Newsletter
Laurie Ann Thompson

Laurie Thompson

February 2026 news (and 2025 year-end review)

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It’s been a long time since I’ve sent out a newslet­ter, so this is way over­due. Sorry!

I’ve been work­ing on a few dif­fer­ent projects: sev­er­al pic­ture books and a mid­dle-grade non­fic­tion pro­pos­al. I expect I’ll be dust­ing off my nov­el man­u­script this year, too. I’m look­ing for­ward to a bunch of upcom­ing speak­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and a new book com­ing in May 2027: Newton’s Paws of Motion!

I’ve also been keep­ing busy with cli­mate advo­ca­cy volunteering—including coor­di­nat­ing a recent trip to Olympia for 15 stu­dents and 13 adult chap­er­ones, where the stu­dents lob­bied 10 of our state leg­is­la­tors for four dif­fer­ent cli­mate-friend­ly poli­cies. It was a suc­cess­ful trip, and it felt good to make a difference—for the cli­mate and for the kids.

In per­son­al news, my old­est kid­do just fin­ished their Master’s degree in bioin­for­mat­ics and bought a house in Den­mark, so I’m look­ing for­ward to vis­it­ing them there again this year, along with some oth­er fun trips to places I’ve nev­er been before!

I hope you and yours are safe and well. 💜

The whole series, now in board book!

You Are a Robin! and You Are a Garter Snake! both recent­ly released in board book for­mat, so now your lit­tlest read­ers can own the whole set. All the books in the Meet Your World series use move­ment and pre­tend play to intro­duce young read­ers to ani­mals that most like­ly live in their neigh­bor­hoods… AND to the joy of reading!


Buy now

2025 in review:

I always like to sit down and reflect on the past year as we move into a new one. Here are some of the highlights:

  • I got back on my feet after break­ing and bad­ly sprain­ing my ankle at the end of 2024.
  • I got to vis­it my fam­i­ly in Wis­con­sin and lat­er in Michigan.
  • I led the event plan­ning for and mod­er­at­ed a pan­el at the Cit­i­zens’ Cli­mate Lobby’s Greater Pacif­ic North­west region­al conference.
  • I sold a man­u­script (Newton’s Paws of Motion, com­ing in May 2027 from Source­books Xpress)!
  • I par­tic­i­pat­ed month­ly in a cit­i­zen sci­ence pro­gram to mon­i­tor amphib­ian pop­u­la­tions in a near­by park.
  • I bought a new car (an all-elec­tric Hon­da Prologue).
  • I got to spend time with my old­est kid­do when they came back to the U.S. to attend a friend’s wed­ding on Orcas Island.
  • I lob­bied for cli­mate poli­cies in per­son in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., and virtually.
  • I researched and made progress on a mid­dle-grade non­fic­tion pro­pos­al, but have since shelved it (at least for the time being). 🙁
  • I fin­ished one non­fic­tion pic­ture book poet­ry man­u­script and start­ed anoth­er one (alas, poet­ry pic­ture books are a tough sell these days!).
  • I researched and start­ed draft­ing anoth­er non­fic­tion pic­ture book (NOT poetry).
  • I revised an old non­fic­tion pic­ture book (but it still needs more work).
  • I wrote an arti­cle for the SCBWI’s Essen­tial Guide to Pub­lish­ing for Children.
  • I got a let­ter to the edi­tor pub­lished in the Seat­tle Times.
  • I pre­sent­ed at five school vis­its, one library event, five Meet Your World sto­ry walks, the Wash­ing­ton Library Asso­ci­a­tion con­fer­ence, Kin­dling Words West, an adult writ­ing for chil­dren course, and the Pouls­bo Book Festival.
  • I plant­ed dozens of trees and removed inva­sive plants in our local parks.
  • I saw a ton of spec­tac­u­lar plays and musicals.
  • I got to spend lots of qual­i­ty time with fam­i­ly, friends, and pets. ❤️

Favorite reads of 2025:

I enjoyed a lot of great books last year, so I want­ed to share a few of my favorites with you. In no par­tic­u­lar order, here they are:

Pic­ture book fiction:

Pic­ture book nonfiction:

Mid­dle grade fiction:

Mid­dle grade nonfiction:

Adult fic­tion:

Adult non­fic­tion:

Upcoming events:

  • Feb 4: Author vis­it at St. Louise Elementary
  • Feb 10: Lit­er­a­cy night at Apol­lo Elementary
  • Mar 1: Attendee at nErD­camp Bellingham
  • Mar 2: Author vis­it at Ben Franklin Elementary
  • Mar 17: Keynote speak­er at Taco­ma Pub­lic Schools High­ly Capa­ble seminar
  • Mar 31-Apr 8: Vacation! 🏜️☀️🌵
  • May 2: Break­out speak­er at SCBWI-WWA con­fer­ence
  • May 11–18: Attendee at Kin­dling Words West on Whid­bey Island
  • Jul 14–15: Library pre­sen­ta­tions at Sequim, Forks, and Port Angeles

I’d love to hear from you! Please drop me a line any­time. And thanks for reading!

Now available: All four Meet Your World board books!

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banner image with book covers and series logo

All four books in the Meet Your World series are now avail­able in board book format!

Shows the covers of all four Meet Your World books and the text, "Complete set now available in board book format!"

 

This for­mat allows even the youngest read­ers to enjoy them (and grab, chew on, drop, etc.), and now they can own them all.

These edi­tions are only one spread short­er than the hard­cov­ers and still include back­mat­ter, though it is slight­ly sim­pli­fied and condensed.

Find out more about the series and order your copies here!

New STEM informational fiction on the way: Newton’s Paws of Motion

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I’m thrilled to share my lat­est book deal, a humor­ous STEM pic­ture book inspired by my very own cat (and his “exper­i­ments”). This one teach­es young read­ers about New­ton’s Laws of Motion through the eyes of a curi­ous, sci­ence-lov­ing feline and his less-than-enthu­si­as­tic fam­i­ly. I feel so lucky to get to col­lab­o­rate on it with Justin Kras­ner and Karen Obuhanych (go look up her cat illus­tra­tions right now): I’m still pinch­ing myself! Alas, we’ll all have to wait until May 2027 to see the final product.

New SEL picture book: Let the Light In

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Let the Light In book cover

Let the Light In book cover

My lat­est pic­ture book, Let the Light In, is now avail­able wher­ev­er books are sold. This book was ini­tial­ly inspired by watch­ing a dear friend nav­i­gate a ter­ri­ble loss, and I draft­ed and revised it while work­ing through some sad tran­si­tions of my own. That may sound a bit drea­ry, but this book is all about tak­ing care of your­self until you can feel joy again. Adri­ana Pre­doi brought it to life so beau­ti­ful­ly with her won­der­ful illus­tra­tions, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with the world. May it offer com­fort to all who read it and spark tru­ly authen­tic con­ver­sa­tions between chil­dren and their car­ing adults. Find out more and order your copies here.

From the publisher:

Help lit­tle ones move from sad­ness to brighter days with this hope­ful and encour­ag­ing look at a uni­ver­sal emotion.

It’s nor­mal to feel sad, but for kids, sad­ness can often feel over­whelm­ing and con­fus­ing. Let the Light In meets chil­dren in their moment of sad­ness and offers empa­thet­ic ideas on how to nav­i­gate it. Con­crete and sim­ple ideas include cre­ative expres­sion, going for a walk, pay­ing atten­tion to the world around them, and vis­it­ing a friend. Lit­tle ones will be left with the uplift­ing mes­sage that, whether it hap­pens in big ways or small, all at once or over time, sad­ness will even­tu­al­ly fade, and bet­ter days will come.

New STEM picture book: You Are a Garter Snake!

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Cover image for You Are a Garter Snake! book, showing a friendly-looking garter snake in the foreground with a pond and barn in the background
The fourth book in the Meet Your World series, You Are a Garter Snake!, is now avail­able wher­ev­er books are sold. Find out more and order your copies here!

From the publisher:

The fourth in the adorable, STEM non­fic­tion pic­ture book series that encour­ages very young read­ers to learn—through gen­tle inter­ac­tiv­i­ty and play—about the ani­mals who share their world

Stretch, slip, twist! You may haves seen a small, sleek garter snake dis­ap­pear amid rocks or flow­ers. Did you know that garter snakes sniff with their tongues, hud­dle togeth­er for win­ter, and spray smelly stuff to scare off preda­tors? From birth to first shed­ding and beyond, dis­cov­er all that goes into being a garter snake in this charm­ing pic­ture book, the fourth in the Meet Your World series.

This play­ful and infor­ma­tive series invites you to take a clos­er look at the amaz­ing ani­mals that live right along­side you in rur­al, sub­ur­ban, and urban land­scapes across North Amer­i­ca. In each book, words and art inspire you to act out ani­mal actions that are not so dif­fer­ent from your own habits. And robust back­mat­ter offers even more facts and fun. From the ani­mals’ fam­i­lies and foods to their envi­ron­ments and behav­iors, let’s meet your world!

Good news for You Are a Raccoon!

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award flyer page 1

You Are a Raccoon cover image
I’m so excit­ed to share that YOU ARE A RACCOON! has won the Mary­land Blue Crab Young Read­ers Award for Begin­ning Nonfiction!

Each year, a com­mit­tee for the Mary­land Library Asso­ci­a­tion (MLA) selects  one win­ning book and up to three hon­or books to receive an award in each of the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories: Begin­ning Read­er Fic­tion, Begin­ning Read­er Non­fic­tion, Tran­si­tion­al Fic­tion, Tran­si­tion­al Non­fic­tion. The purpose of the award is to iden­ti­fy and pro­mote the best fic­tion and non­fic­tion books pub­lished at the K‑2nd grade read­ing lev­el (ear­ly read­ers) and at the 2nd-4th grade read­ing lev­el (tran­si­tion­al read­ers), both for chil­dren read­ing at grade lev­el and for reluc­tant old­er read­ers; to provide teach­ers, librar­i­ans, and care­givers with a resource list of excel­lent books for begin­ning read­ers; and to encour­age pub­lish­ers, authors, and illus­tra­tors to cre­ate high-qual­i­ty books for begin­ning readers.

Here are this year’s win­ners in all categories:

award flyer page 1 award flyer page 2

It’s a huge hon­or to win, and I’m so grate­ful to the com­mit­tee for select­ing YOU ARE A RACCOON!

Now available — 2 new Meet Your World board books!

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banner image with book covers and series logo

YOU ARE A HONEY BEE! and YOU ARE A RACCOON! are now avail­able as board books.

cover images of You Are a Honey Bee! and You Are a Raccoon! board books

Even while I was first research­ing and writ­ing these, I pic­tured them as board books. So I’m thrilled they’re final­ly avail­able in that for­mat for the youngest read­ers and nature lovers to enjoy (and grab at, and chew on, and…). They’re only one spread short­er than the hard­cov­ers, and they still have back­mat­ter, though I did sim­pli­fy and con­dense it a bit.

Find out more about the series and order your copies here!

New STEM picture book: You Are a Robin!

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You Are a Robin book cover

You Are a Robin book cover
The third book in the Meet Your World series, You Are a Robin!, is now avail­able wher­ev­er books are sold. Find out more and order your copies here!

From the publisher:

The third in the adorable, STEM non­fic­tion pic­ture book series that encour­ages very young read­ers to learn–through gen­tle inter­ac­tiv­i­ty and play–about the ani­mals who share their world.

Flit, flap, flut­ter! You might have seen a robin fly­ing over­head or heard one singing in the trees. Did you know that robins tidy them­selves up, teach their babies to find food, and are almost ful­ly grown in just two weeks? From birth to first flut­ter and beyond, dis­cov­er all that goes into being a robin in this charm­ing pic­ture book, the third in the Meet Your World series.

This play­ful and infor­ma­tive series invites you to take a clos­er look at the amaz­ing ani­mals that live right along­side you in rur­al, sub­ur­ban, and urban land­scapes across North Amer­i­ca. In each book, words and art inspire you to act out ani­mal actions that are not so dif­fer­ent from your own habits. And robust back­mat­ter offers even more facts and fun. From the ani­mals’ fam­i­lies and foods to their envi­ron­ments and behav­iors, let’s meet your world!

Year-end reflection for 2023: Successes

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Failure is success in progress
 
I love par­tic­i­pat­ing in chil­dren’s author Julie Hed­lund’s 12 Days of Christ­mas for Writ­ers as part of my year-end reflec­tion and new year goal-set­ting process. Day 3 of the series is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reflect on our suc­cess­es dur­ing the past year. 
 

Here is my pro­fes­sion­al suc­cess list for 2023:

  • I signed a con­tract for a new pic­ture book and deliv­ered the final man­u­script text.
  • I draft­ed an infor­ma­tion­al fic­tion pic­ture book I’ve had in my head for quite a while (but am still work­ing on).
  • I re-envi­sioned and re-draft­ed an old­er infor­ma­tion­al fic­tion pic­ture book man­u­script I’ve been work­ing on for a long time (and am still work­ing on).
  • I fin­ished revis­ing a non­fic­tion pic­ture book manuscript.
  • I took Elana K. Arnold’s Revi­sion Sea­son course and did sev­er­al revi­sion pass­es on my first-ever nov­el (and still have more revis­ing to do).
  • I did a ton of pro­mo­tion for my new books, You Are a Hon­ey Bee! and You Are a Raccoon!
  • I deliv­ered many school vis­its and appearances.
  • I updat­ed my school vis­it presentations.
  • I updat­ed my web­site with the new book infor­ma­tion and speak­ing details.

Per­son­al­ly, I also:

  • spent a lot of qual­i­ty time with my adult children,
  • vol­un­teered as a nat­u­ral­ist with my city’s parks department,
  • vol­un­teered in a vari­ety of roles with Cit­i­zens Cli­mate Lob­by, includ­ing lob­by­ing Con­gress (twice!) to take action to pro­tect our climate,
  • got CPR cer­ti­fied, and
  • took not one but two dream vacations!

I often feel like I’m not get­ting enough done, like I’m not work­ing hard enough, like noth­ing is hap­pen­ing. It’s good to look back and see, wow, actu­al­ly, it was a pret­ty good year!

June 2023 news

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You Are a Honey Bee! headband craft

Get your free activity kit!

There is now an activ­i­ty kit/curriculum guide for the first two books in the Meet Your World series, YOU ARE A HONEY BEE! and YOU ARE A RACCOON!, and it is adorable! The guide fea­tures cre­ative art projects, games, and writ­ing and sci­ence-relat­ed activ­i­ties to extend both the fun and edu­ca­tion­al val­ue of the books. You can down­load it HERE. Huge thanks to Deb­bie Gon­za­les at Guides by Deb for cre­at­ing these won­der­ful resources for par­ents and educators.

You Are a Honey Bee! headband craft You Are a Honey Bee! board game You Are a Raccoon! mask craft Habitat survival skills charades game

Recent appearances

I’ve been doing so many excit­ing school vis­its, sto­ry­times, and vir­tu­al and online events. Here are just a few!

  • Watch the #GreenPB2023 Cel­e­brate Earth Pic­ture Book Par­ty excerpt for You Are a Hon­ey Bee! here
  • Watch the #GreenPB2023 Cel­e­brate Earth Pic­ture Book Par­ty excerpt for You Are a Rac­coon! here
  • Click here to watch the SCBWI-WWA spring 2023 Inside Sto­ry excerpt for both books in the Meet Your World series
  • I pre­sent­ed an inter­ac­tive in-per­son storytime/signing event at the love­ly Invi­ta­tion Book­shop in Gig Har­bor, WA
  • I was fea­tured in this fun inter­view on YA and Kids’ Books Central
  • I was on the fac­ul­ty for SCBWI-WWA’s Great Cri­tique event
  • I pre­sent­ed a vir­tu­al You Are a Hon­ey Bee! read-aloud on Stream­able Learning
  • I was delight­ed to par­tic­i­pate in a pan­el called Full STEAM Ahead for SCBWI-Oregon
  • I was pleas­ant­ly sur­prised that Two Truths and a Lie was fea­tured in a list of “The best books to improve kids’ crit­i­cal think­ing” on Shepherd.com
  • I pre­sent­ed sev­er­al vir­tu­al and in-per­son author vis­its at schools, plus an in-per­son sto­ry­time event for preschool­ers at a local library. I wish I could show you their adorable faces and match­ing shirts, but to pro­tect their pri­va­cy you’ll have to set­tle for this:

I was also for­tu­nate to be able to attend Kin­dling Words West at the Whid­bey Insti­tute and spend a week work­ing on my mid­dle-grade fan­ta­sy nov­el in com­mu­ni­ty with oth­er indus­try pros. Here’s what my room looked like. Isn’t it cute?

What I’ve been reading… that you should, too!

Here are some of my favorite recent reads:

  • The Girl from Earth’s End by Tara Dair­man: Wow! This book blew my mind in the best kind of way. There is so much packed into this mid­dle-grade nov­el, but some­how it doesn’t feel over­whelm­ing. Instead, it feels just right, like a warm hug from a dear friend.
  • Shermy and Shake, the Not-So-Nice Neigh­bor by Kir­by Lar­son: A sub­tly sweet chap­ter book about an unex­pect­ed friend­ship, served up with equal parts humor and heart.
  • ALL of the #GreenPB2023 releas­es! Seri­ous­ly, if you have any inter­est in sci­ence, nature, ani­mals, or the envi­ron­ment (or know a young read­er who does), check out these won­der­ful new pic­ture books.

Writing (or life in general, really) advice

I was read­ing this inter­view with Abi Cush­man, author/illustrator of Wom­bats Are Pret­ty Weird, and came across this per­fect lit­tle tid­bit of writ­ing advice:

“…the impor­tant thing to real­ize is that feel­ing uncom­fort­able in the process just means you’re chal­leng­ing your­self, and that’s a good thing.”

I’ve always tried to live my life by that mantra, and I think it’s such a good thing to remem­ber. Dis­com­fort doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean you shouldn’t do the thing, or that you’re doing it wrong. It just means you’re push­ing your­self out­side of your com­fort zone, which is nec­es­sary for growth.

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