Children

In her official bio, Melinda Beatty says she is, by day, “a mild-mannered bookseller at an independent bookstore.” She spoke to Books Forward about what it means to wear that particular hat as a children’s author, including taking pains to clarify “sitting around reading all day” myth:

“There is WAY too much to do to have time to stand still long enough to read. There’s always a customer to help, a shipment to receive, displays to make, shelf-talkers to write or dusting to do!

For pure aesthetics, my favorite area of the bookstore is our children’s section. It is just marvelous! The back of the store is enclosed in a little tiki hut, which holds our board books, picture books and emergent readers section. Just outside is our middle grade and YA. But sci-fi/fantasy is my soul section — it’s where I do most of my reading! In our store, this section is housed on a huge baker’s cart, front and back and it’s the area I do most of my recommendations from!””

― Melinda Beatty, Interview, Books Forward

Melinda Beatty has had years of practice trying to explain to others why she was just having an imaginary conversation between two people that don’t exist, so becoming a writer seemed like the best way to stop everyone from looking at her funny. After years of narrowboat living on the English canals, she and her British husband are now back on dry land in Maryland, where by day, she’s a mild-mannered indie bookseller, and by night, she wrangles words, crafts projects, and raises a Labrador and two fierce mini-women.

Stefano Tambellini was born in a small town in Tuscany, Italy. He studied traditional animation at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and then moved to London, where he worked as a freelance illustrator for animation and publishing. He lives with a gray cat named Mandragola, and he’s also a stop-motion puppet maker and filmmaker. See more of Stefano’s work at ste-tambellini.format.com.