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WORK TITLE: The Poet and the Bees
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WEBSITE: https://jesslove.format.com
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
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PERSONAL
Born in 1982; married: Danny; son: Valentine.
EDUCATION:University of California, Santa Cruz, BFA; Juilliard School, graduate degree, 2009.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Actor, writer, and illustrator. Acted for ten years in plays both on and off Broadway.
AWARDS:Children’s Book of the Year Award, New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, and Opera Prima, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, both 2018, and Klaus Flugge Prize and Stonewall Children’s & Young Adult Book Award, ALA, both 2019, all for Julián Is a Mermaid.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
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Jessica Love is a writer and illustrator based in the Hudson Valley. She grew up in southern California and received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Although her degree was in printmaking and illustration, she decided to go to Juilliard in New York City to study acting. After receiving her graduate degree there, she acted in New York City for ten years, in productions both on and off Broadway. Towards the end of that season of her life, she started creating the illustrations for her first children’s book, which was published in 2018.
Julián is a Mermaid is a picture book about a boy named Julián and his Abuela, who loves him and supports him in everything he does. He is transfixed when he sees three women on a subway dressed as mermaids, and he realizes that not only does he love mermaids, but he wants to become a mermaid himself. When his Abuela takes a bath, he decides to dress up as a mermaid. Rather than being uncomfortable with her grandson’s experimentation with gender, she encourages him and takes him to join the Mermaid Parade.
In an interview with Highlands Current, Love talked about the importance of the book’s illustrations: “Children are much more likely to read the books visually. I tried to create a story that is legible without text. If adults love a novel, they may read it more than once. If children love a book, they will read it hundreds of times — it’s almost like a set of stage directions for a world they will occupy. They will furnish it with their own imagination, playing all the parts themselves.”
Critics were enthusiastic about Love’s debut. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly praised Love’s “deep empathy for her characters” and her “keen-eyed observations.” The result is a “story of love, understanding, and embracing the mermaid within us all.” A contributor in Kirkus Reviews called the book a “charmingly subversive tale” that “offers a simple yet powerful story” about “being seen and affirmed.” In Horn Book, Minh Le noted that “Julian’s emotional journey takes on depth through small but important details.” They also lauded the illustrations for the way scenes “splash and swirl to life on the page.” Along with positive reviews, the book also won numerous awards including the the Stonewall Children’s & Young Adult Book Award and the Opera Prima at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
Love followed up with Julián at the Wedding. This picture book features Julián attending a wedding with his Abuela. There, he not only gets to be a part of the celebration, he meets a new friend named Marisol. When the two of them potentially get into trouble (party clothes get messy), everything is resolved with joy. In an interview with Mother magazine, Love discussed how her own memories of attending adult parties as a child informed the story: “There aren’t many occasions where children get to watch adults playing and being exuberant and joyful and alive in that way. I think it’s good for everybody.”
Reviewers enjoyed this outing as well. A writer in Kirkus Reviews called it a “celebration of weddings” and a “subtle yet poignant reminder that gender, like love, is expansive.” A contributor in Publishers Weekly praised “the specificity of Love’s characterizations” and how they “offer vibrancy and immediacy.”
Love turned to illustrating the books of other authors, including Mượn Thị Văn’s I Love You Because I Love You. The picture book uses a call-and-response format to describe the various reasons why we love each other. Love uses acrylic ink, watercolor, and gauche to bring the words to life.
“Words and images testify to acceptance, joy, and intimacy over time,” wrote a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. They described the book as one “worth visiting again and again.” In School Library Journal, John Scott agreed, calling the book “beautifully” illustrated and one that will “inspire children to assess the way they share love and are affected by it.”
Love returned to illustrating her own work in A Bed of Stars, which she wrote and illustrated when she was pregnant with her first child. That inspired her to imagine a story when a child goes out with their father for a camping trip where they name as many birds as they can and then enjoy looking at the stars at night. The excursion is designed to make the young child more comfortable in the dark, and it might do the same for young readers.
“A lovely vision for small existentialists,” wrote a contributor in Kirkus Reviews. They called the story a “quiet, contemplative tale” that will “reassure those who share the protagonist’s worries.” The reviewer was particularly taken with the “delicate, realistic art.” John Scott, writing in School Library Journal, praised the work as “truly remarkable” and an “essential book about facing almost any kind of fear.” Scott was particularly impressed with how Love is able to “honor those fears without making them the entire focus.” A reviewer in Publishers Weekly called it a “tender story about learning to approach that which feels unknown.”
Love collaborated with author Amy Novesky on the picture book The Poet and the Bees: A Story of the Seasons Sylvia Plath Kept Bees. The story describes how the poet Sylvia Plath was a beekeeper and how her final book of poetry was written while she was tending her bees. Novesky, who is herself a beekeeper, tells the story in verse and also includes some of Plath’s poetry at the end of the book. Love’s illustrations are a combination of watercolor and ink. A writer in Kirkus Reviews praised the book as “attentive, deeply respectful, lovely.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Horn Book Magazine, May-June, 2018, Minh Le, review of Julián is a Mermaid, pp. 110+.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2018, review of Julián is a Mermaid; August 15, 2020, review of Julián at the Wedding; August 15, 2022, review of Will It Be Okay?; February 1, 2023, review of A Bed of Stars; February 15, 2024, review of Gaga Mistake Day; January 1, 2025, review of The Poet and the Bees: A Story of the Seasons Sylvia Plath Kept Bees.
Publishers Weekly, March 5, 2018, review of Julián is a Mermaid, p. 69; September 14, 2020, review of Julián at the Wedding, p. 86; December 2, 2020, review of Julián at the Wedding, p. 12; November 8, 2021, review of I Love You Because I Love You, p. 65; February 6, 2023, review of A Bed of Stars, p. 60.
School Library Journal, April, 2022, John Scott, review of I Love You Because I Love You, p. 130; June, 2023, John Scott, review of A Bed of Stars, p. 70.
ONLINE
Highlands Current, https://highlandscurrent.org/ (March 26, 2021), Alison Rooney, author interview
Jessica Love website, https://jesslove.format.com/ (September 16, 2025).
Mother, https://www.mothermag.com/ (October 8, 2020), Katie Hintz-Zambrano, author interview; June 13, 2023, Katie Hintz-Zambrano, author interview.
Reading Realm, https://thereadingrealm.co.uk/ (April 14, 2019), author interview.
Jessica Love is the author and illustrator of Julián is a Mermaid, and Julián at the Wedding, published by Candlewick Press, and the illustrator of "I Love You Because I Love You" by Mượn Thị Văn, published by HarperCollins. Jessica grew up in Southern California, raised by a pair of artist parents. She studied printmaking and illustration at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and then went on to study Drama at Juilliard. After working as an actor in New York for ten years, she made a pivot and created Julián is a Mermaid, her first book. Jessica lives in the Hudson Valley with her sweetheart and their son.
5 Questions: Jessica Love
Alison Rooney
by Alison Rooney
March 26, 2021 Why you can trust The Current
Children’s book author and illustrator Jessica Love will read from her books, Julián is a Mermaid and Julián at the Wedding at 10 a.m. on Saturday (March 27) in a Zoom event sponsored by the Haldane PTA. Register at bit.ly/jessica-love-PTA.
Your books address gender expression. Is there a right age to start talking about this with a child?
The younger the better. When kids are left alone to encounter this on their own, there is little innate judgement, just a kind of Zen curiosity. In my experience, it’s the adults that bring the hysteria and judgment into the room, and kids pick up on that grown-up energy about subjects deemed “fraught” or “difficult.” In many ways it’s about getting yourself back into that headspace of a child where you haven’t learned yet what society has deemed appropriate and you’re coming at these questions with a calm and open mind.
How do children react differently to the books than adults?
Children are much more likely to read the books visually. I tried to create a story that is legible without text. If adults love a novel, they may read it more than once. If children love a book, they will read it hundreds of times — it’s almost like a set of stage directions for a world they will occupy. They will furnish it with their own imagination, playing all the parts themselves.
julian-bookYou’re also an actor. Does that influence you as a writer?
They come from the same place, which is an interest in storytelling. I have done a lot of first-time productions, which is my favorite type of play to do, because you are in the room while it is taking shape, the playwright is present and you get to have conversations about structure, how the story is assembled and what makes it work. That served me when I started thinking about Julián. One of the greatest pleasures of theater is its inevitable self-consciousness — there is a wonderful falseness, or rather, a deliberate, collective make-believing that I tried to braid into my books.
You drew realistic bodies for the adults. Why did you take that approach?
The thing we respond to in representational art is specificity — when we can recognize some of the truth in a character, we trust the story. Seeing the physical life of the characters is what allows you to go on an emotional journey with them without a great deal of didactic text. We are good at reading emotional life in people’s faces and bodies.
Did you consider having it take longer for Julián’s grandmother to come around to letting him be himself?
This was a crucial point for me. Because this book is nearly wordless, a lot of 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds are reading it. If I had created a plot point in which Julián’s abuela shames him, it would have in many cases been a child’s first encounter with the idea that this form of self-expression is bad. I’ve had many parents and educators tell me they had trouble finding books that celebrate their kids for being exactly as they are without a narrative about struggle and shame and pain. Most of the books on the topic actually introduced the kids to the idea that there is something wrong with them, when that had never occurred to them. I want my books to feel like a little party — a story about being seen for who you are, by someone who loves you.
Julian is a Mermaid: An interview with Jessica Love
“Picture books are our very first stories. They are the foundation we lay for how to make sense out of the world. And it is essential to build into that foundation a curiosity about, and compassion for, the breadth of human experience…”
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Jessica Love lives in Brooklyn and is the author and illustrator of Julián is a Mermaid, published by Candlewick Press. Find out more about Jessica and her work here!
First of all, congratulations on being shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize 2019! How does it feel?
Thank you! It feels completely surreal.
Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit more about Julian is a Mermaid?
It’s a story about a little boy who lives with his Abuela in Brooklyn, and he loves mermaids. LOVES them. And his grandmother loves him. And sees him. And has his back.
I love the relationship between Julian and his Nana – it very much reminded me on my own Nan and her love and acceptance when I came out to her. Was their relationship inspired at all by your relationship with your grandmother?
In some ways it was. I was very close with my grandmother, she died just before the book was published. I think sometimes there is a telescoping that can happen between generations, and that distance can allow for clearer-seeing. It was inspired by my own relationship with my grandmother, but it was inspired by a lot of other grandmothers I’ve known too. My grandmother adored me utterly. And she took zero shit. So the Nana in Julián definitely has some of her spirit.
The artwork in the book is so radiant and dazzling – what illustrators or artists have inspired you?
Thank you! Oh god so many! For their line work: Lizbeth Zwerger, Edmund Dulac, Hilary Knight, Aubrey Beardsley, Toulouse Lautrec. For color: Van Gogh. Van Gogh forever!
I adore this illustration. Could you tell us a little bit more about it – your choices in layout, framing, colour, positioning and what you were trying to achieve?
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“I wanted this frame to feel ecstatic–I wanted it to be beautiful, ravishing, extravagant…”
Thank you! This sequence was always the heart of the story. Because I made this book for pleasure on my own, without really expecting it to be published, I had a lot of time for research and development. I spent hours at the New York Picture Collection (a resource that’s part of the New York Public Library) sorting through images of art nouveau jewelry, furniture, prints, advertisements…I’ve always loved the sort of breathless quality of line in the art nouveau style. I wanted this frame to feel ecstatic–I wanted it to be beautiful, ravishing, extravagant–because that is what our fantasies look like and feel like. I wanted to show the depth and breadth of this character’s inner life.
What are your feelings about the Reflecting Realities report carried out last year by CLPE, which found that only 4% of children’s books published in 2017 featured BAME characters? Were you surprised by the findings? What can publishers do to address this?
I hadn’t seen that report, but that’s a very low percentage. I’m assuming that is specifically in the UK? We are having similar conversations here in the US, and our conversation includes a push to get more authors of color published. While over here we publish a larger number of books featuring characters of color, I think only something like 7% of the authors are authors of color.
I was saddened to read that there has been ‘a spate of attempts around the world to remove titles depicting gay or transgender characters from library shelves’ (The Guardian, January 2019). Why do you think children’s books that explore the lives of gay and transgender characters so important?
Oh god, people. We have such a talent, as a species, for being awful to each other. I think these books are important because it is at that age that we internalize the basics of how to treat people. Picture books are our very first stories. They are the foundation we lay for how to make sense out of the world. And it is essential to build into that foundation a curiosity about, and compassion for, the breadth of human experience. That is the only chance we have of consciously, deliberately evolving past this brutal stage of our development we seem so persistently stuck on.
What is the main message you’d like readers to take from Julian is a Mermaid?
I don’t have a message. But I do hope it gives readers a feeling of beauty, and of love.
Can you tell us about what you’re currently working on and what we can expect from you next?
I currently have three books in the works. I can’t say too much about them, but the next one will be one I write and illustrate. And there will be trees.
Finally, can you describe Julian is a Mermaid in three words?
Nana loves Julian.
Jessica Love On Her Newest Release, Julián At The Wedding
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Maria Del Rio
Oct 8, 2020
Drumroll…it’s finally here! If you loved the vibrant, inclusive kids’ book Julián Is A Mermaid (who didn’t?!), the award-winning book now has a companion title: Julián At The Wedding. With a lively story and beautiful illustrations by Julián creator Jessica Love, this time around the adored character finds himself as a flower kid at a color-soaked wedding that his abuela brings him to. Naturally, some fabulous dress-up-fueled adventure ensues. So, why a wedding as a setting? We asked Love to explain.
“I think the pith of the inspiration for me is always a kind of mytho-poetic mood. And some of the most vivid and thrilling memories I have from childhood are of being a kid at an adult party,” says Love. “There is something really thrilling about the way the normal rules are suspended—suddenly the grown-ups are laughing and dancing and everyone is dressed up in exotic costumes and you’re allowed to stay up late and eat sugar, but mostly it’s the way the behavior of the adults changes that’s so compelling. There aren’t many occasions where children get to watch adults playing and being exuberant and joyful and alive in that way. I think it’s good for everybody.”
Additionally, Love explains: “I think I was also inspired to set the story at a wedding because marriage—while it has its problems as an institution—is, at its most basic level, a promise between two people to help each other, to trust one another, to compromise, to work together, to be kind to each other. I wish that we, as a species, could get better at extending that sense of mutuality out further. I think we must.”
The story itself circles around the celebration of love between an LGBTQ couple, both decked out in romantic white ensembles, including an afro covered in flowers and layered with a billowing veil. Meanwhile, Julián wears a sharp lavender suit with a playful peplum for his starring role in the wedding—walking a cute dog down the aisle.
The illustrations themselves are so bold and beautiful and practically jump off the page. We asked Love how these creations come to be—so perhaps you and your little one can be inspired to try at home!
“I’m pretty lo-fi. I like the way hand-made stuff looks—I feel like it has spiritual fingerprints,” she explains. “So, I work on cotton paper—Stonehenge ‘Kraft’ paper is what I’ve used for both Julián books. I sketch the image out in pencil, then I ink a few parts I want in black India ink, and erase the pencil so there are as few marks on the page as possible. Then I go in with watercolor and gouache washes.”
Of course, beyond the gorgeous illustrations, it’s Love’s stories that celebrate individualism and boys who love dress-up that have been celebrated widely. Parents around the country—and abroad—have applauded the author-illustrator for challenging gender norms in the best-selling Julián Is A Mermaid, and it’s a privilege she doesn’t take lightly.
“I can’t overstate the honor it has been to get to know so many people for whom this story and this character has meant something,” says Love. “As an artist you spend so much of your worry-time asking ‘does this matter AT ALL?’ and mostly you just have to decide that you may never know, but it matters to you, and that has to be enough of a reason to keep going. But since Mermaid came out I have heard from so many families and individuals who have told me explicitly that this story was necessary, or healing, or joy-making for them—that they felt seen.”
“I’ve met so many Juliáns, of all ages, all over the world, and to be let in a little into their experiences, their struggles, and their joy has been a profound thing for me. One highlight was my first school visit,” Love recalls. “A kindergarten teacher named Vera Ahiyya was the first person to reach out to me and ask if I’d come do an author visit, and it was such a good day. The school was in Brooklyn, and the kids were so great, so smart and funny, and full of questions. At the end of the year, Vera’s students gifted her a tattoo with a local tattoo artist, and the tattoo she got was Julián as a mermaid! So now he swims on her arm. I consider Vera one of Julián’s fairy godmothers, and she actually appears in the second to last page of Julián At The Wedding dancing with her husband.”
To see this fun surprise and so many more delights, be sure to scoop up Julián At The Wedding at Bookshop, Amazon, or your favorite local bookstore.
Author & Illustrator Jessica Love
Written by Katie Hintz-Zambrano
Photography by Amy Sanusi
Jun 13, 2023
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The beloved author and illustrator behind Julián is a Mermaid and Julián at the Wedding is back with a stunning new title—A Bed of Stars—inspired by her journey into motherhood.
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Backstage and in-between scenes of a Broadway play is where actor-turned-author/illustrator Jessica Love wrote her debut children’s book, Julián is a Mermaid (2018). The stunningly illustrated story about a boy who wants to be a mermaid went on to become an acclaimed best-seller—and was followed up with the equally beautiful Julián at the Wedding in 2020.
Now Jessica Love is back with her third title and it’s her most personal one yet. A Bed of Stars was written and illustrated while she was pregnant with her first child—a son named Valentine. The story is about a father and child who go on a road-trip to camp in the desert and “shake hands with the universe.”
“Because I was pregnant, making the book felt like a sort of talismanic weaving for my son, like I wanted the book to have the function of an amulet or something. A token to give light in dark places,” she explains. “I found myself pulling all the best protection from my own childhood, and the lessons I’ve learned in my own life, and trying to weave them into this book. I shipped off the final art the week before he was born.”
The result is lush spreads showing starry skies and constellations, the sweetest father-child moments, and mini-lessons on how to build a fire and identify specific flowers and birds in the desert. The dad in the book is also a dead-ringer for Jessica’s real-life husband Danny—who you’ll meet in today’s profile.
Keep scrolling to learn more about A Bed of Stars, the journey from actress to artist to mother, and much more, as Jessica invites us into her beautifully hand-crafted home and studio in Upstate New York.
Be sure to follow Jessica @jessicalovedraws on Instagram for even more.
What was your life and career like before publishing your first book?
“I grew up in Southern California, in a cabin in the mountains behind Santa Barbara. It was my parents, me, and my younger sister. Our parents are both craftspeople—my mom is a basket maker, my dad is a potter, and they made their work in a studio behind our house. I went to college at UC Santa Cruz where I majored in Visual Art with a focus on printmaking, but I did lots of theater. When I was a senior, I was accepted into Juilliard’s acting program, and so the summer after finishing college I moved to New York.”
“Juilliard is a 4-year acting program, and I graduated in 2009, and worked as an actor (and therefore also as a nanny, bartender, waitress, etc.) for the next 10 years. I did regional theater and plays in New York, both on and off Broadway. I liked doing Shakespeare, and developing weird new plays best. That was my life and that was my community and I loved it. However, I was always broke, and always worried about money. Making enough to live on as a jobbing theater actor is kind of a joke.”
What was the process like to get your first book, Julián is a Mermaid, published?
“I worked on Julián is a Mermaid for a couple years before I showed it to anyone. I would work on it when I was between jobs, and I also did a few shows where I was only on stage for like 6 minutes in these very cool roles that only had a tiny amount of stage time. The last time I was on Broadway, I was in this beautiful Jez Butterworth play called The River, and it starred Hugh Jackman and Cush Jumbo and Laura Donnely in this really mystical three hander—and then I came in for the last seven minutes of the play. So, I would sit in my dressing room listening to the play, and paint Julián. After that show closed, I put together my draft of the book, which was basically all the artwork layed out with some text but not all of it. I didn’t know what I was doing, it was like 52 pages long. The story was the same, the beats were the same, it just took me 52 pages to get through it.”
“So, I sent this draft of the book in an email to everyone I’d ever done a play with who I thought might be able to help me get a literary agent, because as an actor I knew how impossible breaking into an industry is without an agent, especially if you have no gift for pitching yourself, which I don’t. And this is where it feels like my life before helped me into my new life, like a current.”
“Making A Bed of Stars felt like a sort of talismanic weaving for my son. I wanted the book to have the function of an amulet. A token to give light in dark places.”
How did you end up getting an agent?
"The first time I was on Broadway was in a play by Sharr White called The Snow Geese. I love this play more than I can say. Mary Louise Parker was the lead, and we became friends. When I sent her my draft of Julián is a Mermaid, she was in the midst of publishing her collection of letters, Dear Mr. You, and she was basically like, ‘I am going to help you get an agent. Leave it to me.’ And she showed my draft to her agent, who showed it to his then-girlfriend (now wife), Meredith Kaffel (now Meredith Kaffel Simonoff) who was also a literary agent, but represented just a few illustrators as well, and we had a kind of love-at-first-sight meeting and have been together ever since.”
“She is my friend and advisor and I owe her so much. She and I put together a list of publishing houses where we thought the story and the vibe would be a good fit, and then we submitted it. And then we started receiving our rejection letters. I thought I would be good at this part because I had so much practice with it after a decade in the theater, but it hurt in a totally different way. It was so much more personal. In some ways I had kept visual art as a kind of private practice for myself, I had never really submitted my work to any kind of judgment before and hearing this art that I had birthed (and making art is psychic birth, it’s more like that process than any other physical process I can think of) briskly assessed and dismissed was a kind of nakedness I had not known before.”
“Time passed. Then, one day at the end of the summer, we got an email from an editor at Candlewick Press. It was our dream publisher but kind of a long shot, and anyway they had passed on the book months ago. However, this editor found my submission in the slush pile, and she wrote basically saying, ‘I want to make your book! Is it still available?’ That editor is Katie Cunningham, and she kinda rescued my life from the slush pile. I did another couple of drafts of the story with Katie and Ann Stott, the art director. I got really lucky in having Ann work on Julián—she’s the Executive Art Director at Candlewick Press and is renowned within the industry. She worked on many of my favorite picture books of all time—like the Hat trilogy by Jon Klassen—and it was an unbelievable piece of good luck getting to work with her on my first book. I learned SO MUCH from her and from Katie.”
Tell us about the character Julián and how he developed into not one, but two books.
“I don’t know how to talk about what is happening when a character emerges out of…whatever plane they exist in and assert themselves in the mind of a writer or artist or whatever, and sort of insist on embodiment. It was like that. It was like this presence was pushing themselves out of the mist and into my brain. It’s a mysterious thing, but that’s how it happens. I think that’s not an uncommon way for artists to describe it, actually. It feels like your job is more like transcription rather than invention. Or like a psychic pregnancy. I realize that sounds both occult and self-important, but that’s what it felt like! It felt occult, and it felt incredibly important to deliver Julián safely into the world.”
With book bans sweeping the country, how have you been impacted?
“Ugh. I mean, it makes me feel unsalutary things about the people trying to enact these bans. I don’t think it’s healthy to feel disgust towards other human beings, but the hypocrisy just turns my stomach. It’s the fact that these people are willing to pretend, to themselves and TO THEIR CHILDREN that books which acknowledge the vast variety of human experience are dangerous, while kids are being MURDERED AT SCHOOL. It’s a level of unreason that kind of undoes me. What do you say to someone who chooses guns over books? Violence over knowledge? Death over life? I don’t know how to feel anything but revulsion towards these people. That being said, people are rising up against this death drive all over the country. I hear from people every week who are organizing to make banned books available. The resistance is strong, and growing stronger!”
Tell us about your latest book, A Bed of Stars—your first book as a mother yourself.
“While I was pregnant with Valentine, I started working on my third book, A Bed of Stars. The process was similar to the others—I start with the images, and the story emerges from these little moments that reveal themselves. But because I was pregnant, making the book felt like a sort of talismanic weaving for my son, like I wanted the book to have the function of an amulet or something. A token to give light in dark places.”
“So I found myself pulling all the best protection from my own childhood, and the lessons I’ve learned in my own life, and trying to weave them into this book. I shipped off the final art the week before he was born. Now he’s a year and a half, and next week he will be starting daycare (weeps, laughs, weeps again)!”
Has motherhood changed the type of children's books you want to make?
“I think it’s just strengthened my previously held convictions that didactic literature for kids sucks as much as didactic literature for grownups sucks. I believe picture books exist within the realm of art—whatever it is art does for us as human beings, that stirring—picture books are our first foray into that thing."
What are your favorite books to read to Valentine?
"The books I like are the books that are trying to give children that experience of a portal opening up into a world. Favorites right now are Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Berger, Square by Jon Klassen, and How Little Lori Visited Times Square by Amos Vogel and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.”
“I have to say, the size of the pain of giving birth rearranged my brain permanently. Nothing seems hard compared to that.”
Tell us about your studio space.
“My studio is in an old one room schoolhouse on our property. When we moved here it was uninsulated, the electricity was off, and it had no water. It was also the residence of three 6-foot black snakes, as we discovered when we were doing demo on the ceiling. They fell from the insulation where they had been living and landed on the floor and yes, we screamed. I carried them outside on the end of a broom handle. And now they live under the floor of my studio and I have to say, they have perfect manners and spend their summers catching mice and their winters sleeping.”
“My husband Danny did the whole renovation of the school house—he put in new windows, did foam insulation, did the electric, built cabinetry, a sink, plumbing, a loft, and covered the walls in wood paneling. The first 6 months of us living here he was working on the schoolhouse while I was illustrating a book in our mudroom. I got to move into the studio in March of 2021, and it has been my place ever since."
"It’s an incredible thing to get to work inside this gift of love and artistry from my husband. I feel so safe here. It feels like some kind of Earth witch’s cottage—lots of plants, sage from my parents’ garden, all my books. The schoolhouse has a strong presence, and has taken good care of me. I often think of what these years have been like from its point of view, of the quiet years spent alone with the snakes, and then all that activity—hammering, spraying, sawing, sanding—and now I come in every day and listen to books on tape and make pictures and lay on the floor. I say goodnight to the schoolhouse every evening when I leave.”
Do you have regular hours that you try to work each day?
“I do. I am very lucky in having my studio at home, but in a separate building. I’m someone who needs to kind of trance out when I’m working, and so being inaccessible to Valentine when I’m trying to do it is essential.”
What about any creative habits or practices to get going?
“I don’t have the time to do this right now, but I am hoping that once Valentine starts daycare I can join a weekly figure drawing group. I never get to just draw with no agenda anymore and the few times I’ve done it it’s been so good. I think it’s like the practice of feeding your creative daemon without trying to extract a result. It’s like exercise. Of course, I don’t do it.”
Any advice you'd give to fellow creatives about juggling an art practice and a young child?
“When I was pregnant my husband Danny and I had this joke where we would say, ‘Instead of advice, why don’t you just give me fifty dollars?’ I really don’t have any advice, it’s just hard. And you figure it out. But I don’t think there is a way around it being hard.”
How was your pregnancy with Valentine?
“My pregnancy was healthy except for when I got Lyme, which was horrible. But birth was so, so hard. This will sound very dumb, but I just wasn’t prepared for how much it would, like, hurt? I was 6-years-old when my mom gave birth to my sister at home, and I remember being so impressed with her strength, but I wasn’t scared. I think on some deep level I deduced from that experience that birth was hard but manageable. Tough, but fair. But my labor began with contractions two minutes apart and they stayed that way for 20 hours of back labor. It was pain unlike…I want a bigger word, it was pain of a different category. I thought the pain would be like, the ceiling of the pain I had experienced before in my life—but I pushed through that ceiling only to discover it was actually the floor of a giant pain cathedral. But we made it through, and I have to say, the size of that pain rearranged my brain permanently. Nothing seems hard compared to that.”
What has your experience been like bonding with your son?
“For me the bond was one that developed. The newborn phase was so hard, just the relentlessness of it, the mysteriousness of why your baby is crying—you’re just surviving from moment to moment. For me it felt like around 5 months was when it started to bloom.”
Tell us about your son's name and any meaning behind it.
“This is kind of cool. My husband Danny and I went to college together. We were friends with chemistry, but we never did anything about it. However, we stayed friends through all the years of living in different cities, through different relationships. And then when the time was finally right, bam. This was the year before Julián was published. He had been living in L.A. but came to visit me in New York. We were walking through Green Wood Cemetery (my favorite place in New York City), talking about kids. We discovered each of us had a secret name we’d been holding onto, if we were to ever have a child. It turns out we had the same name in mind: Valentine.”
“Valentine’s middle names are Samuel, for Samuel Langhorn Clemmons, and Love, my mom’s last name, because I wanted the matrilineal line in there too.”
Are there things from your upbringing that you're consciously trying to incorporate (or not incorporate) into your Valentine's upbringing?
“I think one of the most precious gifts my parents gave me was an immediate relationship with the non-human world. We lived in the woods by a river, and my imaginative world was populated by cottonwood trees, frogs, river spirits, and dryads. I remember very acutely the feeling of coming home from middle school after some excoriating adolescent incident, and feeling in my body this sense of relief to be in the quiet company of trees I had known since I was born. I think one of our greatest wishes for Valentine is that he be in relationship with the world around him in this way."
"For Danny’s side of the family, I think they had a really special kind of closeness—especially with his extended family. They did things together constantly—camping, digging for mussels at the beach and cooking them in salt water from the ocean—simple things, but I think that opportunity to be with your parents when they’re just sort of happily hanging out is incredibly stabilizing. It gives you ballast. Unfortunately, we moved to New York and both of our families live in California so we’re still figuring that part out.”
Were you always doing art as a child? And is this something that you want to do with Valentine?
“Yes, always. My parents would roll out a big sheet of butcher paper on their studio floor and give me a bucket of markers and more or less leave me to it. Because Danny and I are still in the process of building our house, our kitchen cabinetry is all temporary, so we let Val draw all over it. But so far he seems far more intrigued with his dad’s work—Danny is a woodworker, he makes furniture. And his wood shop is Valentine’s favorite place on earth. One of his first words was not a word but like a ‘clock-clock’ sound effect of a hammer.”
What were some of your favorite books as a child and teen?
“When I was little, my favorites were Miss Rumphius and Eloise. My dad read me The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and my mom read me Anne of Green Gables. I loved (and love) Ursula Leguin, Madelein L’Engle. When I was a teenager, I fell in love with Nabokov and Arundhati Roy.”
What excites you most about motherhood right now? What makes you nervous?
“Valentine is starting to talk more, and I am so excited to have conversations with him. Everything makes me nervous."
Any big happenings—professionally or personally—that you're excited about for the year ahead?
“I am in the middle of illustrating two really special books—the first is called Little Passenger by Deirdre Sullivan, and it’s a book about the relationship you have with your baby while you’re pregnant. The other is called The Poet and the Bees by Amy Novesky and it’s a collection of poems about the summer Sylvia Plath kept bees.”
“The other big thing is that Julián is a Mermaid is being made into an animated feature film, by Cartoon Saloon, a really incredible animation studio based in Kilkenny, Ireland, with a screenplay by the brilliant Juliany Taveras, and directed by the incredible Louise Bagnall. The film is being put together with such care and deliberation, I think it’s going to be really special.”
Jessica Love
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jessica Love
Born 1982 (age 42–43)
Occupation theater actress, author, and illustrator
Nationality American
Education University of California, Santa Cruz (BFA)
Juilliard School (MFA)
Notable works Julián Is a Mermaid
Website
jesslove.format.com
Jessica Love (born 1982) is an American theater actress, author, and illustrator. She is best known for her debut children's picture book Julián is a Mermaid,[1][2] which has won the Stonewall Book Award and Klaus Flugge Prize.[3][4] All of her books are LGBTQ+ friendly.[5]
Biography
Love grew up in Southern California,[6] raised by her parents, who were quite artistic. She attended the University of California Santa Cruz, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She then attended Juilliard's drama program and graduated with her master's in 2009.
Before publishing her first book, Julián is a Mermaid, in 2018, Love worked as an actress in New York City for thirteen years. She refers to her book as "her backstage baby,"[7] as she worked on it between a Jez Butterworth's The River (2014) and Julia Cho's Aubergine at Playwrights Horizons (2016). During this time, she spent five years writing and illustrating Julián is a Mermaid before finding a publisher.[8]
Love currently lives in Hudson Valley with her partner, Daniel, and their son.[9][6] She and Daniel were friends for twenty years before they became romantically involved, and they have been together for the last five years.
Style
Love hand illustrated each of her books using ink, gouache, and watercolor. An interesting aspect of her Julián books is she uses brown paper.[10] She tried white paper originally, however she says, "something about it just wasn't working." When first starting to write Julián is a Mermaid, Love states that it "was going to be entirely wordless.. but it became clear to me as I showed early sketches of the book to people that there was some information that was missing, and without it the story wouldn't actually make sense.”[11] Now she has included some words, but has been very careful to not overwrite the book or take your focus away from the illustrations.
In her newest book A Bed of Stars she explored her creativity in a more natural aspect looking at the nature around her.[9]
Inspiration
Love has stated she is most inspired by the work of Maurice Sendak, Hillary Knight, Bill Waterson, Shel Silverstein, John Klassen, Mac Barnett, and Carson Ellis.[12]
Books
Julián is a Mermaid (2018)
Main article: Julián Is a Mermaid
Julián is a Mermaid, published May 22, 2018 by Candlewick Press, is about a little boy riding a bus with his grandma when he notices three women dressed up as mermaids (colorful and beautiful) and goes home to dress up like a mermaid. The story follows how he feels about himself and how his abuela feels about her grandson discovering another aspect of himself.[13]
Love's inspiration for Julián is a Mermaid, was a friend who transitioned later on in life.[12] Love was inspired by his story and the struggles he had to go through to live his life as his truest self.[12] After hearing his story and starting to understand drag through Paris is Burning, she wanted to create a story about how the love of a community affects a child's view of themselves.[12]
Julián at the Wedding (2020)
In Julián at the Wedding, published October 6, 2020 by Candlewick Press, Julián and his abuela go to a wedding, where he makes a friend, Marisol. Together, they create mischief and understand the value of friends.[14]
A Bed of Stars (2023)
A Bed of Stars, expected to be published April 4, 2023 by Candlewick Press,[9] is about a father who goes camping in the desert with his child. Love has stated that line “shake hands with the universe” is best explains the book.[9]
Awards and honors
In 2018, Julián is a Mermaid was named one of the best children's books of the year by The Horn Book Magazine,[15] Kirkus Reviews, NPR,[16] Publishers Weekly,[17] and TIME.
In 2020, Julián at the Wedding was named one of the best children's books of the year by Publishers Weekly.[18]
Awards for Love's writing
Year Title Award Result Ref.
2018 Julián is a Mermaid Children's Book NAIBA Book of the Year Award Winner [19]
Opera Prima Bologna Children's Book Fair Winner
2019 ALSC Notable Children's Books Selection [20]
Anna Dewdney Read Together Award Honor [21]
Bologna Ragazzi Award Winner [22]
Carnegie Medal Shortlist [23][24]
Ezra Jack Keats Book Award for Illustrator Honor [25][26][27]
Klaus Flugge Prize Winner [4][28]
Stonewall Book Award for Children's & Young Adult Winner [29][30]
Publications
As author
Julián is a Mermaid (Candlewick Press, 2018)[31]
Translations: Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Danish, German, Spanish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Japanese, Dutch, and Korean.[32]
Julián at the Wedding (Candlewick Press, 2022)[33]
A Bed of Stars (Candlewick Press, 2023)[34]
As illustrator
I Love You Because I Love You by Mượn Thị Văn (HarperCollins, 2022)[35]
Will it Be Okay? by Crescent Dragonwagon (HarperCollins, 2022)[36]
Julian Is a Mermaid
Jessica Love. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p)
ISBN 978-0-7636-9045-8
Riding home on the subway, Julian is transfixed by three mermaids--voluptuous and self-possessed, with flowing tresses of black, pink, and red, and wearing aqua fishtail costumes (the book is printed on a Kraft-like paper, so the colors seem to literally glow). "Julian loves mermaids," writes debut author-illustrator Love, and her protagonist falls into a reverie: he's under the sea, and amid a dazzling school of fish, he sprouts a radiant orange fishtail and waist-length curly hair. While Abuela takes a bath, Julian takes matters into his own hands. He strips down to his underpants, paints his lips purple, fashions a fishtail costume from curtains, and creates a headdress from ferns and flowers. He is, in a word, fabulous. Love lets an anxious beat pass before Abuela takes Julian by the hand, leading him to what some readers may recognize as the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. "Like you, mijo," says Abuela. "Let's join them." Love's deep empathy for her characters and her keen-eyed observations of urban life come together in a story of love, understanding, and embracing the mermaid within us all. Ages 4-8. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Julian Is a Mermaid." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 10, 5 Mar. 2018, p. 69. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A530430340/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=072c82e9. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Love, Jessica JULIAN IS A MERMAID Candlewick (Children's Fiction) $16.99 5, 22 ISBN: 978-0-7636-9045-8
Julian knows he's a mermaid.
On the el with his abuela, Afro-Latinx Julian looks on, entranced, as three mermaids enter their car. Instantly enamored, Julian imagines himself a mermaid. In a sequence of wordless double-page spreads, the watercolor, gouache, and ink art--perfect for this watercentric tale--depicts adorable Julian's progression from human to mermaid: reading his book on the el with water rushing in, then swimming in that water and freeing himself from the constraints of human clothing as his hair grows longer (never losing its texture). When Julian discovers he has a mermaid tail, his charming expressions make his surprise and delight palpable. At home, Julian tells Abuela that he, too, is a mermaid; Abuela admonishes him to "be good" while she takes a bath. A loose interpretation of being "good" could include what happens next as Julian decides to act out his "good idea": He sheds his clothes (all except undies), ties fern fronds and flowers to his headband, puts on lipstick, and fashions gauzy, flowing curtains into a mermaid tail. When Abuela emerges with a disapproving look, readers may think Julian is in trouble--but a twist allows for a story of recognition and approval of his gender nonconformity. Refreshingly, Spanish words aren't italicized.
Though it could easily feel preachy, this charmingly subversive tale instead offers a simple yet powerful story of the importance of being seen and affirmed. (Picture book. 3-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Love, Jessica: JULIAN IS A MERMAID." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A530650670/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b9a4aff9. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Julian Is a Mermaid
by Jessica Love; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary Candlewick 40 pp. g
5/18 978-0-7636-9045-8 $16.99
The front endpapers show a group of older women in a pool and a boy swimming underwater. On the next spread (the copyright and title pages), the child, Julian, is walking to the subway with one of the women, his abuela, followed by three magnificent-looking people dressed as mermaids. Julian loves mermaids, and this encounter leads him into a daydream where he dives deep into the water, shedding clothes and transforming himself into a mermaid. Arriving home, the boy creates a makeshift mermaid outfit from household objects (including the leaves of a houseplant and window curtains) and puts on lipstick. When Abuela discovers her grandson in mermaid attire, there's a very slight narrative pause: "'Oh!' Uh-oh." How will she react? Happily, it's all good: Abuela gives Julian a string of beads to complete the outfit, then the two walk proudly arm in arm toward a festive parade, joining others joyfully dressed as mermaids, stingrays, and other sea creatures (a la Coney Island's Mermaid Parade).
Julian's emotional journey takes on depth through small but important details: a wary look in the mirror, a slight inward slump of the shoulders, a chin held high while marching down the street. Love uses vibrant watercolors with gouache and ink and a lively style to create scenes that splash and swirl to life on the page.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Le, Minh. "Julian Is a Mermaid." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 94, no. 3, May-June 2018, pp. 110+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A543899845/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=117df674. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Love, Jessica JULIAN AT THE WEDDING Candlewick (Children's None) $16.99 10, 6 ISBN: 978-1-5362-1238-9
Mermaid-loving Julian is back!
Julian and Abuela arrive at an outdoor wedding on a green lawn (discerning eyes will spy the Statue of Liberty in the distance). Both meet friends at the wedding: Abuela, a familiar friend, and Julian, a new one, Marisol. Julian and Marisol are part of the wedding, which the text proclaims is “a party for love.” Julian holds the leash of Gloria, the brides’ dog, and Marisol—whose baseball cap has been swapped out for a flower crown—tosses petals. Later, after Marisol gifts Julian the flower crown, Marisol, Julian, and Gloria run off to the “fairy house,” or weeping willow. Marisol and Gloria have such fun that muddy paws aren’t a thought...until Marisol’s peach-pink dress is covered in paw prints. But never fear, innovative Julian is here! With the help of the fairy house, all’s well that ends well: Marisol’s hat is returned, the brides welcome the pair back, and everyone celebrates love. Love’s media, applied, as in the previous book, on brown paper, create colors that appear simultaneously soft and vibrant. Most of the main characters present Black or have brown skin. As established in the previous book, Julian and Abuela are Afro-Latinx, and Abuela’s friend and Marisol are also cued Latinx.
A celebration of weddings and a subtle yet poignant reminder that gender, like love, is expansive. Lovely. (Picture book. 4-8.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Love, Jessica: JULIAN AT THE WEDDING." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632285490/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3c422eb5. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Julian at the Wedding
Jessica Love. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1238-9
Julian is back! He is going to be in a wedding, and he arrives, dressed in a sharp lavender suit and magenta shoes, with his abuela. "A wedding is a party for love," Love (Julian Is a Mermaid) writes. Julian and flower girl Marisol, who attends in a ball cap with her own caretaker, meet each other, greet the brides--both clad in dazzling white and bright blue shoes--and walk down the aisle with dog Gloria, Marisol sprinkling petals as they go. The brides kiss, the party starts, and Julian and Marisol wander off, Julian having donned Marisol's flower wreath. When Marisol's fancy gown suffers from play with Gloria, Julian fashions her a new outfit from his dress shirt and a willow's trailing boughs--for a magical moment, inside the willow's arbor, the two become butterflies. "There you are!" the brides cry when the children rejoin the celebration, and an energetic dance party begins, the Statue of Liberty in the background. Artwork on brown paper allows warm, clear views of the characters, who appear to be Black and Afro-Latinx. The specificity of Love's characterizations--the way the abuelas kick off their high heels, the brides' enthusiasm, the children's expansive gender expressions--offers vibrancy and immediacy, and under their community's watchful eyes, Julian and Marisol find affection, acceptance, and room to grow. Ages 4--8. (Oct.)
Picture books center urban communities.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Julian at the Wedding." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 37, 14 Sept. 2020, p. 86. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638847205/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e5d31947. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Julian at the Wedding
Jessica Love. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1238-9
Julian is back! He is going to be in a wedding, and he arrives, dressed in a sharp lavender suit and magenta shoes, with his abuela. "A wedding is a party for love," Love (Julian Is a Mermaid) writes. Julian and flower girl Marisol, who attends in a ball cap with her own caretaker, meet each other, greet the brides--both clad in dazzling white and bright blue shoes--and walk down the aisle with dog Gloria, Marisol sprinkling petals as they go. The brides kiss, the party starts, and Julian and Marisol wander off, Julian having donned Marisol's flower wreath. When Marisol's fancy gown suffers from play with Gloria, Julian fashions her a new outfit from his dress shirt and a willow's trailing boughs--for a magical moment, inside the willow's arbor, the two become butterflies. "There you are!" the brides cry when the children rejoin the celebration, and an energetic dance party begins, the Statue of Liberty in the background. Artwork on brown paper allows warm, clear views of the characters, who appear to be Black and Afro-Latinx. The specificity of Love's characterizations--the way the abuelas kick off their high heels, the brides' enthusiasm, the children's expansive gender expressions--offers vibrancy and immediacy, and under their community's watchful eyes, Julian and Marisol find affection, acceptance, and room to grow. Ages 4--8.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
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"Julian at the Wedding." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 49, 2 Dec. 2020, p. 12. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646895661/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4c7d7bf1. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
* VAN, Muon Thi. I Love You Because I Love You. illus. by Jessica Love. 32p. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. Jan. 2022. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780062894595.
K-Gr 2--What is love? This compelling title attempts to capture many different expressions of love, a topic of much discussion in children's literature. Each spread features a short dialogue declaring the ways that love is expressed and how it changes a person for the better. On one spread two parents hear their toddler, who has just drawn all over the walls of their house, say "I love you because you let me make mistakes." The opposite page shows the trio turning the scribbles into a wall of art: "Because I love you, no mistake is ever too great." "I love you because you see what others miss" becomes an even more powerful, "Because I love you, I see more than before." The diversity of the characters and the expressions of love provide multiple opportunities for children to find themselves reflected in these pages. This title would also make a wonderful writing prompt for children and even preteens to share their own experiences of love and how it has transformed their lives. Love's illustrations, in acrylic ink, watercolor and gouache, are brimming with emotion, capturing Van's lyrical language but enhancing it, and welcoming all. The effect, across the pages, is ever expansive, like a peony blossom unfolding. VERDICT Beautifully written and illustrated, this title presents and grows the concept of love in so many ways that it cannot fail to inspire children to assess the ways they share love and are affected by it.--John Scott
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Scott, John. "VAN, Muon Thi. I Love You Because I Love You." School Library Journal, vol. 68, no. 4, Apr. 2022, p. 130. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A699585720/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1aba204a. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Dragonwagon, Crescent WILL IT BE OKAY? Cameron Kids (Children's None) $18.99 9, 6 ISBN: 978-1-951836-50-4
An updated version of Dragonwagon's 1977 release, originally illustrated by Ben Shecter, with new artwork by Love.
Written entirely in dialogue between a parent and a child, the text addresses childhood fears ranging from the small ("But what if there is thunder and lightning?") to the profound ("But what if you die?"). The latter worry arises toward the end of the book, after the child has received matter-of-fact, loving reassurance about many other fears ("You sit at your window and watch the rain beating down over the houses "). The parent does not seem visibly ill, which suggests that this is a general query about mortality rather than a pressing concern. Throughout, Love's illustrations brim with vitality and emotion, evoking a style akin to some of Trina Schart Hyman's earlier work in the characters' design, with spare backgrounds that offer expressive, decorative embellishments to help set mood and tone. This tender tale is a balm for worried children in troubled times and a model of comfort for caregivers to offer them. The main characters have light skin, dark eyes, and curly, black hair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More than OK. Much more. (Picture book. 3-8)
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"Dragonwagon, Crescent: WILL IT BE OKAY?" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A713722684/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6be44692. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Love, Jessica A BED OF STARS Candlewick (Children's None) $18.99 4, 4 ISBN: 978-1-5362-1239-6
Under the desert night sky, Dad helps his child find cosmic comfort.
The vast universe has made a child feel too small despite their close family. Until, the young narrator tells us, they and their father pack their old pickup, driving through the "rubber and french fries" smell of the city and the "sweet and smoky" mountain scent to camp off-road in a remote arroyo. Together they see tiny beetle prints, jump in sand dunes, name birds, build a fire, watch the sunset, and stretch out in the truck bed. A thoughtful, small human, the child admits to being scared of "how big the universe is and how it goes on and on forever." But equally thoughtful Dad explains that stars, beetles, birds, and even people are made of energy. Angst is not easily tamed, but snuggling and giving the constellations idiosyncratic names help, as does Mom's back-at-home surprise: glowing stars covering the narrator's room. In this bed under the stars, this budding philosopher finally feels "at home here in the universe." It's a quiet, contemplative tale that might not strike a chord with all readers but will reassure those who share the protagonist's worries. Delicate, realistic art plays warm orange and brown hues against blues from pale to indigo, balancing (living) warmth and (interstellar) distance. The child and family are light-skinned and redheaded. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lovely vision for small, sensitive existentialists. (Picture book. 6-8)
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"Love, Jessica: A BED OF STARS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735117794/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0003ad7e. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
*A Bed of Stars
Jessica Love. Candlewick, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-1239-6
"We're going camping, you and me," Dad says one morning to the young narrator of this picture book. The two set out for the desert in the white-presenting family's pickup truck, encountering the land's beauty, captured by Love (/ Love You Because I Love You) in sketchbook-style paintings and carefully observed phrases ("This is my best smell" says the child about the mountains' fragrance). In images that center the experience of having a parent's undivided attention, father and child identify flora and fauna, jump in sand dunes, and snuggle under the starry desert sky, its vastness echoed accessibly in the print of their truck-bed blanket. When the child confesses to being frightened by "how big the universe is and how it goes on forever and ever," Dad knows just what to say. Stars are made of energy, he explains, "Same as you. Same as the beetles and crows and coyotes. It's all friends and family in this universe." It's a gem of a moment, an example of the way a parent can hear and transform a child's fear. When the two return, repeating the names of "all the new friends I've met... beetles, cacti, coyotes, stars," Mom shares another surprise in this tender story about learning to approach that which feels unknown. Ages 4--8. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Shnonoff, Gernert Co. (Apr.)
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"A Bed of Stars." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 6, 6 Feb. 2023, p. 60. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A737971821/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f42072ca. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
LOVE, Jessica. A Bed of Stars. illus. by Jessica Love. 40p. Candlewick. Apr. 2023. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781536212396.
PreS-Gr 2--A young boy has a fear of going to sleep. "It used to be, when it was time for bed, I would imagine the whole universe stretching on endlessly, forever. The bigger it got, the smaller I felt. I was too worried to fall asleep." His mom and dad have a plan to help him face his fears, and the boy and his father get out of town for an overnight camping trip in the desert. They are going "to shake hands with the universe." On the way, they explore the flora and fauna of the desert, as well as the sunset, and eventually the stars. Through this series of small events, the boy comes to realize that he and the stars and all the nature around him are made of the same energy, and he finds comfort in sleeping in the truck bed with his father close beside him and a sea of stars that now have names. When he returns home, his mother has surprised him by sticking glow-in-the-dark stars all over his room so that he now has "the whole universe in my little bedroom." Love's illustrations, done in watercolor, gouache, and ink, capture the beauty of the desert as well as the love between the boy and his father. VERDICT In an essentia] book about facing almost any kind of fear, the creator's ability to honor those fears without making them the entire focus is truly remarkable and renders a universal appeal.--John Scott
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Scott, John. "LOVE, Jessica. A Bed of Stars." School Library Journal, vol. 69, no. 6, June 2023, p. 70. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A751405753/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bde20db4. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Straub, Emma GAGA MISTAKE DAY Rocky Pond Books/Penguin (Children's None) $18.99 4, 2 ISBN: 9780593529461
Grandma's so-called errors are enough to drive anyone gaga--but in the best possible way.
On Saturdays, when Gaga visits her 4-year-old grandchild--who narrates the story--she "makes lots of mistakes." Sometimes she wears her fuzzy slippers on her ears. Or she and her grandchild switch their eyeglasses so neither of them can see a thing. Or she substitutes a chocolate bar for chewing gum, rationalizing, "Isn't that gum? You can chew it." Gaga sees nothing wrong in reading an upside-down book to the child. On treks to the park, the pair walk backward. Occasionally, the protagonist's parents disapprove of Gaga's ideas, such as feeding their child marshmallows before dinner or filling the tub to overflowing with soap bubbles. But grandchild and Gaga agree that "mistakes are fun, aren't they?" This is a gently comical tribute to warm, deeply loving grandmother-grandchild relationships. Gaga clearly understands that adults can easily form close bonds with kids if they use humor, behave in a childlike manner themselves, and appreciate a youngster's sense of wonder and absurdity. The message here is that more grown-ups should make the "mistake" of loosening up a bit. The dynamic pencil, watercolor, and gouache illustrations are as free-wheeling and entertaining as gray-haired Gaga, who is pale-skinned; the protagonists and the parents are brown-skinned.
Who wouldn't love spending time with a memorable grandmother like this? (Picture book. 4-7)
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"Straub, Emma: GAGA MISTAKE DAY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A782202487/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6f284b4e. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.
Love, Jessica THE POET AND THE BEES Viking (Children's None) $18.99 2, 11 ISBN: 9780593526392
In narrative verse organized from "Spring" to "Winter," Novesky explores Sylvia Plath's beekeeping in the year preceding the poet's death.
As she mentions in a note, Novesky--herself a poet and beekeeper--takes inspiration from Plath's letters and poetry, including several bee-focused poems that conclude the posthumously published collectionAriel. (As Novesky explains, she draws from the revised edition that aligns with Plath's own intended order of the poems, rather than her husband Ted Hughes' arrangement.) In "Spring," Plath's sleeveless dress and palpable fear during her introduction to her bees derive from her poem "The Bee Meeting." Novesky's often-exquisite verse intentionally echoes Plath's language, including thrice-repeated words and phrases. Lines in "Summer" reveal the necessity of Plath's early-morning writing: "In the blue hour, her hour, / the poet writes / until the babies wake / just past dawn. / She writeslike mad, / a poem, a poem, a poem." Italicized phrases and lines are pulled directly from Plath's own writing, a fact Novesky doesn't specifically acknowledge. Love's muted watercolor-and-ink illustrations imbue the book with a fitting poignancy, contrasting practical details--such as the poet caring for her hive or her children--with tender images of flowers, seasonal changes, bees, and jarred honey. The opening and closing illustrations depict snowdrops, completing the seasonal cycle. Novesky successfully refocuses the lens from Plath's tragic death to the poet as artist, centering her hopeful ambition and keen relationship with nature.
Attentive, deeply respectful, lovely. (author's note, photograph of Plath)(Picture-book biography. 5-9)
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"Love, Jessica: THE POET AND THE BEES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A821608359/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=816e67c6. Accessed 23 Aug. 2025.