Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy Churnin.
Hi Nancy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was a longtime journalist and the theater critic for The Dallas Morning News who had always wanted to write children’s books. One day, in 2003, I wrote a story about a local high school putting on a play about Deaf baseball player William Hoy. I received a thank you email from a man in Columbus, Ohio. Surprised, I emailed him back and asked why he liked this story so much. Steve Sandy told me he was Deaf, a friend of the Hoy family and that it was his dream that more people would know the story of this great Deaf hero. I decided to write a children’s book to help Steve’s dream come true — to spread the word about Hoy and encourage kids to write to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, asking for him to be inducted there. My promise took years to fulfill because it turned out, I had to learn how to write a children’s book! But once The William Hoy Story came out in 2016, I realized that in making my friend’s dream come true, I had made my own childhood dream come true. I resolved to find more stories about people that kids might not otherwise know, ordinary people that persevered to make their dreams come true and whose dreams made the world a better place. I left journalist in 2019 to become a full-time children’s book author and now have 10 picture book biographies out in the world that have won many awards, including the National Jewish Book Award and the South Asia Book Award, and been on many state reading lists. All my books come with free teacher guides, resources, and projects on my website, nancychurnin.com And there are more books on the way.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge was getting past the idea that because I was a professional journalist that writing a children’s picture book would be easy! That first book took years and received many rejections in the early years because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Finally, I took classes, went to conferences, and joined critique groups. I slowly learned the craft and learned to navigate the children’s publishing world.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a children’s book author. My first 10 books, now out in the world, are all true stories about people kids might not know about otherwise, people who persevered to make their dreams come true and changed the world for the better. I create a project for each book with the hope that the child’s experience doesn’t end on the last page, but the person that they’ve read about inspires them to use their own gifts to change the world for the better, too. I am most proud when the children tell me they enjoy my books and that the stories inspire them to be kind and help others. My mother was a teacher, now retired, and I always provide lots of educational material — resources, teacher guides, projects — to deepen and enhance a child’s experience with my books and make that experience more meaningful.
What does success mean to you?
I have won many awards for my books, including the National Jewish Book Award, Sydney Taylor Honor and Notables, the South Asia Book Award, National Council for the Social Studies Notables, Junior Library Guild and A Mighty Girl recognition, Notable Book for a Global Society, Anne Izzard Storytellers’ Choice Award and more. But for me, the biggest success is when a story I’ve told about a hero or heroine has inspired a child to be a hero or heroine in his or her own life. I love when the children share the kind things, they’ve done to make the world a better place.
Contact Info:
- Email: nancychurnin@mac.com
- Website: https://www.nancychurnin.com/
- Instagram: @nchurnin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancy.churnin
- Twitter: @nchurnin
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/NancyChurninBooks
Image Credits
Kim Leeson
Bethany Stancliffe
Danny Popovici
Yevgenia Nayberg
Creston Books
Albert Whitman & Company
