My new picture book What Rosa Brought is now out in the world. I’m prouder of this book than any other one I’ve written.

Some years ago, there came a time when I felt my kids were ready to begin learning about the Holocaust, but not ready to face the full horror of it. As it happened, we had the perfect story in the family. My mom was a little girl in Vienna when the Nazis marched in. She was present for the first steps the they took against the Austrian Jews. But miraculously, she and her parents escaped in 1939. One of her most vivid memories of that time is from the day she left Vienna, when she discovered that her beloved grandmother had to stay behind. So it’s certainly not a happy story. But it is, at least, a story whose sadness a child can wrap their head around, as a very first step towards a painful but necessary understanding of the kind of horrors we must always be on guard against.

I thought my mom’s story might help other families begin this conversation. What Rosa Brought is based on my mother’s memories, on stories passed on from my grandparents, and on my own historical research. As a little girl, my mom wasn’t taking contemporaneous notes, so I’ve had to imagine the dialogue and some details. But I’ve tried to portray the events of that time in her life as accurately as I can.

If you’d like to read What Rosa Brought, I encourage you to buy it from your local bricks and mortar bookstore, if you have one. I know that’s not always possible, though, and Amazon is always an option.  Or, if you’d prefer, please consider asking your local library to get it.

I’m very proud to announce that my picturebook What Rosa Brought will be coming out in 2023 from Harpercollins/Tegen, with art by Eliza Wheeler. It’s the true story of my mother’s experience as a Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Vienna.  I’m looking forward to sharing it with the world.

Coming in October, and available for pre-order now! I encourage you to support your local independent bookstore but it’s also available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

When I was in college, I was lucky enough to study writing with Toni Morrison. Recently, some of her other former students and colleagues and I wrote about our memories of learning from her.

I’m excited to announce I’ll be on a panel at this year’s Hay Festival, chaired by Emily Drabble. Come by to hear me, Emma Carroll and Kiran Millwood Hargrave discuss how we built our imaginary worlds.

I had another great afternoon at St. James COE Primary School last week. We talked about a crucial element of stories: goals and obstacles.

A cool thing about stories is that big, cosmic goals can often hinge on small actions. “A few friends have to destroy some jewelry” doesn’t sound like the plot of an epic — but if that jewelry happens to be Sauron’s One Ring, you’ve got the plot of Lord of the Rings.

The kids came up with some huge overarching goals, like “Become a ninja” or “Save the world.”  They came up with some much more modest goals, like “Look after your sister” or “Pack lunch for work.” Then we brainstormed ways the huge goals could hinge on the little ones:

Ninjas must protect the innocent. Looking after your sister could be the first step in learning to do so.

If you don’t pack lunch, you’ll be hungry at work and not be up to doing your job. And if your job is to be a superhero, your rumbling stomach might distract you from saving the world.

Goals sorted, we talked about what obstacles might pop up, and how we’d deal with them:

If you tried to pack lunch but your cupboard was nailed shut, what would you do?

Look in the fridge!

What if the fridge had frozen shut?

Melt it with your heat-vision!

What if the melting ice flooded your flat?

By the time we were done, we had created some truly epic stories. JRR Tolkein, look out!

This term, I’m Patron of Reading for St. James Church of England Primary School. So far, I’ve done two workshops with the kids, and I’ve been having a blast.

Yesterday’s workshop was on characters. The kids came up with a bunch of Inside Traits (kindness, bravery) and Outside Traits (wearing a blue dress, having two tails.) Then we combined them and made up stories about the resulting characters.

Blackstone is an ancient soldier who has been inside a cave for hundreds of years. He uses his sword to protect the innocent.

When people are trapped in holes, Helpful Snake wraps his body around them and lifts them to safety. (Below him is Josh, who has a secret and likes to dab. His secret is that he’s not as cool as dabbing makes him look.)

Sometimes characters are complex and contradictory.  For example, we made up a butterfly who is both kind and horrible. I asked the class if they knew anybody who was both those things, and two different kids both said “My brother!” So we decided that Butter Fly had to be the brother of one of our other characters.

Hyacinth And The Stone Thief — the second book in the Hyacinth series — comes out on May 15, 2018. But you don’t have to wait until then to see the amazing cover, by artist Petur Antonsson. You can pre-order Hyacinth & The Stone Thief here.

Thank you to The Irish Times, which called me a “vivid and original voice”, and to The Guardian, which called The City of Secret Rivers “a harum-scarum ride through London’s sewer-land” and an “excellent thriller.”