Q&A with Louise Borden

  

 

 

Louise Borden is the author of the new children's picture book Thank You, School. Her many other books include Full Speed Ahead!.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Thank You, School?

 

A: Hello again Deborah...it’s lovely to have another conversation with you! I looked back and found these words from my 2022 interview with you: “I’m also working on a fictional picture book with a school setting. 

 

This is a familiar world to me that I enjoy returning to after writing a

nonfiction text like Full Speed Ahead.”

 

As a visiting author, I’ve spoken in hundreds of schools over the decades of my writing life. Of all my books, eight have contemporary school settings. And in several nonfiction and historical fiction books, I mention school in the text.

 

Students and teachers are a rich part of my life. I learn from the questions and optimism and energy of students, and teachers are my heroes. Some are close friends and mentors.

 

I first began writing drafts of Thank You, School in 2018. I decided to use the same structure I’d used in an earlier picture book, Off to First Grade (illustrated by Joan Rankin, McElderry Books), in which each page or double spread is narrated by one or more students. The working title at that time was Thank You. 

 

Later, when Holiday House acquired the manuscript, the title evolved into The Thank You School and later, Thank You, School. The original text was longer, for a 40-page book, but under the wise guidance of my editor, Grace Maccarone, we cut words and small sections.

 

Grace edited my very first picture book Caps, Hats, Socks, and Mittens (illustrated by Lillian Hoban, Scholastic, 1989), which is still being printed (!) and available in Scholastic’s Teacher Store.

 

Grace also edited six more of my earliest books. So it’s a wonderful reunion and joy, all these years later, to work with her on Thank You, School.

 

Q: What do you think Paige Keiser’s illustrations add to the story?

 

A: Paige’s art is just amazing! She sees into the heart of each character she portrays…whether a child or an adult. As an artist, her understanding and knowing evoke humor, joy, truth, and energy in every scene or double spread.

 

When Grace first showed me some of Paige’s art, we both agreed THIS was the perfect illustrator for Thank You, School.

 

From loose sketches (which I saw two years ago) to final art, school and children and teachers and love and a perfect palette shone from Paige Keiser’s pages. 

 

Q: The School Library Journal review of the book says, “This paean to school will warm the heart of anyone who has ever worked in a school setting and is the perfect gift for Teacher Appreciation Day.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: paean | ˈpēən | noun a song of praise or triumph: a paean of praise for the great poets.

 

Well, perhaps our book IS a paean! I do like to think of it as a song--my thank you song, and the thank you song of the thousands of kids I’ve met across America. I’m serving as the voice for others, the students in every school. Every day is a day to say or sing Thank You, yes?

 

In the original manuscript, I typed in

 

                      By Louise Borden

     

                              and

 

                 students across America

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

 

A: In all of my books, I hope young readers can see themselves in parts of the story and in the illustrations.

 

For Thank You, School, I hope kids will say, Yes, that’s the way it is in MY school. That’s MY bus driver. Or That’s MY music teacher.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: At my desk, I have pages for another picture book, and beside me right now I have a longer manuscript set during WWII  -  a text that keeps evolving in structure  - and I hope my recent revision will find just the right editor for middle grade readers.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: On February 13, a few weeks before this newest book was published, I drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see my dear friend and mentor, Irene Hasenberg Butter, a Holocaust survivor who has been honored by many awards for her efforts on behalf of humanity and education. Irene, at age 95, was the first teacher to hold Thank You, School.

 

On March 3, the actual day Thank You, School was published, I dropped off a shiny copy at two local schools as a gift for their dedicated and amazing librarians.

 

Then I drove an hour east of Cincinnati to another school to celebrate Read Across America with second graders and fourth graders. We had a big cake lettered with the title of the new book and cheered Paige Keiser’s wonderful illustrations.

 

On the way home after this long and exciting day, I took Thank You, School to a third grade teacher’s house and left it on her front porch – a teacher whom I’d not yet met but who has taught for more than 30 years. In December of 2024, she was “disciplined” by her school district for having four “questionable” books in her classroom library of 100 books.

 

I stand up for any teacher who has driven in the dark to school and home in the dark for that many years. I trust such a teacher.

 

Years ago, I wrote a picture book The A+ Custodian, which is still in print. The staff members of every school remain my heroes.

  

People across our country worry about the state of our schools. They opine that kids can’t read, that social media has ruined a generation.

 

But I’m an optimist, and I’m inspired as I walk through the front doors of a school and down long hallways, and move among children, and meet dedicated teachers--teachers who are standing in their classrooms every day, leading their kids to literate lives.

 

From March 19, 2026:

 

 

 

From March 20, 2026, at a book festival:

 

 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Louise Borden.