Jennifer Holm is the best-selling and award-winning co-creator of the Baby Mouse, Squish, and Sunny Side Up graphic novel series, and she’s also the Newbery Honor winning author of numerous middle grade novels like Our Only May Amelia, The Fourteenth Goldfish, and Turtle in Paradise.

In this interview for Kids Comics Unite, we focus on how she got started in her career, her creative process, and why she branched out into graphic novels with her brother, artist Matthew Holm. She dishes on so many fascinating things:

• Her first job in NYC, before she became a writer (it involved PeeWee’s Playhouse)
• How she got her agent, and the unusual route she took to selling Baby Mouse to Random House
• How her first book ended up becoming a middle grade novel (originally she thought it was an adult book)
• Her biggest piece of advice for new authors
• How many times she typically revises (or rewrites entirely!) a book
• How and why she works with freelance editors, in addition to her agent and editor at her publishing house
• The television production technique she and her brother Matt use to create graphic novels together
• The reason why Baby Mouse is 2-color
• Why Jenni writes for middle grade (hint: she hated being a teen)
• The exact components of her author visits; how she makes them super interactive and fun
• The theme she returns to over and over in her work

Jenni is well-known for being an incredibly generous creator who constantly gives back to the children’s book community. This interview is a perfect example of that.

Click to view the full interview on YouTube.