The holiday season is truly upon us, and you won’t want to miss today’s lovely picture book.

Deborah Underwood has written many memorable picture books that have withstood the test of time to become (in my opinion) classics. Some of those titles include Outside In, Interstellar Cinderella, XO, Exoplanet, and New York Times bestsellers The Quiet Book, The Loud Book, and Here Comes the Easter Cat. She lives in Northern California and you can learn more about her at her website.

A MOUSE FAMILY CHRISTMAS is a picture book with mice characters who live in the attic.  I love books with mice characters in real world settings where we get to see how they repurpose everyday objects we might take for granted for household things of their size.  This book delivers that and more.  In this story, Hugo, the mouse main character, is excited for the holidays with his multi-generational family. Yet he notices that the old man downstairs is all alone and his family hasn’t come this year to help him decorate the Christmas tree like they usually do.  Can mice help save the day?  This is such a sweet story and the illustrations only help to add to that.  They are soft and inviting, creating a world I wanted to continue to explore long after the book was done.

Welcome Deborah!

Me: I can’t imagine anyone isn’t familiar with your work, but can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey?  How has that brought you to writing this picture book?

Deborah: Thanks for the kind words! I started writing for kids in 2001, and did pretty much the things you’d expect an aspiring kids’ writer to do: read books about writing, read hundreds of picture books and kept notes on them, went to conferences and classes, wrote some pretty terrible books, kept going, and gradually got better with the help of the critique groups I joined. I suspect having a number of picture books out helped me get this project.

Me: I love this story!  I have always adored dreaming of the creatures in the walls and their little world (The Borrowers, The Littles, etc.).  The world these mice live in gave me all the feels!  This book feels like a classic holiday book I might’ve read years ago and yet somehow feels new.  I love how you do that!  What gave you the idea for this story?

Deborah: I’m so glad you enjoyed it! This book came together in an unusual way: the editor loved Leah Hong’s wonderful Christmas mice, and she asked me if I wanted to write a story around them. Their original idea was that a family gets a tree and the mice surprise them by decorating it at night. They wanted the story to have a touch of magic, and for the book to feel like a new Christmas classic.

I lost my dad in 2021, several months before I got this opportunity. The idea of an older man alone at Christmas was very present in my mind, since Covid had prevented me from my usual holiday visit to him the previous year. I only recently learned that Leah used her own dad as the model for the man, which means both our dads are part of this book.

When I was working on this, I saw a mouse skittering across the floor of my apartment for the first time ever! Thankfully, it was a one-time appearance, but I can’t help but wonder if the manuscript summoned her.

Me: I’ve seen a love of animals in many of your books, but between your last fantastic picture book, THE MAN WHO DIDN’T LIKE ANIMALS, and this one, it just shines through.  Yet these days it’s being said that stories with animals as main characters shouldn’t be written.  Have you found that to be true with marketing?  Did you receive any push back (from critique partners, editors, etc.) that your main characters here were mice?

Deborah: Because of the way this book came together, everyone was on board with mice from the start. (And with Leah’s lovely illustrations, how could they not be?) I hadn’t thought about it till you asked, but I’ve moved away from narrative stories with animal characters in the past few years—not intentionally, but just because other things have been inspiring me.

But animals will always have the largest part of my heart, and I absolutely will write more animal manuscripts; I’m working on one now, as a matter of fact. I feel like if you write something well enough for people to fall in love with it, it will transcend any market considerations. That may not be true, but I’d rather live and write that way.

Me: I love that.  The illustrations by Leah Hong are perfect!  I love all the little details she put into the attic.  And those end papers are so cute!  I could pour over her illustrations forever.  In fact, I was surprised to see an alternate ending as the last scene (no spoilers).  I have to ask, did you have an art note for that?  Or was that Leah all by herself?  Were there any illustration surprises for you?  Any favorites?

Deborah: That’s so interesting about the last scene! It didn’t occur to me that it might be read as an alternate ending. I don’t want to spoil anything either, but it was important to me that the reader see that what happens in the last scene does eventually happen. There’s always so much back and forth that I’m not even sure who introduced that idea!

All the illustrations are so lovely, but I particularly like the ones toward the end when all the characters are together. And I love that there’s a surprise under the book jacket!

Me: You have had many successful picture books over the years.  What does your writing process look like?  What habits have you created that help you to continue publishing picture books?

Deborah: I wish I had some magic formula! My writing process is definitely not disciplined or regimented. You know how picture books are: it’s so much about the idea, and less about cranking out words.

When I was writing chapter books, I loved setting a goal of 1,000 words, writing them, and then being free to enjoy the rest of the day, instead of feeling guilty all the time for not working, the way I do now.

One thing I’m doing better now is understanding that my ideas almost always come from my interactions with the world: an animal in a zoo, a pig at a sanctuary, the garden I’m caring for, a conference I attend. Banging my head against my desk when I’m not inspired isn’t helpful or kind. 

Me: Very true!  I love this world and these characters so much.  Is there a chance for a sequel?  Any future projects that you have in the works that you can share about?

Deborah: No sequel plans in the works, but I’m sure those mice have a lot of other possibilities! I have several picture books in the pipeline, and I’m beyond excited about the two graphic chapter books I have coming out starting next August: the Fairy Tale Fixers series, illustrated by the fabulous Jorge Lacera (who I had the privilege of working with on XO, Explanet). I can’t wait!

Me: Those sound fantastic!  Any advice for new or aspiring picture book writers?

Deborah: Hackneyed but true: persistence is key. Sometimes I remind myself that an editor I adore rejected three or four of my manuscripts before acquiring The Quiet Book, the book that changed the course of my career. I wish I could say I never get rejections now! But I do. You just have to keep going.

And connecting with other writers is so important. I don’t know where I’d be without my critique friends. One great thing about this field is that there are so many amazing, generous people in it.

That is great advice.  Thank you so much Deborah for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, I cannot rave enough about this book.  It’s the perfect holiday story that feels as comforting as hot cocoa on a cold day.  It feels oddly familiar and new at the same time.  I don’t know how it manages to do all that, but trust me when I say that this is a book you won’t want to miss.