- Jun 16
The Story of Groundbreaking Scientist
and Teacher Vivien Thomas
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Beach Lane Books
(Simon & Schuster)
(pub. 5.12.2026)
48 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Joan Schoettler
Illustrator: Steffi Walthall
Character: Vivien Thomas
Overview:
" Vivien Thomas always loved solving problems and figuring out how things worked. In high school, inspired by his family physician, he decided he would become a doctor. Despite losing his college savings during the 1930 bank panic, Vivien stayed dedicated to making his dream a reality, a trait that would serve him all his life.
Vivien secured a lab assistant position at Vanderbilt University and later moved to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he and his mentor developed a groundbreaking procedure to cure blue baby syndrome, which led to them performing the first open-heart surgery on a child."
Tantalizing taste:
"Many surgeons learned how to perform the blue baby surgery under Vivien's guiding hands.
One day, Dr. Blalock examined an almost invisible line of stitches.
'Vivien, are you sure you did this?' asked Dr. Blalock.
Vivien nodded.
'This looks like something the Lord made,' said Dr. Blalock.
Yet Vivien's pay stayed low. Though he kept working in the lab, he took other jobs to supplement his income. Sometimes he was a bartender at house parties, where he served the people he worked with during the day at Johns Hopkins.
Meanwhile, Vivien taught many young medical practitioners who would go on to become some of the top cardiac surgeons in the country."
And something more: Joan Schoettler shared in the Author's Note: "After I watched Something the Lord Made, a film about Vivien Thomas (1910-1985), the idea to write a picture book for young readers about this inspiring man took hold. Thomas overcame challenges, disappointments, and racial bias to become a researcher, teacher and medical-device inventor. Along the way, he helped develop modern heart surgery... "
"Thomas's students remembered him saying, 'Everybody's got a job to do. You are put here to do a job one hundred percent, regardless of how much education you have.' Vivien Thomas held those words close throughout this life, and he lived them to the fullest."
- Apr 21
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
(pub. 2.4.2025)
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Caroline Kusin Pritchard
Illustrator: Selina Alko
Character: Library at New York Jewish Theological Seminary
Overview:
" A library is a keeper of stories. A keeper of memories. A keeper of hope. But what happens when that keeper is threatened?
When a fire broke out at New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary library in 1966, firefighters raced to the rescue. But by the end of the day, thousands of books had been turned to ashes and the ones that remained were on the brink of ruin. The community was devastated. Would the priceless stories in those waterlogged pages be lost forever? Or could helping hands from every background and corner of the neighborhood come together to become keepers of stories, too?"
Tantalizing taste:
"Hundreds of students and teachers, rabbis and pastors,
neighbors and strangers became 'Operation Booklift.'
They wound up the staircase like the flames had before,
forged together by stories...
An unbreakable one drenched book down, then the next.
For two weeks, they lifted and reached, together.
An unbreakable human chain.
Outstretched hands, keep our stories alive."
And something more: Caroline Kusin Pritchard shared in the Author's Note: "I began researching the catastrophe right as the COVID-19 pandemic was settling into every corner of our world... And yet here in these photographs from decades ago, I witnessed perfect strangers holding hands and passing books from one person to the next... They weren't just salvaging paper, of course. They were working together to fight for the very things that connect all of us: stories."
- Apr 20
How Books Created the World's Greatest Magician
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Knopf Books for Young Readers
(pub. 2.17.2026)
48 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Barb Rosenstock
Illustrator: Mar Delmar
Character: Harry Houdini
Overview:
" Houdini is the world's most beloved magician, and he became famous for all of the amazing tricks he accomplished. Houdini knew just how to captivate his audience, whether it was leaping from a bridge or freeing himself from a straitjacket. But in true magician's fashion, he kept a secret so great that not many people knew about, and that was his love for books!
As a young boy in Budapest, Harry learned to read at his father's knee. After the family emigrated to America, Harry grew up to be the amazing Houdini--but never lost his love of reading. He spent the rest of his life collecting all kinds of rare and unusual books, almost entirely about magic."
Tantalizing taste:
"Almost everyone knows Houdini - the most famous magician on earth. Few know about his books. Harry hides parts of himself like he hides lockpicks between his fingers.
The public thinks Houdini is American-born, well-educated, and a natural magician. But real magic is not that simple. For Harry, it began with books ...
... Books are Harry's greatest escape. They spark imagination.
They bring the past to life.
They make home feel like home.
Books transformed a poor, unknown boy into the great Houdini - collector, researcher, student, showman - the world's favorite magic maker."
And something more: Barb Rosenstock shared in the Author's Note: "Book collecting was an unusal hobby for a man with little formal education. From Houdini's perspective, he was following family tradition: 'We have records for five generations that my direct fore-fathers were students and teachers of the Bible and recognied among the leading bibliographers of their time.'
...His highly educated father, Rabbi Mayer Weisz, studied law and wrote essays and poems. When asked to name his favorite author, Houdini answered, 'My dad.'"
In the acknowledgments, Barb included: "And thanks to fellow author Sarah Aronson for insisting on 'magic.'" Thanks for the magic both of you, Barb and Sarah, create in books for children!
