When Sterling Kids released its fall catalog, I was happy to discover that not only was HOW TO FEED YOUR PARENTS in there, and not only was it one of the publisher’s lead titles, it was the first book featured, right there on page 2!

Even more exciting (OK, as exciting) are the other titles coming from fellow Sterling authors throughout the season. I feel like I’m part of some cool club now, or the Sterling Publishing Class of 2018. We should get nicknames and sign each other’s books with “KIT! 2 COOL 2 BE 4 GOTTEN!”

With my own book coming out Aug. 7, I’ll be sharing the (technically autumn, for some reason?) book spotlight with some really fun titles, including:

MISSION DEFROSTABLE: by the hilarious-with-words Josh Funk and illustrated by the hilarious-with-pictures Brendan Kearney. The breakfast-centric Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast books are silly and clever and have a rhythm and meter that makes every line feel deliciously natural. (I love finding rhyming books like these where no words feel forced for the sake of an ending sound.) This third in the series promises to bring more of that sweet, sweet humor to the breakfast table in early September, when a deep freeze threatens our heroes’ refrigerator home!

IF YOU’RE GOING TO A MARCH: by Martha Freeman and illustrated by Violet Kim. As a self-proclaimed “child of the ’60s,” Martha has championed peace (yes!) and freedom of the press (double yes!), as well as protested apartheid. She eventually became a journalist (like me!) and has upped the number of marches she’s participated in since 2016. I’d love to meet her, but in the meantime, I’ll have to settle for reading her book about what children can expect from constitutionally protected public assemblies—and sharing it with my own little rights-championing sign-makers. Oh, and MARTHA AND I WILL BOTH CELEBRATE AUG. 7 AS OUR BOOK BIRTHDAY!

THE BOOK DRAGON: by Kell Andrews and illustrated by Éva Chatelain. My favorite animal is the dragon (which, when I tell kids, tends to prompt follow-up conditions of “no, real animal,” to which I answer “megalodon,” which brings the inevitable “no, living animal,” to which I say “sharks”). It’s probably very obvious that I also love books, so there’s no way I can adequately convey here how very excited I am for both dragons and books to appear in this title. Considering that the hero here is also a strong and smart girl, I can’t see how this story could possibly be any better. I’ll have to wait till early October to discover exactly how the plucky Rosehilda fares after she challenges the scaly beast of the title, which has been stealing all printed-and-bound reading material in the town for its own hoard. (I certainly sympathize.) (With the dragon.)

I’ll be sharing more Sterling Publishing Class of 2018 titles in the coming days, probably after the busy-ness of my own book launch week dies down! In the meantime, enjoy these precious last long and lazy days for reading before school starts …