Some new and forthcoming children's books by Michigan authors and illustrators

I’ll be on the radio Monday evening, speaking with Bill Castanier about children’s books. I’ll be a guest on Lansing Online News’ weekly radio talk show on LCC's WLNZ. The program starts at 7 PM and I’ll be on at some point, probably around 7:45.

I’m not an expert on children’s literature, but I look forward to the chance to highlight some recent and forthcoming books by Michigan authors and illustrators.

Here are a few that come to mind as I start to work on this list – please chime in in the comments section about others I’ve inadvertently left off.  I’ll be adding to this list as well as incorporating links to the various titles and authors as time permits.

Here goes with the start of it:

Later this summer, Ruth McNally Barshaw’s third Ellie McDoodle book will be out:  Ellie McDoodle: Best Friends Fur-Ever.

Over At The Castle, Boni Ashburn’s follow-up to Hush Little Dragon, came out this spring.

Hope Vestergaard’s newest, Potty Animals: What To Know When You’ve Got To Go, is now out.

Sue Stauffacher has a new book series, Animal Rescue Team.  The first book, Gator on the Loose, is available now, and the second, Special Delivery, comes out this summer.

Shutta Crum's Thomas and the Dragon Queen will be out in July.

Buffy Silverman’s Can An Old Dog Learn New Tricks? and Other Questions About Animals is now available for curious young minds.

Kelly DiPucchio has two new books:  Alfred Zector, Book Collector and The Sandwich Swap.

Lisa Wheeler’s latest book Dino-Soccer is currently available, and Ugly Pie will be out this summer.

Amy Young has a new book, The Mud Fairy.

Leslie Helakoski, of Big Chickens and Woolbur fame, has a new one, Fair Cow, which will be out later this summer.

In addition to these new and forthcoming books, the national “Make A Splash” theme for this year’s Summer Reading Programs at libraries lends itself well to books by Michigan authors. (Afterall, we’ve got the Great Lakes, plus 11,000 inland lakes, and more than 36,000 miles of streams. If that doesn’t inspire water-related literature, nothing will!) A sampling of some of the children’s books by Michigan authors, past and present, that touch on splishy-splashy themes:

• Do You Know About Fish and Do You Know About Amphibians, nonfiction by Buffy Silverman
• A Drop of Rain by Wong Herbert Yee
• Good Knight by Lynda Rymill
• L is for Lobster by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds
• The Legend of the Petoskey Stone and The Edmund Fitzgerald and others by Kathy-jo Wargin and illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen
• The Little Fish That Got Away by Bernadine Cook.
• Memoirs of a Goldfish, by Devin Scillian
• Nugget on the Flight Deck, illustrated by Aaron Zenz

• Rub-A-Dub-Dub: What’s In The Tub? by Mary Blocksma
• Sand Castle by Brenda Shannon Yee
• Sea Dogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta and Sailor Moo: Cow at Sea by Lisa Wheeler
• Seabird and Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
• Sheep On A Ship by Nancy Shaw
• Shell Crazy by Tracy Gallup
• Spike & Cubby's Ice Cream Island Adventure by Heather Laurie Sellers and illustrated by Amy Young
• Thunder-Boomer by Shutta Crum
• Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

A longer list of Michigan-related “Make A Splash” titles (that list, too, is still a work in progress – your suggestions are welcome!) is available here.

So, Michigan, what else have we got? Let me know, and I’ll get it added.