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I’m finally reading this gem by Corey Ann Haydu, and whew—it is a tapestry woven from heartstrings.

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Happy Valentine’s Day to meeeeeeeeeee. ♥️ (If you need permission or encouragement to bake yourself a cake, I hereby grant you both.)

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One thing about me is that I love making valentines 🥔💌

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Two recent nice things that happened to WISHING SEASON (and therefore to me):

1. It’s one of 15 books nominated for the 2025-2026 Louisiana Readers’ Choice Awards Program in the category for Grades 3-5. Nominees were chosen by Louisiana librarians and teachers, and will be read and voted on by students across the state. This thrills me!

2. The Horn Book chose WISHING SEASON for its 2024 Mind the Gap Awards: an annual list of “deserving books” that didn’t win any ALA awards (Newbery, Caldecott, etc) but could have. Never have I ever been so pleased to find myself on a list of losers. :) It’s lovely to hear they considered it a contender.

Middle grade (for ages 8 and up) is a tough category to be publishing into these days (sales are way down, and book bans run rampant), but I absolutely love writing it—in part because the books I picked up in third through seventh grade are the ones I most vividly remember reading. They shaped who I am as a reader, thinker, writer, and human. And it’s a category I still love reading, especially on audio. (Erin Entrada Kelly’s THE FIRST STATE OF BEING and Erin Bow’s SIMON SORT OF SAYS are two recent favorites. Up next in my queue is Jasmine Warga’s A STRANGE THING HAPPENED IN CHERRY HALL. If you haven’t read Jasmine’s other middle grade novels, such as A ROVER’S STORY, you’re missing out!)

I’ve been lucky to publish a spooky middle grade collection (HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES) and a sad-but-hopeful middle grade novel (WISHING SEASON), and I hope that the funny, friendship-based, hijinks-filled middle grade novel I’ve been working on these past few years will find a good home when it goes out to editors soon. Keep your fingers crossed for it/me? Thank you!

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Pro tip: When you finish a major revision, make yourself a cake. (This one’s a lemon blueberry thyme olive oil buttermilk cake, and I included just as many ingredients in my middle grade manuscript, which may or may not be fully baked—tbd!)

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Honestly pretty mad at AI for taking away my ability to joke that I wish my book would write itself

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Czech, Polish, and Russian editions of HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES

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WISHING SEASON has been out in the world for four months today, so here’s page four of chapter four, which earned the Tato chomp of approval. (He says if you like this taste, you should eat the whole thing.) This scene is a flashback to the first time Lily sees Anders, her twin, after his death.

Chapter Four

Before and After

“How long has it been?” he asked.

She stopped the swing. “Three days.”

He nodded. She waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. She wasn’t sure how much he remembered about the infection or the seizure or the ambulance or the end. He hadn’t been fully conscious for all of it. But Lily had. She would never forget.

“Did it hurt?” she asked.

He looked surprised. “What, dying?”

“Yeah.”

He paused. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

Anders gave the kind of shrug most people assumed meant he was finished talking, but which Lily knew meant he needed space to think with less pressure. She shooed her impatience and it scurried away.

Anders squinted at the clouds, then at his sister, like he was trying to bring her face into focus, or maybe see through something hazy right in front of it. She kept still. “That’s not how it works,” he said finally. “It’s not what matters anymore.”

She held in a sigh of frustration. He was reaching the end of his words, but she needed him to explain. Nothing about his dying made any sense, except for the fact that he’d come back to her. Nothing about it seemed at all fair. “What does matter?” she asked.

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Finished one, started the other

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Excited to read this gorgeous debut, THE NIGHT FOX by Ashley Wilda

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I recently learned the hardcover of HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES is now in its 3rd printing, which set my heart aflutter like an attic filled with bats. Thank you, librarians, educators, booksellers, and readers! 🦇🖤 If you don’t have one yet, you can also find it in paperback or ebook—Carolina Godina’s full-page illustrations are absolutely gorgeous in all three. (And the audio version has multiple talented narrators!)

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I love when my reading seems in conversation with ideas I’m exploring in my own work

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If you missed the release of NOBODY KNOWS BUT YOU three years ago today, well, I have no idea what else you could been thinking about in fall 2020. 🙃

I loved writing this YA novel about an intense friendship formed over a single summer at camp—a summer cut short by murder. It’s a fast read and more of a “why done it” than a “who done it,” so if you like short books, psychological suspense, complicated friendships, and unusual formats, this thriller might be your jam. The story is told in unsent letters interspersed with news clips, text messages, a trial transcript, interview statements, and social media posts. You can find it in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and Dutch(!), but my favorite format is the audiobook, because the main narrator, Jesse Vilinsky, gives a killer performance as Kayla.

Here’s a peek at the opening page:

September 3

Channel 5 News

“Tragic accident or deadly revenge?

“Sources from within the state prosecutor’s office say the D.A. is close to filing charges against a teenage suspect in the sensational case that has shocked and gripped viewers across the region since the fateful night three weeks ago that left one sixteen-year-old summer camper dead and another under suspicion of murder.

“Michael Desir, an attorney for the teen who is at the center of the ongoing police investigation, maintains his client’s innocence, even as prosecutor Marsha Davis is expected to bring charges within the week. Despite few official facts having been released in the case, rumors and speculation run rampant online, fueled by social media posts from other campers and their parents and counselors. Some have suggested that the delays in pressing charges could indicate major weaknesses in the state’s attempt to build a case proving the camper’s untimely death was a passion-fueled crime, not a tragic accident.

“The prosecutor’s office would not comment on whether the teenage suspect will be charged as a minor or—given the severity of the alleged crime—as an adult.”

Shoutout to illustrator Hokyoung Kim and designer Molly Fehr, who created the gorgeous cover 💙 And thanks to all who have read and shared it!

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The way I ~shuddered~ at this headline…

Please only try this if your favorite writer is deceased

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Today marks two years since HIDE AND DON’T SEEK: AND OTHER VERY SCARY STORIES crept into the world to haunt and thrill middle grade readers. And this week, I’m on the very first episode of @danpoblocki’s new podcast, Our First Fears, talking about a book that shaped and inspired us both as kids and creators: SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell. I reread Schwartz and Gammell’s book for the first time in 30+ years in order to discuss it with Dan, and our conversation was such a delight. I hope you’ll take a listen! 🖤👻 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2215085

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New @danpoblocki book! Spooky summer is ON

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We love a hot pink paperback