J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
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jandersoncoats.bsky.social
J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
@jandersoncoats.bsky.social
YA/MG author. Newest: The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls (2025); The Loss of the Burying Ground (2024). She/Her. Located near the Salish Sea. Rep'd by ACM. https://www.jandersoncoats.com/
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Hello friends! Just a quick note to remind everyone that I write books, and when you buy them, I can eat. Thank you! www.jandersoncoats.com
Horse books for small readers! 📚🐴 ❤️
My first #picturebook! The Phantom Stallion's family is warm & STEMy for K-2. Coming in Jan '26. Available for #preorder now! #horses #wildhorses #STEM #KidLitChat #KidLit #Skybrarians
November 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM
ICYMI!
I'm a huge fan of #kidlit historical fiction author Caroline Starr Rose, and she was kind enough to invite me to share some thoughts on The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls on her blog. A snippet appears below, but you can read the whole thing here: carolinestarrrose.com/an-interview...
November 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
PNW friends! It's going to be a great festival - time for a road trip! Hope to see you there. 📚❤️📚
I'm so excited for the Poulsbo Kids' Book Festival this Sat, Nov 15th 11AM - 3PM! I'll be there with over 30 AMAZING authors and illustrators at North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo, WA. Visit lnkd.in/eGU5H5dK for more details. YAY!

#childrensbooks #libertybaybooks #kidsbooks #mglit #kidlit
November 10, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
This point seems important: "Students should not carry the responsibility of overturning book bans. This isn’t a mess they’ve created; it’s one created by adults who fail to recognize children & teenagers are autonomous individuals with their own rights."
Last month, it was teenagers who got 8 books banned in a statewide Georgia reading bowl back into the competition. These literary heroes deserve recognition–get to meet three of these rad book-loving intellectual freedom champions.

bookriot.com/teens-who-ov...
Meet the High Schoolers Who Overturned a State Reading Bowl Book Ban: Book Censorship News, November 7, 2025
A Georgia statewide reading bowl banned eight books. These students led the charge to get the bans overturned and succeeded.
bookriot.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:52 PM
A heads-up for writer friends who are following the Anthropic case.
November 7, 2025 at 7:08 PM
School Library Journal has nice things to say about The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls! “[T]he notion of living in a library will engage young readers, including those who may not generally gravitate to historical fiction.” Thanks, SLJ! www.jandersoncoats.com/the-unexpect...
November 7, 2025 at 4:09 PM
PNW friends! The Poulsbo Kids Book Festival is coming your way on Saturday 11/15 from 11-3. If you've never visited the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula, here's your chance to see some pretty scenery and meet some talented #kidlit authors. Free and open to the public! www.poulsbokidsbookfest.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
Once you start thinking of AI as a war on humanity, on human thought, on human inquiry, on human labor, on nuance and critical thinking, it slots in pretty seamlessly with the right wing ideological project, oligarchical political projects, big tech's political projects, etc
November 6, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
“Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another,”
The long-running ideological war on libraries, education, and government workers is not separate from AI boosterism. It is the same ideological war on human knowledge and expertise. In some cases AI is being used to directly supercharge this effort:

www.404media.co/ai-is-superc...
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Freezing her furry buns off because she's unwilling to admit it's fall. (Also it means my house is cold because I have to leave the door open for her. Yes, she is very spoiled.)
November 5, 2025 at 8:57 PM
English-occupied Wales in the thirteenth century had complex power relationships. So does a high school lunchroom. YA fiction goes medieval. Ebook available now: www.jandersoncoats.com/the-wicked-a...
November 5, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Cosigned. Read up on your local candidates and vote for the sane ones.
Please, PLEASE, I am begging you as both a parent and someone who is sick of all this THIS, go vote for your school boards. Even if you don't have kids, that's how these reactionary dipshits got their feet in, that's where the book bans and library cuts start.
November 4, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Boosting for everyone who loves them some murdery notes. 📚❤️📚
Some kind words about Most Likely to Murder from @kendareblake.bsky.social 🥰
November 3, 2025 at 9:05 PM
It's come to my attention that some people have a set of matching silverware and not a bunch of random utensils from the ten-cent bin at the thrift store.
November 3, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
With useful alt text, because this is really useful information which everyone should know.

If you don’t know, now you know—you can copy and paste text directly into the alt text box, and it’s imperative that you transmit what’s written, not just what something is.
November 3, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Your periodic reminder that reviews help authors in all kinds of ways. If you love a book, please consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice. Thanks for your support!
November 3, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
New awareness campaign
November 3, 2025 at 3:23 PM
I'm filling in my ballot for local elections (thank f*** for mail-in ballots!) and I am having Feelings when it asks me to vote for something like "Council Member for District 2".

Because I feel like I live in District 12 at this point. I'm pretty sure a lot of us feel like we live in District 12.
October 31, 2025 at 11:36 PM
How much do I love seeing a talented friend's awesome new middle-grade book splashed ALL OVER THE HOME PAGE of @bookshop.org! Congrats, @lynnekelly.bsky.social!
October 31, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I'm a huge fan of #kidlit historical fiction author Caroline Starr Rose, and she was kind enough to invite me to share some thoughts on The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls on her blog. A snippet appears below, but you can read the whole thing here: carolinestarrrose.com/an-interview...
October 31, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
Loved THE UNEXPECTED LIVES OF ORDINARY GIRLS by @jandersoncoats.bsky.social! 👏 This engaging and nuanced story discusses education, immigration, religion, family, equal rights, and libraries💛. Set in 1910. Relevant now. Lovely cover by Margarita Kukhtina. #girlpower #MGLit #kidlit 📚👍
October 29, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
The @freedomreadproject.bsky.social has put together a guide for talking to your legislators about protecting the right to read. You don't always get a face to face so you need to make the most of it when you do!
How to Talk to Your Legislators About the Freedom to Read
Learn how to make the most of a five-minute meeting with lawmakers to effectively defend the freedom to read and fight censorship.
www.freedomtoreadproject.org
October 21, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by J. Anderson Coats (she/her)
The Goose and the Common
October 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
In a mutual attempt to look at screens less, my daughter and I are doing a zine exchange. Here's mine so far. Making it has been unlocking memory after memory of my misspent youth when I made these constantly. Wonder if 1990s me would think a jam-making zine is awesome, or cringe af.
October 20, 2025 at 4:01 PM
It's spooky season, and if you like a little bit of creepy in your middle grade, and you like retellings of medieval legends, and you like unusual pigs, I hope you'll give The Green Children of Woolpit a looksee! www.jandersoncoats.com/the-green-ch...
October 17, 2025 at 3:36 PM