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Andrea Wickert

@librarymusthaves

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🌳 Parent | ♡ Book Lover |📍Upstate NY
🖼️ Author + Illustrator
✨ Finding you the best children’s books
📖 Follow for recommendations
🍄 @hedgerowgeneral

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Andrea Wickert is a children’s book writer and illustrator who combines traditional watercolor and gouache with digital drawing to create playful and colorful picture-book worlds. During her Micro-Residency, she completed one book dummy and made significant progress on another, using the residency to bring together manuscript drafts, character sketches, page thumbnails, color palettes, and rough illustrations in preparation for querying agents.⁠
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One project in the works follows a mouse-run museum whose tiny curators try to understand humanity through the objects people have left behind. Inspired in part by the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA, Andrea spent time researching mice, collecting visual references, developing an alphabet-based structure for the story, and testing a palette that balances the museum’s muted historic tones with the bright, neon colors she loves.⁠
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The residency also gave Andrea space to spread out her writing, research, and painting materials before the final month of her PB Rising Stars Collective mentorship program. It has given her the opportunity to refine her picture-book manuscripts and prepare to approach literary agents this fall.⁠
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Congratulations Andrea, wonderful to see all your hard work come together!

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Journey Through the Pages on May 22-23, 2027, at Daemen University in Buffalo/Amherst, NY! We’re planning two days filled with keynotes, panel discussions, and breakout sessions. Learn from industry professionals offering submission opportunities and individual critiques, be inspired by award-winning authors and illustrators and build meaningful connections with writers and illustrators in our region. Minutes from the I-90 and the Buffalo International Airport, the beautiful Daemen University campus offers state of the art venue services and spaces, free parking and 24/7 security. Save the Date! #scbwinywcu27
Faculty Bookstore: @aliceeverafterbooks
Illustration: @librarymusthaves

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When the famed Arecibo telescope tragically collapsed, I knew the world-changing discoveries that came from Puerto Rico needed to be shouted from the rooftops for all the kids to hear—-by somebody. Took me a minute, a lot of research, and a ton of reassurance to realize that somebody was me.
For all the Boricua kids out there, I want you to know another incredible facet of The Island, a rich history of scientific research!
And for all the neurodivergent kids out there—like my sweet Gigi—I wanted to say: YES, even if you struggle in school sometimes, you can absolutely be a scientist if that if what your heart desires.

I am also beyond hyped to announce my very first picture book collaboration with my partner Superintendent extraordinaire and science guru @michaelgrichardsedd ! I am so incredibly proud that we get to bring this special book into the world together!

As always,I am deeply grateful to my amazing editor @instachinz, for her massive and enduring support of this passion project through its many many stages.And mil gracias to @natalia_rojas_art for taking on this project and bringing Gigi and her world to life— the illustrations truly are out of this world.

#latinxbookstagram #kidlitauthorsofinstagram #scienceforkids #stemforkids #arecibopr🇵🇷

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We love to see teachers smiling and filling their carts with free school supplies and books for their classrooms! To everyone who donated to the La-Dee-Dah Book Drive, please enjoy this picture and video from @agiftforteaching of your generosity in action! 🥹❤️

(I wish I could tag all of you!)

#BookDrive #KidLitForKids #KidLit #Teacher #Librarian

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How can I even begin to describe my experience @milkwoodny last week?!?
I’ll try to use my very best words, and share some photos from the treasure trove of a few hundred that I took, and it will still just dance around the edges of how fantastic it all was!
@sophieblackall and @dougsalati guided us on a merry adventure of drawing and creating, in which we got out of our heads and each made 93+ paintings and just kept those brushes moving across the page!
And every nook and cranny of Milkwood reveals a secret, like a hidden note in the drawer of an old writing desk, to hundreds of fantastical illustrated horses racing through the pages of the Horse Books, to a mouth watering mile-high cake scented with rosewater and cardamom made by Sophie (in all of her spare time!)
And best of all were the kind, creative, inspiring people that I had the privilege of being there with- I’m still floating on a cloud from being with such wonderful new friends, and (to sort of quote Dr. Seuss), I think my heart grew three sizes while I was there.
(If all of that doesn’t adequately give a slight sense of how awesome it was, I hope my excessive use of exclamation points pulls some extra weight!)
@dougsalati @sophieblackall @evierichnerillustration @tincupdesign @theandylozano @julii.mcmillan @tessablackham @ceecliff_art @librarymusthaves @corcorcoran, Dru, Ed, Paige, Bea, Julia, and Emma, I can’t wait to see you all again, and just maybe on the dance floor!

#Milkwood
#illustrationretreat
#bestretreatever

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Somehow, July has come and gone!

We were so lucky to have so many wonderful people on campus this past month. From two sessions of Summer Camp to custom retreats and personal retreats, campus was overflowing with creativity, connection, and stories.

We also had the chance to celebrate our friend and faculty member Emily Rosenthal’s book while she was on campus! We were grateful to welcome many scholarship recipients and Storyteller Fellows and Mentors throughout the month.

There are so many exciting things ahead this fall, and campus won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

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July was a whirlwind, half unpacked suitcase, deep conversations on craft and defiant kindness. It was a platonic throuple of wild turkeys and their gaggle of offspring, greeting us in the mornings. It was dance parties open mics and cake. It was never being able to give or receive enough hugs. It was all the photos of amazing people I didn’t take (WHY can’t I learn from Benito?) July was a blessing. 💜

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Welcome summer!

☀️⛱️ 🕶️ ⛵️☀️

As the heat settles into our area, this week looks like the perfect time to stay in the art room with the AC, a cool beverage, and some new stationery supplies.

Also considering which piece of furniture gets to be covered first in remake sheets from mt casa…

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Receipts! I shipped the last 150ish books from our La-Dee-Dah Book Drive to @agiftforteaching and @gktwvillage today, and whew baby, I feel a figurative and literal weight off of my shoulders (and dining table) to have these beautiful, funny, diverse, and important books on their way to bring book-joy and joy-joy to kids who need it.

These receipts are not only proof that I didn’t keep these books for myself (haha) but also proof that y’all are freaking amazing. LOOK how many books we collected in just one month! LOOK at your generosity and love for kids and our craft! LOOK at the good you are putting into the world!

Some days it’s hard to find the joy, but today it was easy to find. Just LOOK. 💗

#Author #BookJoy #KidLit #ChildrensBooks #Illustrator

(I tagged as many as IG would let me!)

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Thanks to @librarymusthaves for such a lovely review!

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I am overwhelmed in the best way at the outpouring of support and donations for the first-ever La-Dee-Dah Book Drive. We collected more than 220 books for kids thanks to you, and now it’s time for PRIZES!

I put everyone’s names in a completely random name picker. If you see your name or someone’s name you know, please tag yourself/them, and then DM me for details on how to receive your prizes. Prizes will be distributed on a “first dibs” basis. Here’s how:

1. See your name on the list? DM me! The order your DM is received in will be the order in which you are allowed to pick your prize. 😊

2. First DM will get first pick. Second DM will get to choose from what’s left and so on.

3. Winners will have one week to contact me to claim their prizes. If there are any unclaimed prizes, I will choose from my back-up winner list.

As a reminder, here are the prizes:

• Picture book manuscript critique
• Virtual classroom author visit
• Signed PB bundle with stuffie
• One-hour AMA Zoom
• Custom Books and Bakes apron (2 available)
• Magnolia Bakery banana pudding delivered to your door!

Now for the winners! If I know your IG handle, I’ve tagged you. Otherwise, please feel free to tag someone if you recognize them.

Jessica Stremer
Andrea Wickert
Faith Morgan Wroten
Kristen Aldrich
Teresa Vargas
Jenna Johnson
Jilanne Hoffman
Alicia Meyers

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who helped spread book-joy this spring!! I’ll be packaging and delivering everything next week and can’t wait to share responses from our non-profits. Y’all know I’ll post it as content. 😆

#Author #BookDrive #KidLit #WritingCommunity #BeAnAmbassador

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Trying to make sure I show you as many of the different fantastic bookmarks as I can all created and donated by fantastic authors, illustrators and celebrities some of whom have supported us every year since we started back in 2017 and others who join us for the first time this year. We appreciate you all. There are many bookmarks in the auction with no bids or low bids so do scroll right the way to the bottom or maybe start at the bottom and work your way up!

Every bid helps us towards building the library at Katiyo Primary School in Zimbabwe. #BookmarkProject #Bookmarkproject2026

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