Kids Do Have Time to Read Books

The legendary children's book author and illustrator, Chris Van Dusen, shares his secrets to painting, writing, storytelling and more! My personal favorites of his are IF I BUILT A HOUSE, IF I BUILT A CAR and THE CIRCUS SHIP! 

Today I'm chatting with Allison Pataki and Marya Myers published Nelly Takes New York, the first children's book in a new series. The writing duo grew up together and were inspired by their own New York memories. Their book is about Nelly, a little girl who, along with her mischievous pal, the beagle named Bagel, wakes up one morning in her New York City home and begins one very adventurous day full of false starts that ultimately leads her to learn about community - the people, landmarks, museums, parks, sites, and sounds of her city. 

New episode!! Jennifer Blecher is the author of OUT OF PLACE, the story of a twelve-year-old girl named Cove who lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her mom. She's never left the island once in her entire life, which was fine with her until the day that her best friend Nina comes and tells Cove that Nina’s going to be moving to New York City with Nina’s two fathers. In that moment, Cove’s entire life feels like it’s falling apart. She has no idea how to make it better. It’s a story about friendship and mistakes and big acts of courage. Listen to our Jennifer talk about her experience with #meangirls, writing, middle school, parenting and so much more. My older daughter interviewed her with me!!

Christina Geist, author of BUDDY'S BEDTIME BATTERY and her latest children's book, SORRY, GROWN-UPS, YOU CAN'T GO TO SCHOOL, talks about her amazing career, multi-tasking, BoomBoxGifts and branding! 

Evangeline Lilly is my first guest on Kids Do Have Time To Read Books!! Evangeline is the author of the children's book series The Squickerwonkers. The two titles in the series so far are The Pre-Show and Act 1: The Demise of Selma the Spoiled. Best known for her acting (Evangeline starred in "Lost," "The Hobbit," "Antman," and "Antman and the Wasp"), Evangeline started her writing career with The Squickerwonkers original poem at age 14. Listen to her talk about her love of poetry, the inspiration for her (sometimes very badly behaved!) characters, her heartfelt advice for other moms, and how she made me cry. 

I'm starting a new podcast! I'll be taking what I've learned from my Webby-nominated literary podcast, "Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books," and using it to launch, "Kids Do Have Time to Read Books." This time, I'll be interviewing children's book, middle grade and YA authors for moms AND KIDS, who want to learn more about their favorite authors and get the story behind the story!