The Weekly 411 (5/8/26)
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| © Sharon Lane Holm |
May 8, 2026 vol. 19
The Weekly 411 gathers all the links added to Kidlit411 each week. To receive this post by email, sign up for our email updates. Are you on Facebook? Join our Kidlit411 group for conversations and camaraderie. We can also be found on Bluesky. This week's illustration is by Sharon Lane Holm.
About the Book: Perfect for fans of buddy comedy picture books like Sam and Dave Dig a Hole or dialogue-driven books like Click, Clack, Moo, Sheep & Goat Climb the World follows two rivals trying to out-climb each other to get to the highest point in the world. However, Sheep and Goat did not anticipate getting stuck on their journey to the top! Join these two hard-headed competitors on a zany journey where they discover that friendship can be even more exciting than winning during the climb of a lifetime.
About the Author: A.C. Paolini has a masters of Library and Information Science degree and has worked in multiple libraries. She lives with her family in Montana where she writes and dreams up stories for her children.
About the Illustrator: Monica Arnaldo is an award-winning children's book author and illustrator. She grew up in Ontario, Canada, where she invented trading lunches and had to be actively restrained from befriending wild animals. She is passionate about funny, sometimes chaotic, character-driven stories.
Picture Book Giveaway
We are pleased to host a giveaway of the picture book, Owls Make Terrible Teachers by Kristi Mahoney, illustrated by Chantelle and Burgen Thorne (Gnome Road Publishing), out now. Enter to win via the widget below.
About the Book: Owls Make Terrible Teachers: The last thing you expect at school is for your substitute teacher to be… an owl?! Please BEWARE! Owls may be cool, but they make TERRIBLE teachers! You’ll be trudging through school in the middle of the night, dodging owl pellets, and don’t even ask about the field trip. Having an owl for a teacher is worse than talons on a whiteboard!
About the Author: Kristi Mahoney is the author of both Alpacas Make Terrible Librarians and Owls Make Terrible Teachers. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, son, daughter, and seven fur-family members. She loves animals of all kinds (including owls), thinks teachers are pretty great, and believes life is better with a bit of laughter.
About the Illustrators: Chantelle and Burgen Thorne are a multi-award winning (married) illustration team. In the rolling green hills of their home in the countryside, they spend their days illustrating stories for kids – preferably featuring a bit of humor and a TON of animals! Right now, their fur-family includes three dogs, four cats, two horses – once upon a time they also had pigs and ducks and chickens and goats and rabbits and cows. But that’s a tail for another time…
Mixing it Up with Poetry Forms: Concrete Poems
May 20 4 p.m. CDT Who Should Tell the Story: Choosing the Right Point of View for Your Book: Workshop with Charlesbridge Associate Editor Natalia Vázquez Torres (with submission opportunity) Writing your picture book is so exciting! Each word that makes it into the story counts. But how do you decide who gets to tell the story? Should it come from a character or a narrator? What about talking directly to the reader? In this presentation, you will learn about different aspects you might want to think about when choosing your point of view; compare the benefits of each; and consider how character's age, historical setting, and desired audience influence the way the story is told so that it resonates with readers. Plus, each registrant gets the opportunity to submit a project directly to Natalia for consideration.
Self Publishing 101: Take Charge of Your Books, Business, and Future
What the Judges Said: Takeaways from the [Kids Comics Unite] Pitchfest 2026 (expert tips on pitching a graphic novel)
Read Your World Auction: bid for signed books, manuscript critiques, art, and more (bidding closes May 15)
Confidence When the Writing is Hard
The Athleticism of Craft: 7 Attributes of Elite Writers and Illustrators
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