Category Archives: Author Interviews

Happy Book Birthday: FUNCLES

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Hello dear blog friends! It’s time for another joyous book birthday!!! I met the author of FUNCLES when she reached out for feedback in the summer of 2024…right before the eye surgery that left me with seriously impaired vision (which fortunately was corrected in December of 2025. I was only able to give her verbal feedback…and we enjoyed a lengthy Zoom chat. Yashika Mody revised her story…and went out on submission with it. How thrilled I was when she emailed me in February to say that she had a book deal…and her book would be launching in the UK in October and in the US in November…and so of course, I knew I’d want to share this wonderful book with all of you!

Happily, Yashika agreed to stop by to give us the inside peek at FUNCLES.

ME: Welcome Yashika! I’m thrilled that we can join you in celebrating the launch of your new book, FUNCLES! Will you tell us a little bit about it?

YASHIKA Thank you so much for inviting me, Vivian. I’m so happy to be here.
FUNCLES is a warm and funny picture book that celebrates community, cultural tradition, and the many shapes family can take. It centers around the cultural tradition of calling trusted elders in one’s community ‘Uncle’ (and ‘Aunty!’), and exploring what this sense of extended kinship teaches us about community and belonging.

ME: What inspired you to write this story?

YASHIKA: This story is inspired by (and dedicated to) my oldest son and his love for his community Uncles and Aunties in Singapore. In Singapore where I am from (and in fact, in many other countries and cultures too), it is a cultural norm to call elders in your community with respectful terms such as “uncle” and “aunty.” So, when my son was beginning to learn and understand language, he would hear me and my husband call the elders in our community uncle and aunty and he quickly picked up on this cultural practice. Everyone he met became his uncle or aunty and became a part of his own community.

It was so cute to watch him take this love for his community across the world: on a trip to London, even the guards at Buckingham Palace lovingly became known as “Red Guard Uncles!”

Inspired by how community can have such a strong impact on a child, I wrote FUNCLES as my personal ode to culture, community connection, and joyful storytelling.

ME: Any challenging moments or humorous incidents on the path to publication?

YASHIKA: It has been such a fun and wild ride with this manuscript! FUNCLES was the first picture book manuscript I ever wrote, and I went through multiple rounds of revisions with critique partners and editors. This is such a special, full-circle moment for me to be on your blog to celebrate its release today because this manuscript was actually critiqued by you in the early days! You offered such helpful advice about how to make it more impactful and resonant with kids, and I’m ever so grateful that you were one of the first to take a look at this idea and guide me through those early editorial revisions.

FUNCLES was also the manuscript I queried with, and it helped me land my first literary agent! We eventually parted ways (in hindsight, all for the better!), so I decided not to lose any momentum and submitted directly to publishers using Bitsy Kemper’s amazing list. Lantana Publishing was on that list, and their mission to uplift diverse voices—along with their sincere passion for representation—felt like the perfect fit for me as an author and for this story.

Less than six weeks after submitting, I received a wonderful note of interest from them! I was still querying agents in parallel, so when Lantana’s official offer came in, I updated an agent who had requested more material. We accelerated our discussions, and thankfully, everything fell into place—this special manuscript that had been through the wringer helped me land both my debut publishing contract and my current agent, who I couldn’t be happier with!

ME: Oh Yashika…I love this story behind the story and I know everyone will love reading about your path to publication (and being a little part of it!). It’s stories like this that give us all hope!

Here is a little bit about the author:

Yashika Mody is a picture book author who lives in sunny Singapore with her husband, her two ever-hilarious and ever-sweet sons, and her playful Westie puppy (who is a doppelganger of Snowy from Tintin!). Inspired by her diverse upbringing as a Third Culture Kid, she loves writing funny and heartwarming books about culture, community, and family. FUNCLES is her picture book debut and her next picture book will be releasing in 2029 (stay tuned for more details!). Visit her at: www.yashikamodywriting.com.

And a little bit about the illustrator:

Adriena Fong is an illustrator born and raised in Singapore, where she spent her childhood dreaming up magical worlds. With a deep love for storytelling of all sorts, she hopes to spark a sense of warmth and wonder in her work. Visit her at https://www.adrienafong.com/.

Preferred sales order links
If you’d like to purchase a copy of FUNCLES, you can support independent bookstores by ordering through Bookshop.org. It is also available across major retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Target.

And here are social media links that will help you connect with Yashika!

Website: https://yashikamodywriting.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yashikamwriting/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/yashikamwriting.bsky.social

Thank you all for spending your precious time with us! I Today is Election Day. – I’ll be casting my vote…it’s the one thing we can all do.

Cover Reveal: CRANKY HANK AND THE NOISY NEIGHBORS

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I always know it’s fall for two reasons…the glorious change of leaf color where I live in New England…AND the wave upon wave of brand new books! Celebrating new books can happen even before the books actually launch…and COVER REVEALS are one of my favorite ways to give all of you a sneak peek, sometimes many months before we can all get copies.

When a dear kid lit friend, Claire Blumenfeld reached out to let me know that her debut picture book, CRANKY HANK AND THE NOISY NEIGHBORS was ready to have a cover reveal, I knew I’d want to be the one who did it. And Claire has graciously agreed to stop by to answer a couple of questions. But first…let’s take a look at the cover!

Kids will totally LOVE this cover! And I think they will connect with it. Haven’t we all had moments of crankiness? Plus, the cartoon-like aspect of illustrator Gregory’s art is sure to strike a chord with young kids.

ME: Welcome, Claire! We are so happy to have you here at Picture Books Help Kid Soar!

CLAIRE: It’s a pleasure to be here, Vivian! I’m happy to share a bit about the book and the path to publicatin…as well as what inspired me to write it.
About the story

Cranky Hank And The Noisy Neighbors is an interfaith story about an older man who lives alone in his apartment and likes his life just the way it is: peaceful, predictable, and perfect for afternoon naps. But when a lively new family moves upstairs, Hank’s world is turned upside down by all the commotion. When the family, decked out with costumes and groggers, heads out to celebrate Purim, Hank’s longed-for peace and quiet finally arrives . . . along with some unexpected loneliness. And so, when the new neighbors invite him over for hamantaschen and celebrations, Hank realizes that he likes friendship even better than he likes silence.

What inspired me to write this story?

I was first inspired to write Cranky Hank in the early 2000’s when my two children were growing up. I read all the available Jewish picture books to them in support of their Jewish identity and to deepen my appreciation of Jewish culture. But although there were plenty of stories about Hanukkah and Passover, there were few on the topic of Purim. I researched the joyous holiday and began writing the early drafts of Cranky Hank. In 2009, I put the project aside to return to my career as a reading specialist. Then, after retiring and navigating Covid, with time freed up for writing I finished my story in 2022, and sold it to Kar-Ben in 2025. Now of course there are many wonderful books about Purim lining the shelves and I am honored that Cranky Hank will sit among them.

Humorous incidents along the path to publication

I found it particularly amusing that Purim was my husband’s favorite holiday growing up due to the fact he was allowed to make a lot of noise during the reading of the megillah (54 times!). I thought about who wouldn’t appreciate a lot of noise in order to create the lovable (albeit crusty, ill-tempered, and somewhat scary) main character, Hank, who desperately wants to take his afternoon nap. Purim is a Jewish holiday that honors unity, family, and community so it is especially fitting that Sari gives her gift basket to Hank and invites him to their festive family meal called the seudah.

Challenges

Originally I envisioned each spread as an upstairs/downstairs vertical structure so the readers could see the family’s noisy preparations while at the same time watch Hank’s escalating frustration. The early drafts contained many sidebars and artnotes that all became too messy. Fortunately the art director and the illustrator, Pauline Gregory, created just one spread that simultaneously shows the happenings both up and downstairs while the rest of the spreads have either a clever embedded illustration, or side-by-side illustration. The Purim Story and the Purim Mitzvot appear in the back matter.

ME: This is all wonderful, Claire! We all love to hear the story behind the story…I think hearing how things went for someone else helps us to understand that the journey is different for each one of us…yet we all face challenges, of one sort or another.

And now, dear friends, here is some info about the author and illustrator…as well as PRE-ORDER links so we can all order our very own copy!

Bios:
Claire Blumenfeld worked as an early childhood educator and reading interventionist for 25 years, sharing picture books to support developing readers. Now she writes humorous and heartfelt, language-rich picture books layered with themes of identity & belonging, family, and community. Her first book, Cranky Hank and the Noisy Neighbors (A Purim Story) releases January 5, 2027 (pre-order link). Claire lives in the Boston area and on Cape Cod with her husband. Visit her at www.claireblumenfeld.com, or follow on social media @ClaireBlumenfeld

Pauline is an award-winning children’s illustrator, graduating from Arts University Plymouth. Drawing is the quiet place she loves to be. With silliness and humour at her core, she loves to make the reader laugh. Living and working in north Cornwall, England, Pauline creates quirky illustrations with humour and charm using traditional materials. Some of Pauline’s clients include: Random House, Walker Books, Jellycat London, Disney, Faber & Faber, Simon & Schuster, Bloomsbury, Little Tiger, Wonderbly and more. https://paulinegregoryillustration.com/

PRE-ORDER LINKS:
AMAZON
BOOKSHOP.ORG

GOODREADS WANT TO READ SHELF

Thank you for spending your precious time with us. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Perfect Picture Book Friday: IF MY SISTER WERE A WORM

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Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends. Today’s featured book launched earlier this week….and I am thrilled to help author Julie Hauswirth celebrate. Julie and I are old friends…back in 2023, she was a winner of Sylvia Chen’s Book Boast Challenge…and I was the prize…a 30-minute Ask-Me-Anything Zoom Chat. I was impressed with Julie’s passion for writing and I know our conversation lasted way more than 30 minutes. And she has also participated in #50PreciousWords and was in the prize winner’s circle in 2024. When I heard her debut book was launching, I asked her if she’d share the story behind the story…so please make sure you scroll through the entire post because her words will inspire you!

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IF MY SISTER WERE A WORM

Written by Julie Hauswirth

Illustrated by Jessica Goecke

Published by Holiday House (October 20, 2026)

Ages: 4-8

Themes: Sibling rivalry, imagination, humor

ME: And here is Julie to tell us about the book and her path to publication. Welcome, dear Julie! I’m so happy you stopped by Picture Books Help Kids Soar.

JULIE: Thank you so much for inviting me, Vivian! It’s a joy to be here.

About the book:

If My Sister Were a Worm is based on a true story…
…Just kidding!

But sort of. It’s a story about Maggie, a younger sibling who grows tired of always feeling overshadowed by her big sister. What do you do when your sister steals your thunder? You turn her into a worm, of course. Worms don’t pop your birthday balloons. They don’t “help” you open your presents or prematurely blow out your candles. They don’t steal your favorite seat on the school bus!

On the other hand, worms can’t play with you before bath time. They can’t be your sidekick at family weddings, and they definitely can’t make s’mores with you at summer camp. Plus, they’re REALLY easy to lose.

If Maggie isn’t able to turn her sister back into a human, she’s in for a lifetime of parental blame and worm-hunting. There may be only one thing left to do… Are two worms better than one?

What inspired you to write this story:

The idea for this story came to me during Susanna Hill’s May Mini Mix n’ Match Challenge in 2023. One week, the challenge was to select a subject from column A (You, my sister, my grandpa, etc.) and pair it with a “condition” from column b (elastic, worm, movie star, etc.). Participants would then write a 100-word cause and effect story similar to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie or When Your Lion Needs a Bath. I chose sister and worm, and then had a blast writing from the perspective of child Julie living with a worm for a sister. Since the challenge was just meant to be creative and fun and there were no winners, I didn’t feel the pressure to churn out a “perfect” entry and was able to just have fun with it. I imagined a worm-sister at a birthday party or sharing a bedroom or avoiding the family parrot at dinner. When I ran out of space and needed to wrap it up, I ended with a short “I’ll turn her into a kitten instead” and planted the idea that the narrator used some sort of magic to turn her sister into a worm. After the challenge was over, I decided to expand on the original story and turn it into a full picture book manuscript.

As I added scenes and developed my characters, I began to draw a bit more from my relationship with my own sisters. I have two: Jaclyn, who is 3 ½ years younger than me, and Colleen, who is 11 years younger than me. My sister Jaclyn and I had more of a typical sibling relationship: we were different, we bickered, but we were also best friends and constant playmates. With each new scene or revision, the narrator became more and more like my sister Jaclyn, and the worm-sister became more and more like me. So while it’s not really based on a true story, the relationship between Maggie and her sister comes from a very real place.

And don’t worry, I didn’t leave out my sister Colleen. She’s featured in the book as Maggie’s “Aunt Colleen” in my favorite spread!

Any humorous moments and/or challenging incidents on the path to publication:

After gathering feedback from my critique partners, continuing to revise, and polishing the story to the point where I felt it was ready to query, I shared it with a well-known critique service to get some professional feedback and make sure I was on the right track. But the feedback I received from this service was not at all what I had been hoping to hear. The person who critiqued the story felt that the main character was not likeable, that the story relied heavily on telling rather than showing, and that it didn’t follow a traditional narrative arc. They encouraged me to keep revising. At first, I was sad to hear that my main character wasn’t likeable to this reader. But so much of what they suggested I change was intentional choices I had made about character development, pacing, and structure. I wasn’t sure their feedback was really in line with my vision for the story. I gave myself a day to feel upset, and then I sent it out anyway. I knew of an editor who was accepting unagented submissions, and I shared this manuscript and one other with them. Within a few days I had a response: the editor loved the story and was taking it to acquisitions!

While that editor didn’t end up acquiring my story, their interest in it led me to sign with my agent. We did a round of revisions together; she had one suggestion, completely different from what the critique service had recommended, and it made a huge difference while remaining true to the story I wanted to tell. We had an offer within just a few weeks of going on submission. I’m so glad that I trusted my gut about the feedback I had received. I love getting feedback and I’m not afraid to revise, but I also think it’s important to take the feedback that resonates with your vision for a story and leave what doesn’t behind.

ME: What a fabulous story, Julie! Definitely another case of DON’T GIVE UP! and HAVE FAITH IN YOUR STORY!

And here’s a little bit about the author and the illustrator and how you can get your own copy of this fabulous book…and how you can help the book become a success!

Author Bio: Julie Hauswirth is an educator and children’s author. She grew up in Connecticut with two sisters who probably wanted to turn her into a worm at one point or another. Julie now lives in Florida with her husband and two sons.

Illustrator Bio: Jessica Goecke (she/her) is a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her debut pilryasibling rivlarysibling rivalrycture book is Billy and the Hole. She lives just outside Seattle with her husband, two kids and miniature schnauzer, Duke.

Ways to help get this book into the hands of kids:
Buy the book
Review the book
Put the book on your Goodreads Want To Read Shelf
Tell friends about the book
Ask your local library to purchase copies for their collection

Thank you for spending your precious time with us. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!