{"id":403,"date":"2021-11-01T19:28:42","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T19:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/?p=403"},"modified":"2024-09-03T21:52:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T21:52:26","slug":"dear-little-one-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/dear-little-one-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Little One: My new book"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Even after twenty-seven years of being published it is still a nerve-wracking thrill to have a new book come out. As I type this, tomorrow, November 2nd, 2021, my next book, “Dear Little One<\/a>” will make its way into the world, and hopefully into the hands of many, many readers. It has already gotten a much-coveted Starred Review<\/a> in School Library Journal, which makes me so happy, and a lovely review<\/a> from Publisher’s Weekly, as well as being chosen as one of the Best Books of the Month for November from Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dear Little One<\/a>” is framed as a love letter that encourages and inspires readers to explore nature and to protect this world we love. Spoiler Alert: close your eyes right now if you don’t want to know who this letter is from…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My original title for this book is the answer: Love, Mother Nature. This is the actual page in my journal where inspiration hit and I started writing what eventually became “Dear Little One.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All of my books begin in my journals, but after that I type them into my laptop and then the revising begins. Some books take dozens of revisions. I had a pretty clear vision for “Dear Little One,” and it went through four revisions before it went off to the amazing Melissa Castrillon<\/a> for her to begin creating the illustrations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Dear Little One” the the third collaboration with me as author and Melissa as illustrator. My book, “If I Had A Little Dream<\/a>” was the very first picture book she illustrated. Then we did “Yellow Kayak<\/a>” together. (and we are doing a fourth book together – which hasn’t officially been announced in the trades, but I think I can say the title… it is “Love is My Favorite Color.”) Yes, I am also an illustrator. I have a degree in Illustration from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, and my parents were both artists. My career has been a journey and life has taken many twists and turns as I became a caregiver to my father, who has now passed away, my husband, who still has some health issues, and my brother, who also has been battling health issues. I am grateful that I’ve been able to write through this period of time and I know there is art in writing- and nature has grounded me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have always been a Nature Girl. This is me at age 8 in summer camp in Cooperstown, New York. I was that little girl who collected pine cones and leaves. I had funerals for spiders, and I rescued bugs. I also started foraging as a child in summer camp and loved to shock my friends by eating the petals on day lilies. It is no surprise that I live on a rural island and I forage for a lot of the food that we eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this day of Climate Change and during the pandemic I especially think that the message of “Dear Little One<\/a>” is so important for children of all ages- to care for this world and help keep it from danger. I feel so deeply for this book on so many levels and absolutely love how Melissa has brought it to life, and designer Lizzy Bromley has done a magnificent job, as usual. Please look at the case of the book- under the jacket- and you will see this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paula Wiseman Books<\/a> and Simon & Schuster have done a beautiful job with this book. And I am ever grateful to my incredible agent, Laura Rennert<\/a> at Andrea Brown Literary Agency<\/a>– a powerhouse of women agents!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thank you for reading this, and I thank you in advance for reading “Dear Little One<\/a>” to your little ones. I hope you will make it part of your library and part of your heart. <\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even after twenty-seven years of being published it is still a nerve-wracking thrill to have a new book come out. … Continue reading Dear Little One: My new book<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Dear Little One: My new book - NinaLaden.com","description":"Even after twenty-seven years of being published it is still a nerve-wracking thrill to have a new book come out. As I type this, tomorrow, November 2nd, 2021,"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[3,12,13,6,7,4],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-uncategorized","tag-childrens-books","tag-dear-little-one","tag-melissa-castrillon","tag-nina-laden","tag-nina-laden-books","tag-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninaladen.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}