Rajani LaRocca's Blog, page 2

I’m a PB Rising Stars Mentor!

I’m so excited to be a mentor for PB Rising Stars! Agented or unagented picture book writers can learn more about this incredible mentorship program, see a list of the 2025 mentors, and learn what I’m specifically looking for in a mentee here. Applications are open March 7 – 21, so take a look and figure out who you’d like to apply to now!

SONA AND THE GOLDEN BEASTS is a 2025 ALSC Notable Children’s Book!

I’m so honored that SONA AND THE GOLDEN BEASTS is a 2025 Association for Library Service to Children (part of the American Library Association) Notable Children’s Book in the “Older Readers” category alongside some stunning company! You can check out the full list here.

I’m sponsoring a Highlights Foundation scholarship!

I’m delighted to announce that I’m sponsoring a scholarship for South Asian storytellers at The Highlights Foundation! I hope this helps inspire new voices in children’s literature.

You can find more information here!

The Cover Reveal for SOME OF US!

I’m delighted to reveal the cover for SOME OF US: A Story of Citizenship and the United States, written by me and gorgeously illustrated by Huy Voun Lee, coming May 2025 from Christy Ottaviano Books / Little, Brown Books for Young Readers!

Some of us are citizens by birth. Some of us are born outside the US and gain citizenship through immigration and naturalization. This lyrical nonfiction book outlines the process by which some of us—spanning every age and background—travel to the United States to live, work, study, and contribute to the fabric of our new communities. After years, without relinquishing who we are or where we came from, we can choose to become naturalized citizens. We can become American.

This book honors different paths to citizenship and celebrates all the people who enrich our country by striving to participate in our democracy.

As an immigrant, I’m so proud that this book is coming into the world. Huy Von Lee’s illustrations are stirring and beautiful.

SOME OF US releases May 27, 2025 and is available for preorder today!

FALL IS FOR BEGINNINGS, Coming in Fall 2025!

I’m SO thrilled to be working with amazing Abhi Alwar again on a new picture book, FALL IS FOR BEGINNINGS, coming from Abrams Books in fall 2025!

FALL IS FOR BEGINNINGS features lots of things we love about the season — a new school year, leaf pile jumping, and friendships, old and new.

An Incredible Book Tour with Kate Messner!

I had such a ball traveling to schools and bookstores in Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts from May 28-June 6, 2024 with amazing Kate Messner to promote the first two books in the brand-new, groundbreaking chapter book series, THE KIDS IN MRS. Z’S CLASS!

THE KIDS IN MRS. Z’S CLASS features 18 kids in the same fictional 3rd grade class. Each student gets their own book, and each book is written by a different superstar author! Kate is the the “author wrangler” for the series as a whole and wrote the delightful first book in the series, EMMA MCKENNA, FULL OUT! I wrote the second book in the series—ROHAN MURTHY HAS A PLAN.

Kate and I had the best time hanging out with readers and helping them create their own characters for their own stories!

SUMMER IS FOR COUSINS is a Bank Street College Irma Black Silver Medalist!

I’m so honored that SUMMER IS FOR COUSINS is a Bank Street College of Education Center for Children’s Literature 2024 Irma Black Silver Medalist!

The Irma Simonton Black and James H. Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Irma Black Award) goes to an outstanding book for young children—a book in which text and illustrations are inseparable, each enhancing and enlarging on the other to produce a singular whole. The Irma Black Award is unusual in that children are the final judges of the winning book. Thousands of children in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in the voting process!

You can watch my acceptance speech here.

SUMMER IS FOR COUSINS on the Mass Book Award Longlist!

I’m SO thrilled and honored that SUMMER IS FOR COUSINS is on the longlist for the Massachusetts Book Award in the Picture Book/Early Reader Category! I’m so lucky to be in a state among such literary elite!!

VIBHI AND THE VOICE, Coming in 2026!

I’m incredibly honored that my 2026 picture book VIBHI AND THE VOICE will be illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Cindy Derby!!!

This is a story about a girl who’s afraid the dark…until she meets a girl made of darkness who’s afraid of light. Candlewick Press will publish the book in fall 2026!!

A New Picture Book Announcement — SIDE BY SIDE!

I have a new picture book coming in 2026! SIDE BY SIDE celebrates all we do while next to each other, when face to face feels like too much. I’m thrilled that Brizida Magro will illustrate!