Our response to meeting Vicky Fang? Charmed, I'm sure.

Check out Vicky's chapter book series Ava Lin, the latest installment, Ava Lin, Super Duper Happy, out June 2025!

Our reviews this week:

LLAMAS GO BANANAS by Briony Britten, illustrated by Pauline Gregory

THE INTERPRETER, by Olivia Abtahi, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo

IT STARTED WITH A P, by Brittany Pomales, illustrated by Andrew Joyner

DON’T MISS AN EPISODE! Sign up for our newsletter here!

The artwork for You May Contribute a Verse features our quokka mascot Versey, and was generously created for us by the great Maddie Frost! Find her on IG @hellomaddiefrost or on her website Maddie-Frost.com

Our theme music is So Happy by Scott Holmes you can find more of his music at scottholmesmusic.com

Love the podcast and wanna support more episodes like this? Find Community Shoutouts, Merch and our Patreon here!!

Find us on Bluesky @joshmonkwords, @brennajeanneret, and @jonseym0ur as always, let us know what you think via a rating, review, or comment!

Judy Campbell-Smith is here! Check out her books Baseball for Breakfast (coming 2026), Ice Cream Everywhere, and AJ's Neighborhood, AND make sure and join PB Power Hour if you can. It's a great resource for the community.

Enjoy!

-----

Our sponsor is Tielmour Press! Check out Fungi Are More than Mushrooms, out March 2025, AND Jon's new kids' show, Hook Book Barrel!

Our reviews this week:

THE BAKERY DRAGON by Devin Elle Kurtz

ELWOOD BIGFOOT: WANTED: BIRDIE FRIENDS! by Jill Esbaum and Nate Wragg

KAT HATS by Daniel Pinkwater

DON’T MISS AN EPISODE! Sign up for our newsletter here!

The artwork for You May Contribute a Verse features our quokka mascot Versey, and was generously created for us by the great Maddie Frost! Find her on IG @hellomaddiefrost or on her website Maddie-Frost.com

Our theme music is So Happy by Scott Holmes you can find more of his music at scottholmesmusic.com

Love the podcast and wanna support more episodes like this? Find Community Shoutouts, Merch and our Patreon here!!

Find us on Bluesky @joshmonkwords, @brennajeanneret, and @jonseym0ur as always, let us know what you think via a rating, review, or comment!

Today’s guest is picture book author Carrie Finison make sure to check out her newest release, Pigs Dig A Road illustrated by Brian Biggs to see her incredible rhyming skills in action!

We chat about Carrie’s start with Baby Bug magazine and writing short snippets, Latin scansion, of all things, and how rhyme has ruined radio for her! We also dove into the Rutgers conference and Carrie was kind enough to share the intro to a piece that landed her her agent along with the query letter!

Team Versy is Brenna Jeanneret, children’s lit author, mother, rock climber, outdoors person, and podcaster, Josh Monken, children’s lit author, father, science communicator, and podcaster Jon Seymour, podcast wizard, author/illustrator and family man.

This episode was proudly sponsored by Tielmour Press

Our guest for this conversation was Carrie Finison. You can find Carrie here.

DON’T MISS AN EPISODE! Sign up for our newsletter here!

This episode’s book reviews:

TOO MUCH! AN OVERWHELMING DAY by Jolene Gutiérrez and illustrated by Angel Chang

LITTLE LION GIRL by Olivia Hope and illustrated by Fiona Woodcock

A PINECONE! by Helen Yoon

The artwork for You May Contribute a Verse features our new quokka mascot, Versey, and was generously created by the great Maddie Frost! Find her on IG @hellomaddiefrost or on her website Maddie-Frost.com

Our theme music is So Happy by Scott Holmes you can find more of his music at scottholmesmusic.com

Love the podcast and wanna support more episodes like this? Find Community Shoutouts, Merch and our Patreon here!!

Find us on Bluesky @joshmonkwords, @brennajeanneret, and @jonseym0ur as always, let us know what you think via a rating, review, or comment!

Thanks and see ya next time.

You May Contribute a Verse is a homespun production, produced, edited, recorded, conceptualized, and marketed by Josh Monken, Brenna Jeanneret, and Jon Seymour.