Wat Takes His Shot is the stirring biography of Japanese American basketball star Wataru Misaka–the first person of color to play in the NBA. The book has already garnered praise, including being a Junior Library Guild Selection and garnering a starred review in School Library Journal. Title: WAT TAKES HIS . . .
(Updated May 26, 2024. Also see: Rejection Stories & Advice From Published Kidlit/YA Creators) This is a photo of a letter I’ve had pinned up on my home office Inspiration Board for years now. It represents the many encouraging-but-still-rejection letters I received over the years when I was actively writing . . .
I am thrilled to announce that I just signed a contract with Simon & Schuster to illustrate I’M BUSY, a new picture book written by Michael Ian Black. I identify way too much with this story. 😁 I’M BUSY is the latest in the I’M series, joining I’M BORED, I’M . . .
November 15, 2024: This post has been replaced by Debbie’s Unofficial Guide To Bluesky (Last updated June 23rd, 2024) – Shortlink to this post: https://debbieohi.link/bluesky-tips Quick navigation: Book Launch threads – Bluesky Lists – Bluesky Feeds – Feed Index – Hashtags – Community event hashtags – Changing your handle to . . .
Quick navigation: Bluesky Lists – I’m mainly on Bluesky and Substack these days. Please see Debbie’s Unofficial Guide To Bluesky Spoiler alert: As you can tell from the image above and screenshot below of Melissa Stewart’s article in School Library Journal, Bluesky is currently my preferred social media watercooler of . . .
I’m delighted to reveal the cover of my new solo picture book with Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, I WANT TO READ *ALL* THE BOOKS. Don’t you love my art director Laurent Linn’s wonderful cover design? Read about how the cover was created here, including the cuuuute dog . . .
A guest post by Kailei Pew and Ebony Lynn Mudd Here, we go…PB RISING STARS YEAR 3! ⭐⭐⭐ Thanks so much for hosting us again, Debbie! We l o v e d announcing the PB Rising Stars Mentors on your blog last year and can’t believe it’s time to do . . .
I loved The Fabulous Zed Watson by Basil Sylvester and Kevin Sylvester, so couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of their newest book, Night Of The Living Zed. You can win a copy of their book; I’m giving away a copy, plus you can also solve a . . .
Sara Truuvert is the author of Mira and Baku, her debut picture book, published by Annick Press. Sara’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in publications like Ploughshares, the Chicago Quarterly Review, Witness, and PRISM international. She lives in Ontario. You can find her at saratruuvert.com. Michelle Theodore is an illustrator . . .
PLEASE NOTE: Much of the info in this post is outdated. Please see my updated post about the kidlit community and social media. (Last updated November 18, 2023 – I’m now at https://bsky.app/profile/debbieohi.com; here’s how and why I converted to a custom domain Bluesky handle. Also, Bluesky now has PUBLIC . . .