Six Questions with Sue Lowell Gallion

Sue Lowell Gallion writes for children because she is passionate about children, reading, and any combination of the two! Her latest book is Our Prehistoric Planet, Dinosaurs and Other Creatures of the Past, illustrated by Lisk Feng. It is part of the Our World nonfiction board book series with Phaidon Press, which was selected for Oprah's Favorites list for 2024. Sue is also the author of the award-winning Pug Meets Pig picture book series illustrated by Joyce Wan and published by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster. She is a volunteer with Lead to Read KC, an urban reading mentor program.

Website: suegallion.com.  

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1. What’s the best piece of advice a mentor has given you?

I have been so lucky to count Jane Yolen as a mentor over the last decade. I have a sign above my desk that is one of her mantras, B.I.C. – Butt in Chair. I can be a terrible procrastinator, and that is advice I always need to hear: just sit down at the computer or with pencil and paper and write something. One of Jane’s poems for authors is titled “Be Not Afraid.” I keep that posted, too.

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

I don’t know that in advance. All I can do is give it a try. When the writing feels like a puzzle is coming together, that is a good sign. Publishing is tough these days, and the only thing I can control is making my work my best. And sometimes amazing things happen, like a manuscript turns into a book! However, I’m always looking for ideas with a genuine heart, a tie-in to the experience of being a kid, and usually some humor, too.

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

Cheering on other creators and reading and sharing stacks of new books every year is part of my job, too. I think we all need to be ambassadors for all kinds of children’s books in any way we can, and for libraries as well. Working in different genres – fiction, nonfiction, board books, picture books – is another way. I also volunteer in a reading mentor program. It’s another way of spreading the love of books. Seeing how second and third graders respond to different books has helped me grow as a writer, too.   

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

Several things made this book the most challenging of the whole series. There is an incredible amount of information, scientists have different opinions, and research is changing by the day! We have no photographs of what the prehistoric world looked like over the past four billion years, so coming up with art notes and visual resources was not easy. And one layer of the book is written in rhyme – nonfiction rhyme. Not much rhymes with “dinosaur.” I am so thankful for my editors, critique partners, and our paleontologist expert.

5. What did you learn while making this book that you’ll carry into your next project?

I hope I can take some of the fascinating facts that didn’t make it into this book and weave them into a different project. That’s part of the joy of research. But my next nonfiction project probably will not rhyme!

6. If you read this book to a room filled with kids, what message would you want them to leave with?

I hope this book, with its amazing design, sparks curiosity and amazement. It’s a tactile experience to leaf through the book and then press the magnetic front and back covers together to create a free-standing globe. I want kids to leave wanting to learn more about the prehistoric world, not just dinosaurs. I hope it leads kids to more of the incredible nonfiction books available today, plus encourages them to go outdoors to look at rocks and marvel at the geology of the earth around them.