Two Books in the Works

Somehow—where did the time go?!—I’ve let months and months elapse without sharing news of two new books that found homes in 2022. Both have been acquired by Megan Abbate at Bloomsbury Children’s Books. I’ve worked with Megan before, and she is as careful, attentive, and caring an editor as you can find.

One is a nonfiction picture book, a perspective on climate change called Change is in the Air. Alex Boersma is our outstanding illustrator; she is perfect for this book. The other is narrative nonfiction for young adults, called Origins. It tells the story of the Scopes trial of 1925, what led up to it, and what came out of it. You may know it as the “Monkey Trial,” in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan went head to head in a trial of unprecedented strangeness over whether high school students should be taught evolution. I don’t think I need to point out how this resonates today.

I could go on about how completely stimulating and challenging my research and writing for these books has been. But I have to get back to work. . ..