Today I am so pleased to introduce you to author Steena Hernandez. Steena’s debut picture book, Lupita’s Brown Ballet Slippers, illustrated by Melissa Castillo is coming out with Beaming Books on October 22, 2024.
It was a joy to talk with Steena and I can’t thank her enough for being on the show.
Here are some highlights:
The joy of being a library family and sharing that time together, picking whatever book your heart desires.
The overwhelming generosity found within the kidlit world.
The beauty of the two way street one can find in kidlit critique group relationships.
Chalk painting and walking in nature to refill a creative well running dry. Her home that is full of chalk painted furniture. How joyful it is to go back after the chalk paint dries with a bottle cap and scrape the paint away, creating something worn and new at the same time.
How powerful it can be to step away from our writing. Taking a real break from it and coming back after a week away.
Her background in professional dance and it’s inspiration to create her debut picture book. Writing for the little girl who wants to see someone who looks like her on the cover.
“That time, again, where I go and I can escape to any world that I want. It’s my moment, it’s my time to be any character, create any character, create any world, any setting. That is so freeing and so much fun for me. It’s therapeutic.”
Links Mentioned:
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
- 12×12 Picture Book Challenge
- Steena’s website, Twitter, Instagram, Newsletter, and Link.tree
- PbParty
- PBSOAR24 on Instagram and Twitter
- Vivian Kirkfield’s 50 precious words
- Las Musas Books
- Lupita’s Brown Ballet Slippers is available for preorder at Nowhere Books and the Twig in San Antonio, Target, Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, Amazon
- Lupita’s Brown Ballet Slippers Cover Reveal
- Rachael Herron, Ink in Your Veins Podcast
Onto the Book Recommendations!
Karen Greenwald’s A Vote for Susannah illustrated by Sian James
Valerie Bolling’s Together We Ride illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
Kim-Hoa Ung’s A Gift for Nai Nai
Janelle Harper’s My Block Looks Like by Frank Morrison
Alyssa Reynoso-Morris’s The Bronx is My Home illustrated by Kim Holt
Emma Pearl’s Mending the Moon illustrated by Sara Ugolotti
Thank you, Steena, for sharing about your journey and picture book with us! Stay tuned for the next episode with author Anne Hanovich (we’re switching things up this time and you’ll hear from a prepublished author). In the meantime, catch up on all episodes published so far on Getting to The Heart of Why We Write, including today’s bonus mini episode! Thank you for being here!
May 23, 2024
[…] up on any episodes of “Getting to The Heart of Why We Write” that you may have missed, like last week’s chat with Steena Hernandez, or this gem about wonder walls that I am still obsessed with (Meghana […]