I’m honoured that One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo, has been included in the TD Summer Reading Club 2024! This club is Canada’s biggest, bilingual summer reading program for kids of all ages, interests, and abilities. It’s offered at more than 2,000 public libraries as well as online. I love how it celebrates Canadian authors, illustrators and stories, and inspires kids to read!
Guess what arrived? In June, illustrator Dawn Lo and I were honoured to win the 2023 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award in Canada for One Tiny Bubble, and I just received this lovely recognition of it!
I have so much gratitude to Owlkids Books for taking on this project. Karen Li first championed the project, Stacey Roderick was such a thorough and vigorous editor that she was a dream to work with, Dawn Lo brought one tiny bubble to life with the magic of her brush, Alisa Baldwin designed it so well that the book won second place in the Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design (Children’s Category), and the marketing and publicity team at Owlkids have been on point and supportive at all times.
This book began during my MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and I want to acknowledge the wisdom of faculty advisor William Alexander and workshop leader Cynthia Leitich Smith, who enthusiastically welcomed my fledgling manuscript, as well as the support of my writing partners who read many early drafts of this manuscript.
Thanks also to Dr. William F. Martin, author of many scientific articles on life’s early evolution and professor at the Institute of Molecular Evolution in Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Dr. Martin enthusiastically reviewed the text and illustrations, and I greatly value his expertise.
And of course, I must recognize the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and its members. This award is implemented by the SCBWI and peer-selected by its members. I’m grateful for their support.
If you’d like to learn more about One Tiny Bubble, please check out these resources:
Illustrator Dawn Lo and I are thrilled to announce that One Tiny Bubble has won the 2023 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Canada! In case you’re not familiar with it, this is a peer-selected award, voted on by members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. You can check out all the winners here, but let me just say that One Tiny Bubble was selected from a stellar list of finalists! Thanks so much to the SCBWI members who voted and to the SCBWI staff for implementing the award.
I have to mention that this isn’t the first time a book of mine has been honoured with this award. My middle-grade novel Bog won the 2015 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Canada. It’s an honour to be recognized once again!
Want to learn more about creating compelling nonfiction for kids? Check out my panel chat with illustrator Dawn Lo, author Etta Kaner, and illustrator Brittany Lane. We are in conversation about our upcoming books One Tiny Bubble and Rock? Plant? Animal? Thanks to Taylor Lytle-Hewlett of Owlkids for moderating!
Both books will be available on September 15.
What do you do when your fantastic editor, Stacey Roderick of Owlkids Books, asks you for photo references of a one-celled life-form that lived over 3.5 billion years ago? You turn to an expert.
I’d like to thank Dr. William F. Martin of the Institute of Molecular Evolution at Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf for generously sharing his time and expertise to review the text and advise me when I needed to provide photo references for LUCA – our Last Universal Common Ancestor. LUCA is the one-and-only organism that every living being on Earth can be traced back to. It’s also the subject of One Tiny Bubble – my upcoming picture book with illustrator Dawn Lo, published by Owlkids Books.
Dr. Martin was also generous enough to provide an expert review of the finished book. Here’s what he had to say:
I can’t wait to share LUCA’s inspirational story and Dawn’s vibrant illustrations with our whole Earth family in September.