20 Questions: Which of your books do you wish got more attention from readers and reviewers?

Welcome to our series, 20 QUESTIONS!

Where we answer questions about writing, reading, and author life.

(Note that we are moving to posting new content from this series to substack from our previous website. We’ve long enjoyed this series so we’ve decided to just keep the questions coming!)

This month’s question:

Which of your books do you wish got more attention from readers and reviewers?

“It's a shame that BING, BOP, BAM: Time To Jam! didn't get any trade reviews because it’s a book that I believe should be in pre-K to Grade 1 music classrooms across the country. I know that music teachers would take out accompanying instruments and read the book while having students chime in, shaking maracas or pounding a drum. Not only is this book appropriate for music classrooms, but it's great to teach about rhyme (literacy) and community (social studies).”

– Valerie Bolling, author of BING, BOP, BAM: Time To Jam, illustrated by Sabreda Khadija (Henry N. Abrams, 2023)

“My book HOW THIS BOOK GOT RED received some honors like a starred review from Kirkus, however, I would have liked for this book to have been widely used in schools to to discuss the importance of representation. On the surface, this story is about Red, a red panda who wants to see a main character that looks like her. But comparing the differences between the two spreads of Red’s town (one pre-representation and one post-representation), would be especially useful to communicate to students the WHY of how come representation is so important–both for those that are underrepresented and those that are represented. “

 – Margaret Chiu Greanias, author of HOW THIS BOOK GOT RED, illustrated by Melissa Iwai (Sourcebooks, 2023)

“My newest series, AVA LIN, has received great reviews, but because it’s about a six-and-a-half-year-old first grader, I think many older kids (or their parents) overlook the book! But in the spirit of Dory Fantasmagory or Junie B. Jones, AVA LIN is written to appeal to kids older than she is. Written to be fun and relatable with lots of illustrations, this one is meant to encourage kids to fall in love with reading, laugh about the social misunderstandings we all encounter, and approach life with optimism and resilience. I would love to see more 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders reading this series!” — Vicky Fang, author and illustrator of the AVA LIN series (Candlewick, 2024)