Category: Books

So excited to share the Sparkle Spa #8: Wedding Bell Blues has a jacket! And a publication date! It’ll be available on February 9, 2016–just in time for Valentine’s Day! (And what’s a better Valentine’s Day read than a book about a wedding?!)

If you happen to be in Manhattan this Saturday, November 28, 2015, and you’re looking for autographed books, it’ll be easy to get some!  I’ll be signing books at the Bank Street Book Store from 2-3 pm with Karin Lefranc and Robin Newman. And tons of other authors will be signing before and after us. You can check at the schedule at the Bank Street Book Store website right over here. Hope to see you there!

I just found out that there’s going to be a 4-Books-in-1 Sparkle Spa bind-up of All That Glitters, Purple Nails and Puppy Tails, Makeover Magic and True Colors! It’s coming out on March 15, 2016, and will look like this:

(If you want more information, you can click here.) 

Ooh la la! This is what the first Sparkle Spa book will look like in France! (Aly and Brooke look kind of different, but I can totally tell it’s them.) Can’t wait to see the rest of the book cover designs!

It’s an exciting day over here in my writing room in the sky. Copies of Bling It On! arrived from my publisher. I  love how you can see the sparkles on the cover in this photo. (And I also love how one of the stacks got packed upside down.)

I added those books to my “Books I Wrote” bookcase, and that filled it all up. (And that’s with the two Follow Your Heart books already living on another bookcase!) I guess I need to buy another bookcase…

Today Sparkle Spa #7: Bling It On! is available in bookstores and online retailers everywhere (basically, wherever books are sold). In this book there’s a carnival, there’s a competition, there’s a group of kids giving back to their community, and–as always–there’s some pretty awesome nail polishing. Are you ready to bling on some sparkle?

I don’t usually talk much on this site about my other job as an editor, but I’m going to talk about it very briefly in this post, because I just got an exciting picture from Alex London, whose book, The Wild Ones, I edited. (It’s a great book, by the way, especially for 3rd-6th graders who love action and adventure.) While he was in Pennsylvania, at Children’s Book World, he took this photograph. It’s the Sparkle Spa books on display next to his book, and next to a second book I edited, It’s Your World, by Chelsea Clinton. (Another great book–this one’s perfect for 4th-8th graders who love non-fiction and want to make a difference in the world.) Because it shows books I wrote next to books I edited, it’s one of my favorite bookstore pictures ever. Check it out!

I found out this past week that the first three Sparkle Spa books are going to be translated into French and published by Pocket Jeunesse! To celebrate, I drank some French tea (pictured here with an English Sparkle Spa book). Fingers crossed this news means I get to take a sparkly trip to Paris…

Last month, Patricia Newman wrote an article about me in the California Kids newspaper. It was so much fun talking to her about books and writing. (And so crazy to see my picture printed in a newspaper!)

Check it out! Cathi Mingus drew Aly and Brooke at a carnival for the 7th Sparkle Spa book, Bling It On! I especially love Brooke’s megaphone. (Bling It On! will be available on October 13, 2015.)

I just found out (from my mom, who’s a teacher!) that the second book in the Sparkle Spa series, Purple Nails and Puppy Tails, is recommended as a great summer read for kids who are going into 2nd or 3rd grade in the fall. (Though personally, I think ALL the Sparkle Spa books are great summer reading! And possibly for kids going into 3rd and 4th grade too!)  If you want to check out the other books on the suggested summer reading list, you can click right here.  I hope you find some great books to read around the pool, at the beach, at the park, and on the couch. (Those are four of my favorite reading places.)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend from me and from all of the boys and girls in Summer Love. PS. Don’t forget your sunscreen!