It’s Friday, it’s finally spring (this winter was starting to feel eternal), and I have a new book available for pre-order! The news of the world might be grim, but I still have plenty of reasons to smile, and I hope you do, too.
It feels weird and self-indulgent to be promoting a book while the world is on fire, but this is the life of a writer – a never-ending cycle of looking for work, promoting that work, then looking for more work, regardless of the state of the world!
The Laugh-a-Minute Book for Kids from Simon & Schuster is available for pre-order through your bookseller of choice (might I recommend supporting an independent bookstore?), and publishes October of this year! When a lovely editor reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in working on a joke book for kids, I have to admit I was initially taken aback. A joke book? Me? Are you sure? But as we finalized the outline, the book morphed and grew into something I couldn’t have been more excited about – a collection of jokes, riddles, tongue-twisters, poems and facts designed to excite, entertain, engage and educate!
This project was so much fun to work on, it challenged me to write for a different age group, in a different tone, and within a pretty tight time frame, and I had an absolutely blast. Testing material on my son and his friends was pretty neat, too! I typically write for babies, toddlers and preschoolers (and I do have some adorable board books coming out next year…), so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to create something for readers my son’s age (elementary school kiddos). Now, if only someone could hook me up with a Pokemon-themed writing project, that would make me the coolest mama who ever lived!
The bulk of the book is silly jokes that appeal to young children (not too much potty humour, though – as a mom I know how quickly that gets old!), but I’m quite proud of the humorous poems I came up with for this project, and I can’t wait to share more with everyone when it comes out this fall.
I hope everyone has reason to smile this weekend, even if it’s just beautiful pink blossoms against a brilliant blue sky.
Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe is hosting Poetry Friday this week – be sure to hop around and fill your cup with poetry this weekend.
How exciting! Congrats on the new book!!
Congratulations on your book, Jane! And so happy to see the lovely cherry blossoms here.
Jane! I’m so happy for you. Congrats on the new bookS! As a children’s librarian (pre-teens and young teens) in a middle school, I cannot tell you how much jokes and joke books are needed. So many books are great stories. But, the reading stamina is much lower than it used to be and some of the issues kids deal with these days are just so sad and heavy. Humor is needed so very much! Thank you for sharing this news. I hope I can get my hands on your new bookS soon. I know they are for younger kids…so I’ll ask my public library to get them for the collection.
This is perfect antidote for the news.
Congratulations! We all need more laughing!
Jane! So many congratulations to you and your sizeable cardigan collection! (I’ve always loved that bit.) We will never not need another joke book, for sure, and I’m sure also that you made this one as literarily respectable as possible. Now then–when will someone reach out and ask ME to work on a book for publication? Reveal your secrets, please!
Jane, congrats on the joke book! Sometimes the best experiences come from diving into something we didn’t think we could do. This looks like a blast!
Writing a joke book must be a great antidote for depression over current events! Congratulations!
Jane, congratulations! A joke book sounds perfect for this time in our world–laughter is the best medicine, and this too will pass. I just realized you have a pen name.