Holiday Greetings and Books!

Hello Friends,

Happy December! I’m not entirely sure where this year has gone, but here we are. So before we venture further into the holidays, I wanted to let you know about my latest book, A Mouse Family Christmas, illustrated by Leah Hong.

This book came together in an interesting way: the editor loved Leah's mice and Christmas theme, and asked me to write a story about the mice decorating a tree. This was just a few months after Dad died, and I felt creatively paralyzed. Having some direction was incredibly helpful.

Leah’s beautiful illustrations have such a classic feel that I tried to write a classic-feeling manuscript to match them. The pain of being separated from Dad during that last Covid Christmas was still very much with me, so I included an older man whose family couldn't be with him on Christmas Eve.

It meant a lot to me when I recently learned that Leah used her own dad as the model for the man in the book, and I especially loved this image of the man baking, since my own dad was a baker, too. We both dedicated the book to our dads, and I hope somehow Dad knows.

School Library Journal calls A Mouse Family Christmas “a lovely choice for holiday shelves,” and Horn Book says the “focus on simple acts of kindness is entirely fitting for the holiday.”

If you’re looking for gifts for young readers, or simply would like some holiday cheer for yourself, please keep my holiday books in mind, and please patronize your local independent bookstore!

The Man Who Didn’t Like Animals has gotten some nice attention: It’s one of ten winners of The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award, and it’s also a picture book finalist for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance Golden Poppy Award.

It’s been a challenging year for many of us, in many ways. I hope you can find moments of comfort, joy, and peace as the year winds down. I’ll be spending a quiet Christmas here with Bella the cat, and trying to find ways to be more productive and mentally healthy next year (I know putting limits on news consumption and social media will help with both those things; why is it so hard??).

Grateful, as always, for your support. Wishing you a lovely, cozy holiday!

Warmly,
Deborah