Six Questions with Anne Broyles

Anne Broyles is the award-winning author of children's picture books, I'm Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People, Priscilla and the Hollyhocks, Arturo and the Bienvenido Feast, Arturo and the Navidad Birds and Shy Mama’s Halloween. 

​Anne's newest book, Eating to Save the Planet: How Veganism Helps Fight Climate Change is a middle-grade nonfiction book in Holiday House's "Books for a Better Earth" series. In 2026 Scholastic will publish Words Spoken True, Anne's young adult historical novel based on a Cherokee girl's real-life experience on the Trail of Tears in 1838.

Visit Anne's website to learn more about her and her work.

1. What has helped you build resilience along the bumpier parts of your path to publication?

Staying in contact with other kid lit writers helps me stay hopeful, focused and resilient. Others' experiences in publishing put my own career in perspective. Even the authors and illustrators who look most successful have highs and lows. Rejections are just part of the process. Jane Yolen, for instance, has published more than 400 books for children and young adults over her long and illustrious writing career and openly shares about how many rejections she has received and continues to receive.

There are many reasons a manuscript is rejected; it often has nothing to do with the quality of our work. The key is to keep writing and submitting. 

2. How do you know your idea will make a good book?

I get new book ideas almost daily. Because I'm always working on other projects, I have to file away new ideas for the right time to work on them. I may let myself enjoy an hour daydreaming about a new idea, researching if anyone else has written something similar and ordering similar books from the library.

When there's a break between other projects I play around with writing the possibly brilliant idea: does a certain voice or style come to me? Am I excited to work on this project? Sometimes I file it away and see if it comes back to me later, begging to be written. Sometimes the idea is just not strong enough to spend more time on.

3. What piece of advice would you like to give to aspiring kid lit authors?

 Join SCBWI and take advantage of opportunities to learn more about your craft. Don't expect publishing to be easy. Believe in yourself. Never give up.

4. What was the most challenging thing you faced while writing/researching this new book?

This is a nonfiction book on a serious subject but I wanted it to be appealing to older elementary and middle school readers. So my biggest challenge was finding the right voice, something conversational and as fun as I could make it given the scientific data I needed to share.

5. If you could tell readers one secret about this book, what would it be?

My editor for I'm Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People suggested I write a book on how being vegan helps fight climate change. I hesitated at first because I don't have a science background. I said yes because I do feel strongly that veganism can be one way to make a positive difference in the world. The parts on how to live and eat as a vegan were easy. Other chapters required immense research and it sometimes took twenty minutes of research to write one paragraph to explain what I had learned in a way younger readers would understand it. I repeatedly told my family members, "Don't let me ever another book that needs so much research!"

I think I did a good job converting my research and learning to this book but I also know that a more science-oriented writer could have written it much faster without so much frustration. On the other hand, I don't know if other writers would have included info on the health of factory farm neighbors or how slaughterhouse workers suffer from PTSD and unfair working conditions. Even when writing books on the same subject, different writers would put their own unique spin on the subject.

My secret? This was the hardest thing I ever wrote and there were days when I took myself figuratively kicking and screaming to the computer just to stay on deadline.

6. Were there any scenes or illustrations you had to cut that you wish you could’ve kept?

I had to cut 50 pages from Eating to Save the Planet. With my editor's input I deleted chapters on how meat production leads to world-wide deforestation and a trilogy of chapters that I kept only small parts from: The Cow on Your plate, The Pig on Your Plate and The Chicken on Your Plate. My editor felt those things could be a separate book but I'll probably just let those chapters go since I have too many other works in progress.

*Credit for Anne Broyles' photo goes to Amy Ijams.