John Cochran

Drugmakers Paid PBMs Not to Restrict Opioid Prescriptions (Gift Article) Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.

“As tens of thousands of Americans overdosed and died from prescription painkillers, the middlemen collected billions of dollars in payments.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/b...

The Best Kids’ Books on Mental Health of 2024 - Child Mind Institute Explore our favorite 2024 children's books on mental health. Our list covers a variety of topics from ADHD to autism to eating disorders.

I'm pleased and honored to see my book Breaking into Sunlight on this list of the year's best kids' books on mental health from @childmindinstitute.bsky.social And in such great company. This list is a great resource for librarians, teachers, and booksellers. childmind.org/article/the-...

The Best Middle Grade Books, 2024 - Imagination Soup Discover the best middle grade books of 2024 curated by a former educator and parent who read over 200 books this year.

Imagination Soup listed @johncochran.bsky.social's BREAKING INTO SUNLIGHT and Steven Banbury's THE PUMPKIN PRINCESS AND THE FOREVER NIGHT on their list of best middle grade books of 2024! Find the full list: imaginationsoup.net/best-middle-...

A heading that says "A Parent's Addiction" and the cover of the middle-grade novel BREAKING INTO SUNLIGHT, featuring an illustrated white boy in red swim trunks swimming underwater, with the title illuminated in the light from the sun behind him.

Breaking Into Sunlight Written by John Cochran This heartfelt novel about a seventh-grade boy who hides his father’s pain medication addiction will resonate with the 1 in 8 kids living with a parent who has a substance use disorder. After his father overdoses again, the boy and his mom move, but he keeps his father’s secret from his friends and struggles with leaving his dad. “Breaking Into Sunlight is a beautiful story of a son’s journey and commitment to radically accepting his father’s substance use disorder,” says a Child Mind Institute expert. “It accurately portrays the misplaced responsibility and guilt adolescents often experience regarding parents’ addiction, relationships, and interpersonal conflict. It also honestly describes the shame teens might experience about their own feelings and how their family is different.” Ages 10+. Published by Algonquin Young Readers.

Delighted to see @johncochran.bsky.social's BREAKING INTO SUNLIGHT named to the Child Mind Institute's Best Kids' Books on Mental Health for 2024!

This Self-Taught Local Tattoo Artist Recreates Classic Masterpieces In Ink Takoma Park artist Bibi Abelle gained a following by creating fine-line tattoos inspired by famous artworks.

Great piece about a tattoo artist in DC who was recently featured by the National Museum of Women in the Arts: dcist.com/story/23/12/... As a dad, I’m inspired by the faith this woman’s parents demonstrated in her and her work.

WNC CAT MUSEUM We are an Art Museum in the Smoky Mountains dedicated to Cat Lovers. Our mission is to support the cage free no-kill cat shelter, Catman2 Shelter. Our goal is to Entertain, Inspire and Educate guest...

How am I just learning about this place? A museum devoted to cats in one of my favorite parts of the world, western North Carolina: www.wnccatmuseum.org

A New National Building Museum Exhibit Explores The World Of Children's Books 'Building Stories' will be on display for the next 10 years and is the museum's first new long-term exhibit in over a decade.

“The best children’s books are about the most basic things in life, and they talk about them in the clearest possible way. And there’s something that resonates for everyone.” Yes, exactly. Looking forward to this exhibit on children's books at the National Building Museum. dcist.com/story/24/01/...

Looking forward to the ALA LibLearnX24 this weekend in Baltimore. I'll be at the Hachette booth (#1117) beginning at 12:30 pm Saturday signing and talking about my middle-grade novel, Breaking into Sunlight, coming this June from Algonquin Young Readers. Please come by and say hi if you're there!

I second this. And lighter fare: Odin's Ravens or Jaipur. (My son and I have managed to play Odin's Ravens on a fold-down tray on Amtrak.)

Saturday blacksmithing with my son. His first knife is taking shape. I made a hook.

Broad categories for me: history, music, sci-fi, nature, kid lit, etc. No attempt at alphabetizing. (I’m more organized with my CDs and records: grouped by genre, then alphabetized by artist.)

Congrats! Just ordered a copy from my neighborhood bookshop! Looking forward to reading it.

I did! I hated it, but I did. I get nostalgic for some old tech, like record players, but old computers and typewriters, no! Not for writing. (In my first news-writing class in journalism school, we wrote our stories on IBM Selectrics.)

As a young newspaper reporter, the first portable computer I was given to file stories from the road was a TRS-80 (Trash Eighty) Model 100, with an acoustic coupler. I get unpleasant flashbacks thinking about tapping away frantically on deadline, squinting at that tiny monochrome LCD screen. :-)

Stopped by my neighborhood bookstore in DC, East City Bookshop, to drop off a galley copy of my book for the good folks there and also pick up a copy of Clutter: An Untidy History by my talented friend and neighbor @jenhoward.bsky.social God bless indie bookstores for supporting local writers.

Upcycling at the forge with my son: cutting off a section of an old truck shock spring to make a knife blade out of it. He’s hammering the heated spring against the sharp edge of something called a hardy tool inserted into the anvil.

Breaking into Sunlight Reese is a seventh-grader in rural North Carolina who loves drawing, basketball, his hardworking mom, and his charming, charismatic dad. But then one day, he...

My book has a cover! And It’s available for preorder. Coming June 18, 2024. Many thanks to Berat Pekmezci and Marcie Lawrence for the lovely illustration and cover design. It’s an honor and a pleasure to work with Algonquin Young Readers and amazing editor @cherylklein.bsky.social

I’m happy to say I got to work with cherylklein.bsky.social on my debut middle-grade novel, from Algonquin Young Readers. She’s the best, a terrific editor, and I highly recommend this book of hers. Tons of great thinking and advice in there.