Gift Ideas for Tinkerers

Spotlight Dog Friendly Town

In my email newsletter this month, I shared some gift ideas for kids (of all ages) who like to make things. Creating, building, and experimenting are important life skills that help us become good problem solvers (and they are an excellent way to pass the time during a winter pandemic). In my newest book, A Dog-Friendly Town, the McDade siblings love to tinker. Epic’s always experimenting with a circuit or a gadget, Rondo has a stash of homemade detective tools, and Elvis loves to create art and her own yoga moves!

Read the full list of my Gift Ideas for Kids (all ages) Who Like to Tinker.

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3 Starred Reviews!

A Dog Friendly Town Cover Art

I am paw-sitively over the moon to see THREE starred reviews for A DOG-FRIENDLY TOWN! Thanks to Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books for making my day!

DFT Starred Reviews

Maybe a Mermaid: German Translation

Maybe a Mermaid German Cover

Guten morgen!! Maybe a Mermaid publishes in Germany today! For the cover, the illustrator duplicated an old postcard of the real-life building that inspired The Showboat Resort. You can read more about the real Northernaire Resort and Marty’s Showboat Lounge on my Behind the Scenes page. A German-speaking friend tells me that the extremely long title means “How I Once Saved A Mermaid From Drowning.”

Barbara’s Bookstore Video

This fall, I was lucky enough to have dinner with booksellers and other children’s book advocates in Chicago. After dinner, a lovely woman named Rose set up a camera and asked me to give my very first Maybe a Mermaid interview! Here I am, talking about my book (and, yes, I’ll admit it, I was super nervous).