Cynsations is celebrating its 20th anniversary by switching to a quarterly publishing schedule, featuring in-depth interviews and articles. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm!
Author Katey Howes
“Children’s author Katey Howes, whose picture books often focused on STEM/STEAM themes, creativity, and individualism, died on May 20 in Langhorne, Pa. She was 47,” reported Publisher’s Weekly.
From Howes’ website, “A former physical therapist, Katey had a fascination with physics and biology, and she enjoyed reading everything from classic children’s literature to modern neuroscience. She also had strong opinions about commas.”
She was active in the children’s publishing community and contributed to several kidlit sites. Her debut picture book, Grandmother Thorn, illustrated by Rebecca Hahn was published by Ripple Grove Press in 2017. In her author spotlight from Kidlit 411, Howes said, “Our world needs thoughtful, beautiful, compassionate and challenging books – as well as a good laugh – more than ever.”
A Poem Grows Inside You, illustrated by Heather Brockman Lee (The Innovation Press, 2022) received the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor in 2023. From the judges’ comments: “Katey Howes teaches us that we are all poets and that each of us has a poem that grows inside of us that needs to be planted to bloom. A Poem Grows Inside You is a gentle story that is the perfect read aloud in every writing classroom from preschool through adult.”
Her book, Woven of the World, illustrated by Dinara Mirtalipova (Chronicle, 2023) received the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Atlantic Division in 2024 and received a special mention at the 2023 Bologna Book Festival Ragazzi Awards, her agent Essie White posted on the Storm Literary Agency Website.
Her latest title is The Reindeer Remainders, illustrated by Marie Hermansson (Sourcebooks, June 2024).
Author Rebecca Gardyn Levington was scheduled to be on a summer ALA panel with Howes and had interviewed her in May for Picture Book Builders about The Reindeer Remainders.
In their interview, Howes details her writing process, “For this title, the math concept definitely came first. I dug into current teaching styles and was pleased to see that modern educators start grounding students in the concept of grouping quite early. …With a prime number for the classroom size, someone was always getting left out – which felt very real and familiar to me.”
Howes goes on to describe how the book evolved through the editing process with editor Anna Sargeant at Sourcebooks and how Howes consulted with experts “to get their perspective on how kids feel, react, and process being left out.”
Howes also has a forthcoming book, Where the Deer Slip Through, illustrated by Beth Krommes will be published by Beach Lane Books in 2025.
Friends, family, and publishing peers of Kathryn “Katey” Howes have established the Katey Howes Maker Scholarship through the Highlights Foundation. “We hope that all annual scholarships awarded will encourage fellow storytellers to build a better world for our children,” states the Highlights website. Their annual scholarship window typically opens in January; learn more here.
Author Florence Minor
“Picture book author Florence Minor, who collaborated on numerous books for children with her husband, illustrator Wendell Minor, died on May 21 in Washington, Conn. She was 74,” reported Publishers Weekly.
From the Society of Illustrators, “Following a career as a documentary film editor for ABC News in New York, Florence found a second and equally fulfilling career in publishing after she and her husband, illustrator and past president of the Society, Wendell Minor, moved to Connecticut.”
Her best known works included Christmas Tree!, illustrated by Wendell Minor (Katherine Tegen Books, 2005), If You Were a Penguin, illustrated by Wendell Minor (Katherine Tegen Books, 2008), and If You Were a Panda Bear, illustrated by Wendell Minor (Katherine Tegen Books, 2013).
In 2017, Minor did an interview with James Preller for his blog and talked about her relationship with her longtime editor, Katherine Tegen, whom she met first as her husband, Wendell’s editor when he was working on books with Jean Craighead George. Florence Minor had recently left film editing and was “reinventing” herself.
Minor said she was “one very lucky author to be working with Tegen. “Because we already knew each other quite well, we were, and are on the same page in the way we see a book evolving. Our communication regarding storyline, revisions, edits and compromise come together in a very productive way to create a book we are all happy with,” Minor said.
Her most recent title was Smitten with Kittens, illustrated by Wendell Minor (Charlesbridge, 2022).
Minor also shared with James Preller her motivation for writing children’s books by recalling an encounter she had with a young reader when If You Were A Penguin was selected for Pennsylvania’s One Book Every Child program. “As I handed him his book he looked at me and said, ‘You mean this is my book to keep? I don’t have to return it?’ It was the first book he had ever owned, and seeing the joy on his face is what this is all about.”
Cynsational Notes
Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.
She serves as board member for Lago Vista’s Friends of the Library and also leads a book club for young readers at the library. She’s active in Austin SCBWI and has taught creative writing workshops for the Austin Public Library Foundation. She loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.