Cover Reveal and Conversation: Not Like Every Day by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic

It’s not a topic I’ve seen addressed in picture books. Not to say they haven’t been done, but from a major publisher? Rare. Middle grade novels, of course, but for younger kids?

I am referring, of course, to the topic of school lockdown drills. That ubiquitous rite of passage that children attending public school must deal with in this current day and age. My children simply consider them a fact of life, but for a lot of children there is a great deal of anxiety centered around these drills. Anxiety that could be addressed in a book. Yet where are such titles?

In Not Like Every Day (out September 2nd) author Stephanie Lucianovic tackles the subject that had to take a circuitous route to publication.

The description reads:

For Henry, lockdown drills can be scary. Staying quiet and still is tough, but with the support of his teacher, he’s able to stay calm. This reassuring story explores the complex emotions surrounding school lockdown drills and includes helpful resources from a school psychologist and safety expert.

I wish today was like every other day.
But it isn’t.
Today my stomach is twisted in the middle
like a bunch of tissue paper butterflies.

During his school’s lockdown drill, Henry tries to make himself as small, and still, and quiet as possible, but even though he knows it’s just a drill and it’s not real, he still doesn’t like it. And even when the drill is over, it doesn’t feel over for him. 

Luckily, Henry’s teacher is there to offer guidance and reassurance. Together, they practice breathing exercises and focus on what Henry can smell right now to help anchor him in the present. And, most importantly, they talk about his feelings until he feels safe—until the tissue paper butterflies in his stomach untwist and fly away. 

With poetic prose and gentle artwork, this accessible picture book serves as an ideal starting point for discussions about lockdown drills and includes helpful resources for parents and teachers, such as discussion questions, a mindfulness exercise guide, and best practices for reducing the potential for trauma when conducting lockdown drills.

Today, we’re revealing the cover of Stephanie’s latest book, and talking a bit about its appearance:

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Betsy Bird: Stephanie! Always a joy and a pleasure to speak with you. I greatly appreciate having the chance to premiere the cover of NOT LIKE ANY DAY. You described this book to me as, “This book might be my most political book ever (and possibly my most controversial, which is saying something … ahem) because it is about the anxiety a child feels during a school lockdown drill and how he manages to get help dealing with that anxiety.” While this may sound like a question with a fairly obvious answer, could you tell us a bit about where this book came from?

Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: Hey, Betsy! Thanks so much for giving me the chance to talk about and promote this book that goes bone-deep for me.

Whew. Okay, so I started writing this book when my oldest was in first grade (he’s now a sophomore in high school). One day, he came home from school and told me about the lockdown drill they had. It would be the first of many. He explained how they hid under desks and had to be quiet. Then he told me that a classmate got a bloody nose during the drill. I asked if she had gotten help from the teacher. His answer: “No, because we’re supposed to be quiet.”

That hit me so hard. Like, what are we doing to these kids with drills where they don’t even feel like they can get help for a bloody nose? It was too much. And I got angry. So I started writing. Years went by, and I learned about lockdown drills in other states where they actually stage some sort of shooting “event,” complete with police involvement. I was so disgusted. Disgusted by school shootings, disgusted by lax gun regulations, and disgusted by the need for these drills at all when the answer to school shootings is so obvious.

The manuscript evolved over the years, but when it went on submission in 2019 — surprise, surprise! Most editors just hated  it. Either they said that their own kids never felt anxiety during lockdown drills (so this book was unnecessary) or that this book would cause anxiety (so this book would be harmful). Some said they just couldn’t bear the idea that such a book was necessary and therefore had to pass. One brave editor fought really, really hard for it but wasn’t allowed to acquire it because of pushback they received from the adult side of their publishing team.

And then COVID happened, so we shelved the book for a few more years. In 2022 we sent it to two very specific editors because it seemed to match with what they were acquiring and, thankfully, one of them bit.

BB: Geez! That’s a journey! And, I hope, a good lesson for folks who have experienced similar rejections in the past. You know, you seem to have become an author for kids that fills gaps with topics no one else has done in the picture book realm. I’m thinking of the particular take you took with The End of Something Wonderful (turning normal grief titles on their head), the mere act of pumping your legs in Touch the Sky, and now school lockdowns. Is this something you do consciously at all or is it just how it all happens?

Stephanie: I’m going to be honest: I cried a lot while writing this book. While shopping this book around. While editing this book. And when your questions came in, I cried some more.

Because you’ve asked what might be the most important question I answer for this book: filling in the gaps. Yes, I believe I do this as an author. I didn’t plan to do it, though.

In fact, in the very beginning I set out to do what everyone told me to do in order to be a Successful Picture Book Author: “Look at what’s selling in bookstores, read 100 books a year, and learn what publishing wants. NOW PUT ON A HAT, DO A DANCE, AND MAKE IT FUNNY, GOL’ DURN IT!”

But while I tried to do all that, it simply didn’t work for me. Not for getting an agent, not for getting book deals, and — most importantly — not for my voice. (Also, I pulled my sacroiliac’s sacroiliac dancing and I have never, ever had a face for hats.) Case in point:

So, gaps. How do I happen to work in them? Or write into them? I honestly don’t know. All I’ve done is observe what my kids are doing, or what they’re not doing, or what they’re going through and then thinking, “There’s not a book for that. There really should be a book for that. Hang on, why the heck isn’t there a book for that?!” So then I write that book.

BB: For the record, I would like to point out (and it should already be obvious to folks) that when appropriate, your books are friggin’ hilarious. Now while I cannot say for certain that this is the first picture book to tackle school lockdowns (an everyday reality for a lot of our anxious kids) I can say that this may well be the most careful and thoughtful. Dr. Christina Chester offers a note at the beginning of the book, before the title page, that addresses concerns before they arise. How did Christina become involved in the project and what was the discussion that led to this statement coming where it does in the book?

Stephanie: When this book went on submission the second time, my agent pitched editors the idea of having a child psychologist attached who would provide backmatter that would serve as a tool for classrooms and homes. By this point, I had already sent the manuscript to friends and fellow authors who were teachers and therapists, and they all had told me that the book wasn’t harmful (my big fear) and was actually a necessary read in this day and age. Those endorsements went along with my agent’s pitch to editors.

After the book sold, my editor at Random House went out and found Dr. Chester, and I’m so grateful for the vital support she has provided for this project.

BB: And there were any number of ways that you could have written the book. The central focus, however, seems less on the drill itself and more on helping anxious kids find coping techniques in the face of these inevitable drills. Was that always your intent when writing these books from the start or did it come to you in the process of writing and editing?

Stephanie: Written in anger, my original manuscript was still lyrical, but far more visceral and bloody (I had actually included the bit about the kid getting a bloody nose and being “trained” not to get help for it) and the original manuscript also spent most of the narrative living in the drill itself with a quick wrap up at the end. I really wanted adults to know what it was like for the kids. I wanted them to be moved to do something to make these drills obsolete. But that approach needed to be softened so that the adults/gatekeepers weren’t scared away from it.

In fact, the original version didn’t even have the child turning to the teacher for help. (That “rule” in kid lit where kids are supposed to solve their own problems without adult interference was still ingrained in me at the time.) I added it later because I did think it was important for kids to know who they can turn to in times of profound anxiety. As for the coping techniques, I think it was my friend, teacher, and well-known kid lit champion, Matthew Winner, who suggested it as one of my earliest readers. I drew on the coping techniques I have learned over the years from having anxious kids of my own and I’m glad that I moved away from the visceral to make room for the healing in the book.

BB: I think that’s key to its success, yes. As the author of many a fine picture book, are you the kind of writer than envisions what one of their books might look like in its final form, or do you like to be surprised by your illustrators? And how do you feel about the art of Gabrielle Grimard in the end?

Stephanie: I have been SO well-trained by the “rules” of picture book publishing that I no longer think of my books in terms of how the art might look. Sure, I keep lists of my favorite illustrators so that (if asked) I can suggest them to my editors, but I largely go with the flow. In this case, I initially threw out the wild idea that maybe Carson Ellis would be a fit because she had designed an anti-gun tee-shirt in conjunction with the bookstore Books Are Magic.

However, my publisher had a different idea altogether and they were absolutely correct. Gabrielle’s art is so soft and gentle and gorgeous that it exudes comfort when you look at it. And this is a topic that needs to be comforting in both text and image. I absolutely adore Gabrielle’s watercolor work, especially when you take in some of the details included in this book. The cable stitches on Henry’s knitted blue sweater look like you could feel them if you touched the page!

BB: Ultimately, how do you envision this book being used with kids?

Stephanie: In discussing this book with teachers, librarians, and parents, my hope is that adults will use it to help mitigate anxiety felt during lockdown drills. Primarily, I hope the book is used to make children feel seen if they have that anxiety. I recognize that not all kids are adversely affected by these drills, but I want to make sure that the ones who are affected don’t feel alone. Or feel that there’s something wrong with them for not being able to just shake things off they way they think their classmates do.

In the lead up to publication, I have been told by so many teachers and teacher-librarians how much they needed this book years ago, so I hope it helps all of them open and guide conversations with students and with families.

BB: Finally, what’s next for you? What do you have coming out in the future?

I have both present and future to tell you about because unless something changes, NOT LIKE EVERY DAY comes out on the exact same day as another picture book of mine: ZOMBIE AND BRAIN ARE FRIENDS with art by Laan Cham.

A bit of a pivot from books about lockdown drills, this is about a zombie farmer boy whose parents raise grain-fed, free-range brains. But one day, Zeb is present when an ADORABLE baby brain hatches, and he falls completely in love with it. However, Zeb’s parents keep telling him, “Brains are food, not pets!” Quite the CHARLOTTE’S WEB-ian conundrum! So that one is also a fall 2025 book with Bloomsbury Children’s.

After that, I have THE NEW CAT coming with Chris Park! It will be our second book together at CarolRhoda/Lerner Books. That book happens to be the very first picture book I ever tried to write back in 2014, and while it might appear to be just another “how a new baby affects a pet” book, it’s actually about the lessons we learn from our pets and how we internalize them throughout our lives. It’s 100% based on my oldest son’s experience with our cat, Hunca Munca (R.I.P.), when he was a toddler.

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Aside from everything else, I just want to note that Hunca Munca is a perfect name for a cat.

And now… the cover itself:

Well, huge gobs of thanks to Stephanie for taking the time, care, and attention with my questions today about her book. It’s a title that is, as many teachers have told Stephanie, desperately needed. And as I mentioned before, Not Like Every Day is out September 2nd. Put it on your calendar and pre-order now!

Filed under: Cover Reveal, Interviews