Where to begin. . .

Plus book news, what I'm reading, and what's next

signs and signing at PLA 2024

After having been in children’s book publishing for 4 years, I finally got to meet people I work with in person! Tundra Books invited me to do a signing at this year’s PLA in Columbus. After the first day of the convention, the Tundra team took me and authors Matteo L. Cerilli and Kern Carter out to eat. At dinner, the talk turned to the growing importance of newsletters in the age of the algorithm and—long story short—welcome to my substack, Long Story Short!

Here’s a peek behind-the-scenes: I honestly wasn’t sure what to call my newsletter until I wrote that sentence! But “Long Story Short” describes what picture book makers hope to do—make big, memorable stories with minimal text. After all, Maurice Sendak only used 10 sentences when he wrote Where the Wild Things Are and that book is epic!

Bank Street Best

Since 1936, the Children’s Book Committee of Bank Street College has annually published a list of the Best Children’s Books of the Year. For the last few weeks, I'd been seeing people posting on social media about their own books making the list, but I was having a hard time finding a copy for myself. I thought, "If I'm on it, someone will tell me!" Well, it turns out I'm Going to Build a Snowman is on this year’s list!! I’m honored to have Snowman included among all of these great books.

Thanks for the heads up, Erica :)

Bookstack

My most recent trip to my library was a good one!

From top to bottom:

• The First Day of May by Henrique Coser Moreira

• Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow, illus. by Maurice Sendak

• Snail by Minu Kim

• The Most Delicious Soup and Other Stories by Mariana Ruiz Johnson

• Caldecott & Co. by Maurice Sendak

• Two Together by Brendan Wenzel

• Let’s Go! haw êkwa! by Julie Flett

• The Elephant and the Sea by Ed Vere

• A Happy Place by Britta Teckentrup

• The Young Teacher and the Great Serpent by Irene Vasco, illus. by Juan Palomino

• If You Run Out of Words by Felicita Sala

Most are newly released picture books and they’re all very good! The stack’s a mix of authors I’ve been following for a while and ones that are new to me. Have you read any of these books?

Julie Flett’s story of finding community through a shared passion¹ really connected with me. Her beautiful compositions skate the reader across the page and right through the book, which is exactly what illustrations for a book called Let’s Go! should do.

The original cover art is traveling with the “Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak” (now on view at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA)

The one non-picture book of the bunch was Caldecott & Co., Maurice Sendak’s book of essays about authors and illustrators. I’ve only read a few chapters so far, but I’m (unsurprisingly) really enjoying it. I hope someday there will be an edition with all the illustrations that Sendak refers to in the text. For instance, it would be nice if readers could compare Randolph Caldecott’s Mother Goose illustrations to Kate Greenaway’s illustrations of the same subject for themselves. At least Google images is available to modern readers, but who wants to put down a good book every other paragraph?

Speaking of changing times, check out how the library used to do due dates:

Who would put a due date on that forehead?

Before you go. . .

My new book, Towed by Toad, is now available for pre-order—let your favorite bookseller know you want a copy!

Hop on a tow-truck ride with Toad as he learns that everyone needs help sometimes, even the helpers. The first in a new series!

(I’m starting work on the dummy for the next TOAD book! Wish me luck!)

Thanks for reading!

-Jashar

1. I’m also realizing my upcoming book Every Monday Mabel (Spring ‘25) explores similar themes. No wonder this spoke to me—it’s a topic that’s been on my mind!