Newsletter
Laurie Ann Thompson

Meet Your World series

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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