Épisodes

  • An Interview with Gaby Cabezut

    An Interview with Gaby Cabezut
    Jul 9 2025
    Gaby Cabezut, author and literary agent of the Seymour agency and the Alliance Rights Agency talks about her author journey and internet publishing, how she became a literary agent, her love for children's books, the importance of the Latin American children's book market, and her advice on querying and writing picture book manuscripts. Plus a submission opportunity for pb manuscripts, but be sure to mention NBN and submit here. Query Manager: https://QueryTracker.net/query/339 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 min
  • An Interview with Colby Sharp

    An Interview with Colby Sharp
    Jul 1 2025
    Colby Sharp is widely considered one of the leading mavens on children's literature. He is co-author of several books, including Game Changer! Book Access for All Kids (Scholastic, 2018). He started the Nerdy Book Club blog, co-hosts The Yarn podcast with Teacher Librarian Travis Jonker, serves on the Nerd Camp Michigan team and has taught schoolchildren since 2006. Here, we follow his literary life and professional journey to becoming a kidlit guru. Colby shares what he loves in picture books, and offers advice for aspiring authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    47 min
  • Ryan G. Van Cleave, "The Witness Trees: Historic Moments and the Trees Who Watched Them Happen" (Bushel & Peck, 2023)

    Ryan G. Van Cleave, "The Witness Trees: Historic Moments and the Trees Who Watched Them Happen" (Bushel & Peck, 2023)
    Jun 25 2025
    Dr. Ryan van Cleave is the author of over 100 books for children and adults, editorial director of Bushel & Peck Publishers, college professor and head program (Ringling), writing coach, ghostwriter, poet and more. In our wonderful conversation we celebrate his picture book The Witness Trees: Historic Moments and the Trees Who Watched Them Happen (Bushel & Peck, 2023), and discuss the original initiative "Acquired", a hands-on conference for aspiring authors. Ryan shares the goals of the conference and his tips for authors who want to create books that stand a chance of publication by traditional houses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 min
  • Yasmine Motawy, "Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society" (AUC Press, 2025)

    Yasmine Motawy, "Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society" (AUC Press, 2025)
    Jun 22 2025
    Children’s picture books are some of the most transparently ideological materials available to parents and educators, and as cultural objects they are an expression of the zeitgeist of a particular era. They reveal much about the hopes, values, and aspirations of the society that produces them, as well as that society’s vision of its place in the wider world at large.Children’s Picture Books and Contemporary Egyptian Society (AUC Press, 2025) by Dr. Yasmine Motawy examines a new wave of Egyptian picture books that was published in the current century to see how these books responded to larger societal trends and transformations in Egypt, as well as to explore the ideologies that lie behind them. Dr. Motawy argues that a host of factors, including the growth of gated communities and international schooling, the proliferation of lucrative literary awards, returning Gulf migrants, television dramas, and nationwide reading advocacy initiatives helped give rise to a new kind of children’s picture book in Egypt.Dr. Motawy focuses on three clusters of selected picture books to investigate the extent to which these books reproduce hegemonic discourses or, alternatively, open up new horizons of childhood agency and societal transformation. The first cluster includes books that directly socialize the child by showing them ‘how things are done,’ in both the domestic sphere and the increasing globalized spaces that children frequent with their families. The second cluster aims at reframing cultural notions around femininity through the retelling of folk and fairy tales, while the third cluster addresses children's abilities to assess the impact of their actions on their environment, and invites them to examine their personal suitability to positions of power and stewardship. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 min
  • Yevgenia Nayberg, "A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me" (Neal Porter Books, 2024)

    Yevgenia Nayberg, "A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me" (Neal Porter Books, 2024)
    Jun 21 2025
    A young girl forms a special connection to the modernist painter Florine Stettheimer, and imagines herself joining in on Florine’s exciting life.When a young girl visits the museum, she finds an unexpected friend in a self-portrait of Florine Stettheimer. They’re both artists; they both have Jewish families; they even look alike!Florine’s life was wild and glamorous. She painted people in flight and buildings that grew from the ground like crooked trees, bright colors and shapes and animals. She threw parties frequented by other famous visionaries like Marcel Duchamp and Carl Van Vechten.Soon, our narrator is dreaming up her own fantastical parties for Florine, with table spreads of colorful treats, and painting and dancing and poetry. With Florine in her life, even a rainy day can’t make the world seem humdrum anymore.A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me (Neal Porter Books, 2024) is an unapologetically whimsical fan letter to an artist whose influence is clear in Sydney Taylor Honoree Yevgenia Nayberg’s captivating illustrations. Dreamers, creators, and budding modernists will be drawn into the young protagonist’s party just as strongly as she is drawn into Stettheimer’s paintings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 min
  • Melissa H. Mwai, "I Can Make a Friend!" (Paw Prints, 2025)

    Melissa H. Mwai, "I Can Make a Friend!" (Paw Prints, 2025)
    Jun 20 2025
    Melissa H. Mwai is an author and illustrator, as well as an award-winning poet. She has penned five nonfiction children's books including THE HISTORY OF JAZZ (DK, 2024). As an neurodiverse Afro-Latina, Melissa is thrilled that her books help ethnically and neurodiverse kids learn more deeply about the world around them. In our delightful interview, we celebrate her recent book, I Can Make a Friend! (I Can Do It, 2) (PAW Prints, April, 2025). Melissa talks about her journey to becoming a published author, and her advice for those wishing to pursue a career writing for the educational children's book market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 min
  • Ann Koffsky, "Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman" (Little Bee Books, 2024)

    Ann Koffsky, "Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman" (Little Bee Books, 2024)
    Jun 12 2025
    Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Estee Ackerman POP POP KERPOW!Eleven-year-old Ping-Pong phenom Estee Ackerman must make a difficult choice. When her championship match is scheduled on the Jewish Sabbath, will she go for the gold medal, or honor her faith? Read the true story of how a young girl struggled to uphold her beliefs while pursuing her passion. Tournament after tournament, Estee kept winning.She beat all sorts of players. Some were older. Some were younger.She even beat tennis star Rafael Nadal!She became one of the best Ping-Pong players in the United States. Estee Ackerman loved Ping-Pong more than anything. But she also loved and honored the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath. At age eleven, she began to rise in the ranks of tournament players, making it all the way to the finals of the US National Table Tennis Championships. She only had one player left to beat to win a gold medal--but the final match was set during Shabbat, and the judges said they couldn't change it. How could Estee choose between her passion and her faith? This is the true story of a girl's struggle between her love for her religion and her love of the game.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 min
  • Ann McCallum Staats, "Fantastic Flora: The World's Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants" (MIT Kids Press, 2025)

    Ann McCallum Staats, "Fantastic Flora: The World's Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants" (MIT Kids Press, 2025)
    May 30 2025
    In our lovely interview, we celebrate Ann McCallum Staats' brand new book (just launched this week!), Fantastic Flora: The World’s Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants, wonderfully illustrated by Zoë Ingram, published by MIT Kids Press, an imprint of Candlewick. This is not your run-of-the-mill picture book. It's over 120 pages long and is intended for the 8-12 audience, although younger kids and adults will enjoy it too! Ann is the author of numerous other children’s books, including the Eat Your Homework series, which received two Junior Library Guild Selections and a Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Book of the Year; The Secret Life of Math; and High Flyers: 15 Inspiring Women Aviators and Astronauts. She has a master’s degree in education and lives in Virginia with her family. We talk about her unconventional road to literary success and advice for authors who are on their writing journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 min