Barefoot Books makes top notch picture books and today’s book is no exception!

Jenna Elyse Johnson is a children’s author, teacher and bookseller. She first dreamed of becoming an author in elementary school, ever since her third grade teacher told her she could be a writer. (Never doubt the power of an encouraging word!) She holds a bachelor’s degree and teaching credential from Pepperdine University. Her favorite part of the day has always been story time, so she made a career out of it! As a disabled author, it is her passion to showcase disabled joy through her writing. Her debut book is EVERY BODY MOVE, with several more forthcoming titles. When she’s not writing, Jenna is teaching elementary students, working at her local independent bookstore, visiting her twin brother in Southern California, or playing with her service dog, Hamilton. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram or BlueSky.

EVERY BODY MOVE is a beautiful picture book that celebrates music, movement, and joy for all young readers. It even has music to go along with it! And every single aspect of the book was created by incredibly talented disabled creators. There are FOUR creators here: an author, an illustrator, a musician, and a jazz singer! What a collection of creativity that has come together here.

Welcome Jenna!

Me: For those who might not be familiar with your work, can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey? How has that brought you to this book?

Jenna: Yes! Thank you for asking! I have always LOVED picture books. As a child, my favorite time of day was story time. It always felt like such a treat to gather at the rug and listen to my teacher perform a read aloud. I lived for those moments. In high school, I volunteered at local elementary schools and, again, my favorite job was to do read alouds! By that time, I knew I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, and once I had my own classroom, I’m sure you can guess what my favorite part of the day was. I should also note that my dad was an expert story reader. He was the one who would usually do a bedtime story for my brother and me, and he would do all the voices, and man, I think it made a difference.

So fast forward, I’m a kindergarten teacher, a second-grade teacher, doing life and all that, and I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind that I would really LOVE to write a picture book, someday. Someday. Not now, but eventually. I let ideas swirl around in the back of my mind, but I didn’t have a real plan for them. I had no clue how I was ever going to create a picture book, but the idea sounded nice. Then, I found myself on medical leave from work. So, I had a bunch of free time on my hands. Someday didn’t seem so far off. And then, the pandemic hit, and the idea of returning to regular classroom teaching didn’t seem realistic for me, with all my health challenges. So, I decided I needed to get serious about this dream of mine. It was time to turn my dream into a reality.

I had learned about SCBWI from a colleague of mine. (Shoutout to Joanna Rowland!) From there, I went on to their blue boards and learned about an online course I could take about how to write picture books. (I love me a good course!) I asked my parents for that class for Christmas, and in January of 2022 I enrolled in Susanna Leonard Hill’s Making Picture Book Magic Course. That course provided me with the foundation and building blocks I needed to get started with my kidlit career. After that course, I joined 12×12 and Twitter, when it was still a positive, thriving community, and wrote, wrote, wrote! In June of that year, I found out I got the PBChat mentorship with Anitra Rowe Schulte, which is where this story was originally drafted! (Shoutout to Anitra who is WONDERFUL!) And by November, I signed with my incredible agent, Christie Megill of The CAT Agency.

So, to sum up, this story was originally drafted in the summer of 2022. And will be published in the Fall of 2025. A lot has happened in between that time, and a LOT of revision happened, too, which I will go over below. 

Me: What an incredible concept: movement, songs, and joy for ALL young bodies. What gave you the idea?

Jenna: Ahh thank you so much! I am so excited for this book and what it (hopefully) means for young readers. But I am also feeling a bit vulnerable, too. People are going to read my work! Like, for real! And judge it! As a disabled author, my passion is to highlight disability joy through my writing. And I feel like this book is disability joy front and center.

Growing up with cerebral palsy, I was no stranger to mobility aids. I tried out a whole bunch of tools to figure out how to make movement easier for me. And physical therapy was routine. However, I was not an easy patient. Nor was I joyful. I was painfully embarrassed by my mobility tools and specifically hated the socks I had to wear with my AFOs. Little Jenna had a lot of anger and shame. Grown-up Jenna has a different perspective. I wanted to rewrite the narrative, so-to-speak. I wanted to reframe my experience with mobility tools and highlight them for what they truly are, tools to help people access the world around them. So, naturally, I wrote a book!

For the song aspect of the book, the credit must go to my publisher. They reached out to me during the acquisitions process and asked if I was interested in the book becoming a sing-along. I was star-struck with the idea! Like, of course! Who would say no to that idea?!

Me: This is your debut picture book (yay!) with an incredibly sparse text. Was this more of a challenge to revise? Did you find it hard to sell a book that wasn’t strictly plot based as a beginning writer?

Jenna: I love that this is my debut book! It stands for so much of what I believe in. Disability joy. Inclusion. Celebrating all kids. But it’s funny because this book is SO different from any other book I have written. This book is for sure my most sparsely written text. I tend to lean toward the wordier side. In fact, my most recent deal sold at 730-ish words. This one was less than 300 when I sold it, I think. Of course, we added a few words through the revision process, but it is still sparse! This book is also written in a rhyme/meter pattern, which is another thing that I don’t normally do. I am a prose girly. So huge shoutout to all my fabulous critique partners who helped me tremendously with this text!

Also, shoutout to the musician, Michael Flannery, that Barefoot hired to make sure the book really worked as a song! Most of the revision came for the sing-along aspect. The chorus for the book, “What helps your mobility? How do you groove? Full of possibility! Every body Move!” was not part of the original text. It was added for the song, to make the song catchier and more memorable. We also went back and forth A LOT on the line “full of possibility!” to make sure that what we had was as inclusive and positive as possible. I can’t even remember what the line was before we decided on that, but we took a great deal of care with each word.

This book also sold differently from my other books. I pitched this book on Twitter through #DVPit back in 2022, right before I signed with my agent. Barefoot Books reached out 1 YEAR later to ask if my book was still available. (It was!) From there, I let Christie handle the negotiations, contract and acquisition.

I should also mention that the original version of this story that was drafted during PBChat had more of a narrative. But it felt more like two books stitched together, rather than one cohesive story. One part was narrative, following a girl who was receiving her very first mobility aid. And the other part was the more concept story about celebrating mobility aids. I decided to try and develop both stories separately, and the concept version kept pulling at me, and really stood out as stronger. So that’s the version I focused on! I’m as shocked as anyone that this ended up as my debut, but I’m thrilled!

Me: The illustrations by Ananya Rao-Middleton are pitch perfect. There is so much detail, color, movement, and diversity! Any favorite illustrations? Any illustration surprises?

Jenna: Ananya did such a wonderful job. She truly brought the book to life! I love all the detail she included for the mobility tools. Mobility tools can be fancy and fun and fabulous! Ananya really captured that. I highly doubt any child would be embarrassed by any of the tools that Ananya created.

As a huge animal person, I have two favorite spreads. I’m sure you can guess them right away. The spread with the horses, highlighting a hippotherapy session. Every body GALLOP! I especially love that scene in the video animation, so check it out!

And, of course, the service dog spread. So many cute dogs to love! One dog reminds me of my own service dog! Plus, I think kids will really love to wiggle during that scene. I also REALLY enjoy this scene in the video animation and the song! It’s a fun breakdown, so give it a listen.

Me: This book comes with not one but two incredible additional aspects. EVERY creator involved in the book is disabled in some way so they can create the best book possible AND there is music to go along with the physical book! It’s literally a sing-along book! Were you involved in the decision to include music? Did you have any say about the other creators that were involved or was that all Barefoot books?

Jenna: Yes! I am so thrilled that Barefoot felt just as strongly as I did about this book being as authentic as possible. It was important for all the creators to be disabled. I knew about Ananya’s art and did suggest her to Barefoot, along with a list of other disabled illustrators. Barefoot looked through the list and fell in love with Ananya right away! Barefoot already had worked with Audra on other sing-along projects, so they knew she would be perfect for this project.

Barefoot also used disabled sensitivity readers, for another layer of authenticity, which I truly appreciated. While I am disabled, I cannot speak for the entire disability community. It made me feel better to have extra eyes looking at what I was writing. We truly did our best to create the best possible book. I also love that we did not shy away from using the word, “disabled” or “disability.” Again, I can’t speak for the entire disability community, but I prefer using the term “disabled” over euphemisms like “differently-abled” or “handi-capable” or “special.” Disabled is not a bad word, and we shouldn’t be afraid to say it!

As for the sing-along aspect, I was included in the decision to add music. Autumn Allen, my editor, asked if I was interested in the book being turned into a sing-along, right at the acquisition phase. I said yes, as long as I wasn’t the person who had to sing the book! I think for story times, my plan is to read the book like a regular book and then play the song after. I might warm the kids up with some movement exercises before the story or a classic game of freeze dance! As for the actual song, I did not write the music. Barefoot hired a real musician, thank goodness! I would have been lost, otherwise. The musician and I went back and forth, tinkering with a few lines from the text to make it a bit more musical. And, of course, we added the chorus. But otherwise, the basic foundation for the song was already there!

Me: You are an educator as well as a writer. I always find this interesting combination (as I am too). How do you balance the demand of that work, and the creative energy needed to write?

Jenna: I am an educator! Though, I sometimes feel like I’m cheating when I say that because I no longer teach full time. My body couldn’t handle it.  I have returned to teaching, but not in a traditional format. I now work at a cute little nature school that caters to homeschooled students. And I am part-time, which helps me manage my health. I get to teach classes that I am passionate about. Which, you guessed it, means classes that involve stories! A class I am teaching this year is called “Storybook Chefs” where we read beloved children’s books and create recipes from them as well as art projects! Our first book we are reading is Enemy Pie by Derek Munson and Tara King and we will, of course, be making pies! How fun is that?

I’m also a part-time bookseller at my local independent bookstore! That job is SO fun! I get to talk to people about books all day. I am the go-to bookseller at my store for kids-books. Plus, I feel like I am getting to research for my writing career while also getting paid for my bookselling job, at the same time. It works out well. Also, keep your eye out for a new book announcement coming soon, inspired by my bookstore! 

Overall, I feel like my life has not taken the plan I originally set for myself. But I am SO happy with how it is turning out. I am incredibly grateful for the kidlit community and to have been able to start my path down this career. I hope it will be long, lasting, and fulfilling!

Me: Any advice for new picture book writers?

Jenna: I always advise new picture book writers to join 12×12! It is such a fantastic community and gets you writing A LOT. You can find great critique partners in 12×12, too.  I learned by reading and writing a lot and by taking free and low-priced classes. Figure out how you learn best. Is it by taking a class? Or attending conferences? Through mentor texts? Trial and error? If you can figure out your learning style, then you are golden. And find critique partners you trust! You don’t need to be in a bunch of critique groups. I mean, maybe that works for you! I was, at first. But I have since learned that having trusted critique partners works better for me than having multiple critique groups. I know how to revise when I know I’m getting good advice.

That is great advice Jenna. Thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, this book publishes at the end of the month. It’s a book that all readers will love as it incorporates movement with so much energy, delight, and exuberance. Trust me when I say, this is a book you won’t want to miss!