meet Benny!

Are you on my mailing list? If not, you can view my latest newsletter here. I released a new picture book today, Benny Doesn’t Like to Be Hugged, and hope it finds a welcome home in the world. There were some design glitches along the way and I know it’s hard to read the yellow text at the top of the front cover, but I decided to go ahead with publication instead of starting over. My usual designer had a death in the family and my stand-in was a bit of a nightmare. I couldn’t afford to hire another designer to do everything over, so I let go…I’m getting better at doing that! I often say that I wouldn’t have almost 30 books for young readers if I was precious about each one. I don’t demand perfection from my books, even though I know they will be scrutinized and judged more harshly because they’re self-published. I’ve got another book in production and my second novel for Random House is due tomorrow; I’ve got lots of ideas but very little written down, and appreciated the two-week extension from my editor. Yesterday a friend took me to a sweets shop in Queens so I could try peda, the delicious Gujarati dessert I wrote about last summer. So even though I’m not writing, I’m still “in the zone.” And now Benny is out in the world, so that clears a bit of room on my plate. The newsletter is heading to inboxes and hopefully the hard copies will arrive before I leave for San Francisco next Thursday. My niece pointed out that I already have a character named Benny in A Wave Came through Our Window; she’s right, and I did think about changing this child’s name, but I’d been saying the title over and over in my head for so long…I just went with it. If you’d like a review copy of the new picture book, just let me know. And if you know Black children with autism, please tell them about Benny.