SATA
ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Maeve Mulvaney Has Had Enough
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.authorkellymangan.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Children: two.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and illustrator. Has also worked as a women’s rights activist, a union organizer, and a political director for various progressive candidates and causes.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Children’s Bookwatch, May 1, 2025, review of Like That Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally, p. 1.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2025, review of Maeve Mulvaney Has Had Enough.
School Library Journal, May 1, 2025, Amanda MacGregor, review of Maeve Mulvaney Has Had Enough.
ONLINE
Kelly Mangan website, https://www.authorkellymangan.com (August 9, 2025).
Metamorphosis Literary Agency website, https://www.metamorphosisliteraryagency.com/ (August 9, 2025), author interview.
Children's Illustration Portfolio
I'm a KidLit illustrator influenced by my love of comics and folkart.
I favor loose linework, moody lighting, playful patterns and tons of texture.
While I primarily illustrate my own work, I'm also open to illustrator-only #KidLit projects, especially if they're body-positive, cozy, quirky, cheeky, geeky, or sweetly subversive.
Represented by Taj McCoy, Laura Dail Literary Agency:
TMcCoy [at] ldlaine [dot] com
About Me
I'm a queer, neurodiverse author and illustrator of picture books and middle grade stories. Though originally from the south, I now reside in snowy Vermont with my partner and two kids.
When I'm not writing or drawing, you’ll likely find me baking, gardening, gaming, weaving on a rigid heddle loom, reading The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, or watching Star Trek with a cup of Earl Grey, hot.
Starter Pack.png
Author Kelly Mangan Interview
How did you become a writer?
I come from a family of storytellers. As a kid, I spent many hours around my grandparents’ kitchen table, listening to my family’s stories. So maybe that’s why I started writing when I was very young. Whether telling or listening, I’ve never been able to resist a good yarn! When my oldest was born (almost six years ago now!), I rediscovered my love of writing through KidLit.
What inspires you to write?
With everything that’s wrong in the world, it’s easy to feel hopeless or like nothing we do matters. I write KidLit to reflect the values which are important to me, to inspire kids to build a better world, and to empower the ones who already are.
How do you develop your plot and characters?
My stories are often inspired by people or situations close to me, and draw heavily from my own personal experiences. Typically my characters come first, then a general theme, then more specific plot points.
Could you share some of your challenges as a writer?
I’m the queen of seeing what I mean rather than seeing what is actually written. This is why I live and die by my critique partners, and their honest feedback on what doesn’t work in my story and why. More generally, I often struggle with impostor syndrome, which I think happens to many writers. It’s a lonely profession in many ways, which is why I think writers *need* that support network of people who are in your corner, cheering you on.
Tell me about your protagonist. What's your favorite trait and/or weakness?
In my book PRIMA GINA, BALLERINA, people doubt the protagonist because of her size. Gina enters a dance competition to prove her mettle, but must overcome both the unkindness of others, and her own doubts. Through courage and determination, she wins the competition, and creates an inclusive space where dance is for everyone, regardless of their size, shape, gender, background, or ability.
I love my main character because I think we need more plus-size heroes in the world of KidLit. Too often, plus size characters in KidLit are portrayed as lazy, cruel, unintelligent, buffoonish, or simply a joke. Calls for more positive representation of fat people are often met with extreme resistance and hostility. We need to do better.
I wrote Gina to be different from most plus-size characters in media in that she’s upbeat, determined, and driven. She is not a victim, a bully, or a joke. She doesn’t need a thinner person to validate her. Perhaps the most radical thing about Gina (and what I love most about her) is that she’s a plus-size person with confidence and an abundance of self-worth.
How does your antagonist create conflict?
In PRIMA GINA, the antagonist is the snooty ballet studio that turns Gina away for lessons, as well as the kids from the studio who laugh at her because of her weight. The trickiest part of writing this book was creating the conflict and obstacles for Gina in a way that felt true, but which would feel empowering to plus-size kids rather than instilling insecurity.
What are your current/future projects?
I have probably a half-dozen picture books at present that I’m working on polishing, including:
· LENA IS A LEADER (Lena is tired of being called “bossy” for being smart, capable, and organized).
· MOM AND THE SNOW DRAGON (construction vehicle book w/ LGBTQ rep and a whimsical twist).
· LOUDEST YELLER: STETSON KENNEDY, KLAN-BUSTER (non-fic biography of an anti-racist activist who infiltrated the KKK in the 1940s).
· GRANDPA’S SUNSET (folksy-lyrical story about end-of-life changes, told from the POV of a child watching his grandfather’s health deteriorate).
· FIREFIGHTER KITTY TO THE RESCUE (character driven story about an imperious kitty who doesn’t want to play firefighter, even though he’d be fabulous at it... obviously).
· DUCK BUTTS (rhyming board book ode to springtime, and of course, to cute butts).
I’m also working on editing my first middle grade novel (BRAVE MAEVE, SUPER GEEK) about a comic-book-loving girl who creates a feminist superhero club to fight back against bullying at her new school. Lastly, I’ve started a second middle grade novel (THE ONE YOU FEED), which is creepy magical realism about a boy who talks to plants.
Do you have a routine you follow when writing?
Unfortunately, I have to steal writing time where I can find it. But I’m currently a stay-at-home mom, so I’m able to dedicate at least some time to writing almost every day—either during naptime or after the kids go to bed.
If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would it be?
Write, write, write! Honestly, you can’t replace the experience that comes from simply putting one’s butt in a chair and doing THE THING!
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Join the 12x12 Picture Book forum and Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm! Get connected with other people in the KidLit community. Listen to Jennifer Laughran’s Literaticast podcast. And READ, READ, READ as many picture books as you can—particularly those written in the last 5 years.
What is your preferred method for readers to get in touch
with you?
Contact form on my website: www.authorkellymangan.com
Kelly Mangan is an author of children's books with humor, heart, and social justice themes. Over the past twenty years, she has worked as a women's rights activist, a union organizer, and a political director for various progressive candidates and causes. She lives in Vermont with her partner and two young children.
The LGBTQ Studies Shelf
Like That Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally
Lee Wind, author
Kelly Mangan, illustrator
Cardinal Rule Press
www.CardinalRulePress.com
c/o Quarto Group Children's Books
www.quartoknows.com
9781945369735, $18.95, HC, 32pp
https://www.amazon.com/Like-That-Eleanor-Amazing-Power/dp/1945369736
Synopsis: What can you do when you see unfair things happening to other people?
Eleanor's not sure, but she wants to make things more fair, like her namesake Eleanor Roosevelt.
Robin's excluded from a boys-only soccer game. Bryce is left out of a girls-only conversation.
And nonbinary Star can't even use the same bathrooms as everyone else.
Eleanor collects friends but doesn't know how to help. But when their teacher leaves Star out of a classroom game, Eleanor stands up for her friend by sitting down in just the right spot... And that changes everything. Like THAT Eleanor.
Critique: With a critically important social justice message and them, "Like That Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally" by author/storyteller Lee Wind and artist/illustrator Kelly Mangan is timely, entertaining, and thoroughly 'kid friendly'. This hardcover edition of "Like That Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally" from Cardinal Rule Press is especially and unreservedly recommended for family, elementary school, and community library LGBTQ Studies, Life Skills, and Friendship themed picture book collections for children ages 5-7.
Editorial Note #1: Lee Wind (https://www.leewind.org) writes the books that would have changed his life as a young Gay Jewish kid -- and he's always looking for ways to be a better ally! Researching Eleanor Roosevelt for his nonfiction No Way, They Were Gay? inspired Lee so much that it sparked the idea for this picture book. Lee is also authored picture books Love of the Half-Eaten Peach and Red and Green and Blue and White. He runs the popular blog I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? -- words his younger self only dreamed of saying. Lee lives in LA with husband of more than 25 yrs and their daughter.
Editorial Note #2: Kelly Mangan (https://www.authorkellymangan.com) is self-described as 'a queer, neurodiverse author and illustrator of picture books and middle grade stories'. Though originally from the south, he now resides in snowy Vermont with his partner and two kids.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"The LGBTQ Studies Shelf." Children's Bookwatch, May 2025, p. 1. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A843376654/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=152d09fa. Accessed 18 June 2025.
Mangan, Kelly MAEVE MULVANEY HAS HAD ENOUGH Holiday House (Children's None) $17.99 3, 25 ISBN: 9780823458288
A group of middle school friends fight back against oppressive harassment and disbelieving administrators.
Dedicated comics creator Maeve Mulvaney begins eighth grade in the new "Nowhereville" Florida town where her family has relocated for her astronomer mother's university job. Leaving Vermont was devastating--her new community seems to care more about football than the arts--but luckily, she quickly finds a great comic book shop as well as a supportive group of friends. Unfortunately, she's also plagued by incessant bullying from classmate Robbie, who challenges her love of comics and ridicules her weight, calling her things like "Fatty-Fatty Fake Geek." The acutely painful in-person and online bullying scenes work well, effectively encouraging readers to interrogate the high value often placed on activities like sports and to recognize and call out sexism. Maeve's troubled relationship with her mom is compelling, and Maeve frequently challenges the pressure she feels from both her parents to avoid expressing negativity. Maeve, who is white and bisexual, has a supportive, diverse, strongly characterized friend group: New best friend Daniel is a white gay boy, and her larger friend group includes racial diversity. As Maeve grows in her power to organize against the sexism, fatphobia, and homophobia she encounters at school--and the lack of support from school leadership--readers will be satisfied by her development as an artist and advocate for herself and others.
A captivating, blisteringly realistic exploration of middle school activism.(Fiction. 11-14)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Mangan, Kelly: MAEVE MULVANEY HAS HAD ENOUGH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A823102398/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=952376a5. Accessed 18 June 2025.