Little Pickle Press publishes children’s books that present relevant topics of the times, and help parents and teachers begin conversations with their children about subjects like the environment, ethnicity, entrepreneurship, and other values that children and parents worldwide can embrace. To help adults further guide children through the basic concepts introduced in the picture books, the publisher also offers free expanded lesson plans available for download at their website. These are a great help for busy educators as each offers three exercises to reinforce the book's concepts, as well as many Internet links to related topics and information! Today we welcome, Meredith Moran, who is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education at Stanford University. Meredith researches and writes the lesson plans that complement the LPP stories. The latest project is for BIG (written by Coleen Paratore and illustrated by Clare Fennell), which was just released ...

Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak , visited our local writers’ group via Skype this month. She’s one of the nation’s most successful and respected YA and children’s authors, so we were grateful for the opportunity to chat with her. One of her many great responses to our questions included: “It’s okay to pull back... You can just let the door swing shut.” She referred specifically to sexual abuse in YA books, but I think we can apply this to horror, mysteries and thrillers as well: You can just let the door swing shut . Essentially, this lets us put the gore on the back burner and concentrate on story and character. It sounds elementary, but I’ve tried to read a lot of work recently by writers who clearly don’t get it. Couldn’t finish the stuff. I’ve been spoiled by good horror, and I can’t go back. Anyway, it’s not a reactionary idea. I’m not suggesting that we can or should return to simpler, less gory work. I’m saying it’s okay to sweep the gory details off your workben...

As many of you know by now, I have a special interest in children’s literature. As an artist and writer, the story of how a picture book comes alive with the addition of complementary illustration never ceases to fascinate. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! Today Sarah Ackerley joins us to share how the newest book from Little Pickle Press came to her drawing board, and how she developed a seemingly dry subject matter – how your brain works – into a fantastically humorous and delightful book for children ages 4 and up. Dani: Sarah, first tell us a little about how you prepared for a career in picture book illustration. Sarah: I studied fine art at the University of Texas at Austin where I focused mainly on drawing and painting. UT doesn’t have an illustration department, but I always had it in my mind that I would like to some day pursue picture book illustration. After graduation I began to build an illustration portfolio, attend SCBWI meetings, and read everythin...

Children’s book illustrator, Sue Cornelison, was trained as an art teacher. In 1995, she started free-lancing for an educational publisher where she was able to make good use of her classical art training by providing works for many books and catalogs, including re-prints of classics like The Brothers Grimm . Her opportunity to illustrate a book for Coach John Wooden proved to be the turning point in her career. She soon landed a New York agent and has been illustrating children’s books ever since. She even writes some of them! When I interviewed Sue as part of the Sofia’s Dream blog book tour, I was interested in how she came to work with the publisher, Little Pickle Press, and since I do behind-the-scenes projects for LPP, I knew that the turn-around time on this book was very fast. Dani : Sue, thanks for stopping by to chat with us about this cool project. I love the message of the book, and equally, your illustrations. First tell me when you actually got the manuscript and...