Leah Rose Kessler
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leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Leah Rose Kessler
@leahrosekessler.bsky.social
1.7K followers 940 following 1.2K posts
Picture book author, voting rights advocate, biologist, former teacher & science educator, repped by Natascha Morris. She/her

www.leahrosekessler.com

https://www.schulerbooks.com/book/9781576879849

(Banner from RAT FAIR - illlus by Cleonique Hilsaca)
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leahrosekessler.bsky.social
These aren’t the most vivid, but they look a lot like what I was really seeing with my eyeballs, and I love the way the clouds look with the aurora in the first two.
Partially cloudy, partially starry sky with pale red to purple northern lights mixed in. Pine tree silhouettes along the bottom. Partially cloudy, partially starry sky with pale red to purple northern lights mixed in. Tree silhouettes along the bottom. Red sky shading abruptly to bright green. Tree and rooftop solar panel silhouettes along the bottom. Aurora borealis shading, from left upper corner to right lower corner, from deep almost black purple to purple to pinkish red to green to yellow-tinged green. Stars are visible throughout.
November 12, 2025 at 4:31 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Describe your cat’s personality with one photo
A black cat sitting all the way up on her haunches, eyes wide, ears askew, because Something might have Happened and she should probably worry about it.
November 9, 2025 at 3:47 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Post you from a different era
A black and white photo of a young child dressed in a turtleneck wearing fake fangs and making a terrible face.
November 7, 2025 at 11:14 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Wouldn’t want to offend the eels!

Go vote, everyone. My township had one lone ballot measure and nothing else. it’s always worth it to have your voice heard, even on something that seems small.
Me with an I voted sticker.
November 4, 2025 at 7:29 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
I donated $50 (plus transaction fee) to the Nourish program run by Jewish Family Services Ann Arbor, which provides “not only conventional groceries and produce, but also culturally specific (e.g., halal, kosher) and medically customized (e.g., allergy friendly, gluten free, low sodium) options.” 🐈
A digital purchase receipt that says I’ve made a $54.10 USD donation to Nourish.
October 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Still weird. Also sleepy.
A black cat head surrounded by blankets. One tiny fang is showing in what looks like an angry pirate grimace but is actually the face of a sleepy girl who got woken up suddenly and forgot to put all her teeth away.
October 16, 2025 at 10:24 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
All caught up now. Day 3, giant green anemone

#invertober #invertober2025
A black and white pencil drawing of a big blobby, tentacle-y sea anemone.
October 3, 2025 at 10:04 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
I would never call myself an artist, but I do enjoy drawing invertebrates. Catching up today with days 1 & 2: redbanded leafhopper and Japanese sea nettle. #invertober #invertober2025
Black and white pencil drawing of a redbanded leafhopper insect Black and white pencil drawing of a Japanese sea nettle jellyfish
October 3, 2025 at 9:30 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
We’ve never seen more than a monarch or two all summer but this year we had a couple hundred spend the night and there were dozens around for weeks! (This was year one of converting our yard to native prairie and we’ve had more butterflies in general, but I’m not sure that’s relevant to these guys.)
September 25, 2025 at 2:35 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
I didn’t think coloring would turn my brain off enough, but somehow I get so involved in this one that it does the trick. One free page a day, sometimes more (and every page you open & start is saved so you can amass a coloring library). It has a pretty little loading sound and is otherwise quiet.
The icon for the Lake coloring app.
September 16, 2025 at 9:33 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
on a giant ship sailing for generations through frozen southern seas, I was hooked and listened to all three books. I have read a lot of YA distant future dystopias, and this series felt so creative and fresh. I loved the characters and the unique settings. (Photo for correct Icebreaker ID.) 2/2
Cover of the book, Icebreaker, by Lian Tanner. There is a giant gray ship front and center approaching a little iceberg with a person on it.
September 12, 2025 at 2:56 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Reminder: my cat is weird
A black cat sitting in a wicker basket. The cats little pink tongue is sticking out and for some reason it’s at 45 degree angle and looks very silly.
September 3, 2025 at 8:18 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
I would, but the cat police would arrest me if I got up right now.
A black cat, curled up asleep on a lap.
July 14, 2025 at 2:28 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Anybody up for some D&D?

#caturday
Closeup of a black cat sitting on a character sheet with her arms extended, cradling a set of dice. Her expression makes her look like a judgey warlock. Black cat sitting on a character sheet with dice and a pencil. Here eyeballs are giant and round and her ears are deployed at full mast and Extremely Pointy. She is shocked at whatever mess her party has just gotten into. Long black furry arms that end in little paws resting on a hand drawn map, near a d20.
July 5, 2025 at 6:49 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Every now and then I fall apart
Hot black cat in a strange sideways, half-melted position on an ottoman.
July 4, 2025 at 9:31 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
This book of essays by the children of Holocaust survivors was riveting and showed better than anything else I’ve seen how deeply that experience affected the families of survivors.

www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-On...
Cover of a book entitled The Ones Who Remember: second generation voices of the Holocaust. The cover image depicts a morning glory twining around a section of barbed wire.
June 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Sending you a box of cat.
A black cat lies in a cardboard box with all four legs extended, staring up and to the side.
June 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Top down view of a black cat in a cardboard box. It’s staring at the camera and its front legs are at a strange angle.
June 21, 2025 at 10:06 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
If anyone would like to spend a few seconds thinking about something nice, here’s a family that I saw in my neighborhood today.
June 19, 2025 at 12:33 AM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
This is who runs this account
A smug tabby cat is stretched out in the “bank” half of a monopoly box, long arm extended to offer you 200 monopoly dollars.
June 18, 2025 at 8:57 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
Honestly, spiders are a huge reason my bedside water bottle has a securely covered top with no terrace space near the mouth-goes-on-it part for anyone to lounge on.
A purple water bottle with a moomintroll design. At the top there is a big old plastic closure that covers the entire mouth of the bottle and requires far more strength to open than any insect, rodent, or even feline of my acquaintance possesses.
June 7, 2025 at 1:58 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
This piece is titled “Dad Just Went Outside and No One in the History of Doors Has Ever Suffered a Deeper Injustice Than We Two Most Tragic Indoor Cats”

#cats
A photograph of two cats sitting bowling-pin style, facing a glass door through which the lush greenery of the front yard is visible while the cats, ears slightly flattened in disgust, are forced to sit on a soft yellow and white wool carpet in the safety of their comfortable home.”
May 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
This one too!
The cover of a picture book called The Liebrary, written by Amanda and Howard Pearlstein and illustrated by Marin Amini. It’s a funny, punny, story that’s a great tool for opening a conversation with kids about when to ask questions and dig deeper to see if the information you’re being presented with is really true.
May 23, 2025 at 2:23 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social

Excellent work skyline. Love it when the posts line up just right.

@jortsthecat.bsky.social @thisone0verhere.bsky.social
A screenshot of two Bluesky posts that appeared back to back. The top one is from Jonathan Edward Durham and says, “Cats are confusing because half the time having one isn’t nearly enough cats and half the time having one is way too many cats,” followed immediately by a post from Jorts the cat, showing Jorts, an adorable orange tabby, curled up in his bed, looking directly into the camera with the text, “If they hadn’t packaged the new t-shirts in such delicious crunchy plastic, the new t-shirts probably wouldn’t have gotten holes bitten in them.”
May 13, 2025 at 4:55 PM
leahrosekessler.bsky.social
I’m sorry. Midna here is alarmed on your behalf.
A black cat siting on a cat tree at a funny angle with her eyes wide open and her ears at half mast. Her sister, a tabby named Conductor Taco Whiskers, is standing on a lower level of the cat tree giving a three quarters view of her butt.
April 7, 2025 at 9:53 PM