Bianca with Grace Lin and Kate Messner on Once Upon a Book

The Children's Book Review: Growing Readers Podcast

In this episode, we have two guests: Newbery, Geisel, and Caldecott honoree Grace Lin and NYT bestselling author Kate Messner, who partnered on the picture book Once Upon a Book. This incredibly stunning book celebrates the joys of reading, the importance of imagination, and the transportive power of books.

Grace Lin is the recipient of the Children's Literature Legacy Award and is the bestselling author and illustrator of over thirty books, including A Big Mooncake for Little Star (a Caldecott Honor), A Big Bed for Little Snow, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (a Newbery Honor), The Year of the Dog, and the Ling & Ting series. Grace is a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and lives in Massachusetts.

Kate Messner is a New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty books for young readers. Kate's award-winning titles include picture books like Over and Under the Snow and The Brilliant Deep; novels like Breakout and Chirp; engaging nonfiction like The Next President and the History Smashers series; the Ranger in Time Adventures; and the Fergus and Zeke easy readers. Kate lives on Lake Champlain.

Transcription:

You can read the transcription on ⁠⁠The Children's Book Review.

Order copies:

Once Upon a Book on ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠.

Resources:

Grace Lin invites you to visit her at www.gracelin.com.

Kate Messner invites you to visit her at ⁠www.katemessner.com⁠.

Discussion Topics:

• The things that motivate Grace Lin and Kate Messner to write books for children.
• School visits and fitting in time to write.
• Thoughts on growing up readers and the importance of story in our lives.
• Beverly Cleary and the Ramona books.
• How a poster led to the creation of Once Upon a Book.
• When to ask for help and the artistic process of collaboration.
• Creating and dissecting the stunning artwork of Once Upon a Book.
• Highlights from Once Upon a Book and the impact they hope it has on readers.