Latest / Book Flood Podcast / Erin Dealey on the Writing Life (E59)
Transcript
- Tom Nixon: Welcome to the Book Flood podcast. I'm your host, Tom Nixon. My guest this week is Erin Dealey. Erin is the author of Squirrel Draws Big Feelings and Just Flowers, as well as 20 other books. She also celebrates book birthdays, and she'll talk about that a little bit. Welcome, Erin. ⁓ Erin Dealey: Thank you so much for having me, having me back. This is really fun. I appreciate the time. Tom Nixon: Absolutely, I'm glad you could come back. So why don't we start with your career trajectory? How did you get to here? Erin Dealey: I got to here because I was teaching high school and was teaching high school theater and I walked through my drama department at one point and there was this cheesy novel on somebody's desk that they had left and I picked it up and I went, I could do that. Could I do that? You know, I mean, you know, and at that point I was writing skits for my kids to perform because I couldn't find anything that, you know, fit the need for 35 kids in a classroom or whatever. So I was writing, I had ⁓ idea that was going to pop into my head. But I thought, ⁓ I always telling my student council kids, if you a goal, if you have something that you think you might want to do, then go for it. Don't let the if onlys get to you. And I had to kind of walk the walk there. And so I did. And that's how this book happened. Goldilocks has chicken pox. And which I'm happy to say is still in print 20 years later, so yay. And the crazy thing was is that I was writing a young adult novel, at least I thought I was, which is still in a drawer somewhere. But my friend decided she was going to write too, and she was writing picture books. And so she was sending, she was giving me these like two pages and I was giving her these chapters, these tomes of things. And I felt bad. So I thought, well, maybe I should write a picture book instead. And so that's how Goldilocks has Chicken Pox started. So how it started. And then here is the trajectory, visual. from is Goldilocks has Chicken Pox came ⁓ after was Little Bo Peep Can't Get to Sleep. And then there was a lull that I wrote for Pearson reading program, work for hire. And then at that point had Tom Nixon: ⁓ wow. Erin Dealey: I had connected with an agent, Yay Deborah Warren at East West Literary. And she said that was a company that was looking for quirky holiday stories. ⁓ And the Walls was actually a skit that I had written for my theater kids to perform at a Christmas assembly when you couldn't talk about just Christmas, right? And so ⁓ that a book. And then after that, There was another lull because of the recession and everybody was downsizing again So then I did some work for hires and I'm sure everybody wanted when I show these at author visits people want Where can I get potty time? Well, if you go to Korea you can pick one up, but they're not available in the States and then after that wrote for Kane Miller for a while babies come from airports is a book that was a Kane Miller and you'll notice that the illustrator is Luciana Navarro Powell Tom Nixon: Yeah Erin Dealey: And she is the illustrator of Squirrel Draws Big Feelings, so that we've come full circle. She also illustrated and Me, ⁓ Grandma's Favorite and ⁓ Favorite, which also was translated into Spanish, which makes me very happy. But then after that, started, Duck Walls was a Sleeping Bear book. ⁓ And I looking at what they were using, what they were publishing. And I thought, well, maybe I could try an alphabet book. This one came from that case for kindergarten. Tom Nixon: Mm. Erin Dealey: ⁓ which on each spread is a kindergarten challenge and a kindergarten countdown because I wrote this because one of my friend's kids couldn't wait to get to kindergarten. And ⁓ that, thought there's a lot of kids out there that are waiting and wanting to go. And ⁓ so been really fun and it's still ⁓ going too. And ⁓ I've moms tell me, wow. I don't even have to go to Pinterest for activities, which cracks me up. Because these are like activities that you and I have known about forever. know, some of these days, they have to look them up. And then came Snow Globe Wishes, which got an Anna Dudney Read Aloud honor mention, which makes me very, happy. And I wrote this when I felt like the whole world needed a hug. And I did. Tom Nixon: Mm. Erin Dealey: in particular, and I feel like when you do that, there's more heart in your book when you're writing that way. ⁓ ⁓ very happy to know that other people have felt that too. And then from that, I ⁓ Dear Earth from Your Friends in Room 5, which is HarperCollins. And it has this lovely sticker on it. Look at that. ⁓ It's reading association sticker, which just is like as a teacher, that's like, ⁓ my gosh. Tom Nixon: Nice. Erin Dealey: And it's the New York State Reading ⁓ Association Charlotte Award ⁓ Dear Earth from your friends in room five. The other thing that ⁓ I'm very excited about for Dear Earth is that ⁓ don't know if you know E. Train, Ethan Minton. He's a teenage influencer and ⁓ book reviewer. ⁓ he has taken Dear Earth and he's been sharing it around. Like he's like the Dear Earth ambassador. I love it because he has this one ⁓ one mission called ⁓ E. Train Talks Earth. Tom Nixon: Nice. Erin Dealey: So this is really, it's how to be an Earth hero all year long. And he's really been helping me get the word out for that. And then after that was Peter Easter frog. went back, Caitlin DeLuey was the person who ⁓ ⁓ has chicken pox and Little Bo Peep can't get to sleep and published that. she, this is under Caitlin DeLuey books with G. Brian Karras as the And I have to say that the exciting thing about this is that of all my books, If you're thinking about one that might have a sequel or life, I would never have thought Peter Easter frog was the one. But Peter Easter frog is going to be Peter super frog coming next ⁓ a year from August in an easy to read format. Yay. Easy readers. Again, teacher's it's like when ⁓ little boat can't get to sleep, got to be in the scholastic book fair. These are the that you have. as a teacher and an author. But anyway, and then I wrote the half birthday book and that's from Genius Cat Books. And that was just something that a principal said, we need a book, half birthday book. So I went, well, let me try and write one. And then we went back to Sleeping Bear with Christmas Ahoy. And then that followed Just Flowers. And the thing that I'm very, very proud of is that Just Flowers won one of the four Growing Good Kids Awards from the Junior Master Gardeners Program, which is home-based, it's in Texas. that's just like, for a that is full of the flowers in back with Latin names and written by somebody who only grew up knowing gladiolas and roses, ⁓ it just makes so happy that I went down that hole and discovered all the fun ⁓ flowers and Latin names and wondered how I could make a story out of it. And the junior master gardeners recognized it. So that just makes my heart very, very happy. And then that leads us to Squirrel Draws Big Picture, Big Feelings, because like I said, Luciana Navarro-Pau, once again, is the illustrator. So we've come full circle. That's the ⁓ And I ⁓ excited to say that just recently I got another book contract offer. I'm not talking about that one either. life is good. That's the trajectory. Yeah. Tom Nixon: Nice, nice. A little bit of jumping from contract to contract in your world. Erin Dealey: Yes, yes, it's no longer, you know, long ago used to be, you know, you were in one house and they just published all your stuff. But so, so many of us out there now ⁓ and many great offerings. I mean, I completely get it. So many talented writers that it just depends on their list that year and what they haven't published and what they're looking at and what they think will sell. What, you know, it's and so it's you're not just locked in. ⁓ Like, you know, people always think, ⁓ you're just with Simon and Schuster the whole way. And I'm like, no, I'm not. But I mean, I send Caitlin things and, you know, see what happens. And that's what happened with Peter Easterfrog. ⁓ then ⁓ offshoot of ⁓ in Athenaeum and Caitlin DeLuie books, they have early to read reading readiness brand. that's where where the other ones come from. So, yeah. ⁓ But no longer are you just a one house author. Yeah. Tom Nixon: us about Squirrel Draws Big Feelings. This is new just this month, I think. Erin Dealey: Yeah, yeah, I just had a book launch at ⁓ Ruby's Books in Folsom, California, and I've got four, I'm calling them squirrel parties, four squirrel parties coming up at different elementary schools, and we're going to have a good old time to, we're going to do, we're going to read the book and talk about big feelings, and then ⁓ I bought a whole case of buckets of chalk. And weather permitting, we're going to go outside on the playground. We're just going to draw our feelings. And that's going to be really fun because squirrel in this book, squirrel has the squirrely. So you just can't sit still. And feels the pricklies, you know, just something's not right. Just and it's just stuck. then ⁓ has roarful days. And so. ⁓ when things get worse and they don't know what to do with their feelings, Squirrel just runs to his tree and wants to draw and draw and draw, but he runs out of paper. And so he takes his chalk and he starts drawing all the way up the sidewalk. his friends see him ⁓ he says, do you want to draw too? ⁓ you know, of course ⁓ kids, ⁓ I read it to them, they always think that the kids, they're going to say yes, but We know better as adults, everybody at this point says, no, I'm not good at art, right? So I had to throw that in at this point. And so they just go back to their lonely benches and Squirrel gets stuck in his feelings again. But Squirrel doesn't give up and Squirrel, Squirrel starts writing, I'm stuck. And he's drawing, you know, mad monsters and sad bugs. But eventually, I these illustrations. ⁓ He discovers that art feels like a quiet hug and art is something that we can use as an outlet for our feelings. ⁓ though we can't talk about them, we can scribble about them and we can draw. And ⁓ other thing that I love about this book is that ⁓ the end, spoiler alert, that everybody in the whole school, ⁓ at least all their friends, are drawing together. And to me, me as a theater teacher, that's like any art that you do, if you share it, you know, the community that you build helps you make friends. And friendship another really important coping skill and knowing how to talk to each other and ⁓ how to together. know, whenever you do art, I think art gives you that outlet to help with feelings and to help ⁓ these days. Kids a hard time. looking up from their phones and looking, you know, even the ones who don't have phones, you know, they were in the COVID era and they have a hard time making friends. And so art is a way to help you make friends and to help you share your feelings. And it's a great outlet, you know, no matter what your art is, you know, your art, I'm not sure what your creative juices do besides this wonderful podcast, but in creating your podcast. Tom Nixon: true. Erin Dealey: you're developing a community where all these other people can come and talk about their art and it's a really ⁓ amazing creation that you've put together to also help us make friends and share our art. So thank you for that. Tom Nixon: Thank you. I appreciate that. What was your experience like in writing this book and getting this book published? Erin Dealey: ⁓ my gosh, well, it started in COVID when Luciana and I were, we were communicating back and forth and she was going crazy. And so she decided she would go outside. She went outside with a bucket of chalk. She lives in Bellingham, Washington. And she drew, she was just drawing all these amazing chalk art. If you go to my blog, I interviewed her and there's a lot of pictures of the original chalk art that she drew on the sidewalk in the park in Bellingham. And I looked at that and I just went, that has to be a book. That's the way she brought her community together by drawing at that point. And she has these great stories where she ran out of chalk and one day, one morning she found a bucket of chalk on her front porch, who was thanking her and people would ⁓ by and take pictures. Cause her art was like really ⁓ designs of these amazing swans that are about to take flight and all these other great. ⁓ Tom Nixon: Hmm. Erin Dealey: Tulips for the Tulip Festival that got canceled. So that was the beginning. And so it was about this bear who was in quarantine but came out and drew. And then, you know, nobody thought quarantine was going to last very long. And they thought they don't need any books about quarantine. And then I started looking, and there are a million wonderful books about bears. And so I thought, OK, I'm going to pivot here. Let's just see who else needs a book. And I decided that Squirrel would be a great main character because squirrel, I have lots of of students who were just so squirrely as we say, and they couldn't handle their emotions and they couldn't sit still, but they would sit still if we had art. And so that's where that happened. And then I thought, okay, I need some other characters. ⁓ Porcupine could the pricklies, which to me is like that very anxious feeling that comes over kids or adults that ⁓ you just this thing. ⁓ and you don't know how to kind of deal with it, you could either interpret it as a theater teacher. I can see that a lot of kids feel that when they're nervous, but there's a way to challenge that into adrenaline, but not everybody knows that those pricklies can be positive things. So that's porcupine. And I learned along the way, which was really interesting. Did you know that porcupines are nearsighted? I had no idea until porcupine. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Erin Dealey: backed up when squirrel when squirrel spills his paint and porcupine backs up and pops bear's balloon. anyway so that turned into that and then I thought you know what let's bring bear back too. So we brought bear back and I decided he would have ⁓ days because who doesn't have roarful days. ⁓ I wanted them I wanted these emotions to be things that kids could kind of interpret on their own. and not have to say, yeah, this is a book about anxiety or this is a book about not making friends or this is a book about, you know, ⁓ nervousness or or whatever. So that's how that happened. And so we ended up with Squirrel and Porky Pine and And was with me all the way. drew, every time I told her about an idea, ⁓ she got it and drew another picture. And I'm like, okay, we're not quite ready yet, but she's amazing. She's the best. She's so much fun to work with. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Erin Dealey: So that's how that happened. this came out with Beaming Books, which I love. And in the back, ⁓ wanted to make sure I was representing correctly. So I contacted a friend of mine, Lauren Lerza, who is a psych D clinical psychologist. And she went through text and said, yeah, that's a great way to phrase that. And then we have a ⁓ little note the back about, know, big feelings are okay. Tom Nixon: Nice. Erin Dealey: Big feelings are things that everybody feels. It's not just you, but when we talk about them or if we let them out somehow, then they don't get stuck and they don't take over our lives. So anyway, that's that. Tom Nixon: us about Just Flowers. I believe that was your most recent book before this one. Erin Dealey: Yeah, yeah, Yes, and I'm very happy to tell you about Just Flowers. Just Flowers is also about making friends. Flowers is about a grumpy old man ⁓ moves in next door to Izzy, who is a budding botanist, and the grumpy man only cares about his roses. There's the budding botanist. And every something grows in his garden, a different kind of flower, Izzy can identify it. And, you know, like, galanthus, you know, which is one of the fun words that I really wanted to put in a book. Doesn't it sound like, you know, you should say gazuntite or something? So that's what we did. ⁓ The neighbor looked at this guy. Don't you mean snowflakes, kid? Galanthus, Izzy explained. Gazuntite, the neighbor said. You should get inside. So Izzy did. So every time the neighbor tells Izzy to do something, Izzy does. Tom Nixon: Right. Erin Dealey: And Izzy gives away all the flowers that are growing, like the buttercups. and the buttercups are ranunculus, another great word. ⁓ And Izzy said, ⁓ the neighbor says, take them away. So Izzy does. And look what Kate Cosgrove did. Kate Cosgrove had Izzy put them in mama's hair. And so all the way through the book, Izzy gives away the Tom Nixon: Mm. Erin Dealey: the flowers, me, it's like ⁓ extra yarn only with flowers, you know, the whole, by the end of the book, the whole world blossoms around Izzy. And the city council to give a green thumb award and the neighbor says, ⁓ why you shouldn't have, ⁓ and the city says, no, this is for Izzy. And the neighbor says, but those were just. Flowers and the neighbors say yeah, just flowers that made my day mine ⁓ mine and and ⁓ flowers ⁓ made the town happy again Izzy didn't give on friendship ⁓ and goes back the neighbor and gives the neighbor marigolds to keep the aphids off ⁓ his roses and invites ⁓ to And not just flowers, Izzy added, rubus alaganesius, which is the hardest thing to say. I always mess it up. And the neighbor says, I don't see any blackberries. And Izzy says, pie, come and join us. And so the neighbor does. And it's about not giving up on friendship, even though you've got the grimpiest neighbor in the universe, to, you know, just being kind. And I love that schools have ⁓ used book to ⁓ that build their own bouquet ⁓ using some the ⁓ flowers in book and they can label the bouquet. ⁓ And then had teachers take the, the, ⁓ Tom Nixon: Hmm. Erin Dealey: drawing of the bouquet down the hall and give it to another teacher or the administrator or the librarian share that way. Again, sharing art and kindness at the same time. So it's a near and dear story to my heart and it's perfect timing for right now all the way through ⁓ the Blackberry So it's another spring read that I tend to have seasonal things. So this is one of those spring. spring stories that I love. again the Junior Master Gardener's Award. I mean how cool is that? So anyway yeah yeah thanks for the opportunity. I keep waxing too too much on on all these books but I'm excited about Tom Nixon: Very cool, very cool. ⁓ no worries. So ⁓ had ⁓ a number of books published. Do you feel like you've made it as an author or is the struggle still real? Is it still ⁓ challenge to get out there and publish and publish? Erin Dealey: You know, it really depends on your definition of made it. You know, if you had talked to that girl that grew up in Oakland, California and used to do ⁓ homework up on the garage roof and didn't think she could write and so took drama classes when they, you know, when I needed to have one more class in my English. from the English department to graduate from high school. took theater instead of writing like everybody else. So, know, the fact if you were to tell that kid that, you know, now we're ⁓ our 22nd book and, you know, writing is not perfect. Writing is art. Writing is language ⁓ And it starts messy and then you fix it and you turn your writing into reading. If you were to tell that kid, think, ⁓ yeah, I've made it. And ⁓ I've got a fabulous agent and I get to be on podcasts ⁓ yours. I mean, that's gotta say something. So ⁓ don't feel like it. I mean, I still go to the grocery store and nobody, you know, nobody goes, ⁓ it's Aaron Dealy. Except maybe if you're a third grader and I just went to your school. I'm very, very lucky to have my trajectory keep going. Tom Nixon: Right. Erin Dealey: and to have the crazy stories that pop into my head find homes. Not all of them find homes. If you go to my website, you'll see a video I made a long time ago called Rough Drafts. And I lined up all my rough drafts down the driveway. We have a very long driveway. And my dog Max sniffed at them all. Of course, I put little treats there. But can see that not all rough drafts go anywhere. yeah. Depends on who you talk to, but I am not complaining. I'm a very happy camper. you know, I love to talk to people like you about books and about other people's books too. That's what the Book Birthday Blog is about. So, yeah. Tom Nixon: us about the Book Birthday Blog. Erin Dealey: ⁓ sure. Yeah, I'd love to. So it's kind of like started in during COVID too, because I was noticing that not everybody's books were getting the attention they needed, ⁓ know, and there are only a certain number of books who will get like a, you a big, big time review that, and I know librarians look at those lists because they're very, very busy people, teachers too. ⁓ Tom Nixon: Mm-hmm. Erin Dealey: look at all those lists that get the big awards, but there are so many other wonderful books that don't get that attention. And so every ⁓ week, every this last week I did a bonus Friday one too, ⁓ I interview a book creator, an illustrator or an author, ⁓ and we talk about book and ⁓ the process that Tom Nixon: Mm-hmm. Erin Dealey: they use to get there. to me, it's always been very fascinating to talk about that and learn about other people's processes and stuff. And as a teacher, I would use it as an author study, hands down. You can look at all these books. know, Ernesto Cisneros is on there, and John Shue, and all those names as well. But just yesterday, or just today, The Visit is on there. And I'm not going to even try to say her name, but as an author from Spain whose translation, ⁓ Schimmel's translation ⁓ Erdmann's just came out. ⁓ it's about this beautiful book where the child stays home alone for the first time and somebody comes knocking at the door and it's in the shape of a fox. actually it's visitor silence and how. ⁓ and how that child learns that silence is okay. I can be alone. It's really interesting. It's beautiful. But that's what I've been working on is ⁓ to get other people's books out there because honestly, that's ⁓ challenge of right now is ⁓ we don't that hub that used to be all of our shall I say, were in the same place. We don't have that anymore. A lot of people went to Blue Sky and some people on Instagram and some people stayed on Facebook and some are X. I'm all of them just because I was trying to figure out where everybody was. But ⁓ that community that still the book recommendations and stuff is hard. I was gonna ask you, ⁓ where do you the most? ⁓ librarians and teachers on social media. Is there one that you prefer? Tom Nixon: I think it's Instagram and Blue Sky Social. But I share that concern. used to be, you went to Twitter, you went to X, and that's where everybody was. And it does make it more challenging. Just like you want to be out there advertising your book and other people's books, same thing with the podcast. It certainly makes it a little more challenging. Erin Dealey: Yeah, yeah. Yes, indeed. luckily, we can still go to in-person conferences and things at that point and ⁓ meet each But ⁓ boy, there's not that hub anymore, which is unfortunate. So yeah, everybody go find ⁓ Tom and ⁓ on Instagram ⁓ Facebook and and ⁓ Blue I on Blue Sky because people said, ⁓ yeah, you got to come over to Blue Sky. That's where we all are. And then I got there and there's like a big vacuum of a tunnel. were, everybody I checked had posted six months ago, four months ago. And it was like everybody kind of gave up because they didn't know it's, that's a harder nut to crack. They didn't know what to do. But Debbie Redpath-Owee is the queen of blue sky. And she's got a lot of tutorials on her site that you can go through and kind of learn a little bit more. Tom Nixon: Hmm. Erin Dealey: I'm hanging in there. know, it's like me and Izzy, we're gonna keep going to see who's where, but yeah. Anyway. Tom Nixon: What are you working on now that you can share with us? Erin Dealey: I, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so I can't share about that and I can't share about that. I had another idea pop into my head just the other day. So I'm working on that. And then the other thing I'm doing is that I write plays, another full circle moment for me. I write one act plays for high school kids to perform and take to festivals and as ⁓ one act showcases. And so. ⁓ It's been really cool. a couple of my former, I run the theater department at a fine arts camp in the summertime. And a couple of my former students who were then my teachers who are, and one of them still is, ⁓ started a publishing company, an online publishing company for plays because all the big ones, none of them, you had to buy physical copies of all these things. And I don't know if you were ever in theater, but if you were done with a musical, You had to erase every single note you put in that book because you had to return the book. And if you had any mess in all, you had to pay for those books, know, those librettos or whatever. So this ⁓ Uproar is their company. And ⁓ I now one of their playwrights and I write for them. And it's been really fun because, ⁓ you students have taken my plays to Linnea Festival, for example, in California. ⁓ Tom Nixon: Mm. Erin Dealey: They've taken my place at Nova Scotia is the farthest away ⁓ I know that has used one of my plays and a couple of other Canadian schools and schools across the country have ⁓ used one accent. It's really fun to know ⁓ as theater teacher ⁓ that writing stuff that theater teachers can actually use back to me writing those plays for 35 kids, you know what I mean? Tom Nixon: Wow. Erin Dealey: and find what they need for their students. So that's what I'm writing right now. Right now have a couple of plays that just sent to Uproar. But the one I'm working on is actually about, think Breakfast Club, the characters in Breakfast Club, who are all a ⁓ AP Brit lit ⁓ class. ⁓ And ⁓ this is like the last week before they have their essay exams and they've had their heads in their phone the entire year and they've let AI write their papers for them their entire year. But this test has to be just them without phones and they're panicking. it's about, you know, there's a character that plays AI and it's about how we can use AI but how we should actually remember that we have The creativity comes from our hearts and our brains, not from one that's really good at stats and organizing things. And maybe there's a happy medium we could find. So anyway, that's what I'm working on now. Tom Nixon: Nice. know I must have asked you ⁓ first time ⁓ were together, but going to ask again because interestingly, it changes for people. What is a book or series of books from your childhood that still resonates with you? Erin Dealey: Hahaha Ah, yes. Well, you know, I don't, I mean, I wasn't, I didn't have a lot of books in my house, but what I can tell you is the thing that resonated with me besides the comic books that I would get from my sister's room, oops, sorry, or anything like that was the thing I remember is I was the person in our classroom who got to open, the book club books, know, the box of books from Scholastic or whatever the book fair books, you know, you got those little lovely things that you, you know, little newsprint things you could order books from. ⁓ and ⁓ then they came in this box from the company. And then I was the kid who got to open the books and them out and distribute them to the kids in the class. And the I'm telling you, I can still smell that smell today. That image is just stuck in my brain about how powerful that was that I didn't have a lot of books at home, but these were pretty inexpensive books and I could buy a couple and I could own some books. And those were like, that was really, really impactful to me. And you know, there were things like, I don't know, Nancy Drew books and remember the something the five little kids ⁓ or something. mean, there were all these little books, these titles that ⁓ have since gone. But the fact that I could hold that book and I could read it and it was mine. And when I was done with it, I could trade it with another friend in my classroom. That was just huge. And thank you to all the librarians and teachers who still do that to this day, because you are. building ⁓ lifelong readers, completely lifelong readers, even though they might not remember the first titles that they read. Tom Nixon: are you reading now? Erin Dealey: I just finished this fabulous two book series by T.K. Klune, House in the Cerulean Sea. Do you know these books? The second is called Somewhere Beyond the Sea. ⁓ man, they are. My daughter recommended them. My daughter, the third grade teacher, ⁓ she's my club person and ⁓ she recommended And they're like, Tom Nixon: I don't, but I'll have to live with it. Erin Dealey: their fantasy, I don't always like to read, but this community that is created is just really ⁓ ⁓ just give an idea, ⁓ T.J. Klune signs back of book, the author's with the anti-J.K. Rowling. Tom Nixon: Mm. Erin Dealey: So if that gives you an idea of these books and characters in them and creatures, this guy, Linus Baker, he's a caseworker for the department in charge of magical youth and ends up going to house that they're calling an orphanage, but the person who runs it is calling a home for these ⁓ Tom Nixon: you Erin Dealey: children of all species who have nowhere else, have never been wanted anywhere else. So it's just wonderful. I highly recommend it. I had to turn it back to the library. I would be holding up a cover right now. But once again, I'm going to call it The House in the Cerulean Sea is the first book. So yeah, highly recommend. Tom Nixon: Always good to get book recommendations. I want to thank you so much, Aaron, for being on the podcast today. For our listeners and subscribers, thank you for joining us. Please remember to like, subscribe, and share on social media. Also come visit us at BookFloodPodcast.com. Again, thank you, Aaron. Erin Dealey: Right? Yeah. Thank you, Tom. It's been a pleasure. Thank you to all your librarians and teachers that are listening. Tom Nixon: Thank you.