Have you ever been minding your own business and suddenly realized you were stuck? You would if you were one of the many flora and fauna to fall into the La Brea Tar Pits!

Joyce Uglow writes poetic stories on topics from bees, trees, and families to ancient cave art and fossils trapped in asphalt seeps. She’s a forever cheerleader for Team Education. She currently serves as SCBWI Wisconsin Assistant Regional Advisor. You can learn more at her website or follow her on BlueSky, Instagram, or Facebook.

STUCK! THE STORY OF LA BREA TAR PITS is a nonfiction lyrical picture book about the history of the la brea tar pits unlike any you’ve ever seen. It’s concise in its facts, but lyrical in its delivery. It’s a detailed exploration of a place spanning across time, the past, the present, and even the future. It’s a stunning story told piece by piece in such a fascinating way that it’s no wonder it has made some of the “most anticipated picture books of 2025” lists! The illustrations by Valerya Milovanova are a perfect pairing as well, with their soft textures and alluring details. You feel the pain of the animals that become stuck without sinking into horrifying detail, and yet amazing details do abound in these illustrations. This is a book you just might need to read for yourself to comprehend everything it achieves. 

Welcome Joyce!

Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey?  When did you start writing stories?  What brought you to this picture book?

Joyce: In fourth grade, Mrs. Jaske turned me on to creative writing with a program called “Let’s Write” in which I wrote stories about my horses and friends. Of course, I wrote at home too. I had a diary for my biggest tween secrets. (Hehehe…Secrets don’t exist in a family of seven.) My mom modeled that writing is what we do. She submitted articles to women’s magazines and stories to publishing houses when I was a kid. I found several of her works of wonder in boxes when we cleaned the family home for an estate sale. I write because of Mom.

Writing became a part of my teaching style when I discovered that some  of my students needed a differentiated way to learn to read. They’d tell me their experiences, I’d write their words, and then we’d read their stories. Soon, the tables turned and they’d record my stories and read my words back to them. I also used picture book mentor texts to teach writing to my second and third grade students. I’d do a read aloud, we’d think about the author’s techniques, and then write our own. I always wrote while my students wrote, so I built up quite a drawer of manuscripts.

When I retired, I truly began to study picture books. I joined SCBWI, Julie Hedlund’s 12 X 12 Picture Book Challenge and accumulated some more manuscripts. Writing for children is my way of living with the goal of leaving a creative and lasting legacy that matters.

When visiting Los Angeles for the SCBWI summer conference in 2018, my son and I visited La Brea Tar Pits. There, I became mesmerized by the notion that an entire ecosystem of ice age megafauna (big animals) got trapped in stacks with insects, birds, fish, and plants in asphalt seeps over the course of 50,000 years.

Me: What was it about La Brea Tar Pits that first grabbed you and made you want to write about them?

Joyce: I couldn’t tear myself away from Smilodon fatalis and all its fossil glory. Standing there, I knew I needed to write a picture book about Smilodon and other unsuspecting animals that got mired in the mysterious muck. If you ever get the chance to visit La Brea, take a stroll through the museum, pause at the sticky seeps in the park, and get mesmerized by the message the asphalt preserved in the fossils just for us.

Me: Your text is so spare and lyrical and yet it cover eons.  What gave you the idea to do that?  How many revisions did it take for this story to get to this incredibly polished work of art?

Joyce: Thank you so much. This is my long answer to your short question asking about spare text. 🙂 STUCK! moved from research into a poetic form after reading amazing nonfiction picture books such as Flower Talk: How Plants Use Color to Communicate by Sara Levine, ill. Masha D’Yans. I got turned on to the wonders of writing brief poetry for kids by Janet Wong. I am honored to have poems in three poetry anthologies published by Pomelo Books, the most recent being Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz © 2024.

I write every day and save my manuscripts in Google Drive. I save precious trees by using version history to date and number new versions instead of printing. I, however, saved 15 major print versions before it was acquired. STUCK saw six shifts after hearing from my super valuable critique partners. And after acquisition STUCK experienced three interactive editing conservations with my talented editor Ryan G. Van Cleave and the incredible team at Bushel & Peck Books.

We put each word, phrase, and sentence on trial to pare the text down. We wanted to clearly and succinctly showcase the ice age entrapments and the significant science at La Brea.

Me: There are so many pieces to this story that I imagine I could easily lose myself in the fascinating research.  Did you have to do a lot of research for this story?  Can you tell us a bit about that process for this story?  How did you pick and choose what to include?

Joyce: Quite frankly, I was stuck on writing only about Smilodon fatalis until I dug deep into research articles by La Brea paleontologist Dr. Emily Lindsey and paleobotanist Dr. Regan Dunn. Personal visits to the Pits, videos, books, articles, reports, and newspaper stories about how fossils framed the story I wanted to tell about La Brea Tar Pits. For example, I love that the hip bone fossils of Smilodon have provided information about human hips! The study of the more than 3.5 million fossils at La Brea brings paleontologists to Los Angeles from around the world.

In terms of choosing which bits to include, the megafauna pulled me to the microfossils. I knew I wanted to show that scientists sort the stories grain by grain. The stack of fossils portrayed in STUCK! showcase

fossils from a variety of the 100 deposits and over the course of thousands of years. I wanted to show that the animals did not all get mired in the muck in one place or at one time.

I am a lover of reading and often find myself deep in research (sticky Tar Pits if you will) into which I love digging. Answering your questions led me back into research to glop out more about the interplay between climate, plants, and animal evolution through time. It’s super fun searching for answers to this big question: What can we learn from the fossils about the long-term effects of climate change and human activities on ecosystems?

Me: Can you talk about your publishing experience?  How did this story end up with Bushel & Peck Books?

Joyce: Reading widely helps learn about the publishing industry. In January of 2023, I read an interview with Ryan G. Van Cleave and an above-the-slush-pile submission opportunity for Bushel & Peck Books in the Children’s Book Insider, published monthly online by Laura and Jon Backus. Knowing the quality of B&P Books, I polished STUCK! and submitted. When the email message “This book rocks!”  popped into my inbox in July of 2023, I fainted and then did my version of jubilant cartwheels across the front yard!

Me: Valerya Milovanova’s illustrations in this book are pitch perfect.  I love that she visually created a frame of dragonflies for the beginning and ending of your book.  Did you have any illustration surprises?  Any favorite illustrations?

Joyce: I love Valerya Milovanova’s use of soft colors and movement from the first spread with ice age dragonfly and sloth to today’s dragonfly and Los Angeles at the end. The woman in the bottom right of this mid-book spread makes me smile. I see this woman as a stand-in representation of all the women volunteers and scientists across the world who study and share research.  

Fun fact: In 1907, J.Z. Gilbert, a biology teacher at Los Angeles High School, brought his students to the La Brea Tar Pits to learn how to excavate and clean fossils. The students’ discoveries laid the groundwork for the founding of the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art.

I was given opportunities to see three sets of Valerya Milovanova’s beautiful illustrations throughout the process. After being asked by David Miles for my input, I specifically looked for depictions of the science. For example, I looked to be sure that the artwork showed that the fossils have been pulled from 100+ asphalt seep deposits.

I am extremely grateful to La Brea scientists, Dr. Regan Dunn and Dr. Emily Lindsey for their guidance and fact checking. Dunn, Lindsey, and I had fun discussing climate change, nests of bees, insect wings, dire wolves jaw bones, Smilodon, and dragonflies. 🙂

Me: Any advice for other new picture book writers?

Joyce: Mine is certainly not new advice… If you want to be a published author, take your time. Read, read, read what you want to write. If it’s picture books you want to write, then read hundreds of picture books of all kind. Look at the author’s creative techniques, study structures, examine how the voice, tone, and style make the book a joy to read. Think about how each word is needed. Take the time to notice how the marriage of art and words make the picture book a masterpiece. In terms of the query trenches… Are you patient? Thousands of manuscripts are submitted to agents and editors. Do you love waiting? While you’re waiting to hear back from agents and editors, continue to read more and write new manuscripts. Don’t get lost in the mysterious muck of thinking that first one is the ONE. 

You’ll come to know picture books and writing on a deeper level by participating in the amazing Julie Hedlund’s 12 X 12 Picture Book Challenge and elevated by the inspirational Bethany Hegadus via her top notch Writing Barn Courage to Create courses. And it goes without saying that membership in SCBWI is essential.

STUCK! THE STORY OF LA BREA TAR PITS, written by me and illustrated by Valerya Milovanova publication date moved from November 5, 2024 to March 4, 2025. When you get your YES for publication, try to understand that many moving parts go into publishing a book and schedules sometime have to be changed due to a variety of circumstances. All the best to you on your publishing journey. Here’s to writing kidlit!

Here, here! That’s great advice Joyce and happy book birthday! Thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, this book is published today. It’s an incredible combination of lyrical text, eons of history, and soft detailed illustrations that you won’t want to miss.