JK: Congratulations on your debut picture book, Alison! It’s exciting to see I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES out in the world. How did you come up with the idea for this adorable book?
AG: Thank you, Joy! As preschoolers, my children loved vehicles. We played with toy excavators, set up many windy train tracks, and admired every construction site we passed. I remember my kids staring wide-eyed when they saw planes out of the big glass windows at the airport for the first time. I started to understand what vehicles meant to my kids: powerful, large, and mysterious characters full of metaphor.
At night, the “How much do you love me?” game turned into a comparison of our love to the size and strength of all things that go. After coming up with many of these examples for my own kids, I thought it could be a fun take on a love book.
Check out the book trailer here.
That trailer is so much fun! I notice it features all different types of things-that-go. Do you have a favorite?
I’d have to go with cranes. They seem impossibly tall for transporting to construction sites. While writing I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES I observed a crane in my city and noticed that a bird had built a nest at the top! It reminded me of the sweet truck book, ARE YOU MY MOTHER? By P.D. Eastman.
My kids have always loved that book and its pictures of the “Snort.” Speaking of pictures, what was it like to see Mike Yamada’s illustrations for the first time?
I was thrilled! I love the movement in his images. Mike creates such unique perspectives. And the bears are adorable! I’m also really grateful that the child bear’s gender is not defined but left open to the reader’s imagination. Many vehicle books are created with boys in mind. I hope I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES can be a book for any child who loves vehicles, bears, or being told just how much they are loved.
As a female author who’s also written a book featuring trucks, I think it’s wonderful that your story can be for any child! Now let’s talk about your process for a minute. What is the biggest challenge you face as a writer?
Competing projects. I have a long list of stories I’d like to work on (thank you to Tara Lazar’s Storystorm for getting me into the habit of compiling them!). Sometimes I find it hard to decide which one to tackle next.
One of the things that I admire about you (other than your writing talent!) is your dedication to giving and activism. Can you tell us a little about what you’re doing to celebrate your book launch?
One of my very first jobs was as an organizer for the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger at the Food Research and Action Center. At the time, our campaign materials included a unique image of children reading while surrounded by food. This art helped raise support for our work to strengthen nutrition programs serving kids and was donated by Tomie dePaola!
So when I found out that my first picture book would be published—a love book for children–I knew I had to find a way to contribute to this campaign. To celebrate my book launch I’m donating a portion of proceeds to the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, and I’m planning some special book events in 2018 to raise support for this work. I’d welcome other children’s book creators to get in touch if they’re interested in getting involved.
We’ll have to talk more about that later! It sounds like a great opportunity.You’re also part of a new blog called M is for Movement. Can you tell us about that, as well?
M is for Movement is a new group blog focused on activism and social justice in children’s literature. My collaborators include Janine Macbeth, Innosanto Nagara, and Robert Liu-Trujillo, and together we aim to build a collection of articles, interviews, and reviews about children’s books that put social justice values into practice.
We launched in October, and already we’ve connected with a number of children’s book creators and librarians who are interested in writing for the site. I’m excited to help build this community, draw attention to powerful books, and learn from many voices!
Thanks, Alison! It’s been wonderful learning more about I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES and all your social justice work.
Alison Goldberg is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES, illustrated by Mike Yamada (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, December 2017) is her debut picture book. Before becoming a children’s book author, Alison worked for economic justice organizations and wrote a resource guide about social change philanthropy. These days, she blogs about activism in children’s literature and loves researching everything from marine life to contemporary art for her books. She is represented by Kathleen Rushall of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Learn more at www.alisongoldberg.com or on Twitter @alisongoldberg.
Joy Keller is the author of MONSTER TRUCKS (Henry Holt) and the upcoming MISS TURIE’S MAGIC CREATURES (The Innovation Press, 2018). When she’s not writing, she can be found teaching elementary students how to write. She lives in Fairport, NY with her husband, two children, and several cats. You can visit her at www.joykellerauthor.com or find her on Twitter @jrkeller80.
Julie Segal-Walters is the author of 
October has come and gone and, with it, Halloween. If you haven’t already, you’ll soon be returning your bat books to their shelves, where they’ll sit again until next year. BUT WAIT — NOT SO FAST! Bats are too cool to be relegated to just one month!!
Anna Forrester loves nothing better than to stumble onto a funny idea or a great question, and hold on tight as it leads her through books, her imagination, and unexpected nooks and crannies of the real world. She loves words and stories, and many of her adventures find their way into the books she writes. Anna lives in Philadelphia with her husband, two daughters and two dogs. Visit her on line at 
BEAR AND CHICKEN is celebrating its book birthday this month! It is about a bear who finds a chicken frozen in the snow, and brings it home to try to defrost it. As Chicken wakes up, she fears that Bear is actually prepping to eat him. It is a friendship tale that teaches kids things are not always as they seem, while learning a thing or two about making soup with a friend. 
Jannie Ho is a children’s book illustrator and writer who loves to create stories in anthropomorphic animal worlds. She worked as a graphic designer and art director at many fun places such as Nickelodeon and Scholastic before illustrating full time. Her artwork appears in books, magazines, toys, crafts and digital media. Jannie’s debut picture book as author/illustrator, BEAR AND CHICKEN, is out this month from Running Press Kids/Perseus Books. 
Shopping for some storytime activities? We’ve got you covered! In DADDY DEPOT, Lizzie loves her dad, but he gets distracted by football, tells embarrassing jokes, and snores during snuggle time! So…Lizzie returns him to the Daddy Depot, a megastore filled to the rafters with dads up for grabs! Will Lizzie find the perfect dad? Join this shopping adventure, which shines the spotlight on imperfect parents and unconditional love. Enjoy these fun activities for a real bargain deal (plus a giveaway)! 
As DADDY DEPOT advertises: “From Acrobats to Zookeepers, we have the perfect dad for you!” Show the kids the “dad party” spread. Ask them to choose their favorite dad. For older kids, have them name all the jobs they see from A to Z. List them in ABC order. 
Print out the tie template below. Cut out a tie for each child. Ask kids to draw a picture describing one or more features of their dad or other dad they know (e.g., a fisherman gets a tie covered in colorful fish). Use the ties to make bookmarks. As an extension, make a poster-size drawing of Lizzie’s dad and have the children play “Pin the Goofy Tie on Dad!”
Chana Stiefel is the author of more than 20 nonfiction books for kids about exploding volcanoes, stinky castles, and other fun stuff. DADDY DEPOT is her debut picture book. While she would never return her father—or her husband—to the daddy store (she likes their corny jokes too much), she worries that her kids will return her to the Mommy Market. Visit
After reading 
Use 
PICTURE the BOOKS 