The Picture Book Buzz - February 2025 Interview with STEAM Team Books Members
Whether you're here to support the STEAM Team authors, curiosity, or because you love nonfiction books, I hope you read to the end because you'll discover some amazing authors and super spectacular books!
Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to three creatives from the STEAM Team Books – a group of authors and illustrators who joined together to celebrate and help promote their STEAM books. I hope you enjoy this peek at these delightful books and fascinating creatives.
"STEAM Team Books is a group of authors who have a STEM/STEAM book releasing in 2025. It includes fiction & nonfiction, trade or educational books.” Check out their website for other interviews, activities, and bios.
Tell us a little about yourself. (Where/when do you write? How long have you been writing? What is your favorite type of book to write? What drew you to STEAM books? etc.)
Ann Marie Stephens – CATawampus! A Story of Shapes & sCATtered! A Story of Estimation (Astra Books For Young Readers 2/4/2025) – I’m what you might call a traveling writer. Sometimes you’ll find me in my laundry room office, other times I’m on a writing retreat, an airplane, or in a library. When I was an elementary teacher I wrote on my long commute to school and the weekends, when I could. Now that I’m retired, I write in the mornings and at different times throughout the day. I began making books when I was three years old but didn’t start sending my work into the world until 1996, when I landed my first agent. My favorite books to write are character driven, fiction picture books. I accidentally ended up having 11 STEAM books (current and forthcoming.) Originally, I had the idea for a stand-alone (Arithmechicks Add Up),which turned into a partner book (Arithmechicks Take Away), which turned into a request for four more. It’s fun and challenging to write stories that mix plot, humor, and math. A similar thing happened when I wrote CATastrophe! A Story of Patterns and I was asked for four more cat books. I never thought I’d end up with two math series.
[Author of 16 books, including Arithmechicks Find Their Place: A Math Story, illustrated by Jia Liu (2023), Arithmechicks Explore More: A Math Story, illustrated by Jia Liu (2023), Arithmechicks Play Fair: A Math Story, illustrated by Jia Liu (2022), Arithmechicks Take a Calculation Vacation: A Math Story, illustrated by Jia Liu (2022), CATastrophe!: A Story of Patterns, illustrated by Jenn Harney (2021), Arithmechicks Take Away: A Math Story, illustrated by Jia Liu (2020), Arithmechicks Add Up, illustrated by Jia Liu (2019), Cy Makes a Friend, illustrated by Tracy Subisak (2017), Scuba Dog, illustrated by Jess Golden (2016), Christmas for Bly and Ray illustrated by Michael Patrick Bolan (2002), and A Surprise for Ray, illustrated by Michael Patrick Bolan (2001).]
Darcy Pattison – Jeremy, the English Garden Snail: Heredity, Citizen Science, and #snaillove (Mims House 2/20/2025) – I write both fiction and nonfiction for kids. One nonfiction series that has captured my heart is the Another Extraordinary Animal series. It started accidentally after the Japanese tsunami of 2011. I heard that the tsunami wave was traveling across the Pacific and would strike the island of Midway. On that island lives the oldest known wild bird in the world, Wisdom, the Midway Albatross. She survived the tsunami, and her story came first. But then, the illustrator Kitty Harvill suggested a story about a Brazilian puma cub which had been orphaned. Then, I heard the amazing story of a jumping spider who went to space—and learned to hunt in the microgravity of the International Space Station.
Now, the stories featured a bird, mammal, and spider. Accidentally, it had become a series! Of course, what I needed was an amphibian and a reptile. Enter Rosie, the female bullfrog who has held the triple-jump record for over 30 years, and Diego, the Galápagos giant tortoise who helped bring his species back from the brink of extinction. I thought I was done. However, in 2012, I visited New Zealand and heard the most amazing story about a dolphin. Dolphins are marine mammals, something different from the other animals in the series, so it was added. I was done!
Until--I heard about the weirdest snail in the world, Jeremy, the English Garden Snail. Most snails have shells that coil to the right, but Jeremy’s coils to the left. So what? Well, it means that he can only mate with left-coiled snails. When geneticist Angus Davison, Ph.D. at the Nottingham University wanted to know if the shell’s coil was hereditary, he had to find Jeremy a mate. He turned to social media to ask citizen scientists to search their gardens to find a left-coiled snail. The #snaillove campaign reached an amazing 1.9 billion people!
[Author of 70 books, including I Am the Thirsty Desert (2023), George Washington's Engineer: How Rufus Putnam Won the Siege of Boston without Firing a Shot (2022), A Little Bit of Dinosaur (2021), A Little Bit of This Dinosaur, A Little Bit of That Dinosaur, and the Moments in Science series - Aquarium: How Jeannette Power Invented the Aquarium to Study Marine Life (2023) , Fever: How Tu Youyou Adapted Traditional Chinese Medicine to Find a Cure for Malaria (2022), A.I. How Patterns Helped Artificial Intelligence Defeat World Champion Lee Sedol (2021), Erosion: How Hugh Bennett Saved America's Soil and Stopped the Dust Bowl (2020), Eclipse: How the 1919 Solar Eclipse Proved Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity (2019), Pollen: Darwin’s 130-Year Prediction (2019), Clang! Ernst Chladni’s Sound Experiments (2018), and Burn: Michael Faraday’s Candle (2016). And the Another Extraordinary Animal series - Pelorus Jack, the New Zealand Dolphin (2024), Diego, the Galápagos Giant Tortoise: Saving a Species from Extinction (2022), Rosie the Ribeter: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (2019), Nefertiti, the Spidernaut: How a Jumping Spider Learned to Hunt in Space (2016), Abayomi, the Brazilian Puma: The True Story of an Orphaned Cub (2014), and Wisdom, the Midway Albatross: Surviving the Japanese Tsunami and Other Disasters for Over 60 Years (2013).]
Carrie Tillotson – Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (Beach Lane Books/Simons & Schuster 2/11/2025) – From the age of three, I wanted to be an illustrator, and I dabbled in art-making my whole life. But instead of pursuing an art career, I studied health sciences in college, and later public health in graduate school. Sometime after I started working as a biostatistician, I felt like something was missing. I still had the pull to pursue art and illustrating books. I thought I needed to write a book in order to illustrate one, so I joined SCBWI, started writing, and found a new passion in writing! While I write both fiction and nonfiction, I tend to read a lot of nonfiction for myself, and I’m endlessly fascinated by the world around us, especially animals and nature. One thing I love most about writing nonfiction is that I can take a deep-dive into a topic that interests me and share that joy with others. My dream project is writing and illustrating a book on whales.
[Author of over 3 books, B Is for Bananas, illustrated by Estrela Lourenço (2023). Counting to Bananas: A Mostly Rhyming Fruit Book, illustrated by Estrela Lourenço (2022).]
What helps you to be inspired? (perhaps a certain place, music, activity, etc.)
Ann Marie Stephens – I am always inspired by other people’s books. When I was in my classroom, I’d read 5-7 picture books a day to my students. Now I read about 20-25 a week from the library and bookstores. I love having small stacks of picture books around me to read and reread. When I surround myself with incredible books, it puts me in the right headspace and gives me hope. If I get stuck when I’m writing, I take a walk and it almost always clears my head. Mostly, I can’t listen to music unless it’s instrumental but sometimes it’s just too distracting for me. My writing area has lots of miniatures and toys, which keep me grounded in my audience. I also have the perfect view to a yard full of chipmunks, raccoons, birds, and other animals that play, fight, and fumble just like kids.
Darcy Pattison – I am often inspired by scientists who take deep dives into subjects and come up with fascinating results. For the story of Jeremy, left- and right-coiled snails pose an interesting genetic question. Is this a trait that can be passed along? As you know, some genes can be recessive, so they had to breed several generations of snails to find the answer. After three generations and 10,000+ snails—no other snail had a left-coiled shell. The conclusion is that it was a genetic accident.
Interesting, however, is that there is one species of snails in Japan where the shells can coil either direction and for that species, it is genetic and can be inherited. Heredity and inheritance are interesting—when a scientist leads the way.
Carrie Tillotson – So many things inspire me! Exploring in nature, walks with my dogs, things I read or see in the news, funny goings-on at home with family. But one of my favorite ways to help nurture that inspiration is to write in my writing fort. I have a desk where I do a lot of my writing work, and a few feet behind it is a bookshelf. It’s the perfect location to set up some bookshelf-to-desk blankets, pop some cozy seating on the floor, and get to work. Somehow the ideas seem to flow in there. Perhaps it has something to do with feeling like a kid again.
I love all of these great ways to be inspired! Now that we know a little more about all of you, what sparked your interest and caused you to write this book?
Ann Marie Stephens – CATawampus! A Story of Shapes & sCATtered! A Story of Estimation (2/4/2025) – I can’t say I actually had an interest in writing additional math books. Math has never been my favorite subject. My editors requested four more books after CATastrophe! A Story of Patterns. It was wonderful news yet very intimidating to have to come up with more math, original plots, consistent characters, and comedy. The best part is that every cat book has provided me the opportunity to combine math with stories full of humor, family, love, and relevant life situations. The illustrator, Jenn Harney, did an extraordinary job of creating cats that show struggles and share feelings just like the kids reading our books.
Darcy Pattison – Jeremy, the English Garden Snail: Heredity, Citizen Science, and #snaillove (Mims House 2/20/2025) – Jeremy is a strange combination of luck, science, and social media. The science of genetics is fascinating, asking if the shell’s coil can be inherited. But the left-coiled shell was so rare, that the scientist needed help from citizen science. Jeremy could only mate with another left-coiled snail. After Dr. Davison’s call went out on social media, it took a month or so to find two left-coiled snails. Eventually, they found about 45.
I was fascinated by this strange combination of science and social media because it’s a story that could only take place in the 21st century. Before the days of social media, the snail would simply have died, a strange anomaly, with no explanation of why his shell was different.
Besides—Dr. Davison was a great scientist to interview, open and easy to understand. And fun! Look at this photo of a snail on his face.
Carrie Tillotson – Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (2/11/2025) – I first learned of alpacas while on vacation in Washington State with my sister. We drove past a farm and wondered what were the adorable animals grazing in the pasture? We stopped and found...alpacas! Over the years, I visited many alpaca farms and even researched starting my own. I soon discovered alpacas need more care, time, money, and room to roam, than I had available (never mind my animal and grass allergies!). Later, I realized I could share my love of alpacas by writing about them. Through my research, I learned that raising alpacas is not only a way of life, but a means of survival for many people in the Andes Mountains. I was drawn to the similarities in the lives alpacas lead, no matter where on earth they live. Just like the people who raise them.
These are fun books and it's so fascinating all the different ways that inspiration strikes. What makes you passionate about being a children’s author?
Ann Marie Stephens – I love living in a kid’s world. Adulting can be so serious and scary. Kids spend a lot of time in their imaginations, and I can relate. Writing picture books is challenging on many levels because you’re trying to entertain, inspire, or educate young readers while holding their attention and that of the adults reading to them. I would rather read a pile of picture books over adult books any day. That fuels my passion to write more.
Darcy Pattison – My goal is always to put the right book into the hands of the right kid at the right time. Books can expand a child’s world, bring the world to them, and help them understand their inner and outer worlds. I read constantly—fiction and nonfiction—and can’t imagine a life without books. Some people keep track of the number of books they read a year, but I’ve never been able to keep a count. I know that it’s hundreds of books—of all sizes, formats, genres, and fascinating content. I read paper books, digital books, and listen to audiobooks. My world is books. I want to bring that rich, fascinating life to kids.
Carrie Tillotson – I loved reading books with my parents when I was little, and I hope that both my fiction and nonfiction books can be touch points for kids and their grown-ups to connect with one another. I also love being able to take a deep dive into nonfiction topics that interest me and share that joy with others. My hope is to inspire others to pursue their own passions, too.
You've obviously all found the right career. Thank you for sharing this with us. Is there anything special you want your readers to know about your book?
Text © Ann Marie Stephens, 2025. Image © Jenn Harney, 2025.
Ann Marie Stephens – CATawampus! A Story of Shapes (2/5/2025) - Some of my favorite memories from my own schooling are of the teachers who let me be myself and celebrated my uniqueness. There are a lot of educators who work hard to make this a priority. They’re the best! I wanted the cats in this story to be themselves, be inspired, make mistakes, and keep going. Ultimately, that’s how kids grow and succeed.
Text © Ann Marie Stephens, 2025. Image © Jenn Harney, 2025.
& sCATtered! A Story of Estimation (2/4/2025) – To parents and educators reading the story, be patient with little ones when it comes to estimating. It requires mastery of many skills in order to be good at it. Give lots of opportunities to practice. To my young readers, I want to say I understand how hard estimation can be. Looking at something, trying to make the best guess, and being really far off can be frustrating and embarrassing. It’s okay. Keep trying and you will get better at it. Also, a fun tidbit is that the grandma in the story is inspired by my Granny who was bold and creative and traveled the world.
Text © Darcy Patterson, 2025. Image © Olga Gonina, 2025.
Darcy Pattison – Jeremy, the English Garden Snail: Heredity, Citizen Science, and #snaillove (Mims House 2/20/2025) – Jeremy joins six other books about animals in the Another Extraordinary Animal series. These are biographies of an individual animal, not a species. Each animal is named because of some interaction with humans. They all have a fascinating story, something interesting happened to them. And finally, each has a scientist who was willing to talk with me to help me understand the story. Or there was lots of documentation available.
Here's the thing. I think I’m done—again. The series includes a bird, spider, mammal, marine mammal, amphibian, reptile, and now a gastropod. That covers the animal kingdom, doesn’t it? Um, not quite. Let me borrow from Dr. Davison and ask for your citizen science help. I need the story of a fish or shark to add to this series. Or eel, clownfish, trout, or rays? Perhaps the story of a platypus, jellyfish, or worm?
Remember, it must be:
· a single animal, not a species
· be named because of interaction with humans
· have an interesting story
· have a scientist to explain the scientific questions
If you know of an extraordinary animal that fits these requirements, please email me with information at darcy@mimshousebooks.com. Thanks!
Text © Carrie Tillotson, 2025. Image © Elisa Chavarri, 2025.
Carrie Tillotson – Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (2/11/2025) – This was one of the earliest manuscripts I worked on when I first started writing picture books seriously, way back in 2015. It took 10 years to go from idea to publication. I even cried when I first saw the sketches from amazing illustrator Elisa Chavarri. Seeing all the years of hard work and revising this story so many times finally come to life on the page was an amazing moment.
Kids are going to LOVE these books. What was the hardest, or most challenging, part of writing or researching your book? Was there a bit of your research you didn’t get to include?
Ann Marie Stephens – CATawampus! A Story of Shapes (2/5/2025) & sCATtered! A Story of Estimation (2/4/2025) – There are multiple challenges when writing a series. Uniformity is essential. The characters’ actions and reactions need to stay true to who they are. Language, voice, and pacing need to be consistent from book to book. My editors and I thought we should put the word “CAT” in each of the titles. I made a master list and we chuckled at choices such as, CATsup and sCATterbrain. Ultimately we settled on what we thought would work. Then I had the mission of creating stories and themes around those words while also figuring out how to include a math skill. Overall, my goal for this series is to find organic, applicable ways to work math into the real world, while also conjuring up some laughs.
Carrie Tillotson – Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (2/11/2025) – The most challenging part was learning to write in rhyme. I originally wrote the story in (admittedly terrible) rhyme and was advised to try writing it in prose. I revised the story over several years in different versions of prose, but there was something in the back of my mind always asking for it to rhyme. So, I dove into learning how to write in rhyme. It still took many rounds of revision, but I think the story really sings this way.
I think you both rose admirably to the challenges of making math fun and succeeding in writing a rhyming book. Congratulations. Are there any upcoming projects that you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
Ann Marie Stephens – I have a picture book titled, So Many Books!, cowritten with Sue Fliess, debuting April 10. It’s a rhyming book about books! Then the fourth story in the CATastrophe Tale Series, CATerwaul! A Story of Sorting, releases in December, and the last one in the series, CATapult! A Story of Movement and Position, comes out in 2026. I’m writing more picture books (nothing math related), an early reader series, and collaborating with other writers. My fabulous agent is shopping my board book series, an early reader series, and multiple picture books. I’m always trying to wrangle up school visits and speaking gigs. I miss having my own class each year. It fills me up when I can visit kids in other schools and share my passion for writing.
Darcy Pattison – I am working on another animal story, but this time it will be a standalone book, not part of the Another Extraordinary Animal series. I was lucky enough to go to Europe last fall and visit the Prague Zoo, where they have a small herd of the Przewalski’s horse, the only wild horse species in the world. They are quite different from domesticated horses in size and shape.
The Prague Zoo, along with many other conservationists, has brought the species back from the brink of extinction. There were only 11 individuals left in the world, and today, after decades of work, there are about 3000.
In late summer, look for NOT EXTINCT: The Journey of the Przewalski’s Horse from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered.
Carrie Tillotson – My next book is a silly, informational fiction picture book with a STEAM-themed topic. I can’t share too much now, but am excited to let others know more soon!
These sound amazing. I can't wait to see them. Last question, what animal or natural feature (place) do you want to learn more about? Why?
Ann Marie Stephens – This is like asking me to name my favorite book! I love traveling and have been to over 50 countries and islands. I can’t get enough information about other places and animals. I guess today’s answer would be woodpeckers. I have three different kinds that have been visiting the feeders in my yard and I’m reading up on them. Tomorrow, my answer might be sea slugs or squid. As a scuba diver, I read a lot about ocean creatures. I keep journals of all of the animals I’ve seen on land and in the ocean.
Darcy Pattison – I’ve visited Hawaii once, but I’d love to return for a long, long visit. I’d love to see all the plants and animals, explore the volcanoes, and kayak the Nā Pali Coast. Why? It’s beautiful, it’s part of America, and it’s so different from where I live. America is an amazing nation with so many different geographies.
Carrie Tillotson – Whales. All kinds of whales. I’ve actually been fascinated with whales for a longer portion of my life than alpacas. I’m not sure what it is that draws me to them, but perhaps it’s their intelligence. Perhaps it’s their stories of emotions. I’ve always felt a connection to the animals around me, and the connection to whales is calling me.
NOW, let me take a moment to introduce you to these amazing STEAM books!
CATawampus! A Story of Shapes by Ann Marie Stephens, illustrated by Jenn Harney (Astra Books For Young Readers 2/4/2025) – When their teacher challenges nine kittens to build a wind-powered robot out of shapes, in an hour, the kittens jump, pounce, and launch themselves into the challenge. Ingeniously, learning by comparison about circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles. Impatient and excited, the first try is CATawampus. This is a great book on shapes, cooperation, planning, and turning failure into fun.
Synopsis: Math-loving kittens race to build the best robot as they compete in a STEM day at school in this playful picture book that demonstrates the key math concept of identifying shapes.
It’s a wonderful day—because it’s STEM day! Kitties are challenged to build a robot and use the wind to make it move. With circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles, the kitties do their best to tape, glue, and paste—but oh no! The robot won’t move. How might these disorderly cats make sense of all these shapes and build a successful robot?
Author Ann Marie Stephens draws upon more than 30 years of teaching experience to ensure that readers absorb math while having fun in the adventure-filled CATastrophe Tale series. And Jenn Harney’s hilarious and energetic illustrations capture the antics of these enthusiastic kittens.
Each book in the CATastrophe Tale series includes helpful back matter, which shows readers that, just like the kittens, they use mathematical skills in their everyday lives. Additional titles in the series include CATastrophe!: A Story of Patterns and sCATtered!: A Story of Estimation.
sCATtered! A Story of Estimation by Ann Marie Stephens, illustrated by Jenn Harney (Astra Books For Young Readers 2/4/2025) – As the kittens are launching down a huge box tower mountain, they learn that Gran is coming and rush to clean up. Masterfully merged, their attempts to estimate the number of books for a shelf and toys to stuff in a closet with humorous images of them stuffing the remainders under beds and rugs. The estimation continues in this great book, as the kittens prepare a gift, lava cake, and a banner and ties in tons of sCATtered, exciting word play and fun.
Synopsis: Math-loving kittens prepare a party for their number-one grandmother in this playful picture book that demonstrates the key math concept of estimation.
The CATastrophe! cats are back, this time causing even more chaos! Nine kitties are purring with excitement for Grandma Cat’s upcoming visit. They’re going to throw her a party with cake, decorations, and a special gift. But when frantically cleaning cats misjudge how many toys they can hide in a closet, catastrophe looms. . . .
Jeremy, the English Garden Snail: Heredity, Citizen Science, and #snaillove by Darcy Pattison, illustrated by Olga Gonina (Mims House 2/20/2025) – When an unusual snail is discovered with a shell that twists opposite other snails, an excited scientist sets out to discover if the anomaly is a fluke or an inheritable trait. But the left-coiling snail, Jeremy, could only mate with another left-coiling snail. So, Dr. Angus Davidson used a #snaillove internet call for citizen scientist assistance - can anyone find another super rare snail? Full of diagrams, gorgeous photos, and clear understandable text, this is a wonderful nonfiction story of the famous garden snail and his contribution to asymmetrical heredity and science.
Synopsis: In a charming garden of London, a tiny hero emerges – Jeremy, a garden snail with a remarkable difference. Unlike his right-coiled companions, Jeremy's shell spirals to the left, making him a one-in-a-million wonder. Little does Jeremy know that his unique shell is about to catapult him into a worldwide adventure, captivating scientists and snail enthusiasts alike!
Jeremy, the English Garden Snail story is a delightful new children's educational picture book that brings the excitement of scientific discovery to young readers. Written by Darcy Pattison and beautifully illustrated by Olga Gonina, this engaging story follows Jeremy's journey from a humble compost heap to international stardom.
Alpacas Here, Alpacas There by Carrie Tillotson, illustrated by Elisa Chavarri (Beach Lane Books/Simons & Schuster 2/11/2025) – A fun rhyming main text and concise sidebars, which compare the lives of alpacas in the Andes mountains of Peru with alpacas living on North American farms, combine with sweet images of the herds, mothers and babies, and their keepers to create a delightful look at the differences and similarities of alpacas living in North and South America. The included glossary and additional information in the back matter make this a great introduction to the alpacas.
Synopsis: Learn all about alpacas in both North and South America in this rhyming nonfiction picture book full of these darling fluffy friends!
Alpacas here, alpacas there depend on people for their care.
Thousands of years ago, people living high in the Andes Mountains of South America domesticated alpacas from wild animals. Today, millions of alpacas are still raised in the Andes, but alpaca farming has also spread to North America and around the world. Find out all there is to know about the lives of alpacas, here, there, and everywhere!
Thank you all for giving us a little peek into yourselves and your books. Wishing you all enormous success.
To learn more about these writers, or to contact them:
Ann Marie Stephens – CATawampus! A Story of Shapes & sCATtered! A Story of Estimation (Astra Books 2/4/2025) –
X (Twitter) : https://x.com/AMStephens_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amstephens_/
Darcy Pattison – Jeremy, the English Garden Snail: Heredity, Citizen Science, and #snaillove (Mims House 2/20/2025) –
Website: https://mimshousebooks.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/MimsHouseBooks
Carrie Tillotson – Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (Beach Lane Books/Simons & Schuster 2/11/2025) –
Website: https://carrietillotson.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carrietillotson
