We saw 42 stars

 

Ever since Daylight Saving Time started, Hudson wakes up at 5:30 instead of 6:30.

If it's not too cold, we take Whiskey for a short walk before the sun comes up. 

The other morning he was up at 5:15, and the sky was still dark. We saw 42 stars, which is a lot for New York City. 

Looking at the sky reminds us how big the universe is, and how lucky we are to be here, even if for a cosmic nanosecond.

Hudson is this tiny little collection of DNA molecules, and what are the odds of him being here? And yet, here he is. Here we are. All we can do is smile and declare victory.

Book news:

• My daughter Samantha is going with me to Pennsylvania this weekend for the Keystone Literacy Association conference. Library Books Are Not for Eating won an award! And Hershey Lodge has an indoor waterpark! (Jo and Hudson decided to stay home--too much Thanksgiving travel.)

• Love is a Story is the first book in the universe dedicated to Hudson ("For Hudson, whose story has just begun"). Coming January 3.

•  Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny hops your way in February.
• Wacky Weather, a Cat in the Hat Learning Library book, makes landfall sometime in 2023.
• I just finished the manuscript for another Cat in the Hat Learning Library book, Oh, the Ways we Go! Go! Go! It's about the history of transportation. It will be transported to bookstores in 2024.
• Finally, a Chinese-language version of Three Grumpy Trucks is coming soon. But you have to go to China.

Thanks for coming here to read my semi-annual post. Hope you're doing well. Smile and declare victory.

Let's catch up!

 As you may have heard from the universe, I am a new father.

Let me tell you, there is nothing in the world as great as being a new father. The sky is blue. The world is wonderful. We are doing our part to perpetuate the human race, counterbalance evil in the world, and eradicate racism (if everyone in the world would just have mixed-race babies, we could all stop shouting and be kind to each other--like in Sneetches).

But let's get to the new books.

First up, Love is a Story hits shelves in December.

I wrote most of it on an airplane--and you know how you sometimes get more emotional on airplanes? Or is it just me? I'm typing on my laptop, "Love is a castle / that's made from the sand / of an ocean that's older than time," and thinking, "Oh, man, that's good," while simultaneously beginning to heave uncontrollably.

Leprechaun vs. Easter Bunny is coming in Spring 2023. Not sure I'm allowed to share details yet, but I'd describe it as a Quentin Tarantino story arc for toddlers.

Finally, two more Cat in the Hat Learning Library titles, one in 2023 and one in 2024. I hope to keep channeling my inner Dr. Seuss for the foreseeable future.

Summer is coming. The sky is blue. The world is wonderful. Here's to children and children's books. 

Dear universe

Yeah, me again. 

I think we both know that you and I are never going to be best friends.

But it doesn't escape me that matter and energy and electrons and protons can interact in interesting ways. Even amidst your ever-increasing entropy, you manage to create some really amazing things.

You don't care and I know you don't care. We humans are just along for the ride, blinking in and out of existence every 80 years or so, like fireflies on a summer ballfield.

But, okay. Those blips and blinks mean something. At least to us fireflies. And least while we're here.

So for now, I just want to say...thank you.