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Cheryl B. Klein

@cherylklein.bsky.social

3.2K followers 140 following 1.6K posts

I notice things for a living. Editorial director, Workman Kids; author of THE MAGIC WORDS: WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS and five picture books, most recently IT’S HARD TO BE A BABY; 6yo mom; Virgo/goofball. Opinions my own.

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · Nov 11

Hello, new followers! I'm a children's book editor with 24 years in the business & author of THE MAGIC WORDS: WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS and five picture books. I post about books, writing craft, politics, publishing, NYC, my 5-year-old son, & things that make me laugh.

The cover of my fourth picture book, HAMSTERS MAKE TERRIBLE ROOMMATES, illustrated by Abhi Alwar, featuring the head of one manic white hamster hanging upside down and one irritated brown hamster with heavy eyebrows, both inside the bars of a cage. Despite the sound of that description, this is not a metaphor for America in any way the illustrator or I intended. It's actually about introverts vs. extroverts and learning to communicate with the people around, and it's pretty funny.

The cover of my most recent picture book, IT'S HARD TO BE A BABY, featuring at least 10 cute babies in colorful clothes, illustrated by Juana Medina.

The cover of my adult nonfiction book THE MAGIC WORDS: WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS, featuring a white book open with pop-up houses and trees inside, against a blue background with a pale yellow sun and white clouds. If you want to know more: https://www.cherylklein.com/the-magic-words

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 13h

Mike Johnson — man of deep faith, we are told — wants pastors to be shot in the head with pepper balls.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

Q: We've seen images out of Chicago of federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and arresting journalists. Where's the limit for you on what's acceptable conduct by federal agents?

MIKE JOHNSON: I've not seen them cross the line yet.

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Marshall Ryan Maresca @mrmaresca.com · 13h

Writing novels is very hard, and everyone who finishes writing one deserves praise and accolades purely for that accomplishment.

John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 14h

Tell me your most life-affirming literary opinion.

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 15h

Please be conscious if you protest this weekend that there are feds at the protest. They look like you and they sound like you, not like Steve Buscemi in that one clip with the skateboard. Thinking you can spot them is self delusion. Nobody you haven’t met needs to know your last name.

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 1d

The Regime's goal is to grind everyone down. Plain & simple. Our goal is to refuse this by taking turns to fight where and how we can. When one group needs to bow out, then another group needs to step in and so on. We don't all have to do everything. We can all do something though. Stay in the fight

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 17h

An especially quality anti-Friend graffito this morning.

A photo of a poster in the subway for the AI Friend necklace, which looks like a giant pearl pendant. The pendant has been covered in a stencil of the Earth on fire with a gas can labeled AI pouring gas onto it. Someone scrawled “TOUCH GRASS” above it & scratched out the “r” in friend.com. New Yorkers are excellent haters, man.

Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 1d

My husband knocked it off the counter onto our tiled kitchen floor. It’s 12 years old — it was a wedding present — so not notably old or used….

Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed. I didn’t know they COULD break like this!

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 1d

The great tragedy of my day today . . . the treasure of my kitchen, ruined.

A photograph of the beige inside of a red Le Creuset Dutch oven with a large triangular piece broken out of one wall and awkwardly placed back inside it.

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aleta: (cries in spanish) @afiregender.bsky.social · 1d

I think sometimes it's hard for those of us that read a lot to remember that for a lot of people it's not a question of "read Real Literature vs read Trashy Books" it's "read Trashy Books vs read literally no books at all I'm serious Literally Zero Books"

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 1d

Very glad for the release of the hostages today, and one possible step closer to the violence and famine ending in Gaza.

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Eric Weinberger @ericweinberger.bsky.social · 2d

ICE sent a Massachusetts 7th grader 500 miles away without his parents or even telling them

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 2d

Mother-in-law’s rhyming picture-book manuscript

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 2d

Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.

FORM A CROWD
STAY LOUD
PROTECT EACH OTHER
CODE I:
ICE NEARBY
BLOW QUICKLY IN A BROKEN RHYTHM:
PRE-PRE-PRE!
→ ALERTS THE COMMUNITY THAT ICE AGENTS ARE IN THE AREA.
ROGERS PARK WHISTLE PROTOCOLS
WHY A WHISTLE? ON THE STREETS
• A SIMPLE TOOL FOR FAST ALERTS.
• LOUD.
RECOGNIZABLE.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
• OUR VOICES ARE
STRONGER TOGETHER.
WHISTLES GUIDE
PEOPLE TO:
• FOLLOW ICE CARAVANS
• CATCH UP WITH THE CROWD
• ALERT NEIGHBORS
TO JOIN IN
NOISE = VISIBILITY.
CODE 2:
CODE RED
BLOW THREE LONG BLASTS:
PREEEE-PREEEE-PREEEE!
→ ICE IS DETAINING SOMEONE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
DON'T STAY SILENT. STAY NONVIOLENT.
WHY IT WORKS
• INSTANT ALERT
SYSTEM
• FASTER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA
• TURNS SILENCE INTO COMMUNITY
ACTION
ORIGINAL FLYER CREATED BY:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• WEAR YOUR WHISTLE AROUND YOUR NECK
TEACH FAMILY
EIGHBORS TH
CODES
• USE IT WHEN ICE IS
SPOTTED
• PROTECT EACH OTHER, ALWAYS
TOGETHER, WE KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
THIS FLYER DISTRIBUTED BY:
PROTECT RP
• @PROTECTRP_

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 2d

@katiewritesbks.bsky.social @nickthornborrow.bsky.social

Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 2d

Just learned the New York Transit Museum has a "Subway Sleuths" afterschool program "that builds on a shared interest in trains among students with autism." Kids explore the collections, play games, & work on social skills. What a cool thing to offer!

www.nytransitmuseum.org/learn/subway...

Subway Sleuths

Subway Sleuths is an after-school program for 2nd to 5th grade students on the autism spectrum who love trains and transit. Apply now for online and in-person groups!

www.nytransitmuseum.org

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 2d

And death too — totally out of character

Reposted by Cheryl B. Klein

Nothings Monstered @nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social · 13d

All We Ever Wanted — Shaun Tan, 2017

Painting of a little farm there's a woman working in the flower garden there's a white donkey and a paddock the Farmhouse is an enormous skull there's a ladder leaned up against it and up on top of the skull is a man down on his hands and knees painting floral designs

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Philo of Alexan @philoof.bsky.social · 3d

Cat making biscuits to disco music
🎶🐈🕺😅😂
#Caturday

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Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 3d

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 3d

you do not have to be a parent to fully appreciate the horrors of this but also it is so hard to be a parent and to know that other people who have the same role and love as you do are going through this needless, random and permanently damaging terror

LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 @longtimehistory.bsky.social · 3d

ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 3d

Have you posted this on Facebook too? I know some British kidlit
people over there but I don't think they're on BlueSky...

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Jun 11

Black rain frogs (Breviceps fuscus) look like angry avocados and I'm here to share them with you.

(📷: Tony Rebelo, iNaturalist)

Black rain frogs (Breviceps fuscus) is swollen up with air to make it harder to eat, and it has a downward facing mouth, making it look like it's sad or angry or grumpy. It's black and bumpy like an avocado, with undersized limbs sticking out from underneath. It's sitting in leaf mold that is indistinct.

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 4d

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 4d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Brian LaRossa @brianlarossa.com · 4d

An illustrator alerted me to the attached email. Someone is impersonating me! Offering #kidlit illustrators fake deals!

This is not me! The deal-structure/schedule is insane. The deadline is quite friendly?! 10 picture books in 3 years?!

Please let me know if you receive an email like this!

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Cheryl B. Klein @cherylklein.bsky.social · 4d

Impeach him, Rep. Clarke!!!