Children's Books by Julie Salamon

In 2009 the illustrator Jill Weber, whose exquisite paintings appear in The Christmas Tree, sent Julie a newspaper article about a cat named Pretty Boy who lived in the East Village and didn’t belong to anyone—but also to everyone in the neighborhood. He had just died at age 22. Jill wondered if there might be a story there for Julie to write and Jill to illustrate. Julie was busy working on the Wendy Wasserstein biography and tossed the article into a drawer. But she couldn’t stop thinking about that cat….

That was the beginning of Cat in the City, published by Penguin’s Dial Books for Young Readers in September, 2014. Publishers Weekly called its characters “beguiling” and School Library Journal praised the book’s drawings and text as “bittersweet and meaningful. “ The reviewer for Booklist summed up the book as, “a sweet love letter to New York, cats, and what it means to be ‘home.’” The book won the hearts of children and educators, leading to another collaboration between Jill and Julie. The widely-praised Mutt’s Promise, published in 2016, received kudos from The Humane Society for confronting the dark side of puppy mills, while gathering wonderful reviews from newspapers and academic journals. “Lovable characters, important themes, and a plot full of unexpected turns,” said the Ohioana Quarterly’s reviewer. “A fantastic book.” Jill and Julie have spoken to middle-grade students at more than 100 schools around the country plus dozens of other classrooms around the world via SKYPE. Talking to children about the books, and hearing what’s on their minds, has been an a pleasurable and most unexpected bonus to writing these stories. Jill and Julie are in the process of creating a third book for this 8-12 year old age group, tentatively titled Orville, about the difference one little bird can make in the world.