Manju Beth Howard
@manjubeth.bsky.social
Indian American Writer of PB, CB, MG & Poetry
SCBWI Indiana Co-RA
Inked Voices PB & MG Critique Groups
Experience in DEI, Theater, Marketing & Graphic Design
Yoga, Improv & World Traveler
SCBWI Indiana Co-RA
Inked Voices PB & MG Critique Groups
Experience in DEI, Theater, Marketing & Graphic Design
Yoga, Improv & World Traveler
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2025 Funny Picture Books
To make a work of picture book humor in such an age could be seen as an active act of rebellion. #kidlit
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/06/3...
To make a work of picture book humor in such an age could be seen as an active act of rebellion. #kidlit
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/06/3...
December 7, 2025 at 12:28 AM
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2025 Funny Picture Books
To make a work of picture book humor in such an age could be seen as an active act of rebellion. #kidlit
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/06/3...
To make a work of picture book humor in such an age could be seen as an active act of rebellion. #kidlit
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/06/3...
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2025 Transcendent Holiday Children’s Books
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/04/3...
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/04/3...
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2025 Transcendent Holiday Children’s Books
It may be the winter holiday season, but this list looks at EVERY season and every holiday it can. Bask in them!
afuse8production.slj.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
31 Days, 31 Lists: 2025 Transcendent Holiday Children’s Books
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/04/3...
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/12/04/3...
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
Nonfiction friends, the YALSA Excellence in NF finalists have been announced: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
YALSA announces 2026 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults finalists
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), selected five books as finalists for the 2026 Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Awar...
www.ala.org
December 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Nonfiction friends, the YALSA Excellence in NF finalists have been announced: www.ala.org/news/2025/12...
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
Here's a drawing from last year's Folktale Week, sharing again for #KidLitArtPostcard day. I'm an author/illustrator with a pile of stories in progress, currently querying agents. See more at my website: johnlechner.com 🍄🦋🍃 #kidlitart
December 4, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Here's a drawing from last year's Folktale Week, sharing again for #KidLitArtPostcard day. I'm an author/illustrator with a pile of stories in progress, currently querying agents. See more at my website: johnlechner.com 🍄🦋🍃 #kidlitart
"Shaping a manuscript is not about adding more and more until the branches bow under the weight. It’s about choosing intentionally, trimming thoughtfully, and arranging elements so the whole structure feels harmonious and complete." #kidlit writersinthestormblog.com/2025/12/deck...
Deck the Draft: Make Your Story Sparkle
Learn how decorating a holiday tree is like developmental editing. And how to make your manuscript shine using these tips.
writersinthestormblog.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:31 PM
"Shaping a manuscript is not about adding more and more until the branches bow under the weight. It’s about choosing intentionally, trimming thoughtfully, and arranging elements so the whole structure feels harmonious and complete." #kidlit writersinthestormblog.com/2025/12/deck...
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
Hi again! It's me with an another installment of the last book I ever thought would get banned--my picture book about a unicorn and kitty who are pals. A quick look at what this school district bizarrely found objectionable. 1/
You'll never guess what book got the Carroll ISD school library advisory committee to say "genitals" a dozen times in 20 minutes. @txfreedomread.bsky.social will have more on this story soon, but for now, you have to hear this audio. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...
Please don’t say “genitals” one more time, Carroll ISD SLAC.
Listen to the audio of the committee that decided to ban Pretty Perfect Kitty Corn from Carroll ISD. If you dare.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Hi again! It's me with an another installment of the last book I ever thought would get banned--my picture book about a unicorn and kitty who are pals. A quick look at what this school district bizarrely found objectionable. 1/
Amazing! I strive to learn new things every single day. You?
Scientists searching for new ways to combat cancer think they may have uncovered a promising new lead in the DNA of the bowhead whale.
A bowhead whale's DNA offers clues to fight cancer
Scientists searching for new ways to combat cancer think they may have uncovered a promising new lead in the DNA of the bowhead whale.
n.pr
November 30, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Amazing! I strive to learn new things every single day. You?
My Cranberry Apple Crumble will be similar to your fruit filled treat. Time to get cooking. 🧑🍳
Update: Pre-Baked crust is out of the oven and now being topped various fruits and nuts.
November 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
My Cranberry Apple Crumble will be similar to your fruit filled treat. Time to get cooking. 🧑🍳
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
This Thanksgiving, before the big meal, WWF’s food waste expert has a message for Congress: it’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to help families, grocers, and communities waste less and give more. Learn more, and find out how you can take action: https://wwf.to/4irAxwq.
November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
This Thanksgiving, before the big meal, WWF’s food waste expert has a message for Congress: it’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to help families, grocers, and communities waste less and give more. Learn more, and find out how you can take action: https://wwf.to/4irAxwq.
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
A cute little butterball, the Winter Wren. They like to bounce around in the undergrowth but will pop up to a branch to take a look around before popping back down and out of sight.
November 26, 2025 at 9:08 PM
A cute little butterball, the Winter Wren. They like to bounce around in the undergrowth but will pop up to a branch to take a look around before popping back down and out of sight.
"We don't have Thanksgiving in Japan, but here, on ISS, everybody respects each other's culture," said Yui.
www.npr.org/2025/11/27/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/27/n...
NASA astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving with Russian cranberry sauce
NASA has made sure that the International Space Station is well stocked for a Thanksgiving meal full of treats. Here's what's on the menu.
www.npr.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
"We don't have Thanksgiving in Japan, but here, on ISS, everybody respects each other's culture," said Yui.
www.npr.org/2025/11/27/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/27/n...
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
November 26, 2025
November 26, 2025
Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday…but not for the reasons we generally remember.
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:04 AM
November 26, 2025
“So many of us are in this for discovery, a new voice, an ending that feels inevitable because the story builds to it,” Halverson said. #SCBWI #kidlit
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
SCBWI Instructs Authors to ‘Make the Familiar Fresh’ in a State of the Industry Overview
Members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators considered trends in children’s and young adult publishing on November 20, during a webinar led by author and editorial consultant De...
www.publishersweekly.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:25 PM
“So many of us are in this for discovery, a new voice, an ending that feels inevitable because the story builds to it,” Halverson said. #SCBWI #kidlit
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
[COMMENTARY]
Funding cuts, weak government support, and disinformation are straining conservation efforts. But a new op-ed by longtime USAID experts says programs can still thrive — especially by centering human well-being as key to sustainable development.
** Views expressed are author's.
Funding cuts, weak government support, and disinformation are straining conservation efforts. But a new op-ed by longtime USAID experts says programs can still thrive — especially by centering human well-being as key to sustainable development.
** Views expressed are author's.
Conservation can emphasize human well-being to navigate its current funding crisis (commentary)
Conservation is facing a crisis, fueled by myriad factors including cuts in funding, weakening support from governments, and disinformation. A significant driver of this crisis is a lack of…
news.mongabay.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:21 PM
[COMMENTARY]
Funding cuts, weak government support, and disinformation are straining conservation efforts. But a new op-ed by longtime USAID experts says programs can still thrive — especially by centering human well-being as key to sustainable development.
** Views expressed are author's.
Funding cuts, weak government support, and disinformation are straining conservation efforts. But a new op-ed by longtime USAID experts says programs can still thrive — especially by centering human well-being as key to sustainable development.
** Views expressed are author's.
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
1. In Tennessee, public libraries have closed for up to a week to facilitate a Trump-inspired book purge.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Tennessee public libraries close for Trump-inspired book purge
One hundred and eighty-one public libraries in Tennessee are reviewing their children’s collections after Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) ordered them to remove books with LGBTQ themes…
popular.info
November 25, 2025 at 3:09 PM
1. In Tennessee, public libraries have closed for up to a week to facilitate a Trump-inspired book purge.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
November 25, 2025 at 4:33 PM
I used to draw and paint. Now I write and doodle. But maybe it's time to pick up a paint brush. drawinginspiration.fm
Welcome - The Drawing Inspiration Podcast
Join artist Mike Hendley who is sharing his creative journey through personal projects and interviewing some exciting artists and creatives.
drawinginspiration.fm
November 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I used to draw and paint. Now I write and doodle. But maybe it's time to pick up a paint brush. drawinginspiration.fm
"Artmaking is highly selective. Out of many possibilities of how a piece of art can be created, artists choose those which best elucidate the meaning of what they are trying to convey." Eugene Yelchin
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/21/t...
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/21/t...
“… to tell the truth they must create an artifice.” We Discuss Memoirs, Comics, and I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This with Eugene Yelchin
afuse8production.slj.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:09 PM
"Artmaking is highly selective. Out of many possibilities of how a piece of art can be created, artists choose those which best elucidate the meaning of what they are trying to convey." Eugene Yelchin
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/21/t...
afuse8production.slj.com/2025/11/21/t...
“The idea that vaccines cause autism is not only scientifically false, it’s also profoundly stigmatizing to autistic people and to their families. It frames autism as being caused by parental action, as if autism is a preventable injury.” ” ASF director Alison Singer
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Without evidence, CDC changes messaging on vaccines and autism
On Wednesday, the CDC reversed its long-held position that there's no link between vaccines and autism. "This is the day CDC died," a former agency official said.
www.nbcnews.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:47 PM
“The idea that vaccines cause autism is not only scientifically false, it’s also profoundly stigmatizing to autistic people and to their families. It frames autism as being caused by parental action, as if autism is a preventable injury.” ” ASF director Alison Singer
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
“Every [amphibian] species is unique." #WhyIWriteAboutEndangeredSalamanders
Fewer than 150 adult achoque salamanders are thought to remain in the wild, all of them in Lake Pátzcuaro in Mexico’s central Michoacán state.
The lake is shrinking in size and is increasingly polluted with sewage, fertilizer runoff and sediment from deforestation, reports Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough.
The lake is shrinking in size and is increasingly polluted with sewage, fertilizer runoff and sediment from deforestation, reports Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough.
Scientists & nuns unite to save Mexico’s rare achoque salamanders
For the last 20 years, Dominican nuns in a Mexican monastery have cared for the largest known captive population of the critically endangered achoque salamander. Now scientists from Chester Zoo in…
news.mongabay.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:21 PM
“Every [amphibian] species is unique." #WhyIWriteAboutEndangeredSalamanders
"We would have to wait until these poor animals are almost extinct before we can start protecting them. That's absurd and heartbreaking," said Stephanie Kurose with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Interior Department proposed reviving a suite of changes to Endangered Species Act regulations first made during the Republican's first term. Those changes were reversed under former President Biden. n.pr/49Yn5Oc
Trump administration seeks to roll back protections for imperiled species and habitat
The Interior Department proposed reviving a suite of changes to Endangered Species Act regulations first made during the Republican's first term. Those changes were reversed under former President Biden.
n.pr
November 20, 2025 at 12:17 AM
"We would have to wait until these poor animals are almost extinct before we can start protecting them. That's absurd and heartbreaking," said Stephanie Kurose with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Good morning, Tufted Titmouse! You can have all my peanuts.
Impossible to resist the big brown eyes of a Tufted Titmouse who wants a peanut.
November 19, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Good morning, Tufted Titmouse! You can have all my peanuts.
Why I write about human-wildlife coexistence along Borneo’s Kinabatangan River. #kidlit
UNESCO has declared the floodplain around Malaysian Borneo’s Kinabatangan River a biosphere reserve, linking the Heart of Borneo to the Lower Kinabatangan–Segama Wetlands.
Conservationists warn that the landscape remains heavily fragmented by oil palm plantations and faces persistent threats.
Conservationists warn that the landscape remains heavily fragmented by oil palm plantations and faces persistent threats.
UNESCO biosphere listing raises hope, questions for Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain
Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain, home to orangutans, pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys, has officially joined UNESCO’s global network of biosphere reserves, protected areas of high biological…
news.mongabay.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Why I write about human-wildlife coexistence along Borneo’s Kinabatangan River. #kidlit
Reposted by Manju Beth Howard
According to two new studies, dinosaurs might have thrived if it weren't for the asteroid. Making discoveries like this keeps paleontology fun, says Steve Brusatte, who authored one of the studies: buff.ly/bIcOXKX
November 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
According to two new studies, dinosaurs might have thrived if it weren't for the asteroid. Making discoveries like this keeps paleontology fun, says Steve Brusatte, who authored one of the studies: buff.ly/bIcOXKX
“I’m really interested in inspiring kids to see their power in finding their voice and lifting their voice.” - Kwame Alexander
www.slj.com/story/Kwame-...
www.slj.com/story/Kwame-...
Kwame Alexander Keynote Spotlights the Power of Poetry | 2025 SLJ Summit
The Newbery-winning author discussed the ways poetry can engage readers in a closing keynote conversation at the 2025 SLJ Summit; 2025 School Librarian of the Year Tim Jones opened the weekend confere...
www.slj.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:16 AM
“I’m really interested in inspiring kids to see their power in finding their voice and lifting their voice.” - Kwame Alexander
www.slj.com/story/Kwame-...
www.slj.com/story/Kwame-...