What a delight it was to come home from camping to discover that B IS FOR BANANAS was a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Honor winner! This award is given by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and is voted on by other authors and illustrators – thank you to everyone who voted for our book in the West division!

It is really an honor to win an award from the organization that started it all for me. I joined SCBWI 10 years ago this summer, after stalking their website for years, thinking how cool all the authors and illustrators were. I’m so happy to be one of them now!

Huge congrats to all of the winners – see the full list here.

I got some wonderful news this month – B Is for Bananas was selected to the Bank Street College of Education Best Books of the Year list, for books published in 2023. This is a huge honor, and I was delighted to see my book alongside so many friends’ great books. Check out the whole list here.

The wonderful booksellers at Annie Bloom’s Books in Portland, Oregon have set up a webpage where you can order signed and/or personalized copies of my books! For personalized books, just make a note in the checkout comments with the name of the person you would like the book signed to. Annie Bloom’s will let me know and I’ll pop in to sign your book! Make your orders here.

Huge thank you to Imagination Soup for selecting B IS FOR BANANAS as one of 2023’s Best Picture Books!

Of the process, Melissa says “Every month of 2023, I’ve read around 250 newly published picture books, adding up to three thousand books. Of those three thousand, these are my picture book picks for the best books of 2023.”

See all the wonderful selections here.

Eeep! B IS FOR BANANAS is one of Amazon’s Best Books of the Year for ages 3-5!
Thank you Amazon Books!

Thank you to Good Housekeeping for selecting B Is for Bananas as a 2023 Good Housekeeping Best Kids’ Book Award winner!

According to Good Housekeeping, “The process started in spring when 200-plus nominations rolled in for the 2023 awards. In addition to input from literary experts, Good Housekeeping tested the nominations with the best book critics—kids themselves. Helping this program stand out from other lists, more than 125 children (and their families) read and reviewed the selections. In addition to overall ratings from both children and parents, the Good Housekeeping team reviewed their detailed survey responses pertaining to the quality, innovativeness and engagement of the books to determine the winners.”

What an honor to receive an award from kids themselves!

See all the winners here.

Thank you so much to the Oregon Council of Teachers of English for selecting Counting to Bananas as an Honor Book for the 2022 Oregon Spirit Book Awards in the picture book category! What an honor!

I’m so happy to share the B Is for Bananas, illustrated by Estrela Lourenço and written by me, has been selected for Amazon’s list of Best Books of the Year So Far for children’ ages 3-5. It joins Counting to Bananas in being selected for this great honor last year. Thank you Amazon!

Update: This podcast aired on June 20, 2023, and you can check it out now!

This morning, I’ll be recording on the Reading with Your Kids podcast with Jed Doherty. I’m so excited to share in their mission of helping families grow through reading. I probably wouldn’t be an author today without all the books I read with my parents as a kid and all the story times my mom took me and my sisters to at our local library. Stay tuned to hear more about when the podcast episode will air, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast at their website: https://readingwithyourkids.com/