Hannah's Updates - Spring 2026

So far, my updates have been heavy on publishing news, with a sprinkle of my personal life thrown in.

This time we're doing it the other way around.

In publishing news, I'm excitedly counting down the months as my debut picture book transforms from a Word document that I've revised a million times to a real-life book that I can read, share, hold, and hug! We've signed with the talented Nabi Ali as our illustrator, and seeing the initial sketches was such a thrill!

In personal news, though, the past few weeks have been a time of sadness, healing, and reflection. My amazing grandma, who lived an incredible life until the age of 98, passed away at the end of April just as I was on my way from New Jersey to Connecticut to visit her.

For my children, it was the first death they'd experienced. I wasn't sure how they would handle it, and I was a little nervous. After telling them, and spending a day in which all of us processed with lots of tears and hugs, I turned to picture books (as I often do when I'm faced with helping my children navigate something deep and difficult).

I reached out to the amazing community of 12x12 for picture book recommendations, and wound up with a handful of books that talked about death in a way that would help both my children and I through this experience. These are the books that I borrowed, bought, or received as gifts. I recommend any/all of them if your kids are dealing with the death of a loved one (click on any of the images for a link to learn more about the book).

---

After the funeral, I began to feel like I hadn't used all of my time with my grandma as wisely as I could have. Why hadn't I asked her double the amount of questions about her childhood? Why hadn't I asked her to tell me more stories about her adventures, her memories of her own mother and father, or about her faith?

Again, I turned to books. I started to wonder if, even after her death, I could get to better know my grandma by reading the books she loved most.

Can we know someone better by reading the books that transformed them?

I asked my parents which books my grandparents loved, and which books they themselves treasured, and I am making a precious little list of the books that I will read to know my parents and grandparents better.

Naturally, I thought about this for myself as well. I completely failed my own assignment in that I couldn't choose just one, two, or even five. I found myself picking a few for different phases of my life...

If you wanted to know me as a 5 year old, read:

If you wanted to know me as an 8 year old, read:

If you wanted to know me as a 20 year old, read:

If you want to know me now, read:

I'm sure the last three will continue to change as I read more and grow more. I'll save all my favorites to give to my own children as they get older, and I'll continue to ask which books are the most precious to them.

And I'll leave you with the same question...

Which book had the most profound impact on you? Which one did you read and reread? Which one changed the way you saw the world?

Which book should someone read to know you by?