MrsPowellsBooks

Personalizing queries? Yes. That joy of tailoring your query to an agent and getting your hopes up? Those moments were fun. But investing that energy made the rejections hit harder. #kidlitchat

Picture book comps - that's my specialty. It comes from hanging out in an elementary library every morning. Providing suggestions to "I want a book about" is the joy of library life.

But you don't have to be in a library to search for titles. Go to your public library's online portal! #kidlitchat

Storyvoice: Free Live Author Events Every Week | Scholastic Join us weekly for new, live author events! Scholastic's free online experience connects classrooms to their favorite authors and illustrators.

Scholastic's Storyvoice website does online readings each Friday, so it looks like Melinda Beatty is a guest this week. Since some of our school libraries are primarily funded by bookfairs, these readings should be help us know what to buy. storyvoice.scholastic.com/landing

An author (Melinda Beatty) next to her picture book THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE DAY illustrated by Charlene Chua. The book has a purple and black background and an aqua colored vampire who looks frightened. Under the book promo is information about an upcoming online reading of the book.

Checked this morning’s email and excitedly added this to Friday’s to do list. I get to see @charlenechua’s gorgeous illustrations!

Daily drawing would be healthy for all of us #kidlit creators!

It’s reality check week when I get estimates & calculate how many books I will need to sell to cover the cost of illustrations & printing. It’s the reality of author publishing. Picking paper by “how many more books will this require?”

I wish we had found this book when my son was first diagnosed & that it would be more visible and available at bookstores. He will carry both WHEN A KID LIKE ME FIGHTS CANCER & HEROES NEED HELP as he meets with kids as a child life specialist. He’s applying for internships in the spring. 🙂
#kidlit

Two light blue early reader books featuring a cat with books, a stack of bookmarks, and a display featuring the cat who inspired the books.

Visited four 4th grade classes this week sharing THE BOOK CAT followed by THE LIBRARY KITTY. It’s so fun to hear their reactions. Especially when they ask for a chapter book version and list reasons that longer books are better. 🙂 #kidlit #Skybrarians #Edusky

This is a wonderful book. As an elementary school librarian, it’s the one I share with classes when a friend is diagnosed with cancer.

Can we start that? I think Small Press September should be a thing. Unless we go bigger and encourage people to choose small press every month! 🙂

When I added Jason Greco’s latest illustration to my dummy, I noticed that he has only three more to go and then the cover!!!Now I know how the Velveteen Rabbit felt when it became real! #kidlit #chemo

I like this one a little better. #notoai #antiartificialintelligence #aintnothingliketherealthing #kidlitillustration #kidlitart

The cover of the book Gray squirrel loses it featuring a squirrel looking for his nut under rock. On the post it says October 21 because that is the date that the book gray squirrel loses it comes out. Also pictured are a gray squirrel and a cardinal about to attack him.

GRAY SQUIRREL LOSES IT! comes out this month!

✨There’s still time to pre-order! (Pre-orders get the book into stores and in front of readers! )

Thx for the support & I can’t wait for you all to meet Grayson T. Squirrel! 🐿️
(Is this emoji a chipmunk, btw?? 🧐)

#kidlit #library #picturebook #edusky

Ack! Only the cover is on Edelweiss! Waiting is going to be tough! My library kiddos are squirrel hunters (within books) because of “Where are my Books?” It feels like they are perfectly primed for this title. 🙂

An illustration from the final page of a picture book about pediatric chemotherapy. A boy and a girl are standing on top of the world, triumphantly hold their IV poles.

Going back to @valleychildrens.bsky.social for his 17th year of outpatient treatment was tough. Yet, with his typical optimism, Jaxon declared "chemo isn't the bad guy." From that sentiment came HEROES NEED HELP - a picture book about pediatric chemotherapy. #cancer #braintumors #kidlit

I use a Danny and the Dinosaur book as I demonstrate the difference between fiction and nonfiction when 1st graders are learning to find their own books. It brings me joy every year! #kidlitchat

It's worth it. Brother took me on the way back to the airport. Be sure to visit KC's public library on 10th too! It's a refurbished bank and is famous for the books painted on an outside wall. I hope to go back and watch a movie from inside the bank vault.

If you ever find yourself in KC…
The Fire Cat goes up and down the pole. 🙂

THE FIRE CAT was my sister's favorite too. I thought it was obscure, but your love for it & The Rabbit Hole display in Kansas City proves that it isn't. 🙂 #kidlitart

Pippi was the opposite of everything I was, so I loved her. Wished I could be outgoing like her. #kidlitchat

As librarians we spotlight a variety of books to help them find what they love. 🙂 Otherwise, they will check out what “everyone else” is getting and carry books they don’t open in their backpacks.

If the beetles in my neighborhood were this cute, I might invite them in to enjoy cookie crumbs. 🐞

Our kids need to see love between siblings! Excited to read this!

@phyllisharris.bsky.social has found the perfect combo (her art, a Monet theme, and a cute pet). It’s things like this that bring us to social media. We hope scroll, searching for these glimmers of joy! #kidlit ❤️

So that you get to participate too - do you have writing advice for your former self?

A black kitten rests on a cut limb in a tree.

A black kitten living in a tree outside an elementary school shows that she is not stuck and does not need rescuing as she climbs higher in the tree.

A couple of black kittens have decided to spend their days in a tree outside the library. Because I wrote a book duo about a tuxedo cat who wanted to live at the library (but instead lives at my house with the now adult kittens she gave birth to) the kids & staff think the kittens are mine. #kidlit

I do laugh at what finally convinced me to give picture book writing a try...
I thought that book tours would allow me to visit my kids as they scattered throughout the US.
So naive! I wonder if book tours will still exist when my grandkids have kids...
#kidlitchat

That is the great part of adulting. Permission to enjoy pie more often. Had peanut butter and chocolate from my favorite bakery yesterday. #kidlitchat

I was so grateful for chat rooms! Adults to correspond with during nap time! #kidlitchat

This one is easy! Join Twitter and SCBWI sooner! Both brought great connections I would have benefitted from earlier in the game. Glad I gave the social media venue a try before it imploded. From the aftermath I learned that sticking with #kidlit topics makes social media a fun place. #kidlitchat

This looks like my kind of book!