Hello friends! Whelp, I am just back from a long weekend in New Mexico followed by ABLA's Big Sur Children's Writers Workshop where I served as critique group mentor for two fabulous picture book groups. Photos below. Hiking in NM (on a broken ankle), Santa Fe!, at Big Sur with mentees The photo at left is just after I stepped off a large rock and fractured my ankle (the fibula, NOT the weight-bearing bone), but continued to hike on it. And then walk 3+ miles around Santa Fe including the...
about 1 month agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read
Hello friends! Big news! My next book is out now--Telling It True: Writing Nonfiction Kids (and Teens) Want to Read. Telling It True is both a prequel and companion to Reimagining Your Nonfiction Picture Book. While Reimagining zooms in on revising nonfiction picture books, Telling It True zooms out. It walks you through the full process of finding strong nonfiction ideas, researching effectively, and drafting engaging, fact-based books, no matter the format, from picture books through YA,...
2 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Hello friends! I hope you are building some time to rest and recharge into your December. I'll be off for almost three weeks, and I can't wait. Left to Right: D&D: The Twenty-Sided Tavern show, magic show at The Magic Castle in Hollywood, holiday stories with Deadpool and Wolverine at Disney In the meantime, I've been soaking in the season with lots of live performances, holiday movies, and a quick trip to Disneyland. Disney's holiday decorations are one of my favorite things (especially...
4 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
Hello friends! First, a bit of fun family news. On Oct. 28th, my husband made the historic first flight of the X-59, a prototype experimental aircraft designed to test whether we can make future aircraft quieter so we can (someday) fly supersonic across the U.S. I got to sit next to the control room and hear and watch everything. It was so cool! Check out the NASA video below. Post flight! Attending educators conferences From left to right: In the Little, Brown book at NCTE, signing books for...
4 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read
Hello friends! Behind the scenes: Society of Experimental Test Pilots banquet at Disney; with fabulous friends at my B&N event; visiting our older son for Parent's Weekend at UC San Diego. First, a huge thank you for all the outpouring of support for This Is How You Know, illustrated by Cornelia Li. It was such a joy to see so many friends at my Barnes & Noble Story Time (center) as well as my LA County Library event where we made oobleck and did other STEAM activities. From the bottom of my...
6 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 4 min read
Hello friends! Left to right: With fellow authors Dana Middleton and Nell Cross Beckerman; with young readers at story time at Once Upon a Time Bookstore in support of Science Saturday. As you have undoubtedly heard, my next picture book, This Is How You Know , illustrated by Cornelia Li, is out now from Little, Brown. I just hosted two events and have two more coming up. If you are local, I hope you'll join me. Signing and Storytime at Barnes & Noble - Palmdale at 11:30 a.m. October 4th....
7 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 5 min read
Hello friends! Grad dinner 71 stories above LA, dropping off the college freshman, and Barbie exhibit at the Motion Picture Museum I don't know about you, but summer is over at our house. š« We dropped off our college freshman (middle) for his summer bridge program at UC San Diego, where he is taking two engineering classes and meeting tons of people. Plus my high schooler is back in school. All this means I'm back in the office full time, which is a good thing since the launch of my next...
8 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read
Hello friends and welcome blog followers! From left to right: My new website, a Matisse once looted during WWII, Garden of the Gods w/friends in Colorado Iām thrilled to share that my brand-new website is live at kirstenwlarson.com (Thanks Bookend Creative Studio)! One small hiccup? Thereās no longer a āfollowā button for blog updates. Hereās what Iām doing instead:If you were following the blog, youāre now getting this monthly newsletter. It includes blog roundups, so you wonāt miss a post!...
9 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 4 min read
Hello friends! My high school graduate, date night cooking classes, my beloved office mate Chloe (RIP) Happy summer! āļø Outdoor Office Update Most mornings, youāll find me parked on my sectional outside with coffee and my computerābefore the heat kicks in.āļø I swapped out bulky furniture covers for cushion storage boxes and now there's so much less dust! (Find them here at WayFair.)Sadly, my outdoor officemate Chloe (pictured top right) is no longer with me. Itās a little lonely without her....
10 months agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read