Six Questions with Robin Currie

Robin Currie spent her library career in the children’s department, where she could Baa, Moo, and Honk without getting shushed. Her writing engages children not only in noisemaking but jumping, waving, and face making. So do her sermons. Despite her incessant need to wiggle, Robin earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science and worked in public libraries before answering the call to seminary. She holds a Master’s of Divinity and Doctorate of Preaching, and remains active in area churches.

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1. Who was your favorite author when you were a child? Why?

My mother read to us during lunchtime every day, and her favorite was AA Milne. I learned to love not only the Pooh stories, but all Milne’s poetry. I learned the beauty of rhythm in poems like "The King’s Breakfast."

The King asked

The Queen, and

The Queen asked

The Dairymaid:

'Could we have some butter for

The Royal slice of bread?'

The Queen asked the Dairymaid,

The Dairymaid

Said, "Certainly,

I'll go and tell the cow

Now

Before she goes to bed.

-AA Milne, from When We Were Very Young, 1924.

2. Do you work on multiple projects at the same time?

Librarians are by nature multitaskers – we can be interrupted every other minute and still get books processed, articles read, and story times planned. So, yes, I have 10+ projects going at any given time – I focus on one until it is ready for critique and then hop to another. I keep pitches and proposals updated, so if I see an Above the Slush Pile or contest opportunity, I am ready.

3. What are you working on? What’s next for you?

I have never had book releases two years in a row! But in the fall of 2026, The Little Press will publish Pioneer Tree, the story of a Quaking Aspen and its contribution to the regrowth of a forest after a fire. It will be illustrated by Merry Miller-Gass. Also working on the history of the T-shirt!

4. What was the process or timeline for this new book, from idea to publishing?

I brainstormed the idea in Jan 2023, developed and refined it over the next year. When it was not picked by any publishers,  I entered contests and received second place on one and an Honorable Mention in the other.  Armed with that information, I sent it out again, and Good Books/Skyhorse Press picked it up for fall of 2025! The illustrator is Estelle Corke.

5. What other titles did you consider for this project and how did you land on this one?

Originally, it was named after the Cow, Old Hannah. But that really did not convey that it was a nativity book. For a while, it was Christmas in the Barn. But there were lots of other books with similar titles. Finally, I picked up on the repeated line of “enough room for” and the book is entitled Just Enough Room for Christmas. The publisher kept the name.

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

In all the original versions, the animals all talk! Old Hannah chats with everyone, 2- and 4-legged. My agent said he could not sell talking animals in the Christian market. I know lots of books that do have talking, thinking, and praying animals, but I took his advice since I was writing about actual animals and not animals acting like people. And I wanted to be sure children understood that the Nativity story was absolutely true.