I’m thrilled to be co-creating One Cosmic Rock: The Asteroid That Changed Our World with illustrator Julia Vasileva! A companion book to One Tiny Bubble: The Story of Our Last Universal Common Ancestor, this new picture book tells the story of the asteroid responsible for the dinosaurs’ extinction 66 million years ago. It also celebrates the resilience of life on Earth and the evolution of the diverse life-forms thriving today. It’s coming in Spring 2026 from Owlkids Books, with many thanks to my agent Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown for negotiating the deal!
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!
Today on L.E. Carmichael‘s Cantastic Authorpalooza blog, I talk about my childhood love for science, which grew into my first nonfiction STEM book One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo. I discuss:
how I saw my role as a translator of high-level scientific concepts into child-centred language and experiences.
how I used my fiction-writing skills to craft nonfiction.
how I helped to connect the child reader to the content.
September 21 is National Science Reading Day! Owlkids Books helped me make this video about why I love to read and write about science, including two book recommendations. What science books do you love to read?
