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Laurie Ann Thompson

Laurie Thompson

Fall 2026 news and updates

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Author Laurie Ann Thompson reading aloud to children from You Are a Honey Bee!

Hello,

It’s my favorite season—fall!—but I had a pret­ty great sum­mer this year, too. More details below, but first…

Cover Reveal: Newton’s Paws of Motion

Newton's Paws of Motion

I’m thrilled to reveal the cov­er for my next book, NEWTON’S PAWS OF MOTION, com­ing from Source­books Explore on May 2, 2027 (pre-order now)! Isn’t it adorable? All cred­it for this bril­liance goes to the illus­tra­tor, Karen Obuhanych, and the cov­er design­er, Sarah Boecher!

Of course, New­ton the cat isn’t always adorable… he’s often mak­ing a mess. To be fair, he is test­ing the laws of physics. And like any good sci­en­tist, he must test those laws. Repeatedly.

In Newton’s Paws of Motion, Karen Obuhanych and I trans­form the every­day chaos of liv­ing with a cat into a fun­ny, acces­si­ble intro­duc­tion to Newton’s Laws. New­ton nar­rates every exper­i­ment with total sci­en­tif­ic con­fi­dence, while the illus­tra­tions reveal the increas­ing­ly disastrous–and hilarious–consequences. Also includ­ed is an author’s note about Thor, my real-life cat whose dai­ly knock­ing, swat­ting, and jump­ing inspired the story!

Per­fect for ages 4 and up, ele­men­tary school STEM lessons, teach­ers doing force-and-motion units, class­room and fam­i­ly read-alouds, cat-obsessed kids, and any­one who likes their physics with a side of feline chaos. ISN’T SCIENCE FUN?

Other News…

Spring was busy with loads of school vis­its and pre­sen­ta­tions. It’s great to see these com­ing back final­ly, as it’s so nice to be able to con­nect with stu­dents and teachers.

I did take a brief break from speak­ing in April, how­ev­er, and took a buck­et list trip around the South­west. A friend and I drove from Las Vegas to vis­it the Grand Canyon, Ante­lope Canyon, Mon­u­ment Val­ley, Val­ley of the Gods, Canyon­lands, Capi­tol Reef, Bryce, Zion, and myr­i­ad oth­er spec­tac­u­lar sights in between, includ­ing dinosaur tracks and pet­ro­glyphs. It was absolute­ly incredible.

I also got to take a few love­ly small­er trips, went to a friend’s wed­ding, and host­ed my niece and her friend.

Sep­tem­ber was anoth­er big trav­el month, as I ven­tured to Europe for a lit­er­ary tour of the UK fol­lowed by a week in Den­mark vis­it­ing my old­est kid­do. Wow, wow, wow—so inspiring!

Paddington Bear statue at Paddington Station, London
Padding­ton Bear stat­ue in Padding­ton Sta­tion, London

Bodleian Library in Oxford, England
Bodleian Library in Oxford, England
Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense, Denmark
Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Muse­um in Odense, Denmark

And, of course, I’m always enjoy­ing lots of live the­ater, vol­un­teer­ing with Cit­i­zens’ Cli­mate Lob­by and my city’s parks depart­ment, try­ing to exer­cise and eat a healthy diet, work­ing on declut­ter­ing and orga­niz­ing my home, and reading!

You may have noticed that I didn’t men­tion any writ­ing projects. After decid­ing that the mid­dle-grade non­fic­tion I was deep in the weeds research­ing might not be viable in the cur­rent mar­ket, and after anoth­er project that I was super excit­ed about went nowhere, I inten­tion­al­ly set writ­ing aside for a bit. I decid­ed to focus on oth­er areas of my life instead, while pon­der­ing what direc­tion my writ­ing should take in the future. I’m now jump­ing back in with two new projects I’ve been think­ing about for a long time. Wish me luck!

Celebrating Dolly Parton

One of the high­lights of my career has been hav­ing my book, You Are a Hon­ey Bee!, select­ed by Dol­ly Parton’s Imag­i­na­tion Library (twice!), so I was thrilled when the Imag­i­na­tion Library of Wash­ing­ton asked me to par­tic­i­pate in an event hon­or­ing her com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing ear­ly lit­er­a­cy. The City of Seat­tle was there with a procla­ma­tion declar­ing 9/25 to be Dol­ly Par­ton Day, and four Wash­ing­ton State authors read our books to a crowd of fam­i­lies with tod­dlers at the Queen Anne Library in Seat­tle. It was so much fun and a won­der­ful way to hon­or her lega­cy and impact.

Author Laurie Ann Thompson reading aloud to children from You Are a Honey Bee!
Authors Dan Richards, Brianna Caplan Sayres, Laurie Ann Thompson, and Rebecca Van Slyke holding their Imagination Library books with a cardboard stand-up of Dolly Parton

What’s Next?

  • I’m on the fac­ul­ty at the 2026 PNWA Fall Con­fer­ence in Lyn­nwood, WA, on Octo­ber 17.
  • I’m look­ing for­ward to some fall school visits!
  • I have two writ­ing retreats com­ing up this fall: one in North Bend, WA, and one in Port Townsend, WA. Both will be filled with beau­ti­ful nature and much friend­ly camaraderie.
  • I’m hop­ing to get both the new projects ready to send to my agent by January!

Newton’s Paws of Motion available for pre-order!

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Newton's Paws of Motion

Newton's Paws of Motion

My newest pic­ture book, New­ton’s Paws of Motion, is now avail­able for pre-order. This infor­ma­tion­al fic­tion STEM sto­ry was inspired by the antics of my own curi­ous cat, Thor, and Karen Obuhany­ch’s illus­tra­tions are absolute­ly delight­ful! It’s com­ing in May 2027. In the mean­time, find out more and order your copies here. I can’t wait for you to see it!

From the publisher:

This cat isn’t mak­ing a mess. He’s test­ing the laws of physics.

New­ton has made an impor­tant sci­en­tif­ic dis­cov­ery: three laws explain­ing how things move. Of course, a good sci­en­tist must test those laws. Repeatedly.

For Newton’s first exper­i­ment, there’s his break­fast bowl. It sits per­fect­ly still until one tiny tap sends it down, down, down. CRASH! The floor stops it. First law confirmed.

Next comes a toy car. Tap it and it rolls. SWAT it and—ZOOM!—it rock­ets across the room. Sec­ond law confirmed.

Then New­ton tack­les his trick­i­est exper­i­ment yet. Push down, go up. Push hard­er, go high­er. Third law confirmed!

There’s just one thing New­ton can’t quite under­stand: Why don’t the humans seem more impressed?

In Newton’s Paws of Motion, award-win­ning non­fic­tion author Lau­rie Ann Thomp­son and illus­tra­tor Karen Obuhanych trans­form the every­day chaos of liv­ing with a cat into a fun­ny, acces­si­ble intro­duc­tion to physics. New­ton nar­rates every exper­i­ment with total sci­en­tif­ic con­fi­dence, while the illus­tra­tions reveal the increas­ing­ly hilar­i­ous con­se­quences hap­pen­ing around him.

The fun con­tin­ues in the back mat­ter with an intro­duc­tion to Sir Isaac New­ton, clear expla­na­tions of his three laws of motion, and an author’s note about Thor, the real cat whose dai­ly knock­ing, swat­ting, and jump­ing inspired the story.

Per­fect for ages 4 and up, ele­men­tary STEM lessons, force-and-motion units, class­room and fam­i­ly read-alouds, cat-obsessed kids, and young sci­en­tists who like their physics with a side of feline chaos.

Exper­i­ments com­plete. Laws con­firmed. House destroyed. ISN’T SCIENCE FUN?

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!

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