Please welcome author Laura Roettiger back to Frog on a Blog! Laura’s been here several times. She reviewed a few picture books here in 2018, she wrote a guest post in 2019 about her debut picture book Aliana Reaches for the Moon, and I reviewed her debut that same year.

Today, it’s my extreme pleasure to feature an interview with Laura about her brand-new picture book An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story, which just published on February 12th by Eifrig Publishing. This adorable book, told in a “news report” style, stars a loveable and humble little wombat, a creature we don’t often see in picture books, along with a cast of other cute animals. Another great feature of the book are all of the factual elements that Laura expertly weaved into the story and included in the back matter about forest fires and about several of Australia’s unusual animals, many of which can’t be found any place else on Earth, like wombats, which, like their well-known koala cousins, are also marsupials!

Let’s hear more from Laura about An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story. And be sure to read to the end for information about how to win either a picture book manuscript critique or a 30-minute Ask Me Anything session from Laura!

Congratulations on the publication of your amazing new picture book An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story! Tell us about the story and what inspired it.

LR: Lauri, thank you so much for having me on your blog! Four years ago, one of the biggest international news stories was the devastating bushfires in New South Wales, Australia. Day after day, the news felt overwhelming, until I saw a story that showed rescuers found other animal species sheltering in wombat burrows. It was early 2020, before the global pandemic, and resulting shutdowns took front and center on everyone’s minds.

Why was this story important to tell?

LR: The bushfires were scary to see, and children were seeing daily reports of animals dying. As a teacher and now an author, my goal is finding a way to take a scary subject and make it manageable. How do we allow children to process the reality of bad things happening?

The cover of An Accidental Hero is really eye catching! How do you feel about Debbie Palen’s incredible illustrations?

LR: The cover, the color palette, and the illustrations are all fantastic. I know it’s unusual in publishing, but the editor wanted my input, so he set up Zoom meetings for the three of us. I had ideas, of course, so I made a few suggestions and some input early on in the process. You mentioned the cover, at one point, Debbie and I shared covers we liked based on color, layout, or other factors to get a sense of what she would create. It was fun to see how those ideas became the eye-catching cover of An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story. It was collaborative in the planning stages, and Debbie definitely brought her own ideas and talent to make the book what you see.

I enjoy seeing the photographs you post on social media of sunrises, the moon, and the outdoors. Tell us about your love of nature and how that translates to your picture book writing.

LR: Thank you, Lauri! I am fortunate to live in Colorado where it is beautiful, and I don’t have to go far to take great pictures. But, truthfully, I have a collection of photographs of roses that people love from my last visit to Evanston, IL. And, of course, people can see the moon or a sunrise wherever they are. I think it’s about stopping to admire the beauty, and I’ve been told I have “an eye” for photography. It’s my art. Just as Debbie creates art through illustration, I create art through photography. I think spending time outdoors is part of my writing process. Nature is always changing if you look closely.

Why do you feel picture books are important for children?

LR: Picture books are an excellent way for anyone, not just children, to be entertained, to learn, to have their imagination and curiosity sparked, and to have their world expanded.

How does your experience as a reading specialist help you as you write, and what are you working on now? More STEM picture books?

LR: My background as a reading specialist allows me to consider different audiences for my writing, and it helps me add different layers and themes in one story. It’s always fun when someone notices another layer I’ve woven in that’s subtle, but important, because I know it spoke to them as a reader. I’m currently working on a middle grade novel, and I always have picture books in the works. I have one picture book that’s newer. It’s a lyrical intergenerational story that I’m revising, and I hope the world loves it as much as I do.

GIVEAWAY!

Laura is generously giving away, to one person who comments on this blog post, their choice of either a picture book manuscript critique or a 30-minute Ask Me Anything session. Just comment on this post by Thursday, March 7th, for your chance to win. I’ll choose the winner at random and connect them with Laura. Good luck!

Laura Roettiger is a reading specialist and award-winning elementary teacher from Chicago, IL, who weaves her passion for STEM learning and fostering kindness into stories for children. Her roots in Chicago remain deep, but now her home and heart are firmly settled in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with her Goldendoodle Charlie.

After moving to Colorado, Laura focused on writing for children, working in environmental education, and mentoring new teachers at a STEM school. She focuses her writing on characters demonstrating creativity and kindness. 

Her debut, Aliana Reaches for the Moon (Eifrig Publishing, 2019) combines science information with the story of a girl whose curiosity and patience pays off with the light of the full moon.

Her book, An Accidental Hero: A Mostly True Wombat Story (Eifrig Publishing, 2024), is based on events during the aftermath of Australian bushfires in 2019-2020. When Wombat sees the bushfires raging out of control, she learns that helping those in need of sanctuary in a time of crisis provides unexpected rewards.

Laura combines her enthusiasm for helping others with the knowledge and experience she’s gained along the way. This is most recently evidenced in her co-creating the promotion group https://picturebookgold.wixsite.com/website.

To connect with Laura or learn more about her books, please go to her website LauraRoettigerBooks.com or visit her on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laura.roettiger

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ljrwritenow

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18549873.Laura_Roettiger

Blog: https://lauraroettigerbooks.com/blog/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ljrwritenow.bsky.social