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Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten!
by Lisa Robinson (Author) and Eda Kaban (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Yo, ho, ho! It’s a mutiny against kindergarten!

Snippet:

Guest Post by Lisa Robinson

Lisa Robinson is a children’s book author and a therapist who works with children, teens, and adults. She has an MFA in Creative Writing for Young People from Lesley University. She lives in the Boston area with her family and three mischievous cats. When she’s not working or writing, she’s flying through the air with her daughters on aerial silks at her local circus studio. She has four picture books forthcoming, two with Two Lions/Amazon in 2019 and two with Schwartz and Wade/Random House in 2020.

Q. Describe your writing process:
A. Recently my daughters learned to bake challah bread and as I watched their aunt teach them, it occurred to me that the process was an apt metaphor for my picture book writing process.

First you mix in a bunch of ingredients: a character (or two or three), a setting, a situation, some conflict and tension. For Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten! I knew I wanted to have a high-spirited girl who loves pirates, a loving preschool teacher she doesn’t want to leave behind, and a new kindergarten teacher.

Next, you stir everything together into dough . . . I tossed all the ingredients onto the page and played around with them until I had a tale that seemed to work.

After the dough is mixed, one has to wait while it rises. Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten! had plenty of time to rise–I first wrote the story in 2007 and then I revised and revised and revised (and faced multiple rejections) until I received a contract for its publication in 2017.

It helps to have additional sous-chefs in the kitchen when you’re baking and the sous-chefs for this story were my thoughtful critique partners, particularly my online critique group, Crumpled Paper. They gave me essential feedback and encouragement.

After the dough rises, you bake it and hope that when it’s done it tastes delicious. I’m excited for kids to read it and see if they like it!

Q. Tell us about your debut book:
A. In Pirates Don’t Go to Kindergarten!, Pirate Emma is about to go to kindergarten. But she’s not so sure she’s ready for a new captain and crew. Especially since Cap’n Chu–the roughest, toughest, awesome preschool cap’n ever–is right down the hall.

So Emma decides to head back to the preschool ship to see if she can stir up a mutiny against kindergarten.

Is that what she really wants? Or does she just miss her beloved Cap’n Chu? Batten down the hatches, mateys, because the first day of school is going to be stormy.

This book was inspired by my two daughters’ love of their preschool teachers. . . When they had to leave preschool, they had a hard time saying goodbye to them. When I searched for a book with a story about leaving beloved teachers behind, I couldn’t find any. So I decided to write one.

CONGRATULATIONS, Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing your debut book!

This Book Is Spineless
by Lindsay Leslie (Author) and Alice Brereton (Illustrator)

Booktalk: This wary and unadventurous book uses the five senses to try and figure out what kind of story might be on its pages.

Snippet:
Perhaps this is a mystery.
Mysteries give me the creeps.
I’m a book, not a detective.

I want to stay far away from
pitch-black pathways and slinky shadows.
Although now I’m wondering whodunit.

Do you SEE something?
I think we’re being watched from the corner.

Guest Post by Lindsay Leslie

Lindsay Leslie–a diary keeper, a journal writer, a journalism major, a public relations executive–has always operated in a world of written words. When she became a mom and began to tell her kids bedtime stories, Lindsay connected the dots to children’s literature. Lindsay graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and lives with her husband, two young boys, and two fur-beasts in Austin.

Q. Describe your writing process:

A. I always find this hard to do. Almost as hard as answering where do I get my ideas. I think my writing process is about taking the time to let something, an idea, take off with my imagination. When I start to feel my feet lifting off the ground, I know it’s time to write.

First, I like to settle into one of my favorite places to write—either the computer nook in my house or at the kitchen table. As for the actual writing of words, I’m usually enticed by a title that has jumped into my head. In order to make a story out of it, the chaos begins. I go with whatever pops into my brain. I don’t slow down, and I don’t edit myself. I just go and create a messy messy first draft. I don’t mind the mess. It’s like cleaning a horribly disheveled room. You have to pull everything out of the closet, off the bookshelves, and out of the drawers to assess what you have before you can begin to neaten up.

What I end up with is a first draft that has everything and the kitchen sink—the good, bad, and ridiculous. Then, I start to tidy bit by bit. I put words in their proper places, and a story I start to love forms. Once I’ve cleaned it up as much as I can, it’s on to my critique partners. I want them to let ‘er rip! It’s like having your parents inspect your room. They see the things you can’t. Like the sock poking out from underneath the bed. There’s always more work for me to do. I go through that process multiple times until I feel it’s worthy to send on to my agent.

Q. Tell us about your debut book:
A. My debut picture book is titled This Book Is Spineless and is illustrated by the brilliant Alice Brereton. It releases on Feb. 19, 2019, from Page Street Kids.

It’s about a very wary book (the physical book in the reader’s hands) that is absolutely unadventurous and freaking out about what story might be on its pages. The book takes the reader on a journey of its fears, navigating the book’s possible contents together. With each page turn, the book becomes a bit braver.

When the title of this book popped into my head, I knew I needed to write it. I was a very anxious and fearful kiddo. In fact, my mother bribed me with a puppy if I would go on a double-loop roller coaster ride, and I dug in my heels and said, “No way!” I did not get that puppy. The anticipation of the unknown brought on many anxious moments. To this day I still deal with anxiety, but now that I’m older I have better tools to cope. With this first-hand knowledge, I wanted to tackle anxiety and fears as a topic, but make it palatable, a bit light-hearted, and a little silly. I was set on writing the narrative arc to mimic the rise and fall of those anxious feelings we all have (some more extreme than others), making sure the reader was invested and helping the book along way. Through the book, I hope to show that fears can be faced, these fears and anxious feelings are not uncommon, and you don’t have to face them alone.

Thanks for sharing your new book, Leslie!

And for all of my readers who follow the directions on my FAQ: How to Find a Literary Agent page, find out more about the image above by reading Leslie’s March 2017 #PitMad on Twitter story in Cynsations.