Happy Book Birthday: FUNCLES

Posted on November 3, 2026 by viviankirkfield

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.

Happy Book Birthday: THE BOY BEHIND THE WARDROBE: How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia

Posted on October 20, 2026 by viviankirkfield

Hello dear friends. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…the new books are coming hot and heavy! And how THRILLED I am to help celebrate the launch of this particular book! I’ve mentioned that it is a special pleasure to welcome a book that I saw as an early draft…back in 2016, I gave author Suzanne some feedback. I am sure that the manuscript went through many more revisions after that…but now, 10 years later, IT IS A BOOK! Those 5 P’s are at work again…especially the Patience and the Perseverance.

So, please join me in an enthusiastic rendition of Happy Birthday to You!!
Suzanne is here…ready to blow out the candles and share a bit about the story and what inspired her to write it. Grab a big slice of cake, sit back…and enjoy!

Synopsis

Once a boy was born to make stories: C.S. Lewis, who insisted on being called “Jack.” Jack loved to write and draw animal tales with his older brother. But after his mother died, he was shipped to boarding school, where he longed for real friends. Words and stories were his refuge — and they would drive him toward his destiny as a world-renowned author.

With lyrical words and lush, fantastical art from Mira Miroslavova, this spellbinding biography invites young readers into the childhood of the creator of Narnia.

Thank you, Vivian, for helping me celebrate my book birthday! I’m excited to finally share this gorgeous picture book with the world.

What inspired me to write this story?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe made a huge impression on me as a child. I still enjoy re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia as an adult. While moving around the world, I realized that many people assume C.S. Lewis was English because of his connection with Oxford University and J.R.R. Tolkien. He was, in fact, born in Belfast. I was inspired to write The Boy Behind the Wardrobe because I was born and raised in Northern Ireland and taught geography in Belfast, two miles from C.S. Lewis’s childhood home. My initial idea was to produce a beautifully illustrated picture book highlighting the landscapes, castles, and coastlines of Northern Ireland that inspired C.S. Lewis’s Narnia.

What was the biggest challenge I faced?

I started my research in October 2015. It was a full year before I had a finished manuscript to share with my critique group. C.S. Lewis was a larger-than-life character and there’s a lot of fantastic information on him. It’s almost overwhelming. One of my biggest challenges was synthesizing my 10,000 words of notes into a compelling story arc with an emotional narrative thread. I had to cut so much because it didn’t serve the story I was trying to tell.

And Vivian, you were one of those readers to see an early draft of this story. Your insightful feedback helped me focus on the themes and trim the word count before sending it to my agent.

My path to publication

The story went through several rounds of revisions over the next few months. Around this time, I took Kristen Fulton’s narrative nonfiction writing course and read widely in that genre. One of my go-to mentor texts was The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus written by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. You could say I wrote The Boy Behind the Wardrobe with Eerdmans in mind. However, my agent already had another client’s story on submission with this publisher, so she made an initial list of five editors at other publishing houses.

Then in May 2016, while volunteering with SCBWI at the Texas Library Association convention, I connected with Kathleen Merz, the acquiring editor at Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. We started chatting about books. When I mentioned my C.S. Lewis story, Kathleen said she would love to read it.

It was several months before I heard back from Eerdmans. I’d moved to Seoul and was beginning to think that my story hadn’t resonated with them. Then, on December 1, 2017, I got exciting news from my agent — my manuscript had received unanimous enthusiasm from the acquisitions team at Eerdmans, and they wanted to publish my story!

I knew Eerdmans had the vision to publish a beautiful book, and I was delighted when Mira Miroslavova was brought on board in 2022. Her artwork had that lovely balance of imagination and groundedness needed for this story. At this point, the process became very collaborative — I was consulted from first sketches to final art. I also enjoyed digging up historical photos when Mira asked for clarification on a particular scene or when it was important for the images to feel historically accurate.

Mira worked on the illustrations for three years—a true labor of love. At 56 pages, The Boy Behind the Wardrobe is almost twice the length of a standard 32-page picture book and every single spread is gorgeous. The finished book was well worth the wait. And the timing is perfect for Greta Gerwig’s movie adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, scheduled for a worldwide theatrical release in February 2027.

Thank you, Vivian, for helping me celebrate the publication of my debut picture book. I’m thrilled to share that THE BOY BEHIND THE WARDROBE is now part of the Incredible Lives for Young Readers Series, alongside The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus, the mentor text that helped shape my early manuscript.

Suzanne’s bio: Suzanne was born in Northern Ireland and taught geography two miles from C. S. Lewis’s childhood home in Belfast. After trading her classroom to travel the world as a U.S. Air Force spouse, she settled near Washington, DC, where she teaches elementary school reading. The Boy Behind the Wardrobe: How C. S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia is Suzanne’s debut picture book and can be ordered through her website

Suzanne Poulter Harris Children’s Book Author or wherever books are sold. Follow her on Instagram @suzannepoulterharris and X @SuzannePoulterH.

Mira Miroslavova has created art for many picture books and novels, including Night of the Deer (Sleeping Bear), The Birds of Christmas (Eerdmans), and a cover for National Book Award Finalist The Ogress and the Orphans (Algonquin). Her work has been called “elegant” and “eye-catching” by Kirkus Reviews and has been selected for the Society of Illustrators “The Original Art” show. Raised near Sofia, Bulgaria, Mira now lives in Manchester, England. Follow her on Instagram @miramiroslavova.

Thank you so much, Suzanne! You’ve taken us on your journey…one of hard work, patience, and perseverance. This is a very special book…and I hope my blog followers will
Buy a copy
Review the book
Tell friends about it
Ask local libraries to purchase copies
Put it on the Goodreads Want to Read Shelf

Thank you all for spending your precious time with us…and have a great week.

Happy Book Birthday: MAMA’S HOME (AND BABY, TOO!)

Posted on October 13, 2026 by viviankirkfield

Welcome back, dear friends! It’s Tuesday…and Tuesday is often the launch day for brand-new books…and so I hope you are ready for Cake and Candles and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to You for Dawn Babb Prochovnic’s 20th book and debut board book: MAMA’S HOME (AND BABY, TOO!), illustrated by Adele Dafflon and published by Familius.

I absolutely love the art…so kid-friendly! And the simple rhyming text is guaranteed to put smiles on our youngest story lovers’ faces. Author Dawn and I have been kid lit friends for many years…and so, when I heard she had another new book…and her first BOARD BOOK, I knew I’d want to help her celebate!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MAMA’S HOME (AND BABY, TOO!) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

And guess what? Dawn was kind enough to stop by to share a bit about the story…and the story behind the story.

ME: WELCOME, DAWN! We’re so glad to have you here at Picture Books Help Kids Soar! Can you share What Inspired You to Write This Story, and What Were Some Notable Moments on the Path to Publication?

DAWN: Thank you so much for celebrating this book birthday along with me, Vivian! Mama’s Home (and Baby Too!) is a 95-word story that took over 20 years to become a book. I never gave up on this story; it’s a bit surreal that it’s finally coming to be.

It began as a poem that I jotted down on a scrap of paper as I watched my preschool-aged son blissfully engage in imaginative play at our local children’s museum. For context, that same son graduated from college a couple of years ago.

I loved the idea of a slice-of-life story about child-centered activities that collectively make for a joyful, play-filled childhood. The first working title I penciled in was, Childhood Bliss.

Over time, it became clear that the story would need a stronger hook in order to become a book.

I loved the essence of the story enough to keep working on it, and I experimented with many different approaches, including structuring it as a novelty book that incorporated American Sign Language. Although these approaches generated interest, they did not generate book offers.

I continued to revise the story with different themes in mind. For a couple of years, it was entitled Grandma’s House is Happiness, and associated revisions incorporated elements of connection with an active and engaged grandparent. Eventually, the focus shifted to the excitement and delight in sharing simple, joyful activities with a parent who returns home after being away for an extended period of time. With that angle, the working title became, Mama’s Home!, and I revised the story to incorporate the preparations for and anticipation of Mama’s return . . . from somewhere.

When I submitted Mama’s Home! to Familius, co-founder and CEO Christopher Robbins and team (rightfully!) wondered if I might be open to a more specific reason for Mama being away— the arrival of a new sibling. This brought additional revisions that incorporated the anticipation and preparations for Mama’s return, featuring activities that could be engaged in with a recuperating Mama and new baby.

To bring authenticity to the sibling component, I mined my memories of my younger sister’s arrival, and I looked for opportunities to emphasize and lean into the enduring and evolving nature of the relationship between Mama and an older child.

Additionally, I mined memories about my own mom being away from home for extended periods when I was a child. In her case it was due to health issues, but no matter the reason, it was always such a delight when she returned home.

One of the things I especially love about the final book is the way in which Adèle Dafflon’s illustrations beautifully capture the element of family. Papa and older siblings are together. Waiting. Pitching in. Contributing. Staying close. And once Mama and baby come home, the familial love and joy simply expands and grows.

Eventually, after input from industry sales reps and the publisher’s marketing team, the current title, Mama’s Home (and Baby Too!), came to be.

Despite all the twists and turns this story took along the path to publication and throughout many (many!) revisions, the essence of the story—childhood bliss—remains true. It’s the story idea that took hold of me from the start and insisted on being written. It’s the part of the story that I connected with so deeply when I watched my own child engage in imaginative play and scribbled down a rough poem. It’s the part of the story that kept me motivated to keep working on it until it was just right. A story about a joyful, play-filled, childhood—and now, a unique take on the arrival of a new sibling, and a loving family making room for one more.

ME: Thank you so much for all of this, dear Dawn! My takeaway is…NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR STORY…and also, be willing to revise and to listen to editor advice. I’m so glad you practiced patience and perseverance, my friend.

And now, here’s some info about the author and illustrator…and ways you can connect with them and BUY and REVIEW this important book!

Dawn Babb Prochovnic is the author of over 20 children’s books including Where Does a Pirate Go Potty?, Lucy’s Blooms, and her latest title, Mama’s Home (and Baby Too!). She has devoted her life’s work to initiatives that support literacy and the literary arts, including early literacy enrichment programs, school author visits, writing workshops, and her educational blog. Dawn is the recipient of the Walt Morey Award and the esteemed “Pleasure Reading Award” (her most memorable fifth-grade achievement). She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family and fan-favorites, Pickle the Cat and Sophie the Paddleboarding Pup.

Adèle Dafflon was born in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1985. She graduated in illustration at École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc de Liège in 2012 and began drawing birth announcement cards. Soon, she was contacted for individual and collective projects. Sharing a studio with four artists since 2018, she draws nature, animals, and insects in a colorful style with a dash of genuine humor.

Author and Illustrator’s Websites:

Dawn: www.dawnprochovnic.com
Adèle: https://www.adeledafflon.com/

Author’s Social Media Links:
Substack: @dawnprochovnic.substack.com
Bluesky: @DawnProhovnic.bsky.social
Facebook: @DawnProchovnicAuthor
Instagram: @DawnProchovnic
LinkedIn: @DawnProchovnic
Pinterest: @DawnProchovnic
YouTube: @dprochovnic

Buy Links:
Familius
Bookshop
B&N
Amazon

Just saying, dear friends…if you have any friends or family who are expecting a baby and have a young child already at home, THIS is the perfect gift.
Thank you for spending your precious time with us…I hope you all have a beautiful week!