Grace and Alvina celebrate their 200th episode together in person by doing a live recording for their patreon patrons. The look back and look ahead at their podcast, and answer questions from their listeners.

THANK YOU listeners for getting the Book Friends Forever up to 200 reviews on Apple podcasts for our 200th anniversary!

How have you been?

Alvina has been busy with work but made time for a Eurovision party with her friends, Mother’s Day with Stephen’s Mom, and attending industry events like the Barnes & Noble Book Awards. Last year the overall winner was Christopher Denise, author of Knight Owl. The Swifts won the Middle Grade Award. Another industry event was the Greenburger Agency happy hour.

Special guest appears to say hello- Alvina’s husband, Stephen Colman!

Grace talks about the fun morning she had with Alvina and Stephen! They met up with Maggie Zhu, author of Chinese Homestyle, and went to the Chinatown in Sunset Park. They bought ingredients to make Budda’s Delight and created a video to promote Grace’s new book coming out, Chinese Menu!

A look back….

Grace and Alvina talk about how the podcast started, how it’s changed, and where they’d like to see it go. Questions they ask each other:

“How has the podcast changed?”, “What is your favorite episode?” , “Where is it going?”, “What is your favorite and least favorite parts of doing the podcast?”

Questions from patrons:

(For Grace): “You rarely talk about the books you illustrated for others. How is it matching your drawings to another author’s words?”
“Where is the cuckoo clock from that we hear in the background of episodes?
“What is a recent published book that you fell in love with recently?”
“Do you usually work on a script together?”
“Do you have any logistical business tips to share from an author/illustrator perspective?”
“From each of your respective roles, what is your favorite part about making a book?”
“How did you get to know Alison Morris?”

Thank you for such a fun and exciting live recording for our 200th episode!!!

Other books mentioned in this episode:

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Pre-order gifts for CHINESE MENU are now officially announced! Grace is facilitating not one but TWO special pre-order gifts:

1. Educators! Pre-order Chinese Menu for the The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and receive a FREE virtual classroom visit with Grace to celebrate the Moon Festival!

2. Not an educator? Want something different? Pre-order Chinese Menu from Porter Square Books and receive an enamel dragon pin (perfect for the upcoming Year of the Dragon)!

If you’re a patron, don’t forget to check out this week’s Random Questions feed! Authors Hena Khan and Grace Lin answer the random question: Which would you prefer to have as your room-mate--A goat or a bird? Click here to listen! If you’re not a patron already, join today!

Thank you to Hachette Audio, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Alex at Pacyworks Studio for producing and editing this podcast. Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and tell a friend about us. (Use the hashtag #bookfriendsforever.)