Celebrate Mother's Day with Kate Hosford!

Anchors aweigh, readers, writers, and lovers of heartwarming reads! ⛵💕 Mother's Day is here, and we're celebrating with a story made for sharing. We're thrilled to welcome author Kate Hosford and her enchanting new picture book, You and I Are Stars and Night.

The wind is calling, and bathtime becomes a magical expedition. Through lyrical, dreamy verses, readers join a mother and child as they sail the seas with mermaids, play hide-and-seek in enchanted forests, and soar with the birds - cherishing the most important thing of all: being together.

Want to know more about Kate and You and I Are Stars and Night - PLUS want a chance to win a copy of your own? Read on…

Q: Hi Kate! Thanks for joining SeasonsOfKidLit.com! We’re thrilled to feature you and hear all about you and your book. Can you share the inspiration behind your book and a little about your path to publication? 

A: Thank you so much. I’m thrilled to be here! My latest picture book is You and I are Stars and Night. I have always loved writing about the bonds of love between children and their parents or caretakers and have done so several times before. For this book, I knew that I wanted it to be both a bedtime adventure and an ode to love. I also knew that I would write in rhyme and tell the story in the mother/caretaker’s voice. Aside from that, I had just a single image of a mother and child in a village who hear the wind call to them, wake up in the middle of the night, and run down to the seashore. Eventually I came up with this stanza:

The wind is calling. Hear it sweep

through our village fast asleep.

Will you sail away with me?

You and I are salt and sea.

Soon I knew I would end every stanza with a metaphor that describes the bond between grown-up and child: You and I are salt and sea, light and moon, egg and nest, etc. 

When I look back on my career, there is a child-centered thread running through it. I first was a foster care worker, then an elementary school teacher, and eventually went to art school to become an illustrator. During that time I was also raising my two boys and reading lots of picture books to them. I started writing picture books to get more work as an illustrator, but it soon became clear that I was actually meant to be an author, so I decided to focus on writing. It took me eight years to get my first picture book, Big Bouffant, published. 

Q: What holiday/season does your book fit into and what does that holiday mean to you? How did you tie that into your book?

A: While this book works for every season, two specific holiday tie-ins are Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, which is right around the corner!

I love the celebration of mothers and caretakers of all kinds. As the world becomes increasingly complex, children need to know that there is at least one person who will set sail on the journey of life with them, and help them navigate, even when the seas become stormy. Ultimately, every child needs to know that someone loves them unconditionally. 

I picture parents/caretakers and children reading this book together and finding favorite metaphors for their relationships. Maybe some readers will eventually make up their own love metaphors. If so, I hope they write me and let me know what they are!

Q: What was your favorite part of working with your amazing illustrator, Richard Jones?

A: My favorite part was seeing the world-building that Richard Jones did. I tried to make my text spare in order to give the illustrator a lot of breathing room. It was Richard’s idea to anchor the story during bathtime. We already know that it is an unusual bedtime, because it is happening in the middle of the night. After the mother asks the child to go on an adventure with her, the bathtub becomes a boat, two of the bath toys come to life, tiles dissolve, bathroom furniture falls into the sea, and mother and child are in the middle of a giant storm! These three spreads are one of my favorite transitions in the book. Richard says that he used a paper had been painted twenty years ago for the storm. I love the idea of that piece of paper sitting patiently in a drawer just waiting for the right project.   

Q: What’s your favorite spread from the book? Please share it and explain why it’s your favorite.

A: Every spread in this book is gorgeous, but I chose this one because I adore all the hidden treasures that Richard Jones, the illustrator, has tucked away here, and the uncanny valley feeling of things being both familiar and strange. Some of the trees in this forest are what we might expect to see, while others are red and blue. We see not only mother and child playing hide and seek, but also other pairs of animals interacting. The rubber duck and toy dog are hiding from one another, there are monkeys in the trees, a family of tiger-like creatures in the background, birds who are interacting, owls cozied up together, squirrels scampering, rabbits who seem to be in conversation, and a bird returning a hat to a family of elves. I am sure upon repeated readings, children will discover all of these hidden delights. I later found out from Richard that this was the first illustration he did for the project, and it helped him set the tone for the book. I think the pairs and families of animals throughout the book underscore the message that everyone has someone who will accompany them on life’s journey. 

Q: What will readers enjoy most about your book? Why is your book a perfect fit for every season?

A: I wanted this bedtime adventure to have both expected and unexpected elements, so that the story is soothing and reassuring but also exciting. Some expected elements are the meter, rhyme, and the presence of a love metaphor at the end of each stanza. Some unexpected elements are the specifics of the love metaphor, the mother initiating the adventure in the middle of the bedtime routine, and the ending where mother and child complete the bedtime routine and then set sail for dreamland—the biggest adventure of all! It is a perfect fit for every season because it is important to let children know we love them all year long.

Q: Would you like to leave a tip or a treat for our readers?

A: I would like to leave a tip and a treat today. 

My tip is for people just starting out in this field. I would encourage new writers to really take the time to work on your craft and resist the urge to submit to agents before you are ready. You often get only one shot with an agent, and you don’t want to send out work prematurely and then regret it. I certainly made that mistake a number of times. In order to improve my craft, I eventually got my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. This low-residency program not only improved my writing but also gave me a community of writers, which has been life-changing. Of course, there are also all sorts of great classes out there that where you can work on your craft. If an MFA courses are not an option, make sure to get feedback from some other trusted and experienced source before submitting to an agent. 

But let’s assume that you’ve done all of that already. It can still be hard to get an agent since many of them are closed to unsolicited submissions. My advice at that point is sign up for a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference, attend sessions given by editor and agents, which will allow you to later submit manuscripts to these people during a certain window of time specified by them. For an extra fee, you can also receive manuscript critiques at these conferences, which is a great way to meet editors and agents and get meaningful feedback on your work. I met my first agent at a small weekend-long SCBWI retreat in New Jersey. 

My treat is that I will be doing a giveaway for You and I Are Stars and Night! (This will be for US readers only, due to postage constraints.)

Wow - thank you SO much - what an excellent tip and treat! And a HUGE thanks for joining us today - we loved having you on and getting to know you more!

Giveaway Details: Readers, to enter to win Kate's book giveaway, 1) share this post on social media and 2.) leave a comment below to thank her for stopping by.

Giveaway winners will be drawn and announced on or about 05/24!

Books will be shipped in the US only.

About Kate Hosford:

Kate Hosford is the author of seven picture books and two poetry collections, garnering accolades such as being named an American Library Association Notable Book, a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Her books have been published in eight languages. She is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts where she earned her MFA in writing for children and young adults. Kate lives in Brooklyn with her family. To learn more, visit khosford.com.

For more about Kate and her new book, check out the below links!

Instagram:

Kate Hosford: @katelhosford

Richard Jones: @apaintedmouse

Beach Lane/S&S:  @simonkids

Blue Slip Media:  @blue_slip_media 

Facebook:

Kate Hosford:  Kate Hosford

Richard Jones: Richard Jones

Beach Lane/S&S: @SimonKIDS

Blue Slip Media: @blue-slip-media

Amazon for book reviews and purchases: Amazon.com: Kate Hosford: books, biography, latest update

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