Carren Jao
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carrenjao.bsky.social
Carren Jao
@carrenjao.bsky.social
480 followers 170 following 140 posts
#Kidlit author Rep'd by @heathercashman.bsky.social
at Storm Literary @LeeandLow New Voices award winner, #PBRisingStars '23 Alum #FilTheShelves. http://bio.site/carrenjao
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carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 “The Greatest” by @veerawrites.bsky.social‬ and Vesper Stamper is a joyous, tender picture book about the love between grandparents and grandchildren—perfect for family reading. #kidlit
An illustration from the picture book "The Greatest" that shows music streaming from a house on a bottom of a hill.
November 7, 2025 at 9:11 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 "Soy Sauce!" by Laura G. Lee is a vibrant, rhyming picture book that explores how soy sauce is made in China, Japan, and Korea. Lee’s playful watercolors—painted with real soy sauce!—and upbeat text make this an umam-ful celebration of food, family, and culture.
A wave of soy sauce where 3 children are riding on
August 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 Rocket Ship, Solo Trip by @chiaracolombi.com and Scott Magoon is a rhyming, heart-filled adventure about a rocket’s first solo journey and the bravery it takes to try something new. #kidlit
An inside spread of "Rocket Ship, Solo Trip" that shows an illustrated cartoon of a rocket preparing to launch.
August 22, 2025 at 2:19 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 @jbradley.bsky.social ‘s “Something Great” reminds us that even the simplest things can have big, beautiful possibilities! #kidlit
An inside page for “Something Great” that shows a child up in a tree
August 12, 2025 at 4:20 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍An unconventional story about a seemingly boring reference book like the dictionary is magical in “The Dictionary Story” by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston #kidlit
An inside page for a book called “The Dictionary Story”
August 11, 2025 at 11:13 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 Being Home by @tracisorellauthor.bsky.social‬ and Michaela Goade celebrates the joy of family, community, and Cherokee traditions through vibrant storytelling and dreamlike illustrations. #kidlit
Illustration from Being Home showing silhouettes of people dancing joyfully under a canopy of pink and purple flowers and trees, with the text “No more faraway family. Close enough to gather, eat, laugh, dance, and share.”
July 12, 2025 at 7:10 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍There is beauty and poetry in science that @lesliebarnardbooth.bsky.social‬ and Marc Martin bring to life in “A Stone Is a Story.” #kidlit
An inside page for a book called “A Stone Is a Story” that shows a mountain range with birds flying overhead done in watercolor.
July 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 Filled with humor and earnestness, this book by @debbieohi.coml follows Hana on her quest to find the answers to everything. Can she do it?” #kidlit
An inside page for a book called “I Want to Read Alll the Books” that shows a girl reading a big book with some complicated words floating around her.
June 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
MAYA BREAKS IT DOWN combines my love for breaking (not my skill!) and basic coding principles. Thank you for being such great collaborators @aphelandraw.bsky.social Alexandra McKenzie @charlesbridge.bsky.social @heathercashman.bsky.social See you by the bookshelves 2027! #kidlit
A book publishing announcement with the graphic of a boombox
April 25, 2025 at 10:25 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
✨"If all three worlds are bright inside me, do I have to be just one? @salimaalikhan.bsky.social and Noor Sofi captures what it's like to straddle many different worlds and cultures. 📚👍

#WeNeedDiverseBooks #InclusiveReads #BIPOCAuthors #DiversityInBooks #weneeddiversebooksday #Kidlit
An inside page that shows two parents from different cultures peeking worriedly at their child as she figures out her school assignment.
April 3, 2025 at 10:42 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍“When you finish your first draft, take a break and go do something else. Stories need time to blossom and grow.”
@katemessner.com and Mark Siegel tell this how-to story in a way that real creatives can identify with, including our need to step away from the story too. #kidlit
An inside page for “How to Write a Story” that shows a girl sitting under the clouds obviously thinking and enjoying her break after writing a story draft.
March 4, 2025 at 2:17 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍“I want to be special, too. How do I become like you?” 🪨 Who hasn’t had that thought even once in their lives? Linda Liu captures a dull, gray rock’s journey from insecurity to confidence. "Hidden Gem" is a sweet read for anyone who needs to remember how special they are. #kidlit
An inside page for "Hidden Gem” that shows a rock staring longingly at an emerald, with the words: “I want to be special, too. How do I become like you?”
February 21, 2025 at 9:42 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
“It starts with one..”

🌊Part poetry, part biography, part science. This book by @katemessner.com and @mattforsythe.bsky.social marries so many kinds of storytelling into one whole that shows how the actions of one can ripple out to a whole ocean. It is a science book with heart. 📚👍#kidlit
An inside page for "The Brilliant Deep" that shows a coral growing.
February 19, 2025 at 4:52 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
Sometimes when we think a story ends, it is where it begins. @lesliebarnardbooth.bsky.social and Stephanie Fizer Coleman tell a beautiful story of constant beginnings. It’s a poignant lesson: that there is always a place to begin anew again. 📚👍🏼#kidlit #stem
An inside look at "One Day This Tree Will Fall." It depicts a branch that is filled with life despite being a tree that's gone through a lot of hardships.
February 13, 2025 at 1:09 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍Who doesn't love that first bite of baguette, sweet pan de sal, freshly toasted Hawaiian bread? Cristina Quintero, Sarah Gonzales captured those beautiful feelings in this lovely picture book that sparks of holiday get togethers and family/friend gatherings. #kidlit
An inside page of "The Only Way to Make Bread"
November 19, 2024 at 3:51 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍@nickesposito.bsky.social and Ricardo Tokumoto bring out the heart in every hero by focusing on what it was in them that brought them to greatness. A part of The Good Guys Agency series, the book aims to showcase books that can give boys better role models #kidlit
Cover of "The Good Guys Agency: Brave Like Jackie Robinson" shows the baseball player with the three male leads An inside page showing one of the main characters talking about the everyday practice of being brave.
October 26, 2024 at 12:49 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 Becky Paige does a great job of adding another layer to the story beyond in "Boo, the Library Ghost." A good Halloween read that also works beyond the haunting season! #kidlit
An inside page of "Boo, the Library Ghost" that shows a ghost cartoon in front of a library.
October 4, 2024 at 8:52 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍 I'm only a late fan of Halloween, but Gideon Sterer's prose and @charlessantoso.bsky.social 's illustrations in "I Will Read to You" help set a world where a child is just as supernatural and unexpectedly sweet as the ghouls and monsters they call out to. #PictureBooks #ChildrensBooks #KidLit
Inside illustration of "I Will Read to You" features skeletons dancing, being called on by the reader in the story.
September 28, 2024 at 8:54 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍🏼 “The Year We Learned to Fly” is a beautifully told story, expertly structured. Problems like boredom, anger, making new friends feel like it is something that readers now have the power to solve. #kidlit
an inside look at the book "The Year We Learned to Fly" showing two kids running outside
September 17, 2024 at 1:13 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍🏼 With lyrical, rhyming text by author Kate Hosford and gorgeous illustrations by artist Sarah Gonzales, this gentle book shows that there are as many ways to say I love you as there are special moments to be shared together. #Kidlit
An inside page of the book "You'll Always Be My Chickadee"
September 5, 2024 at 1:05 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍🏼 “Touch the Sky” by @grubreport.bsky.social and Chris Park captures that beautiful freedom of swinging and the all important lesson to try again. Not didactic, but joyful, it’s a must-read. #Kidlit #PictureBooks #InsideLook
A page inside the book "Touch the Sky" that shows a figure swinging high and another child not knowing how to swing as high.
August 28, 2024 at 3:57 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍🏼 I admire writers who successfully take big themes and concepts and make them relatable. Antwan Eady does this with the struggles of Black farmers by telling the story of “The Last Stand” in a community and how the owner's grandson steps up to help. Here’s a #LookInside #PictureBooks
An inside look at the book "The Last Stand" by Antwan Eady. The words say: Papa has the last stand. It wasn’t always this way. A year ago, there were two. The year before, five.
August 27, 2024 at 11:13 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
I fell in love with building worlds and characters reading books like these :) this was a 3-in-1 volume I eventually bought as a college student #kidlit
Cover if David Eddings' The Belgariad
August 25, 2024 at 1:29 AM
carrenjao.bsky.social
📚👍I'm such a fan of smart, funny books and it's hard to be both, but this one by Caspar Salmon and Matt Hunt was pretty genius. The book only asks kids to count to 1, but lays so many other intriguing things to count (but that's not the mission, says the tricky book). Great class book! #kidlit
Cover of the book "How to Count to 1" Half a page spread. It asks readers to count how many sausages there are in the illustration despite seeing 2 whales.
August 21, 2024 at 11:12 PM
carrenjao.bsky.social
🐩What if dogs get to choose their humans? @@gabrielevans.bsky.social explores this question in a humorous way. I love the different perspective here and the funny situations that it engenders! 📚👍 #kidlit #picturebooks
A book cover for "A Human for Kingsley" that shows a dog following a little girl with a red hat amid a crowd crossing the street. A page from the book that shows the crowds of people that Kingsley could choose from.
August 15, 2024 at 3:36 PM