Straightforward nonfiction

I loved books so much as a kid that I got special permission from my school principal to enter the building early so I could help shelve books in the library. Years later, I thought my love of books meant I had to teach, so I went to college to be a high school English teacher. When I was about 90% done with my teaching degree, and just before I started student teaching (but not before I created lesson plans using Grandmaster Flash lyrics), I heard about an internship at an indie publishing company in Naperville called Sourcebooks. Oh. I can make books? And I can still live in Chicagoland? Yes, let’s do that.

Leo: A Ghost Story, Please Mr. Panda, anything by Gyo Fujikawa or P.D. Eastman, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Color Purple, My Life in France, The Monster at the End of This Book, The Ernie and Bert Book, and the first 40 or so Nancy Drew Files mysteries from the 80s with the romance-esque covers

There are so many reasons but the most important to me is the hope that the books we make change children’s lives in some positive way

This would be more interesting if the question were “where isn’t your reading pile?” It’s everywhere…except the bathroom. I have a strict rule about that.

The Anderson’s location in Downers Grove is one of my all-time favorites for nostalgic reasons.

Cooking, gardening, watching da Bears, listening to Howard Stern, reading (duh), and laughing with my son and dogs.

kelly.barrales-saylor@sourcebooks.com