Who’s Tara?

Street magic performer. Hog-calling champion. Award-winning ice sculptor. These are all things Tara Lazar has never been.

Instead, she writes quirky, humorous picture books where anything is possible.

Her picture books available now are:

• THE MONSTORE (Aladdin/S&S, 2013)
• I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK (Aladdin/S&S, 2015)
• LITTLE RED GLIDING HOOD (Random House Children’s, 2015)
• NORMAL NORMAN (Sterling, 2016)
• WAY PAST  BEDTIME (Aladdin/S&S, 2017)
• 7 ATE 9: THE UNTOLD STORY (Little, Brown, 2017)
• YOUR FIRST DAY OF CIRCUS SCHOOL (Tundra, June 2019)
• THE UPPER CASE: TROUBLE IN CAPITAL CITY (Little, Brown, 2019)
• THREE WAYS TO TRAP A LEPRECHAUN (HarperCollins, 2020)
• BLOOP (HarperCollins, 2021)
• TIME FLIES: DOWN TO THE LAST MINUTE (Little, Brown, 2022)

…plus her 2023 SCBWI Golden Kite Award-Winning book for 3rd-8th graders:

• ABSURD WORDS: A Kids’ Fun & Hilarious Vocabulary Builder for Future Word Nerds (Sourcebooks eXplore, 2022)

…and her newest picture book which is a finalist for the 2024 Sid Fleischman Award for Humor from SCBWI:

• FLAT CAT (Flamingo Books, 2023)

Tara is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

Her last name rhymes with “bazaar”—you can listen to Tara pronounce her name on TeachingBooks.net. She’s not Tara Laser-beam (although that would be awesome).

5 Unusual Facts About Tara:

And the not so unusual stuff…

Tara at age 9 with her puppy, Bo

Tara loves children’s books. Her goal is to create books that children love.

She writes picture books and middle grade novels. She’s written short stories for Abe’s Peanut, Flash Fiction Online, and is featured in Break These Rules, a book of life-lesson essays for teens, edited by author Luke Reynolds.

In November 2009, Tara created Storystorm (formerly “Picture Book Idea Month”) as the picture book writer’s answer to November’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Storystorm is now held on this blog every January…with over 2,000 participants from around the world.

Tara was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2010. She has an inspirational story to share about overcoming a chronic illness to achieve your goals and dreams. Tara can speak to groups big and small, young and old—just contact her for more information.

Tara is the former chair of the Rutgers University Council on Children’s Literature 1-on-1 Plus Conference and a current SCBWI member. She has served as a picture book mentor for We Need Diverse Books and #PBChat.

Tara speaks at conferences and events regarding picture books, writing, brainstorming techniques, and social media for authors. Her former career was in high-tech marketing and PR.

Tara is a life-long New Jersey resident. She lives in Somerset County with her husband, two teenage daughters, and an adopted stray cat named Phoebe.

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HOW TO CONTACT TARA:

• Email: tarakidlit (at) gmail (dot) com
• Twitter: @taralazar
• Pinterest: pinterest.com/taralazar
• Facebook: facebook.com/authortara
  
• Instagram: instagram.com/taralaser

Want to ask Tara a question about writing for children? Tag her on Twitter!

Currently Reading:  When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
Currently Eating: Strawberries & Cream
Currently Dreaming: About traveling (but staying home)
Currently Playing: NYT Connections