Jenny and me, literary nerds in love

This week, My Favorite Author in the Whole Wide World has been featured on two of my favorite sources for insights and information about the world of children’s literature.

For those of you who don’t know, Jennifer Ziegler — author of the Brewster Triplets series of middle-grade novels as well as YA novels including How Not to Be Popular — is also my wife, and I’ll admit to being a little bit biased in favor of every single thing she does.

But I’m also a loyal listener to the #kidlitwomen* podcast and a big fan of author Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s Cynsations blog. Since very early in my career, I’ve craved a deeper understanding into the workings of the business and culture of books for young readers, and a deeper understanding of my fellow creators of those books.

#kidlitwomen* and Cynsations — a newcomer to the conversation and a leader in the conversation from way back, respectively — both satisfy that need.

So you can imagine how happy I’ve been to hear Jennifer on this week’s two episodes of #kidlitwomen*.

Monday brought Jennifer’s reading of her essay “It’s the Grown-ups with the Hang-Ups — Not the Readers,” in which she challenges adults’ assumptions that the boys in their lives won’t read books about girls.

“I’ve tried [to get boys to],” some might say, “and they still won’t read them.” To that I say, Shouldn’t you be worried about why they won’t? Isn’t this something you need to talk with them about?

And this morning I woke up to find a new episode of #kidlitwomen* in which Jennifer discusses her essay with Alvina Ling, VP and editor-in-chief of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

In between those two podcast episodes, Jennifer was featured on the newest edition of Cynsations’ Survivors Interview Series, which “offers in-depth reflections and earned wisdom from children’s-YA book authors who have successfully built long-term, actively-publishing careers.”

I especially love Jennifer’s response to the question, “What advice would you give to your beginner self, if that version of you was a debut author this year?”

She talks about the importance to authors of finding a writing community, learning as much about the industry as possible, and never being afraid to ask questions.

That advice all rings true to me, and the community and education offered through #kidlitwomen* (including but not limited to the podcast) and Cynsations are great places to start.