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Author Guest Post: “Why Children Need Stories That Make Room for Difficult Emotions” by Florentina Cosma, Author of Mina and the Recipe of Lost Emotions

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“Why Children Need Stories That Make Room for Difficult Emotions”

We often want children to be happy. As parents, grandparents, teachers, even writers, we look for ways to make difficult things easier for them. When a child is sad, we try to cheer them up. When they are afraid, we reassure them. When they are angry, we encourage them to calm down. When they are disappointed, we look for something positive that might help them feel better. There is nothing wrong with any of this. We want children to feel safe, and we want to protect them from things that hurt.

But I have often wondered whether, in trying so hard to protect children from difficult emotions, we sometimes forget to teach them that these emotions belong in their lives, too.

Growing up is not only about learning how to be happy. It is also about learning what to do with fear, sadness, anger, disappointment, loneliness, and longing. These feelings can be uncomfortable, and sometimes they can be overwhelming but that does not mean they are feelings children need to be taught to avoid. Before we can learn how to handle an emotion, we first need to understand that it is there.

This thought stayed with me while I was writing Mina and the Recipe of Lost Emotions.

The story began in a very personal place: my niece. She is a sensitive, emotional child who experiences things deeply, and watching her made me think about how valuable it can be for a child to encounter characters that are not always sure what to do with their feelings. I wanted to write about a child who could be frightened or overwhelmed, who might not always know what to do but who could keep going anyway. I wanted her to have a character she could recognize, not someone who was always confident and brave but someone who could discover that courage does not require the absence of fear.

At first, Mina was simply a story I wanted my niece to have. As I continued writing, however, I found myself thinking more and more about what happens when we decide that some emotions are simply too difficult to live with.

What if we could remove every unpleasant feeling?

That question became the starting point for Mina’s story.

Mina is eleven years old and lives with her grandfather above his bakery in the magical town of Opalis, a place where tastes, smells, and emotions are deeply connected. Mina has always felt different because she cannot taste anything. She can see the beautiful pastries her grandfather creates, she can smell everything that comes from the kitchen. She even can hear them speak, feel or giggle but the experience that seems so ordinary to everyone else is  completely missing for her.

Then, something strange happens in Opalis. People begin losing their unpleasant emotions. At first, it seems like a wonderful thing. The town becomes calmer, arguments disappear, people stop complaining, and feelings such sadness, anger, fear, no longer seem to get in anyone’s way. It is easy to understand the appeal. If someone offered us a life without grief, fear, disappointment, or anger, wouldn’t part of us be tempted to say yes?

Mina is not so sure. She begins to notice that as people lose the emotions they consider unpleasant, they also begin losing other things. Memories fade, desires become weaker, relationships lose their meaning, and people slowly become disconnected from the things and the people they once cared about. They are not simply happier, they are becoming less themselves.

That became one of the central ideas of Mina’s story. Emotions are not separate little boxes that we can open and empty one at the time. They are connected to one another and to the experiences that shape us. Sadness is often tied to something we have loved and lost. Longing can tell us how deeply someone or something matters. Fear can make us pay attention, while anger can tell us that something feels wrong or unfair.

None of this means that every feeling should control our actions. Children still need to learn how to express anger without hurting someone, how to cope with fear, and how to move through sadness. But there is a difference between learning to live with an emotion and learning that emotion itself is something shameful or wrong.

The danger of a perfect world

In Opalis, the person behind this transformation is the Architect, the creator of a system called the Flattening. He believes that people would be happier, more efficient if unpleasant emotions could simply be removed.

What makes it unsettling is that it begins with something many of us can understand: the desire to eliminate suffering. If we could take away a child’s grief, fear, or pain, most of us probably want to do it. We do not like watching children hurt. The problem is that emotions do not work like unwanted objects that can simply be taken away without changing anything else.

In Opalis, a person’s shadow represents the parts of themselves they might prefer to hide. When the emotions disappear, the shadows disappear with them. The world looks cleaner and calmer, but it also becomes strangely empty. The people of Opalis have not simply lost their sadness. They have lost some of the experiences that gave their lives depth.

That was important to me because I did not want the story to suggest that difficult emotions are somehow good simply because they are painful. They are not. Grief hurts, fear can be exhausting, and anger can make us say things we later regret. But removing an emotion is not the same as learning how we live with it, and a world without difficult feelings may come at a much greater cost than we first imagine.

Children do not need perfect characters

This is also why I think children need characters who are allowed to be imperfect.

One of the things I love about middle grade fiction is that young readers are at an age when they are beginning to understand themselves in more complicated ways. They notice when they are different. They compare themselves with their friends. They worry about how people see them. They make mistakes and sometimes have no idea how to fix them.

So why should the characters they read about always have everything figured out?

I did not want Mina to be the kind of heroine who knows exactly what to do in every situation. She gets frightened, she becomes confused, she makes mistakes. There are moments when turning around would be much easier than continuing. What matters is that she gradually learns she does not have to wait until she feels fearless before she can move forward.

To me, that feels much closer to what courage actually is.

Mina also does not have to face everything alone. Her best friend, Maya, travels with her, while Splinter, a strange little puppet, becomes an unexpected companion. Together they enter an adventure where emotions can be stored, manipulated, and stolen. The adventure becomes increasingly strange, but underneath all the magic is something very familiar: sometimes a frightening experience becomes easier simply because someone we trust is there with us.

Friendship cannot take away difficult emotions, but it can make them easier to carry. I think children learn this long before they have the words to explain it. A friend may not know what to say when you are upset, but sitting beside you can be enough. Sometimes being understood matters more than being given a solution.

Stories give children a safe place to feel

A child may not be ready to say, “I am afraid” but they may be perfectly willing to talk about a character who is frightened. They may not know how to explain why they are angry, but they can have very strong opinions about whether a character was right to be angry. They may not know how to talk about missing someone but they can understand a character who feels the same longing.

Stories give us a little distance from ourselves, and sometimes that distance makes difficult emotions easier to approach.

A parent or a teacher can ask why a character reacted the way they did, whether they think a decision was right, or whether they would want to live in a world where nobody was ever sad. The child does not have to talk about their own feelings. They can simply talk about the story. And yet, somewhere in that conversation, they may recognize themselves.

That is one of the quiet things books can do. They give children language for experiences they may not yet know how to name.

Making room for difficult emotions

I do not think children’s books should become therapy disguised as fiction. Children deserve stories that are funny, exciting, strange, magical, and completely unnecessary in the best possible way. Sometimes a book should simply take a child somewhere wonderful and let them enjoy the journey.

But a story can also leave room for something deeper without turning into a lesson. It can show a child that being afraid does not mean being weak, that anger does not make you a bad person, that sadness does not mean happiness has disappeared forever, and that being different does not automatically mean something is wrong with you.

That is what I wanted to explore through Mina’s story. By the end of her journey, the emotions that have been captured are released, and Opalis begins to regain its colours, sounds, smells and life. The town is no longer as orderly or as comfortable as it was under the Flattening, but is alive again. Its imperfections have returned along with everything else.

For  Mina, there is another kind of return. In her grandfather’s bakery, she finally tastes sweetness.

For a girl who spent so much of her life feeling that something essential is missing, the moment means more than simply recovering a sense she never had before. It represents a new understanding of what it means to experience the world fully. There will be things she loves and things she wishes she could avoid, moments of happiness alongside moments of pain, and she cannot separate one from the other without changing the experience itself.

Perhaps that is one of the things children need most from the stories we give them. Not a promise that they will never be sad or afraid. Not a world where everyone always knows what to do. And not characters who overcome every difficulty without getting hurt along the way.

They need to see that difficult feelings can exist alongside friendship, laughter, curiosity, love, and joy. They need characters who make mistakes and keep trying, who feel different and discover that difference is not a flaw, and who can be frightened without giving up.

Mina’s world is filled with strange places, mysterious machines, chocolate maps, a silver fork, a mischievous puppet, and a town that slowly changes around her. But beneath that magic is a very simple idea: we are made up of more than the feelings that are easy to live with.

Sometimes the emotions we most want to push away are connected to the things we care about most.

And perhaps children do not need stories that promise them a life without difficult emotions. Perhaps they need stories that remind them they can feel deeply, make mistakes, be frightened, be sad, miss someone, and still find their way home.

Published June 12th, 2026

About the Book: Mina and the Recipe of Lost Emotions is a middle grade fantasy adventure about eleven-years-old Mina, a girl who cannot taste anything and has always felt different from the people around her. She lives with her grandfather above his bakery in the magical city of Opalis.

When the people of Opalis begin losing emotions such sadness, fear, anger, the town initially seems happier. But Mina  soon discovers that removing difficult emotions also takes away memories, desires, connections, and even people’s shadows.

With her best friend Maya and a mysterious little puppet named Splinter, Mina enters a world where emotions can be captured and manipulated. There she discovers the truth behind the Flattening, a system created by the Architect to build a happier and more controlled world.

As Mina fights to restore what has been taken from the people of Opalis, she learns that difficult emotions are not flaws to be erased. They are part of identity, memory, love, and what makes us human.

Mina and the Recipe of Lost Emotions is a story about friendship, courage, emotional acceptance, and learning that every feeling has a place.

About the Author: Florentina Cosma is the author of Mina and the Recipe of Lost Emotions, a middle grade fantasy adventure inspired by her relationship with her young niece. Her writing explores friendship, courage, identity, and the complicated emotions that are part of growing up. She believes children’s stories can be both imaginative and meaningful, giving young readers space to recognize their own feelings while following characters through exciting adventures.

Mina and the Recipe of Lost Emotions began as a story Florentina wanted her niece, a deeply sensitive and emotional child, to have—a story that would remind her that strong emotions are not something to be ashamed of or afraid of.

Thank you, Florentina, for sharing this thoughtful post about why children need stories that help them understand, accept, and navigate difficult emotions!

Author Guest Post: “The Triumph of Human Innovation” by Ben Okon, Author of I Am King Chameleon

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“The Triumph of Human Innovation”

“Can you tell me about a time that you innovated?”

I was caught pants-down in a job interview with that question early in my career. It was the perfect “gotcha”…obvious enough that my mouth immediately opened to respond, but with a layered complexity that caused me to stammer when I realized I wasn’t prepared.

I didn’t get the job. But that question sat with me for over a decade. What actually is innovation? How do I…well…”do” innovation?

For practical purposes, the definition I’ve adopted for this grandiose-sounding word is pretty trivial: Innovation is a non-obvious solution to a problem.

By this definition, an innovation doesn’t need to change the world. It just needs to solve something for someone, in a way that nobody else has thought to try.

For fifteen years, this earworm has squatted in the back of my brain, staying present but delicately aging. And then AI came along, and it sprang back to life.

Because as much as AI accelerates our ability to do anything that doesn’t require new thinking, it seems to inhibit our need, willingness, and perhaps even our ability to do any new thinking at all. For good reason: the collective knowledge amassed by the 10 billion humans alive during the modern era is staggering, and the nebulous neural network that contains it all has a lot of great solutions to a lot of daily problems.

By handing that tool to our children, we’re enabling them to accomplish things more quickly and independently than ever before. But are we also robbing them of the desire—and ability—to innovate? How can we flip the script on how we teach our kids and make innovation a learned skill, so they can do the work that AI can’t?

And if our kids were armed with an “innovation superpower,” could they create even better than adults? “The best children’s book in the world,” perhaps?

This was the question at the heart of the conversation when my own middle school teacher, Laura Miller, reached out to connect about my new picture book series Younger Me Academy. I had created Younger Me Academy to help children and grownups build the kind of superpowers that help them stay above the fray in a rapidly-changing world: critical thinking, problem-solving, social awareness, and executive functioning.

Mrs. Miller and I embarked together on a year-long journey to run a complete innovation lab for her sixth graders, with the stated outcome of creating “the best children’s book in the world.”

I brought the science and psychology behind the Younger Me Academy series, and Mrs. Miller brought the classroom mastery you can only build from decades of selflessly and indignantly defying norms fueled by pure care for students. Seriously—she’s a firecracker that only aims true north.

Here’s how we pitted twenty-eight middle schoolers against the algorithm of predictable thinking:

BEING WRONG TO BE RIGHT

Most people think that the best way to build confidence is to build competence. In reality, this is a pretty fragile form of confidence. It works beautifully…until you’re threatened by a new kind of problem, more skilled competition, or even a simple absence of validation that causes you to doubt yourself.

A far more robust form of confidence is simply to become more comfortable with being wrong—and to actually build “being wrong” into your innovation process.

That’s how the the Scientific Method works, and it’s one of the most powerful tools we have to overcome the subtle biases that keep our brains from being truly creative. After all, you can’t discover a non-obvious solution without being willing to discover that your obvious solution wasn’t right.

So when our students developed an idea or a manuscript, we taught them to treat it like a crash test dummy rather than a fragile baby, and actively look for ways to break it. We rewarded them for finding the flaws and helped them get comfortable with being “wrong” over and over again as each draft led them closer to “right.”

CREATING CREATIVITY

We tend to think of our creative heroes (Beethoven, Edison, etc.) as geniuses who possess extraordinary instinct, talent, or expertise that helps them pluck great ideas from thin air.

But the reality is often less magical. The greatest ideas don’t start on a pedestal—they start as a needle under a haystack of weaker ones.

Geniuses don’t necessarily have fewer bad ideas, but they almost always create more ideas—enough that a few amazing ones eventually materialize under the pile. Edison created thousands of inventions to create the two that we all know; Beethoven developed hundreds of symphonies to land a handful among the greatest compositions of all time.

So we followed their lead. Working independently, our students used rounds of idea-generating prompts to brainstorm a haystack of hundreds of ideas before sharing a single one with the class (sharing too early influences thinking and limits variety). Once our 6th grade idea factory built its haystack, we shoveled out the “hay” using friendly tournaments until we revealed the “needles” underneath. Only then did the writing begin.

THE POWER OF “ALMOST PERFECT”

“Perfect” sounds incredible until you read the studies showing how the ever-higher standards we hold our kids to are challenging mental health. And in the world of innovation, perfectionism is nothing but a mask to hide the fear of being judged, standing between us and a world of would-be masterpieces.

We fought this by teaching our students that “almost perfect” done right is far easier, faster, and often quite sufficient. The trick is to deeply understand your objective, focus on the few things that matter most to achieving it, and the hard part: deprioritize the rest.

So our students didn’t let “perfect” get in the way of “good enough.”

Before they even picked up a pen, they ran a reverse experiment to identify the 3-4 features of a book that were most important for their readers, then tested dozens of hastily-written synopses and manuscripts to make sure the “needles” we were finding in our haystack were strong enough to hold up to the effort needed to weave a complete masterpiece.

They saved the painstaking perfection for where it really matters: the final draft of manuscripts they already knew would be winners.

BUILDING RESILIENCE THROUGH FAILURE

Most people think of “resilience” as the ability to rise to big challenges and persevere. In reality, Hiccup (the hero of How To Train Your Dragon) had it right: it’s usually easier to befriend the beast than to slay it.

We encouraged our students to embrace a growth mindset: the idea that being bad at something today doesn’t have to mean you’ll be bad at it tomorrow, and the act of embracing “failure” as a necessary—and even fulfilling—step on the way to success.

It’s the difference between “my manuscript isn’t great” and “my manuscript isn’t great…yet.” One sees the barrier as the end of the road, and the other sees it as a place to sit and reflect before continuing the journey.

Innovation requires an almost absurd willingness to be wrong in public, which kids (and adults!) are not naturally great at. So we made a poster to celebrate “Fearless Failure Heroes,” and structured our feedback sessions in a way that they learned to expect constructive criticism.

Then, we taught them to deliver and receive that feedback in ways that help them put down their inner shields and let the dragon get close enough for a belly rub.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK (when done properly!)

Creative success is not a solo sport. You need feedback. You need refinement. And most importantly, you need advocacy—people to see enough potential in your idea to get it off the shelf and into the world.

But balancing teamwork and independence requires walking a tightrope of cross-disciplinary psychology. Team up too early, and people converge on the first decent idea. Give an individual too much ownership, and they may not help their peers succeed. Encourage them to “grow the pie” without letting them take a big enough slice, and they won’t be as selfless next time.

So we walked the tightrope:

  • Ideation vs. Refinement: Our students generated ideas independently, and refined them together (because nobody can see the flaws in their own baby)!
  • Generosity vs. Self-Interest: They identified their own strengths and weaknesses, so they knew when to ask for help vs. lend their skills to others.
  • Ownership vs. Motivation: They “owned” their ideas and early synopses, but only until they were partially developed. Then they worked in teams that allowed others to carry them forward in different directions to challenge, reshape, and share ownership of the work.
  • Competition vs. Collaboration: We balanced camaraderie with competition by ensuring students were teaming up for their work, but with a competitive edge through cross-class tournaments.

In other words, we didn’t just teach them how to work together. We also taught them when not to.

The Triumph of Human Innovation

One of my favorite outcomes of this project was the new book, I AM KING CHAMELEON! I DEMAND TO BE SEEN! If you picked up the book without reading this article, you’d probably never notice these principles sprinkled throughout as you search for that arrogant lizard.

But just like a chameleon, they are camouflaged in the story. King Chameleon begins by demanding an immediate solution to his camouflage problem:

I am a KING! But how can I command a king’s respect…

When COLOR-CHANGING SKIN makes me so tricky to detect?!

No matter how loudly he bellows, there is no easy answer. He tries and fails until he finally humbles himself and perseveres through the haystack of his bad ideas until he’s neck-deep in mud.

Only then does he realize that the solution wasn’t the only thing hidden—the problem itself was unclear. He didn’t need to become more visible; he needed to become more comfortable in his color-changing skin and learn the value of collaboration and friendship:

“I guess, though I’m invisible, I’m happy to be me.

I’m not your KING chameleon…just a friend that you can’t see.”

That’s a pretty good metaphor for innovation, since the breakthrough isn’t always just a better answer. Sometimes it’s a better question.

That’s where the AI parallel gets interesting. AI models can create polished rhymes, generate structure, and produce in an instant what would take humans hours. But the universal rule with AI is “Garbage In, Garbage Out.”

AI can’t produce anything worth using without a human to ask the right question. A human who, like King Chameleon, has rolled in the muddy mess long enough to rule out the wrong ones. Someone who has experienced the vulnerability of middle school, felt the embarrassment of a terrible idea, or felt the unbridled joy and relief of a long-awaited breakthrough.

And AI certainly can’t replace the deep bond that only a teacher like Mrs. Miller can create with her students—one that, 25 years after leaving her classroom, led us to a messy, human experience that created a solution to an AI-generated problem we didn’t even know existed yet. One that hopefully changed the lives of 28 students who are now better prepared to fail fearlessly, think non-obviously, and innovate.

It definitely changed my life too. After all, the next time someone asks me to “tell me about a time that you innovated,” I now have an answer:

“I helped create the ‘best’ children’s book in the world.”

It’s certainly up there—at least in my book (pun intended). I hope you think so, too!

I Am King Chameleon: I Demand to be Seen!
Author: Ben Okon
Illustrator: Sourav Majumder
Published September 8th, 2026 by Sourcebooks Wonderland

About the Book: From award-winning author Ben Okon comes a hilarious seek-and-find picture book. Can YOU spot this chameleon playing hide-and-seek?

I’m Classroom King Chameleon: I’m the Coolest King at School!
Author: Ben Okon
Illustrator: Sourav Majumder
Publishing December 8th, 2026 by Sourcebooks Wonderland

About the Book: King Chameleon is too cool for school… or so he thinks. From bestselling author Ben Okon comes this hilarious seek-and-find picture book perfect for kids 4-8!

King Chameleon is back—and this time he’s taking over the classroom! From math class to the soccer field to the school play, King Chameleon is determined to show the whole school that he is SO cool. His outrageous, over-the-top personality and “cool” talents turn every minute of the school day into laugh-out-loud classroom chaos.

Packed with silly rhymes, comedic confidence, and hidden chameleons to spot, I’m Classroom King Chameleon! I’m the Coolest King at School! is a wildly funny interactive picture book for kids, parents, and educators alike. This back-to-school book is perfect for first day of school gifts, classroom read-alouds, bedtime giggles, and fans of funny animal characters. Can YOU find this cool chameleon playing hide and seek?

“I’m Cooler King Chameleon, and I’ll come with you to school.

I bet that you’ll be glad to have a friend who’s CRAZY cool!”

About the Author: Ben Okon is the award-winning author of dozens of children’s books including the new “I AM KING CHAMELEON! I DEMAND TO BE SEEN!” a collaboration created from an innovation lab built with Mrs. Laura Miller for her 6th-grade class at BCHA. Ben is also a strategist with experience at companies like Google and Bain & Co. and holds an M.B.A in Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School of Business and a B.S. in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.

Thank you, Ben, for this aweseom call for using the human mind!

Author Guest Post: “Sating the Thirst of Bloodthirsty Teens” by Darren Simpson, Author of Thirst

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“Sating the Thirst of Bloodthirsty Teens”

My love of horror goes a long way back. I used to think it started in my early teens, when I first discovered Stephen King and James Herbert on my mum’s bookshelves. But on reflection, it goes back even further than that, to the fateful day I read Roald Dahl’s The Twits as a small boy. Not horror, as such, but certainly horrific.

I’d never come across a novel so deliciously cruel. Worms in spaghetti. Bird pies. Glass eyes watching from the bottom of your beer. I was hooked, and have been a fan of Dahl’s books ever since. I’ve seen The Twits work its grotesque magic on my own sons, too, while reading it with them at bedtimes.

But back to my mum’s bookshelves. There’s a reason I’d started exploring them. As a young teen in the 90s, my book options were limited. I was raised in army estates abroad, and as much as I loved the library on wheels that dropped by once a week, I’d soon exhausted its supply of Goosebumps and Point Horror novels. After that, it seemed there was nowhere else to go. Not for non-adults, at least. I found myself at the cusp of a chasm, with middle grade horror on one side and adult horror on the other. So I took the leap.

These days, thanks to the YA boom, that chasm isn’t so wide. But it’s still there.

Today’s older children and teens love horror as much as I did. You see it in their hunger for Stranger Things. In their fascination with Backrooms and Momo. In the way they throw themselves into Halloween. And I see it first-hand when I visit schools. Every time I ask the kids filling assembly halls to put their hands up if they like horror, almost every hand shoots up. Children and teens are a bloodthirsty bunch. For who can resist the thrill of being scared while also being safe? That’s the gift of horror.

So where do these readers go when middle grade stops delivering that thrill? There’s an abundance of horror in YA, but while YA can offer the darker, more mature scares teens crave, it also exposes them to real-life horrors – toxic relationships, for example, or addiction and domestic abuse – for which they’re not quite ready.

This is the gap I wanted to fill with Thirst – a folk horror novel that dodges those more adult, real-life horrors but doesn’t skimp on darkness or shocks. I walked a tightrope while writing Thirst, doing my best to serve up genuine, visceral scares that don’t patronise teens, while also avoiding gratuitous violence and fading to black when the need arose. Rather than describe darker moments in gruesome detail, I employed the power of suggestion. Encouraging readers to use their imaginations does wonders for any horror or ghost story. As a fan of both genres, I know that the most chilling scenes take place not on the written page, but in the reader’s mind.

I hope Thirst serves as a stepping stone for teen readers, helping them to cross that chasm between middle grade and YA. Sadly, when it comes to fiction, young teens are a somewhat neglected age group. This is tragic when you bear in mind the fact that it’s during early teens that many people stop reading for pleasure. In light of this, I’d love for Thirst to ultimately become part of a wider trend. We need more teen novels that keep teens reading, so they can continue into adulthood and enjoy the myriad perks of becoming a lifelong reader.

If you’re looking for teen-appropriate horror beyond Thirst, here are a few books in that field that I’ve personally enjoyed. Some are officially upper middle grade (as mentioned, specifically teen books are sadly lacking), but they all sent a shudder or two down my spine, which is as good an indicator as any of some genuine bite.

Bone Jack by Sarah Crowe
The Worlds We Leave Behind by A.F. Harrold and Levi Pinfold
The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes

Wyrdwood by Curtis Jobling
Song of the Saltings by Racheal King
Gloam by Jack Mackay

Thirst
Author: Darren Simpson
Published October 6th, 2026 by Pushkin Children’s Books

About the Book: Nobody talks about the strange happenings in Maimsbury. No one speaks of the hooded figures glimpsed in the woods, nor the children’s game that went so horribly wrong. But most of all, nobody dares whisper their doubts about the river they have worshipped for centuries.

Like everyone in Maimsbury, Gorse is used to the sacrifices made every spring to the River Yeelde. The life of a farm animal – in return for a year of plenty – seems a fair trade. That is, until a tragedy leads Gorse to a blood-curdling discovery.

Because this year is a Brim Year, and after giving so much, the river needs more than an animal’s life to sate its thirst…

About the Author: Darren Simpson is the critically acclaimed author of Scavengers, The Memory Thieves, Furthermoor, and Thirst. His award-winning books have been translated into several languages and he’s been nominated twice for the prestigious Carnegie Medal. He also once won a budgie at school. Darren lives with his wife and sons in Nottingham and loves long walks with headphones, playing the drums, and
reading in bed on rainy Sunday mornings.

Thank you, Darren, for sharing about the horror gap and recommending some titles!

Author Guest Post (and Giveaway!): “Getting Unstuck” by Jennifer Liss, Author of Wide Eye

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“Getting Unstuck”

Narrative writers of all ages get stuck. Many writers refer to it as writer’s block, but for me, it feels less like a wall, and more like everything shifts into slow motion.

It’s as if I’ve been swiftly paddling down a deep river that suddenly becomes shallow. My paddle scrapes along the river bottom. I’m still moving, but it takes too much effort.

If your student writers are frustrated, I suggest experimenting with the following techniques. Getting unstuck is personal, but it’s likely that once they find the right tool for them, it will work again and again as they write.

Try this: Read! Reading is a surefire way to release my seized-up writing brain. Recently, I was stuck in the “mushy middle” of a new manuscript. I set it aside to read a chapter of Aubrey Hartman’s The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest. Her clever dialogue and tenderhearted characters jumpstarted my writing brain.

Try this: Draw! If the words aren’t coming, sketch. Doodle whatever images, characters, or actions are in your mind. See if the words follow.

Try this: Move! Taking my ideas on a walk always helps me get unstuck. Let’s say I can’t figure out how a character in my story will react to finding out she’s been lied to. As I walk, I train my thoughts on this story problem and don’t let my mind stray. Will my character get mad? Will she cry? Will she respond with a lie of her own? (If walking isn’t an option, try any kind of movement: dance in your seat, roll you head side to side, jump in place.)

Try this: Interview! Pretend to be a character in your story, and ask a partner to interview you. Have them ask questions, such as: Who do people think you are, but who are you really? What do you want? What’s getting in your way?

Try this: List! Take a break from composing sentences. List nouns that come to mind. Then list verbs. After you’ve come up with your lists, try your hand again at a sentence.

Try this: Listen! Like reading, listening to music seems to trigger my imagination. When I was working on Wide Eye, if I got stuck, I’d listen to the indie folk band Big Thief. Their music has nothing to do with my book, but the lead singer’s voice always seemed to crack open my thoughts.

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Giveaway! Jennifer will send a pack of Wide Eye stickers and bookmarks to the first teacher who contacts her via Instagram. Send Jennifer (IG @bookmarkedbyjen) a DM with the message: Unleashing Readers Giveaway.

Publishing October 6th, 2026 by Pushkin Children’s Books

About the Book: A whimsical middle-grade adventure about a young girl, a wacky museum, and a local monster, exploring the transformative power of imagination.

Every year, 10-year-old Meridian spends her summer with Grandpa Frank on Wide Eye Lake, where she helps out at his quirky museum dedicated to the mysterious Wide Eye monster.

But this year, something is different. Tasked with organizing the museum’s old files, Meridian stumbles across more than just faded photos and scribbled sightings of mysterious paw prints. Hidden among the clutter are some old mementos that unlock a long-buried family secret—one that turns her entire world upside down.

Not only does Meridian have a family mystery to solve, but this summer she has to avoid two prankster classmates who just so happen to be vacationing nearby. Summer at Wide Eye Lake really isn’t turning out to be the magical escape it used to be. Can Meridian rediscover the magic of the lake and the local stories she once loved, or will her family be forever changed?

Wide Eye is a heartwarming, family-focused middle-grade adventure that explores the power of imagination and the healing nature of friendship.

“A gem of a novel – a masterclass in how to write for children and make them laugh but also challenge them.” —Iqbal Hussain, author of The Night I Borrowed Time

“[A] thoughtful, character-driven summer adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews

Find an educator’s guide for Wide Eye here.

About the Author: Jennifer Liss writes books for children and teens. She is the author of the middle grade novel Wide Eye (Pushkin Children’s), a London Times Children’s Book of the Week. Her middle grade novel JAMES ON THE EDGE is forthcoming in 2027, also with Pushkin Children’s. For twenty years, Jennifer has worked in educational publishing and has written dozens of books for struggling and reluctant readers, including Doubles, which received a School Library Journal (SLJ) starred review. Jennifer is a regional coordinator for the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a recipient of the Highlights Foundation Lee Bennett Hopkins Scholarship and the Boyds Mills PJ Library Scholarship. She lives in Northern California with her husband, who is a public school teacher, and her two teenage sons. Follow her on IG @bookmarkedbyjen

Thank you, Jennifer, for these great tips for writer’s block!!

Author Guest Post: “Most Lessons Begin with a Book” by Mary Louise Kelly, Author of Dogs in Coats

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“Most Lessons Begin with a Book”

As I look back on my forty-three years of teaching, I remember that nearly every new unit of study began with a book. Whether we were exploring Greek mythology, inventors and inventions, famous artists, poetry, famous explorers, habitats, The Chronicles of Narnia, or the wonderful works of Roald Dahl, books always came first.

Books opened the door to discovery. They sparked research, inspired lively classroom discussions, and led to creative group projects. One book might lead to an Invention Convention, another to an entire Greek Week celebration. Our hallways would soon be filled with beautifully illustrated original poetry, and students who had worked together on projects formed lasting friendships. Time and time again, I saw that a good book could become the starting point for knowledge, curiosity, and a genuine love of learning.

Teaching English as a Second Language

One of the most memorable experiences of my career was walking into a classroom of five-year-olds who spoke only German while I spoke only English. At first, the children looked at me with complete confusion as we read stories and sang songs entirely in English.

It was remarkable to watch what happened over the following weeks and months. Slowly, those same children began understanding the language, then speaking it with growing confidence. Before long, they were communicating in beautiful English.

To encourage their progress, I made a small booklet for each child filled with blank pages. They would draw pictures of anything they wished, and I would sit beside them and write the English word for each drawing. As their confidence grew, single words became simple sentences, and soon they were reading them back to me.

By October, those same children were confidently performing songs and fingerplays for their parents.

I give great credit to Dr. Seuss.

Why I Wrote Dogs in Coats

I have always loved numbers and counting. Mathematics came naturally to me, and throughout my teaching career I became convinced that children build confidence in math when they master their addition and multiplication facts early.

I also happen to love dogs of every size and breed. For many years, alongside my teaching career, I worked as a dog sitter. Eventually, those two passions; teaching and dogs; came together in an idea that became Dogs In Coats.

It actually took me four years to gather enough photographs for the book.

One of the highlights of that journey was organizing a professional photo shoot in Elmira, New York. Beforehand, I visited a children’s second-hand clothing shop and purchased a variety of colorful children’s vests. On the day of the photo shoot, dog owners visiting the local dog park were invited to have their dogs photographed for the book. Each owner signed a permission waiver, their dog was fitted with a little vest, and then off they went into the large fenced dog park to run, jump, play, and simply enjoy being dogs.

Our photographer captured wonderful action shots throughout the day. More than sixty dogs participated, and we carefully recorded each dog’s name so every photograph matched the correct furry model.

It was an incredible day and a complete success.

One Final Thought

The wonderful person who helped organize that photo shoot is someone I have known her entire life. Today, she and her husband have a delightful son named Andrew, who was in first grade when Dogs In Coats was published.

I decided to send an entire case of books to Andrew’s class. Inside each one I wrote:

“To Andrew’s first-grade classmates; Keep on Counting!”

A week later, I received one of the greatest surprises of my career. A large manila envelope arrived filled with handwritten thank-you notes and wonderful drawings of dogs from every student in the class. That envelope reminded me why I became a teacher in the first place and why I became a children’s author.

There is no greater reward than knowing a book has brought joy, curiosity, and smiles to young readers.

Published May 1st, 2023

About the Book: Dogs in Coats is a children’s picture book for ages 5–7 by former elementary educator Mary Louise Kelly.

Drawing on more than forty years of classroom experience, Mary combines engaging photographs of dogs with early addition concepts to encourage observation, conversation, confidence, and joyful learning. Rather than treating math as a separate subject, the book invites children to explore numbers through curiosity, storytelling, and the familiar delight of seeing dogs in playful seasonal settings.

Featuring real dog photography, playful seasonal scenes, and interactive addition activities, Dogs In Coats encourages children to build confidence while discovering that learning can be both meaningful and fun.

About the Author: Mary Louise Kelly is a retired elementary educator whose teaching career spans more than forty years across Pennsylvania, Ecuador, and Vienna, Austria.

Throughout her career, she has believed that children learn best when education begins with curiosity, imagination, and meaningful connections to the world around them.

Today, Mary continues sharing that philosophy through her children’s books, school visits, and author presentations, encouraging young readers to discover that learning can be joyful, interactive, and filled with wonder.

Whether she’s visiting classrooms, speaking with young readers, or writing her next book, Mary remains inspired by the same simple belief that guided her throughout her teaching career:

When children are curious, wonderful learning naturally follows.

Learn more at: https://marylouisekellyvienna.net/

Thank you, Mary Louise, for your post!

Author Guest Post: “Writing from the Margins” by Romina Garber, author of Wolves of No World: Lobizona & Cazadora

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“Writing From the Margins”

I wrote WOLVES OF NO WORLD for teen-me.

Like Manu, I was born in Argentina, and I immigrated to the United States when I was young. Growing up in Miami, I read every story I could get my hands on, but I never found myself represented on the shelf. There were no books like Lobizona available to me.

Young Romina would have loved to read the adventures of an immigrant girl with painful periods who finds her place in a magic school where everyone speaks Spanglish and eats Argentine foods and returns to their homeland once a month to stay connected to their roots!

The inspiration behind the worldbuilding of my series is a curious Argentine law: ley de padrinazgo presidencial 20.843. It declares the President of Argentina godparent to the seventh consecutive son or daughter in a family, which means the state covers all their educational expenses. When I researched the history of this law, I came across an old legend that claimed seventh daughters would be born brujas and seventh sons would be lobizones.

The fact that the law is still in effect today underscores the enduring power of myth, and shows how the stories we tell can shape the reality of a particular population. Consider the term illegal, and how it can negate one’s humanity and worth when applied to a person, paving the way for subhuman treatment by the law.

I used the folklore at the root of this Argentine law as the basis for the magic system to underscore how thin the border is between fantasy and reality in this story.

At its heart, Wolves of No World is a celebration of the immigrant identity. Since many paranormal creatures are essentially humans with a supernatural ability, they’re partly of our world and partly of another. To demonstrate this duality, every full moon the Septimus must return to Lunaris, a magical realm that is the source of their power.

Manu’s hybrid identity as a human and a Septimus is a threat to both her worlds, and rather than having two homes, she’s left with none. As an immigrant, this sense of homelessness is one I’ve struggled with my whole life.

Here are five more books that draw from cultural myths/legends/politics from around the world, offering today’s teens a chance to find themselves on the page:

Cemetery Boys (Cemetery Boys, #1) by Aiden Thomas | Goodreads

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas: A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave.

Amazon.com: Raybearer: A Novel: 9781419739835: Ifueko, Jordan: Books

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko: In this West-African-inspired fantasy, a girl with the ability to see people’s memories must navigate the political council of the Crown Prince and rise to challenge the systems that oppress her.

Woven in Moonlight

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez: Inspired by Bolivian history and politics, the story follows a girl who steps in as a decoy for an exiled royal and offers herself to a usurper king to spy and reclaim her people’s city.

Amazon.com: Shadow of the Fox: A Coming of Age YA Fantasy of Samurai and Ancient Demons: 9781335145161: Kagawa, Julie: Books

Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa: A Japanese-inspired fantasy about a half-human, half-kitsune girl who goes on a grand adventure to help protect the world from demons.

A Song Below Water

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow: Set in a modern-day Portland where mythical creatures live alongside humans, it follows two sisters who must learn to use their voices. The novel explores identity, power, sisterhood, racism, and Black girl magic.

Lobizona
Published August 4th, 2020 by Wednesday Books

Cazadora
Published August 17th, 2021 by Wednesday Books

Wolves of No World 2-in-1 Collector’s Edition
Published September 15th, 2026 by Wednesday Books

About the Book: In the duology, Manuela Azul is an undocumented immigrant, crammed into a small Miami apartment with her mother, hiding from ICE and from her father’s Argentine crime family. When disaster shatters her carefully constructed world, she follows the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious emblem—into a secret realm of witches and werewolves, cursed cities, and illegal magic rooted in real Argentine folklore. In this hidden world, she discovers that it’s not just her U.S. residency that is illegal. It’s her entire existence. Steeped in Argentine folklore and written partly in Spanglish, WOLVES OF NO WORLD is the rare fantasy that earned both starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and is dedicated to “all our children caught in the crosshairs of nationalism.”

About the Author: Romina Garber is a New York Times and international bestselling author whose books include The Last Vampire, Castle of the Cursed, Lobizona, Cazadora, & the ZODIAC quartet. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and raised in Miami, Florida, Romina landed her first writing gig as a teen—College She Wrote, a weekly Sunday column for the Miami Herald that was later picked up for national syndication—and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She is a graduate of Harvard College and a Virgo to the core.

Website: www.rominagarber.com
Instagram: @rominagarber
Facebook: @rominabooks

Thank you, Romina, for this thoughtful post and these amazing recommendations!

Author Guest Post: “The Book That Taught Me WHAT IF?” by Jonathan White, Author of The Secret on the Second Shelf

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“The Book That Taught Me to Ask WHAT IF?”

Every reader has one book that changes them.

Not because it wins awards. Not because it becomes their favourite story of all time. But because it arrives at exactly the right moment in life and quietly changes the way they see the world.

For me, that book was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Like many readers, I picked it up expecting an entertaining science-fiction adventure. What I found was something far more profound. Yes, it was hilarious. Yes, it was wildly imaginative. But beneath the humour was something that would shape me for years to come: an invitation to be endlessly curious.

Every chapter seemed to ask another impossible question.

What if?

What if the universe was stranger than we could possibly imagine?

What if the impossible was simply something we didn’t understand yet?

Those questions stayed with me long after I finished the book.

Looking back, I don’t think The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy simply made me fall in love with science fiction.

I think it made me a curious person.

That curiosity followed me everywhere. It led me to read about history, astronomy, mythology, and scientific discoveries. The more I learned, the more I realised that every answer simply opened the door to another fascinating question.

I’ve come to believe that’s one of the greatest gifts a book can give a young reader.

As parents, teachers and librarians, we often celebrate books because they improve literacy, expand vocabulary and encourage a love of reading. Those are great outcomes, but I wonder if there’s an even greater one.

The very best books don’t simply provide answers.

They teach children to ask better questions.

A child who begins asking Why?, How? and What if? doesn’t stop being curious when they close the final page. They carry that curiosity into the classroom, into conversations, into museums, into science, into history and, ultimately, into life.

Years later, when I sat down to write The Secret on the Second Shelf, I realised I wasn’t trying to recreate Douglas Adams’ humour or his wonderfully eccentric universe.

What I wanted to recreate was the feeling his book gave me.

The feeling that anything might be possible.

The feeling that an ordinary child could stumble across an extraordinary mystery.

The feeling that turning one more page might reveal something that changes the way you see the world.

That’s why The Secret on the Second Shelf blends mystery, history and the supernatural. I wanted readers to enjoy an exciting adventure, but I also hoped they’d finish the story wanting to know more about the real places, the historical events and the mysteries that inspired it.

Of course, as every author knows, once a book leaves your desk it no longer belongs entirely to you.

It belongs to its readers.

I wanted to find out whether the curiosity I’d tried to weave into the story would actually come alive, so I took The Secret on the Second Shelf, together with the short film created to accompany it, into schools across the UK.

Standing in front of classrooms was a very different experience from sitting quietly behind a keyboard.

After each presentation, I invited questions.

I expected a few polite hands to go up.

Instead, they seemed to come from every corner of the room.

Some pupils wanted to know which parts of the story were based on real history. Others asked whether time travel could ever be possible, how I came up with the mystery, what inspired particular characters, or whether there would be another adventure. A few even challenged me with questions I’d never considered myself.

Those were my favourite moments.

The children weren’t simply asking about the book anymore. They were asking about history, science, imagination, writing and the world beyond the final page.

Watching that happen gave me an incredible buzz.

As an author, you spend months, sometimes years, working alone, hoping your story will connect with someone you’ve never met. Standing in those classrooms, I could actually see curiosity taking hold. One question sparked another. Children began building on each other’s ideas, offering theories, making connections and imagining possibilities I hadn’t even thought of.

It reminded me exactly how I had felt all those years earlier when I first closed The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Not satisfied.

Inspired.

Inspired to ask another question.

And then another.

Those school visits reinforced something I’ve come to believe wholeheartedly; books don’t have to provide all the answers to be successful.

Sometimes their greatest achievement is encouraging readers to keep asking questions long after they’ve finished the story.

If one child leaves The Secret on the Second Shelf wanting to learn more about the Great Plague, visit Cambridge, read another science-fiction novel, write their own mystery, or simply look at the world with a little more curiosity than they did before, then I feel I’ve succeeded.

Because curiosity doesn’t end with childhood.

It begins there.

And sometimes all it takes is one remarkable book to spark a lifetime of asking, “What if?”

About the Book: When fourteen-year-old Tim Shaw discovers a secret, he is hurled more than 300 years into the past. Trapped in seventeenth-century England, Tim must unravel an ancient mystery and uncover the truth behind his mother’s disappearance before time runs out. Blending history, mystery and the supernatural, The Secret on the Second Shelf is an adventure for readers aged 8+ who love puzzles, hidden secrets and impossible questions.

In May 2026, the story was also released as an audiobook, bringing Tim’s adventure to life through the narration of David Sweeney-Bear, an award-winning voice actor. Whether readers choose the printed book or the audiobook, the story invites them to step into the past, embrace their curiosity and discover that some of history’s greatest mysteries may still be waiting to be uncovered.

About the Author: Jonathan White is the author of The Secret on the Second Shelf. Inspired by writers including Douglas Adams, Roald Dahl and Terrance Dicks, he has spent much of his life asking “what if?”, a curiosity that has taken him from a career in technology and engineering leadership to travelling and working across the UK, Estonia, Bulgaria, Malaysia and Cyprus, gathering ideas from the people, places and history he encountered along the way.

His passion for storytelling extends beyond the page. In addition to writing the novel, Jonathan created a short film inspired by its world and has visited schools across the UK, sharing both the story and the film with young readers. Seeing children debate theories, challenge ideas and ask thoughtful questions has only strengthened his belief that the best books don’t just tell great stories, they inspire a lifelong curiosity about the world around us.

You can discover more about The Secret on the Second Shelf, watch the book trailer and short film, see behind-the-scenes footage from the audiobook recording sessions with award-winning narrator David Sweeney-Bear, and explore additional content from the world of the story at the official website.

Website: The Secret on the Second Shelf | Jonathan White | Fantasy Adventure for Children

TikTok: The Secret on the Second Shelf | Book Trailer & TikTok shorts

Thank you, Jonathan, for this post about the magic of books!