Here’s the gorgeous cover of my next picture book, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOPE. Tamisha Anthony has captured child moments of hope with beautiful story-telling illustration vignettes. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOPE will be published by Farrar Straus Giroux in early 2024.
The recent pandemic severely challenged my hopeful outlook, both professionally and personally. My darkest days were those in early 2021, when it seemed as if there would never be a vaccine approved to change the course of Covid’s deadly march through the world. But sometime in January of that year I began writing about hope, sparked by a suggestion from my agent. This creative effort (and spring news of a vaccine!) sustained me over the next few months as I wrote, revised, and polished a picture book text that could be illustrated in a way that would make the positive pull of hope relatable for young readers.
My earliest draft of THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOPE included lines about cookies not crumbling and other such kid-friendly “hope” metaphors. I soon pushed all of that “little” thinking aside, because, after all, hope is a grand and overwhelmingly uplifting thing, right?
There’s no place like hope,
where possible lives,
where people are helpful
and everyone gives…
Tamisha Anthony’s endearing and caring characters share hope and kindness throughout the pages of THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOPE. And I am hopeful you will read the book when it comes out and consider sharing it with a favorite child or donating a copy to a local school or nonprofit.
Janet Lawler is an award-winning author of more than thirty fiction and nonfiction books for children. Celebrate! A Happy Book of Firsts (Feiwel & Friends 2022) is her latest picture book.
8 thoughts on “THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOPE”
This sounds lovely, Janet! Those were definitely dark days, and hope was very much needed. Congrats on the upcoming book!
Thanks, Angie! And you spread hope and joy as well, with your lovely photos, poems, and blog postings.
Sounds like such an uplifting book. Can’t wait to read it!!
Thanks!
Clever title. Meaningful subject. Inviting cover. Hope people who care about children give many as gifts.
And I hope you are right!
How divine!!
I am excited to share this book with my twin grand daughters, aged 8
(I am raising them, by way of adoption) They have been through a lot and reading has always soothed them.
Thank you Janet!
Wonderful. I hope your granddaughters enjoy HOPE. If you look at the book’s page on my website, there are two coloring sheets by the illustrator that you can download and print off for free from them to color after reading the book.