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&N | Amazon | 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 💙

3.16.18: Love, Sophia on the Moon

New book news! 

I'm over the moon to share this news about my third(!) picture book. Love, Sophia on the Moon is an epistolary story near and dear to my heart, and I'm thrilled to be creating it with the talented Mika Song (if you're not already familiar with Mika's amazing illustrations, please check out the cuteness on her website), super editrix Rotem Moscovich, and the whole wonderful team at Disney-Hyperion. 

There's lots of mischief and make-believe in this one, and some tugging at heart strings too. I hope you'll like it.

Here's the official announcement* from Publishers Weekly (plus a photo I took of a balloon last week in Tampa after AWP):

Love, Sophia on the Moon doesn't come out until summer 2020, but I have three new books coming out this year to tide you over in the meantime, and all of them are available for pre-order now: 

Anna, Banana, and the Recipe for Disaster (#6) comes out March 20 (next week!) in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. It contains baking disasters, friendship messes, snickerdoodle secrets, and, of course, a cute dog.

Always Forever Maybe, my YA debut, releases on June 5 in hardcover, ebook, and audio. I am really excited for you to read this one. I spent six years working on it, and it makes me nervous and giddy just thinking about it being real. It's about obsessive love, toxic masculinity, enduring friendship, and the risks we take with our hearts.

Anna, Banana, and the Sleepover Secret (#7) comes out October 2 in hardcover, paperback, and ebook. Cover reveal coming soon! This one includes a sleepover and many secrets (of course), not to mention Truth or Dare surprises and an enormous cat named Mewsic.

Click on any of the above titles for further information, including pre-order links. Thanks for your interest and support!

(*Photo text: Rotem Moscovich at Disney-Hyperion has bought Love, Sophia on the Moon, a picture book by Anica Mrose Rissi, author of the Anna, Banana series and The Teacher's Pet. In the story, Sophia writes letters threatening to run away to "the moon" to avoid being in trouble on Earth, and her mother writes back. Tea with Oliver author-illustrator Mika Song will illustrate; publication is set for 2020. Meredith Kaffel Simonoff at DeFiore and Company represented the author, and Erica Rand Silverman at Stimola Literary Studio represented the artist.)

1.13.2018: Picture-Book Revision Tips

From Promising to Polished

I wrote a piece for the January 2018 issue of The Writer magazine (out now!) about how to revise a picture-book manuscript. In it, I share my best tips, tricks, questions, and approaches to keep in mind as you play and experiment with your draft. To read a PDF of the article, click here.

Speaking of picture books, this week I got to see early sketches for Watch Out for Wolf!, my 2019 picture book with Charles Santoso, and I squealed louder than Pigbert—or Piggle, Piggleton, Piggit, or Piggums, for that matter. I can't wait for you to meet all five little piggies (and Wolf, of course) when the book comes out next April. As soon as I'm allowed to share a peek of the cover and interiors, I will. (If you'd like to add the book on Goodreads, you'll find it here.)

In the meantime, I'm finishing up revisions on Anna, Banana, and the Sleepover Secret (book seven in the series, coming in October), drafting what I hope will be my next YA novel, and trying to contain my nerves and excitement as advance reader copies of Always Forever Maybe make their way into the hands of booksellers and reviewers. Some fun news: In addition to the hardcover and ebook editions coming in June, HarperCollins will also publish Always Forever Maybe as an audiobook! (Available for pre-order now, wherever you like to purchase books.) Huge thanks to the B&N Teen blog for including Always Forever Maybe on their list 21 of Our Most Anticipated Debuts of 2018. They said: "This is a story about first love, sweet until it turns bitter....Rissi has a deft touch on a heavy topic, addressing abuse while still managing to infuse this meaty debut with romance, real #BFF goals, and dashes of humor."

And here are some photos of my dog with her new teddy bear.

11.15.2017: Free Books for Schools in Need

UPDATE (11.19.2017): Thanks to all of you who helped spread the word about these donations! The response has been overwhelming--I've already promised to send far more books than I originally budgeted to buy. I am going to fill all requests that have already come in (approximately 900 books), but unfortunately now I need to start turning new requests down. If you'd like to be among the first to know about future giveaways and other book news, please sign up for my newsletter (see sidebar).

This fall, I'm hoping to donate copies of the Anna, Banana chapter books and my picture book The Teacher's Pet to high-poverty public elementary schools* (meaning either Title I or schools where more than 70% of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals). If that's your school, please be in touch! And if you know of a school in need, please encourage a teacher, librarian, or administrator there to reach out to me. My email is anicamroserissi at gmail dot com.

In the final weeks of 2016, I sent more than four hundred books to schools in twenty-three states. I hope to donate even more books this year.

If you're inclined to share this post to help spread the word, please do. You'll also find the below graphic in shareable form on my Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter accounts. Thank you!

*U.S. schools only, due to shipping costs. Giveaway ends December 15, 2017.

The Anna, Banana chapter books are best for students in grades 1-4. For more information about the series, please click here. The Teacher's Pet, illustrated by Zachariah OHora, is best for students in Pre-K through graduate school. For more information about the book, including reviews and a peek inside, please click here.

6.6.2017: Watch Out for Wolf!

Picture-book news: 

I'm the luckiest duck to get to work with editrix Rotem Moscovich and illustrator Charles Santoso (if you don't already know his work, check out the wonderful Ida, Always by Caron Levis and I Don't Like Koala by Sean Ferrell) on a new picture book featuring five little piggies and one very big surprise. Hey, piggies: Watch Out for Wolf!

Here's the announcement from Publishers Weekly:

Pre-order links won't be up for a while, but if you'd like to add the book on Goodreads, please click here. 

Meanwhile, my first picture book, The Teacher's Pet, illustrated by Zachariah OHora, comes out in two weeks. It recently received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was named one of the Best Children's and YA Books of June 2017 by the editors at Brightly. There's still time to pre-order a copy by following one of these links: B&N | Amazon | Indiebound | BAM | Target | iTunes | Indigo. I can't wait for you to meet Mr. Stricter, Bruno, and the clever kids who must save the day! 

10.11.2016: A Peek Inside The Teacher's Pet

How can one little pet cause such big trouble?

*Gulp*

I'm monstrously excited to share this early peek at my very first picture book, The Teacher's Pet, illustrated by Zachariah OHora and coming from Disney-Hyperion on June 20, 2017.

If you'd like to pre-order a copy (thank you!!), here are the links for B&N and Amazon. You can also request it at your local bookstore or library by telling them the ISBN: 978-1-4847-4364-5. To add the book on Goodreads, please click here.

Here's what the book is about:

On the day the tadpoles hatch, the whole class is amazed—they've never seen their teacher so excited. Mr. Stricter has always wanted a pet, so he tells the students they can keep just one. The class chooses Bruno, the smallest of the bunch. But Bruno doesn't stay small for long. Soon he's grown into a giant, classroom-wrecking creature: He eats desks, farts for show-and-tell, and sneezes slime all over everything! Everyone can see that Bruno is trouble. Everyone except Mr. Stricter.

With their teacher blinded by love for the pet, the students must step up and take matters into their own heroic hands.

I had a lot of fun writing this story, and even more fun seeing Zach's illustrations bring it to life. Here's one of my favorite interior spreads:

The Teacher's Pet, pages 17-18

I can't wait for you to see the whole thing!

F&Gs!

F&Gs!