Children’s Fiction
For the past 20 years, my writing has focused on nonfiction, with an emphasis on curriculum for sustainability and social justice. But all the while, I’ve been cooking up fiction as well, learning the craft as a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and 12x12, an online community of picture book creators. While the works are in-progress and/or in the query stage, I’m ready to bring them out of the shadows.
Sketch of Ruji, the main character.
THE SHAPE OF CHANGE
The Shape of Change is a speculative, YA novel about the social awakening of a sheltered girl who must unravel a web of environmental corruption, while facing her own complicity in it.
The story is set in Curvelia, a land where everything (and everyone) is made of living shapes that decay and regrow in “ecological’” cycles. The unique worldbuilding provides a fresh treatment for themes of social consciousness, environmental justice, and the power of friendship in troubling times.
The novel was a runner-up in the 2018 Novel Mentorship competition through the Michigan chapter of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
balloons gone bad
(Dummy is in progress. See some of the sketches.)
This picture book (which I’m illustrating) tells the tale of a band of rebel balloons who must rethink their puffed-up ways when their grand scheme to rid the sky of birds goes horribly wrong.
With cheeky rhymes and illustrations up to the task, the book takes readers on a rollicking ride powered with bombastic humor redeemed with a sweet ending.
Determined to earn the title of Fashion Master, Rodger begins training as a tie under the tutelage of the more senior neckwear.. See more illustrations.
rodger the chameleon learns the very serious business of being a tie
Plaids, stripes, and geometric shapes. Black to white in under ten seconds. Rodger, the superstar chameleon, can transform himself into any color or pattern, a feat that wows his monochromatic peers in the garden they call home.
Bored by their simple ways, Rodger ditches the garden to seek glory in the world of fashion, apprenticing in his new home: a tie closet. But before he can stake his claim among the elite, he’ll have to choose walking the red carpet--or being true to his colors.
(I’m illustrating.)