Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

Classroom Connections: A Little More Beautiful by Sarah Mackenzie

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Waxwing Books website
Read-Aloud Revival website
Kickstarter Campaign
A podcast episode about bringing this book to life (RAR #210)

Delicate, light-filled art paired equally in charm by the words, ‘A Little More Beautiful’ is a new story told in the spirit of children’s favorites of old, and is sure to warm the hearts of its readers. 
– Eliza Wheeler

A sweet tale, true to life, and wrapped up in watercolors as fresh as a garden in spring.
– Ben Hatke

A powerful story about courage and what it means to add beauty to this world.
– Karina Yan Glaser

It’s really special to host Sarah on the blog today. I’ve been a guest author several times over at her wildly successful Read-Aloud Revival. Several years ago she contacted me for a picture book critique, and I’ve gone on to read a half dozen marvelous manuscripts for her — including this one. Read on!

Please tell us about your book.

A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden is a picture book about Lou Alice, an old woman who is sly as a fox, swift as a bird, and determined to leave each day a little more beautiful than she found it. When Lou Alice is moved away from her little house in town, no one notices she’s gone. No one, that is, except a little girl, who sets out to carry on Lou Alice’s work. But doing so is not enough. The girl must find a way of her own to make the world a little more beautiful. 

It’s a story about seeing and being seen for readers who love Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney or The Library by Sarah Stewart and David Small.

This is the first release from Read-Aloud Revival’s brand new publishing house, Waxwing Books. 

What inspired you to write this story?

I was having breakfast at a restaurant with two of my daughters and Jeanne Birdsall, author of The Penderwicks, when Jeanne asked if we might like to walk to her house to see her gardens. As we walked through town, she pointed to the side of a government building where a lovely garden was growing. Jeanne said that garden hadn’t always been there—not too long ago, the side of the building was ratty and neglected, so she decided to plant a garden there and tend it as her own. 

I didn’t realize a story was forming in my mind that day, but a seed had been planted! A Little More Beautiful features a woman who decides to leave her town a little more beautiful by planting gardens under the cover of darkness, even when she goes without notice or accolades.

Could you share a few interesting tidbits you learned while writing?

I’ve learned so much on this journey—both in the writing of this picture book, and in the creation of a publishing house. There’s something new to learn every step of the way!

One thing I learned as we made this book is how interdependent text and pictures are in a truly wonderful picture book. The art director I worked with (Cara Llewellyn, who art directed Kadir Nelson’s 2022 Caldecott Award winner, Unspeakable) told me that if we take away the words, we shouldn’t be able to understand what’s going on. Likewise, if we take away the illustrations, the story shouldn’t make sense. The best picture books require both to get the full impact of the story. That interplay between text and illustrations creates a third dimension for the reader… and it’s something I hope will inform all of my future picture book writing!

What are some special challenges associated with launching your first picture book while also launching a brand new publishing house?

Jumping into a task I’m not sure how to tackle seems to be one of my favorite past-times, and this may be my biggest leap yet…at least professionally!

My work at Read-Aloud Revival® has shaped how I read and think about picture books, and in recent years, I discovered that in addition to writing picture books, I also wanted to have a hand in the whole creative process. I’m a big believer in the collaborative nature of picture-book-making, so the decision to create a publishing house meant I also wanted to bring on a world-class team to do it well.

The whole project has introduced unique challenges, of course, including a myriad of responsibilities that come with the business side of publishing, including product development, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, publicity… the list goes on!

I think what’s helped most is having a learner mentality. It turns out most things are figure-out-able, and I’m here for the ride of figuring them out!

Another piece that has been challenging in creating this particular release is balancing my role as Publisher with the role of author. I’m excited to see how that shifts and changes as we publish books I haven’t authored myself, but for this particular book, it required a lot of hat-switching, as well as a heavy reliance on professionals who can make hard decisions to ensure a book is as good as it can be.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

The book connects easily to lessons on gardens, flowers, and botany, as well as to conversations about kindness and generosity. 

Everyone who pre-orders the book on Kickstarter will also get a free 23-page Book Club Guide with ideas for connecting the book to lessons in literary devices (simile, refrain), poetry, art, and nature study. 

On Writing

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Tell the whole truth. Don’t be lazy, don’t be afraid. Close the critic out when you are drafting something new. Take chances in the interest of clarity of emotion. Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.
— Jane Kenyon

*** Teaching Books is giving away five copies of my newest middle-grade novel, MIRACULOUS. Check it out! ***

Quick Lit: What I’ve Been Reading Lately

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Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty’s books, all set in suburban Sydney (if I remember correctly), are compulsively readable / listenable. (I think I’ve listened to most of them. It takes me back to my year on exchange in Adelaide, South Australia.) Her latest, which came out fall 2021, centers on a family with a tennis school. The recently-retired parents, Joy and Stan, have just sold Delaney Tennis Academy, where their four children grew up playing. The book opens when Joy has gone missing after leaving a strange text. The story is told in two segments: the present and six months before, when a stranger showed up on the Delaneys’ doorstep. Part mystery, part commentary on generational patterns and differences, I challenge you not to get sucked in!

I’ve learned so much about storytelling from Liane Moriarty. Her characters are always interesting, and watching them interact is a lesson in itself. I imagine a stone being thrown into a pond as I read her books. She’s really good at developing those ever-expanding ripples that are triggered by the inciting incident (in this case, the appearance of the mysterious stranger). And last of all, her light tone while dealing with some pretty heavy subjects is a very appealing. I love me some hard-hitting books, but I equally welcome a light touch. It’s a refreshing break sometimes.

This book brought to mind Anne Tyler’s Ladder of Years.

Watership Down by Richard Adams

My freshman year of college, I started a ritual that carried me through the rest of school: I find a big, juicy novel to read during exam week (a gift to myself at the end of a day of studying). That year I read Watership Down because the boy I was dating (who is now my husband!) told me it was his favorite book. Years later, he read it as a family read aloud. (For months afterward, our boys would pretend to be Fiver or Hazel or Bigwig. Both have gone on to read Watership Down multiple times themselves.)

This read with my book club was my third time through.

The story opens with Fiver, a rabbit who has visions, telling others in his warren something bad is coming. The bad thing, the reader learns, is the warren is a future construction site. A handful of rabbits leave with Fiver to create a community of their own. What is so cool is Adams’s creation of the rabbit world, from the lapine glossary in the back of the book to their folktales and sayings and religion. Every warren or solitary rabbit the wanderers meet is an exposure to a new rabbit culture. This time through I realized the rabbits who were poets also served as community prophets. They didn’t share warnings or longings directly but told things at a slant, as Emily Dickinson would say, speaking the words that had to be said but most were unwilling to utter.

See our well-loved family copy above!

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Saffyre Maddox has gone missing. The girl was last seen Valentine’s night in front of her former psychologist’s house. What she was doing there is a mystery. A number of women in nearby neighborhoods have recently been assaulted. Could there be a connection between the attacks and Saffyre’s disappearance?

This is the second Lisa Jewell book I’ve read, and I’m certain I’ll seek out more. It’s told in three voices and takes place in two time frames — before and after Valentine’s. We hear from Saffyre, the missing girl; Kate, the wife of Saffyre’s former doctor; and Owen, the creepy neighbor who recently lost his teaching job because he was accused of misconduct. It’s gritty and dark and very engaging. Chapters end at perfect moments. You can’t help reading (or listening) on.

Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham

“Something strange happened on an unremarkable day just before the season changed.” The opening of this picture book leads readers into those first months of the pandemic that were so solitary and strange. Outside, Inside is a thank you to essential workers, it’s a glimpse at the wild world turning a little wilder without people around, it’s a collection of memories showing the ways we spent our inside time, and most of all, it’s a celebration of community. Pham says in her author’s note that almost every face in the book was “inspired by a real person,” and the hospital images were “based on real events.” She ends her note by saying, “This book is a time capsule of our moment in history, when the world came together as one to do the right thing.” Lovely and uplifting.

*** Teaching Books is giving away five copies of my newest middle-grade novel, MIRACULOUS. Check it out! ***

Oh! Hey! My First Audiobook!

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My first audiobook published last month, a recording of Miraculous that released the same day as the hardback. What a thrill!

In March I got an email from Penguin Random House Audio letting me know the producer for my book. The email explained the book would be recorded a few weeks before the release date and that I’d be contacted by the producer, Orli Moscowitz, with any questions she had. I heard from Orli during our family trip to the Pacific Northwest. She gave me a choice between two narrators — samples included — that she thought would best suit my story. Thankfully, my first choice, Kirby Heyborne,* was available and interested.

Near the end of June, when I was sitting on a plane ready to come home, I got an email asking how to pronounce various names, including my own (I’m a LINE, not a LYN, in case you were wondering) as well as these three:

Kingsbury = kings-BAIR-ee  or  kings-BURR-ee ?

Mr. Mueller = MULL-er  or  MYOO-ler ?

McPherson = mik-FEER-son  or  mik-FERR-son ?

I honestly wasn’t sure about Kingsbury — I think I’ve said it both ways myself — but I settled on BURR -ee (after saying the name both ways to myself a couple dozen times).

On the day recording began, I got a quick text from Orli, then a few weeks later, I found this sample from my own book. So fun! Penguin Random House Audio sent me a copy of the entire book after it released.

I find it hard to read my own words and not get caught up in the rhythm or anticipate what comes next. But listening helped me be one step removed and kept me present in the story. Most authors are tired of their books by publication, but honestly, I love the chance to return to Book World. This was my final time through Miraculous (for now). It was the perfect way to cap off the years I’ve spent in Oakdale, Ohio.

I know I’m biased, but my gosh, I LOVE THIS STORY. I think it’s so good! It’s got all the things that get me excited: atmosphere, an interesting cast of characters, a whiff of mystery. I’m partial to the language, the layers of meaning, the promises scattered throughout that either come to pass or are somehow reversed (I guess authors call those foreshadowing and irony, right?). Sorry to gush. I’m SO proud of this one.

I hope you might listen in!

*Later on Instagram, Kirby told me he LOVED Miraculous, that it was a well-written and beautiful story. SO cool.

*** If you’ve read and enjoyed Miraculous, would you consider leaving a review at Amazon and / or Goodreads? I offer my endless gratitude! ***

Writing Links

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The coolest!
How a Book Is Made :: New York Times

This article hits on many things my writing partner, Val Geary, and I often discuss over email. Really, really good food for thought that corresponds with a few books I’ve read this year.
I Didn’t Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt :: Next Big Idea Club

“One of the most important skills every writer has to master, no matter their genre, is crafting a great mystery. It’s also one of the most misunderstood elements of novel writing.”
How to craft mystery in a novel :: Nathan Bransford

A great interview with librarian extraordinaire, John Schu. Look for a post about his debut book, This is a School, soon.
Q and A with John Schu :: Publisher’s Weekly

An interesting take on the editor’s note TK (to come): “The existence of TK means we don’t have to stop and wait for everything to be perfect before we proceed.”
The Power of TK :: Seth Godin

“Having the opportunity to earn an MFA, like having any kind of advanced degree, comes with a level of privilege and grants a level of privilege. But if you’re stuck in that place of waiting for permission, I assure you that it isn’t the only way. Forge a new path for yourself.”
Unschooled: Writing Without an MFA by Celia Perez :: 88 Cups of Tea

** Join me on Thursday, 4 August as I go live with Kirby Larson on Instagram! 6pm mountain / 8 pm eastern. **

Hurrah for the Klondike! 125 Years Ago…

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…word of the Klondike Gold Rush — a discovery made a year before in a remote part of Canada’s Yukon Territory — reached the rest of the world. Thousands of people from every corner of the globe raced to the Klondike, eager get rich quick.

Today my Klondike adventure Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine releases in paperback. Newbery-Award winning author Karen Cushman calls it “a rip-roaring tale and a romping good read.”

Kirkus says “Jasper narrates in the present tense, his homespun voice evoking both emotion and adventure. Villains and allies provide colorful melodrama, but it’s the brothers’ struggle to survive the Yukon wilderness with its harsh beauty and unforgiving cold that will keep readers entranced.”

The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books describes it as a “mash-up of clue-driven mystery, historical fiction, and survival story.”

Barnes and Noble Kids’ Blog says “Jasper’s emotions become the reader’s emotions and we are drawn along with him through hope, despair, desperation, and perseverance, to a climactic end that strikes all the right chords.”

And Sarah Mackenzie of the Read Aloud Revival says “This is Caroline Starr Rose at her best yet. I loved this book. Perfect for ages 8-12 but I enjoyed it every bit as much as a kid would.“

Want to read it with your students or book club? Here’s a discussion and activity guide.
Want a behind-the-scenes glimpse into writing the book? Here’s the Notebook Series post on Jasper.
Want to feel extra academic? Here are two posts exploring Jasper and Huckleberry Finn.
Remember how Forrest Fenn’s treasure hunt partially inspired the book? Have you heard the latest? The treasure was hidden in Yellowstone!

Want to order your own copy? (You know you do!) Click through. Order before July 26 and you’re eligible for some fun giveaways. Learn more here. ** Note: This only applies to readers ordering copies for themselves and not requesting their library purchase a copy (though that is greatly appreciated).**

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It’s almost July, which means it’s almost time for my annual blogging break. This year my virtual break is a time of physical rest, too. My husband Dan has a nine-week sabbatical from his role as a pastor, and the whole family is benefitting. We’ve just returned from the Pacific Northwest. Next up: Alaska (where I’ll be sure to wave to the Johnson boys). You’ll hear from me Tuesday July 26, the day Miraculous releases. Until then, I hope you have a wonderful summer full of rest, adventure, and good reading.

Straight from the Source: Alice Faye Duncan on Writing Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction

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Alice Faye Duncan is a National Board Educator who writes books for children. Memory is her motivation. She writes to help students remember forgotten moments from American History. Her newest titles include Memphis, Martin and the Mountaintop, Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free and Evicted—The Struggle for the Right to Vote, which is a Junior Library Guild selection for 2022. Alice Faye has worked in the Memphis Schools for 29 years. Her September release is Yellow Dog Blues, a blues fable about love, loss, and good times in the Mississippi Delta. 

What typically comes first for you: a character? An era? A story idea? How do you proceed from there?  

The discovery of an event or a historical person arrives first. Most times this happens while visiting a museum or reading a newspaper, magazine, or book. For example, I met the Memphis photographer, Ernest Withers, in 2006. We were attending the same funeral. Afterwards, he invited me to his Beale Street studio to view his work and discuss my research on the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968. At the end of my visit, Withers gave me a book of his Civil Rights photographs. Within the pages, I found pictures of Black Tennessee famers in a field with their sad-faced children. These photographs inspired my recent book, Evicted!: The Struggle for the Right to Vote.

How do you conduct your research?

When writing about the past, I do my best to arrange interviews with people involved in the history. Or I search for personal contacts who know the historical figure that is the focus of my research. My recent book, Opal Lee and What it Means to Be Free is about the Texas grandmother who walked across the nation to encourage Congress to make Juneteenth a National Holiday. I had the good fortune to call and interview Opal Lee.  With insight from this interview, I believe my book captures Opal Lee’s spirit of courage, determination, and joy.  

Do you have a specific system for collecting data?

I believe my non-fiction and my historical fiction contain emotion and heart because I take time to find people, who can speak on the historical event as a primary source. What has served me best to this end, is the online “White Pages” phone book.  Once I was researching and writing a book about Leonytyne Price.  I found her brother’s number in the White Pages.  He was very kind and allowed me to interview him.  Nothing came of that book, but I made contact.  

What kinds of sources do you use? The more specifics here, the better! 

I use the online White Pages to locate contacts for interviews.  I use ancestry.com to track the family history of my subjects.  I use newspapers.com to locate article-clippings that interpret my subjects during the time in which they lived. Instead of library resources, I purchase a trove of books to support my research because I mark-up books and dog-ear them beyond recognition.    

How long do you typically research before beginning to draft?

Books are like people. They each have their own personality and develop at their own pace. While my books range from 40 to 60 pages, some of them take ten years to write, like EVICTED, and some take ten months to write, like OPAL LEE AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FREE. Unless there is some prescribed deadline for me, the time required for writing a book is set in the stars. The essential thing is to KEEP WRITING. Don’t quit. The world needs your words. Write ON. 

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Planning on preordering Jasper (releasing in paperback 6/28) or Miraculous (releasing  in hardback 7/26)? Or maybe you’ve already preordered? If so, you’re eligible for some fun giveaways. Click through to learn more.

On Writing

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For a writer, an artist, making a choice gives you something to work with. You make a choice, get the words on the page, see if it feels right. If it doesn’t, you edit it or go back and make a different decision. The hardest thing is getting past the fear of making a choice at all.
— Cheryl B. Klein

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Planning on preordering Jasper (releasing in paperback 6/28) or Miraculous (releasing  in hardback 7/26)? Or maybe you’ve already preordered? If so, you’re eligible for some fun giveaways. Click through to learn more.

Classroom Connections: Karthik Delivers by Sheela Chari

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age range: 10 – 14 years
genre / topics: historical fiction; immigrant families, Great Recession
Sheela Chari’s website

★ Karthik is a compassionate and deeply funny narrator, and his journey of self-discovery while balancing familial obligation and chasing his dreams endears and inspires.
―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

★ A memorable, contemporary story about growing up and learning about yourself. Karthik grapples with timeless teen issues–fitting in, bullying, parental pressures–as well as more modern problems that might parallel issues kids are dealing with today.
―Shelf-Awareness, Starred Review

Chari delivers an authentic examination of the complexities of immigrant family life during the Great Recession, taking a realistic but compassionate look at parents vicariously chasing the American dream through their children. . .This is an encouraging endorsement of reciprocal support that celebrates the possibility (and necessity) of allowing our goals to change.
―The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

The author successfully avoids tired tropes about unsupportive immigrant parents by telling a multigenerational story that, most notably, examines how Karthik’s parents grapple with their own dreaming. A refreshingly nuanced novel about what it means to chase your dreams.
―Kirkus Reviews

Chari’s prose has a very conversational tone, which adds to the book’s authenticity and ease of reading. . .A wonderful realistic fiction title about a young Indian boy following his heart.
―School Library Journal

This is a really fun interview to share. Sheela and I met years ago as part of a debut author group. Now I get to host her on my blog — what a treat! Sheela, please tell us about Karthik Delivers.

Karthik Delivers is an upper middle grade novel about about fourteen-year old Karthik Raghavan, who is stuck one summer delivering groceries for his father’s ailing store, when he gets the unexpected chance to star as the lead in a play about a famous musician. The story is set in a suburb of Boston in 2009, during the height of the Financial Crisis.

What inspired you to write this story?

I wanted to write about the joy and uncertainty of being young, creative, or both. Karthik isn’t sure if he wants to be an actor, but by the end of the novel, he opens up his life to this possibility. This is not unlike the same journey I made towards becoming a writer. I also grew up playing classical violin and songs from the musical, West Side Story, so I internalized much of that music written by Leonard Bernstein. I love the story of how Bernstein became a musician, when his Aunt Clara sent his family her piano when he was a young boy and that jump-started his career in music. I like to think that when we get these gifts in life, it’s a message from the universe telling us that it’s okay to dream.

Could you share with readers what you learned while researching for your book?

For this book, I learned about Bernstein’s early life in the Boston area, including the story of the piano that was received from his Aunt Clara. That would become the subject of the play that Karthik stars in, about young Lenny and his first piano. Like Karthik does in the book, I watched videos of Bernstein playing at the piano with his characteristic flourish, and his hand traveling up in the air after hitting an exuberant note. 

I also learned about acting and discovered An Actor’s Tricks, a book by Yoshi Oida, a Japanese actor and stage director. Oida’s book not only gave me insight into the relationship between the actor and the audience, but the idea of using props to show what a character is thinking or feeling. This reminded me of my own writing, and using objects the same way to show relationships between people. For example, the mangos that Karthik delivers to Mrs. Rodrigues, ones of the customers, is not just about the fruit, but the quality of time and attention he pays as he gets to know her.

What are some special challenges associated with paralleling your book with an unfamiliar time or setting?

When I first started writing this story, the year was 2009, the same year the book is set. However, it took me about 12 years to write and sell the work, so the book turned into historical fiction by default! I could have chosen to update the year, however, I decided against it because 2009 turned out to be an important moment in our history. The Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 was a time of great economic uncertainty as families lost jobs, homes, and financial security. As we now experience a different kind of uncertainty during Covid, I thought the Financial Crisis could be another way of understanding what it’s like to figure out what you love to do under crisis. This could be a career in music, acting, or any of the creative arts. But it could also mean becoming a doctor one day or owning a grocery store.

What topics does your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

I think that middle school is a special, transformative time in young peoples’ lives, right before high school, when they are just starting to think about their future and own agency. In immigrant households like the ones Karthik and I grew up in, we have expectations on us to work hard and excel, but we need to balance that with our own aspirations and learning to think for ourselves. This starts with trying new things — acting in a play, joining the robotics club, or learning to knit. It’s so important to engage with the world. (I think that can be true for adults, too!)

The book also deals with the idea of accepting who you are and embracing the many communities that form you. The other part of this story is Karthik’s crush on Juhi. Juhi is Indian-American like him, and he’s liked her ever since kindergarten. Does Juhi like him back? It’s hard to say. She’s conflicted about her feelings, plus she has her sights set on another boy named Jacob, who has been bullying Karthik and making fun of his name. Every time he does, Karthik remains silent. Why doesn’t Karthik stand up to this bully? It could be that a lot of prejudices that Karthik deals with are coming from inside his own community, along the lines of thinking Indian boys are uncool and nerdy. It’s these same stereotypes that Juhi harbors, too.

Through conversations between Karthik and his sister, and with Juhi, I hope to dismantle these stereotypes by naming them and reframing the way my characters think. These conversations are sometimes painful, but also funny, because I think humor is a great way to bridge painful truths. For me, it was important for Karthik to use empathy and jokes to eventually stand up for himself. It was also important to show Juhi learning to appreciate Karthik for who he is.

I hope classrooms can discuss how expectations from both families and peers can be barriers to success, unless we reframe the way we see ourselves as a part of several, intersecting communities.

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Planning on preordering Jasper (releasing in paperback 6/28) or Miraculous (releasing  in hardback 7/26)? Or maybe you’ve already preordered? If so, you’re eligible for some fun giveaways. Click through to learn more.