like Me. When her then five-year-old son came home from school one day, he had something important to tell his mom: his classmates said he should play only with children of the same skin color. So this mom went into action...and wrote a book! The new book, however, was not about race. Everyone, Just Like Me is about a boy named Joshua who has to get glasses. In wanting not to be different due to his glasses, the boy wishes for everyone to be the same. When hilarity and confusion ensue, Joshua discovers there may be a problem with his request. A picture book for children, Everyone, Just Like Me encourages kids to embrace their uniqueness. "Through Joshua’s special wish, readers learn that individual differences are what makes each person special.”

Read more about Carylee Carrington and her first book here. She also hosts a podcast to introduce new authors to the Northern Virginia community. For more, follow her on Facebook@readwithcarylee and visit readwithcarylee.com. Carylee is a member of the RIF of NOVA board.

"Please stop saying broken home!"

This, from family law attorney, mediator, and coparenting coach Sheila Adams Gardner in a recent article. "The term 'broken home,' she says, "is still commonly used to describe families with divorced or separated parents. 'Broken home' is almost always a misnomer as it invalidates the child’s actual family experience to describe the parents’ legal relationship. Worse, it unfairly portends a future of social/emotional dysfunction for the child."

Sheila knows what she is talking about because she grew up as one of four daughters of parents who divorced in 1975. "Our family was the only divorced family we knew at the time. Yet, without models, books, or coaches, our parents heroically managed to coparent with the utmost respect for each other and us, fiercely committed to maintaining our strong family bond. Our parents' romantic relationship ended; but our family relationship did not."

Gardner's practice emphasizes that families are still families even if parents are divorced, separated, not married, or in other ways not together. But when she looked around for children's books that focused on the topic, she could not find any that told successful stories like her own. So she has written two new books on the subject herself. "They were just in my heart, and I had to get them out," she laughed during an interview with RIF of NOVA. "People need to see something positive in order to think, 'If they can do that, I can, too.'" Gardner wrote both books to help children feel positive and "not ashamed," and to help parents make their new-normal family a nurturing and successful one for their children.

Sheila Adams Gardner lives in Northern Virginia and practices in Washington, DC. Our NOVA RIF January 2021 picks are her two books, Made of Love and Two Houses One Family. Both are available on Amazon. Meet Sheila Adams Gardner and learn more about her journey here. Sheila is a member of the RIF of NOVA board.

Made of Love was published in November 2020. The book celebrates the cooperative ways in which unmarried parents raise their three-year-old son. Written in rhyme to engage the youngest reader/listener, Made of Love beautifully demonstrates that a family is still a family even when the parents do not live together. Readers can find activity pages to celebrate their own story.

Meet Riley. Riley is a six-year-old who lives in two houses following her parents’ recent divorce. Recounting the loving and thoughtful ways her divorced parents worked together to support her and each other, Riley learns what truly makes her family a family and provides a view of divorce from the eyes of a child of successful coparents. Complete with opportunities for readers to create pictures or stories about their own families, Two Houses One Family is uplifting for both children and parents.

Stone Soup -- Reimagined!

UPDATE: November 2021: Sanchcho Surprise has been selected as a top book that highlights empathy in a list curated by Kimberly Olson Fakih, Senior Editor, Picture Books at School Library Journal. Find that list by clicking here! This is super news! Congratulations!!!
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Our December 2020 book introduction: The Good Stranger's Sancocho Surprise/ El sancocho sorpresa del buen desconocido, a bilingual retelling of the classic “Stone Soup” tale, set in the Dominican Republic. A stranger who has lost his family to tragedy comes to a rural town, and he is starving. He asks for help, but only a penniless girl, with no knowledge of cooking, will offer it. Together they make sancocho ― a traditional Dominican soup where everything can get thrown into the pot ― using a secret recipe the stranger learned from his grandfather. From seemingly nothing, they create a miraculous banquet and teach the villagers a lasting lesson about generosity, and overcoming fear.

The book was written by John J. McLaughlin. John is a graduate of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC, the University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa, where he earned an MFA in fiction writing. He lived in the Dominican Republic for several years beginning in 1997, first as assistant director of Creighton University’s Semestre Dominicano program, later as a journalist and teacher.

John’s articles have appeared in various periodicals and can be found on his website. His novel, Run in the Fam'ly (University of Tennessee Press, 2007) won multiple literary prizes. John co-founded Education Across Borders, a nonprofit that works in partnership with marginalized communities in the Dominican Republic to co-create lasting solutions to extreme poverty, through educational, community development, and service-learning programs. John's mother Christine McLaughlin and sister Maureen McLaughlin are members of the RIF of NOVA board.

Illustrator Ruddy Núñez

Illustrator Ruddy Núñez is from the Dominican Republic. When he first read John's story, he felt very connected with his DR roots and wanted his illustrations to capture the "environment, the time period, the socio-economic conditions, and the customs of rural, small-town life." He was particularly drawn to the little girl in the story, saying she is "a ray of hope and light." He says the book reaches beyond the Latin American community and is "the story of the Good Samaritan which we all carry within us." Please watch a video of Ruddy Núñez as he draws and describes how the Dominican campo inspired his style of art. The link is here! The cover image is used with permission.

Teachers and parents can find a full resource guide to the The Good Stranger's Sancocho Surprise here! It's full of art activities, songs, and discussion ideas about the various gifts we each bring to the table. And if that weren't enough, RIF of NOVA community members can buy this bilingual book for a 10% discount! Please click here to find that link!

Author John McLaughlin reading to a group of Dominican children

A Playbook for Activism

Our September 2020 pick was relevant to our 2020 Appeal: Votes for Women -- Votes for Books! The Suffragists Playbook, Your Guide to Changing the World is geared to readers 12 and up. What a perfect read for the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

As most know, the women’s suffrage movement was decades in the making and came with many harsh setbacks. But it resulted in a permanent victory: women’s right to vote. How did the suffragists do it? An eye-opening look at their playbook shows that some of their strategies seem oddly familiar. Women’s marches at inauguration time? Check. Publicity stunts, optics, and influencers? They practically invented them. Petitions, lobbying, speeches, raising money, and writing articles? All of that, too.

From moments of inspiration to some of the movement’s darker aspects--including the racism of some suffragist leaders, violence against picketers, and hunger strikes in jail—this clear-eyed view takes in the roles of key figures: Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, Ida B. Wells, Alice Paul, and many more.

The book was written and is narrated by Lucinda Robb and Rebecca Boggs Roberts. Their friendship goes back generations (to their grandmothers, Lady Bird Johnson and Lindy Boggs, and their mothers, Lynda Robb* and Cokie Roberts), this unique melding of seminal history and smart tactics is sure to capture the attention of activists-in-the-making today. Both authors appeared in a National Archives discussion about their new book that took place in August. To see that interview, click here.

In the words of the authors:

Our foremothers didn’t just make the world a better place; they left future generations an arsenal of tactics to achieve their goals. They learned so much through painful trial and error, and we can’t afford to let it be forgotten—including their mistakes. Starting with virtually no political power or public support, a diverse group of suffragists effected the largest single change to American democracy, without resorting to armed rebellion or overthrowing the government. They were fearless, creative, tenacious, and radical. They were also, just as we are today, deeply flawed and human. We find that liberating. You don’t have to be perfect to make the world a better place; you just have to step up.

As we celebrate the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, a lot of the hoopla focuses on the pageantry: the sashes, banners, hats, and dresses. We love the pageantry; it was an intentional and effective political tactic. But the costumes tend to make it feel like the suffrage movement belongs in another time, when in fact their strategies and rhetoric can be incredibly effective for today’s activists. That’s why this isn’t just a history book, but a playbook.

It was important to us that the tactics be genuinely practical. Some of our children want to save the planet, and some just want to save puppies. We hope the lessons in our book apply to both.

Lucinda Robb was project director for Our Mothers Before Us: Women and Democracy, 1789–1920 at the Center for Legislative Archives. She and her family live in Northern Virginia.
Photo: Karen Kasmauski

Rebecca Boggs Roberts is the author of Suffragists in Washington, DC: The 1913 Parade and the Fight for the Vote and Historic Congressional Cemetery. She and her family live in Washington, DC.
Photo: Moshe Zusman

*Lynda Robb is a member of the RIF of NOVA Advisory Board.

Cover image used with permission.

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