GUEST POST BY ELIZABETH SHREEVE, Author of DINOSAURS TO DRAGONS
Hello writers, readers, teachers, and librarians! Here’s a report on how to make a book out of a mess. My first middle-grade book comes out this year: Dinosaurs to Dragons, The Lore and Science of Mythical Creatures (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, July 21, 2026). It’s a nonfiction, browsable mix of mythology, science, and history, with beautiful artwork by Violeta Encarnaci รณ n alongside photographs from history archives and natural history collections. It’s beautiful book. After ten years of work, I’m super-excited. But here’s the thing— Dinosaurs to Dragons started out as a gigantic jumble. The process began with a dusty old book from a library sale— Mermaids and Mastodons: A Book of Natural and Unnatural History , written by Richard Carrington and published in 1957. Shivers up the spine! I would write a children’s book on the same topic. Updated, short, and sweet. I dove into research and swam around… and swam and swam. I gathered ideas, scribbled out concepts, and puz...
