Newsletter
Laurie Ann Thompson

Meet Your World series

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!

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.

New Books–Meet Your World!

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Meet Your World series

banner image with book covers and series logoWrit­ten by Lau­rie Ann Thomp­son, illus­trat­ed by Jay Fleck
Dial Books, April 2023

I’m thrilled to announce the release of my two newest books, YOU ARE A HONEY BEE! and YOU ARE A RACCOON!, the first two books in an 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.

This play­ful and infor­ma­tive series, avail­able in hard­cov­er, ebook, and audio­book edi­tions, 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!

PRAISE FOR MEET YOUR WORLD:

“A very use­ful work for envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and ani­mal stud­ies in the class­room and for indi­vid­ual read­ing. The hard­work­ing life of a hon­ey bee is shown through a live­ly text and col­or­ful illus­tra­tions which offer sig­nif­i­cant infor­ma­tion.” – School Library Journal

“Thomp­son has craft­ed a tru­ly won­der­ful book that not only pulls read­ers in with a cute tale about ani­mals but also incor­po­rates activ­i­ties that mim­ic the lives of raccoons—all while being edu­ca­tion­al! All libraries will want to include this in their children’s col­lec­tions.” – School Library Journal

“Nat­u­ral­is­tic and charm­ing.” – Kirkus Reviews

You Are a Honey Bee! cover imageSwish, swoosh, fly! You might have heard the words “busy as a bee,” but what do bees actu­al­ly do each day? Did you know bees clean their rooms, help feed baby bees, and build the hive they live in? From birth to first flight and beyond, dis­cov­er all that goes into being a bee in this charm­ing pic­ture book, the first in the Meet Your World series.

interior spread from HONEY BEE

You Are a Raccoon! cover imageCrawl, cling climb! You may have seen a rac­coon scur­ry up a tree or across the road just before dark. Did you know that rac­coons stay up at night play­ing, hunt­ing, and eat­ing when you go to sleep? From birth to first stripes and beyond, dis­cov­er all that goes into being a rac­coon in this charm­ing pic­ture book, the sec­ond in the Meet Your World series.

Take a closer look at the animals that live right alongside you!

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