Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, ALPHABEDTIME! Happy Birthday to you!!! 🎉🎁🧁🎈⭐️
Of COURSE we will have cake!!!
And of COURSE it will be chocolate, even for a welcome baby cake because really, what other kind is there? 😊
Since today is the Alphababies’ birthday, Betsy and I are kicking off our ALPHABLOGTIME Tour because we want to celebrate with you and make sure you get plenty of chances to take our book baby home with you!
The link will take you to a list of all kinds of news, in-person events, blog stops, and giveaway opportunities, plus we’ll have some fun crafts and activities for you to share with your little ones.
We hope to see you and chat with you along the way!
Thank you all so much for helping us welcome our new little book! 😊😊😊
It’s not due until October 25th, but I couldn’t wait to give you a little peek!
Even though it seems like forever when I’m so looking forward to meeting this baby in real life, October 25th is just a little over 4 weeks away. And after 9 years (yes, you read that right, Guinness Book of World Records gestation 🤣) oh! how I want this book baby to get a good start in the world!
If you’d like to give it a baby shower gift, here are a few ideas:
Click HERE to add it to your Good Reads “Want To Read” Shelf and help create a little buzz!
Share the cover on Social Media so lots of people get to see this soon-to-be-here li’l cutie!
Ask your local public or school library to order a copy! Libraries want books on their shelves that their communities want to read.
Ask your local bookstore to order copies! Bookstores do not automatically stock every title.
Mention it to your friends (especially parents and grandparents, teachers, and librarians)! Word of mouth will help this baby find the love it needs!
Pre-Order A Copy (or two!)! Pre-orders count toward a book’s first sales week, and how a book does in its first week can determine whether it thrives or languishes. A high sales rank out of the starting gate gains the book traction and visibility, which helps more readers to see it and, hopefully, bring it into their homes and hearts.
As a small thank you for helping my little one get a good start, I want to give a little present to YOU!
I will give away 3 personalized signed copies to 3 randomly selected winners who do one or more of the above and let me know about it in the comments below. You get a chance for each thing you do. Tag me if you post on social media so I see you (I’m on FB, Twitter, and Instagram). Let me know what bookstore or library you asked to order a copy so I know where my Alphababy might turn up. And if you preorder, let me know that too and I’ll be happy to send you a personalized signed bookplate to place inside your book – for yourself or for the little one, preschool, school, or library you purchase it for.
I will draw the winners in 2 weeks on Sunday October 9th. I’m hoping I might have books by then. . . but I might not. . . so the winners may have to wait just a little for their present!
❤️ Thank you all so much in advance for helping me celebrate this upcoming arrival! I’m so excited about it, and I hope you’re going to love it as much as I do!
(P.S. ALPHABEDTIME will be having a little blog tour between October 25th and November 15th or so, and there will be more chances for giveaways then!)
Enjoy your weekends, everyone, and thank you again! 😊
A few details about the book if you’re interested:
ALPHABEDTIME
written by Susanna Leonard Hill illustrated by Betsy Snyder Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House October 25, 2022
Bedtime is busy for the Alphabet family – after all, there are 26 kiddos to tend to. A, B, and C declare they are not ready, and Impish I and Jazzy J just don’t want to settle down, but by toothbrushing time the crew seems to be headed in the right direction. Of course, there is still bath time which is super splashy, and getting into jammies which is no joke. But finally, after a story’s been read and they are tucked in tight, peace reigns. Or does it? Toddlers are sure to get a kick out of this lively Alpha-family – and hopefully following each and every letter’s antics will tucker them out!
From Kirkus:
This spirited family is full of personality. . . . The illustrations capture the bustle of a house bursting with children. . . . The rhyming text bounces along, an easy read-aloud, with rich vocabulary like impish, jazzy, and scramble making for a fun, silly, relatable read with detailed, appealing illustrations. . . . A playful approach to teaching kids the alphabet.” —Kirkus Reviews
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another exciting episode of Tuesday Debut!
Today’s debut-ess and I are clearly kindred spirits! Her book is being published by Nancy Paulsen, who has one of my books due out next year, her publication date is one of my daughters’ birthday, and her name is Rebecca, which is my sister’s name! There’s a pretty good chance we are twin princesses separated at birth 😊
So I am delighted to introduce you to Rebecca Kraft Rector and her fun-looking book, Squish Squash Squished! (I don’t have my copy as of the writing of this post but I hope it will be here soon!)
Squish Squash Squished Written by Rebecca Kraft Rector Illustrated by Dana Wulfekotte Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House February 16, 2021 Fiction, ages 2-6
When Max and Molly complain about being squished in the back seat of their gracious-spacious automobile, Mom invites their animal neighbors to ride along. They’d better figure out what to do before they’re truly SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED!
SUSANNA:Welcome, Rebecca! Thank you so much for joining us today! We’re excited to hear all about how Squish Squash Squished came to be! Where did the idea for this book come from?
REBECCA: Family car rides were a big part of my childhood. But the story was not inspired by us kids being crowded in the back seat, because we were very well behaved. 😊 In fact, SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED grew out of another story I was working on. That story was about the car itself. Gradually I started focusing on the children and adding humor and word play. My most successful stories happen when I’m making myself laugh.
SUSANNA: How long did it take you to write this book?
REBECCA: I wrote and revised the story with the help of my critique group in about three months. It didn’t sell and I put it away. That was twenty years ago!
SUSANNA: Did you go through many revisions?
REBECCA: SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED was revised at least 15 times before it was submitted.
I revise before sharing with critique partners and then I revise again. (and again) When I think a story is finished, I do a few more passes. I use Word to turn the text into a 4 x 8 table. It’s an easy process under Insert/Table/Convert Text to Table. Each cell of the table represents a page of a 32-page book. The table lets me see where page turns will fall, if one page will have more words than another, if I’m repeating things unnecessarily, etc. A new revision tool I use is Read Mode in Word. I can see the text spread across two pages, just like a book. And if I enlarge the font to 18 (or so) it has fewer words on the page, so it reads like a picture book. I also like to change the font size and color of the text. It gives me a totally new perspective on the story.
SUSANNA: When did you know your manuscript was ready for submission?
REBECCA: After many revisions and feedback from my critique group, I felt I had a solid story. It made me laugh and the words flowed smoothly when it was read aloud.
Rebecca’s work buddies, Ollie and Opal 😊
SUSANNA: When and how did you submit?
REBECCA: My agent submitted the story three times before we parted ways. Then I submitted to publishers that took unsolicited manuscripts. I put the story away when it was rejected and only pulled it out again, almost 20 years later, when I needed a story to work on for a workshop. Cecilia Yung, Art Director at Penguin Random House, saw the story at the workshop (text only since I can’t draw), loved it, and took it to editor/publisher Nancy Paulsen. A week later, I received an email from Nancy offering to publish the story!
SUSANNA: Was the contract what you expected in terms of advance, royalty percentage, publication timeline, author copies etc.?
REBECCA:This was my first picture book contract so I only had a vague idea of what to expect. The advance was divided into two payments—half on signing the contract and half on “delivery and acceptance of the manuscript.” I believe “delivery and acceptance” referred to a revised manuscript after editorial feedback. The number of author copies was negotiated from 10 to 24. The contract’s timeline for publication was 18 months after acceptance of text and illustrations. 18 months seemed a long, but reasonable time to wait. However, the timeline was actually about three and a half years. Publishing is sloooow.
SUSANNA: Can you tell us a bit about the editorial process?
REBECCA: The editorial process was wonderful. Nancy was awesome to work with—responsive and open to discussing any questions I had. Yes, I had to make some changes. But she really did listen to my concerns. One example is that she had revised the story so that the animals exited the car in one paragraph—the dogs got out at the puppy school, the ducks got out at the duck pond, and the pigs got out at the market. I really wanted to show the car gradually emptying—the dogs got out but Molly still had two ducks on her head quack-quacking and Max still had a pig on his lap oink-oinking. (Those lines are all paraphrased.) Nancy’s changes were made so that the story would fit into a 32-page picture book. After some discussion, she decided to go with a 40-page picture book so that we could include my original text!
SUSANNA: What was your experience of the illustration process like?
REBECCA: I was included in the illustration process from the start. I had input on illustrators and I was able to give feedback on sketches. I hadn’t included any art notes but I had pictures in my head, of course. It took a little time to adjust my vision when I saw the sketches. But they quickly grew on me. I was so lucky that illustrator Dana Wulfekotte came on board to create the world for SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED. She even made some changes based on my suggestions.
text copyright Rebecca Kraft Rector 2021, illustration copyright Dana Wulfekotte 2021, Nancy Paulsen Books
SUSANNA: Did you get to see advance reviews from Kirkus, SLJ, etc?
REBECCA: Nothing yet.
SUSANNA: How long did it take from offer to having the first copy in your hand?
REBECCA: July 2017 to January 2021. Three and a half years.
SUSANNA: What was the initial print run for your book?
REBECCA: 10,000 copies.
SUSANNA: What kind of marketing and promotion has your publisher done for this book?
REBECCA: The associate publicist is pitching widely to national and regional media, targeting trade and book-interest sites, illustrator and educator media, and parenting media.
SUSANNA: Describe any marketing/promotion you did for this book.
REBECCA: I’m doing blog interviews and I’ve joined a debut picture book group—21 for the Books. It’s been a great, supportive group. We have a blog https://oneforthebooks.wixsite.com/2021 and we create graphics and interviews to publicize each other’s books.
SUSANNA: How long was it between the time you started writing seriously and the time you sold your first picture book?
REBECCA: It was a long time—at least thirty years.
SUSANNA: What is the most important/helpful thing you learned on your way to publication? (Or what is your most helpful piece of advice for up and coming writers?)
REBECCA: The most important thing I learned was Don’t Give Up! Keep writing and keep trying. This might not be the right time for this story, but who knows? Maybe it’ll sell next year (or twenty years from now).
SUSANNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today and give us a glimpse of your publication process, Rebecca! It is such a privilege to get to learn from you! I know I speak for everyone when I wish you the very best of luck with this and future titles!
Readers, if you have questions for Rebecca, please post them in the comments below and if she has time I’m sure she’ll respond!
You may purchase Rebecca’s book at: (all links below are book-specific)
I have a wonderful book to share today that I hope you will all really enjoy!
(Also, as a totally unrelated aside, I am hacking my way through working with the new version of wordpress and pretty much have no idea what I’m doing, so I hope everything will look and work the way it’s supposed to!)
Title: Home In The Woods
Written & Illustrated By: Eliza Wheeler
Nancy Paulsen Books, October 2019, fiction
Suitable For Ages: 4-8
Themes/Topics: making the best of things, family, the meaning of home, history (Great Depression)
Opening: “This is my family. Marv (8), Rich (10), Ray (14), Mum (34), Eva (3 mo), Bea (12), Dal (2), Lowell (4), and me (Marvel, 6)” Dad lives with the angels now, and we need to find a new home.”
text and illustration copyright Eliza Wheeler 2019, Nancy Paulsen Books
Brief Synopsis: After Dad dies during the Great Depression, Marvel, her mum, and her 7 siblings make their way to a new home – a tar paper shack deep in the woods of Wisconsin. At first it doesn’t feel like home, but as the seasons pass, the family starts to see what could be. They find great joy in being together, discovering the blessings of this new place, and slowly the little shack begins to feel like a home – warm, bright, and full of love.
Links To Resources: An author’s note at the end gives the family history that the story is based upon; draw a picture of your family; ask your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to tell you the stories of their childhoods; try writing them down as stories or poems; write your own childhood story 😊
text and illustration copyright Eliza Wheeler 2019, Nancy Paulsen Bookstext and illustration copyright Eliza Wheeler 2019, Nancy Paulsen Books
Why I Like This Book: This book is based on the true story of the author’s grandmother’s childhood, and gives a glimpse of some of the challenges faced by families during the Great Depression in a way that is sensitive, loving, and filled with hope. The sense of family comes through so strongly – the way they all pull together to do what they can and make the best of things, from figuring out how to make delicious meals from whatever they could gather to making up their own games and stories in a home where there were no toys or books. The book beautifully illustrates how much can be accomplished with optimism, working together, inventiveness, and a sense of purpose. The text is spare and poetic, and the watercolor illustrations are lovely. An uplifting story all ages will enjoy!
PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!
Susanna Leonard Hill 
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