3.31.2020: Love, Sophia on the Moon

Dear Mom,

I’m running away and won’t ever come back. From now on I live on the moon. Don’t try to stop me.

Love, Sophia

Mika Song’s and my new picture book, Love, Sophia on the Moon, goes out into the world today, and while it won’t be launched in the usual ways (our book party was canceled, and I won’t be visiting it in stores or going out for a celebratory milkshake), I’m still feeling proud and so grateful.

This epistolary story about anger, imagination, unconditional love, and moonicorns comes straight from my heart—and Mika Song’s beautiful illustrations are utter (and udder) perfection. Booklist called Love, Sophia on the Moon a “lovely, funny, tender story” with “incredibly clever storytelling,” and Kirkus Reviews predicts, “Readers will love it to the moon and back.”

If you’d like to judge the book for yourself, please call your local bookstore (many are offering curbside pickup, local delivery, or shipping) or order it using one of these links: Bookshop | Indiebound | B&NAmazon | Target | Indigo | Book Depository (ships worldwide) | BAM. You can also watch and share this video of me reading it. Thanks, as always, for your interest and support.

P.S. The cows say no one gets sick on the mooooooon, so please join us there for moonberry tarts and asteroid tea at half past a comet 💙

12.11.2019: Finding Hope Through Story

“Other people’s stories have the power to help us understand our own—and sometimes, to change the narrative.”

I wrote a piece for the January 2020 issue of The Writer magazine called Finding Hope Through Story. It’s about what I thought I’d be writing when I started the book that became Always Forever Maybe, and how developing my first-draft clichés into something more nuanced led to a different story altogether—and unearthed some uncomfortable memories (which I still feel vulnerable sharing). Find it here or on newsstands now. Thanks for reading.

Always Forever Maybe comes out in paperback on February 4, and the hardcover, ebook, and audio versions are all available now. You can also find it in Danish!

Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on a fun secret project I hope to announce soon (but here’s a hint: boo!). And illustrator Mika Song’s and my forthcoming picture book, Love, Sophia on the Moon, received its first trade reviews, which have me beaming. Publishers Weekly praised how it “gently portrays the stubborn flight and the resulting plight of a frustrated child,” and Kirkus predicted, “Readers will love it to the moon and back.” (It comes out in March. Yes, you can preorder it now!)

Friends in NYC, please save the date for a Love, Sophia on the Moon launch party with Mika and me at Stories Bookshop in Brooklyn on Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 10:30am. There will be snacks!

Love, Sophia on the Moon F&Gs (advance copies), and hot cocoa on notes for my work-in-progress