In The Inventing Room

As 2016 comes to a close, I find myself taking a deep breath. It was an adventurous year for me—I got an agent, I dove headlong into writing a new novel, and I started a...

A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to discover A Mighty Girl blog had listed one of my early readers, Robot, Go Bot!, among its 25 Books Starring Science-Loving Mighty Girls. I love that readers...

One of the perks of being a writer is that you can coin new phrases, put them out in the world, and hope they catch on... humpback moment: (noun) an unexpected wave of emotion Here’s...

When we last left the canvas in my dining room, it was still blank, but I had made a pile of colorful textured paper, too. You’d think I’d be ready and eager to make art!...

In my constant quest to uncover successful storytelling, I’m always fascinated by those stories that have worked their way into our cultural fabric. Think Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz, Frankenstein. And of...

On a sunny day in summer, amusement parks are feasts for the senses—the colorful game booths, the smell of popcorn and waffle cones, the chill of slushies, the whoosh of wind through your hair, and...

Almost ten years ago, I went to a workshop at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. The class was geared toward teachers to model Carle’s process of collage. I wasn’t...

Writers are birds. That’s what I decided today while watching the flurry at the bird feeders outside my office window. Each type of bird has a very different way of taking seed from the feeders....