Megan McDonald, author of Judy Moody, Stink, Bunny and Clyde, and The Fairy Door Diaries, joins The Storyteller’s Shelf Podcast to share how she went from children’s librarian to beloved children’s book author.
This transcript comes from the video’s automatic English captions. Names and wording may contain errors. Timestamps open the recording at that point. References to events and offers reflect the time of recording.
0:01 [music] Hi storytellers. Welcome to the Storyteller Shelf podcast season 2026. Today we welcome Megan McDonald to the show. Can you tell us more about who you are and what you do? >> Sure. Thank you so much for having me. This is so much fun to be able to talk about books. I'm Megan McDonald. I'm a writer for of books for children. And I would say most people know me as the writer of the Judy Moody series. That's like my greatest hits, you know, that they would scream out at the concert. But I also have a series of books about Judy's little brother, Stink. And I've
0:46 branched out now into some new things that I'm doing. So, I have some books about two mischievous characters called Bunny and Clyde and a new series of fantasy books that are called The Fairy Door Diaries. How did you first find your way into writing for children and how did you come to understand the stories? Ever sit down to write, [music] then spend half your time finding your notes and remembering where you left off? Story Rise gives your story a place to come together. Capture an idea, build your world, and turn your notes into a manuscript [music] without losing your train of thought. And when you're ready for another perspective, invite someone
1:32 in and get feedback right on the page. Find your flow, start writing [music] for free at getstorise.com. Well, you know, I grew up as a reader, first of all. So, my dad was an iron worker, a bridge builder, and he had to drop out of school in 8th grade to support his family. So, he made up for that by reading. And I grew up with a bunch of sisters, four older sisters. Don't you feel for me? And my sisters, my mom, we were all readers. So, growing up in a house filled with books, we didn't really have a library back then in our town or a branch of the library. So, we had a bookmobile, like a big green truck that would come to the shopping center near our house. And
2:18 every summer, my sisters and I, we would pile one to the bookmo, and we got this idea that we were going to try to read all the children's books on the bookmobile between the five of us. But I didn't realize till I grew up and became a librarian that guess what? The bookmobile goes back to the library and they load a bunch of new books on there every night. So, we were never going to read all the books on the bookmobile. But anyway, you get the picture. It started out with my love of reading. And then ever since I was 14 years old, I worked in libraries. I was a page that shelved books, you know, when I was in high school. And I had some children's
2:58 librarians at that library in my hometown that were very impactful. I just admired them so much and they would let me do story times and read to the kids. And so I became a children's librarian when I grew up. And I love to tell stories and somebody gave me these beautiful puppets of a fish and a hermit crab, but I couldn't find any stories then about a hermit crab. So, I made one up and I was telling it to the kids at story time and using the puppets as visual aids and everything. And afterwards, the parents came up to me and they were like, "You always put the book out that you're reading from or telling the story from for us to check out. How come the book isn't here
3:41 today?" And I said, "Because there's no book. I made it up." So, that actually planted a seed that the story that I was doing with the kids at story time could be a book. It was so it became my very first book, a picture book called Is This a House for Hermit Crab? And it has uh it's a great read aloud. It has a lot of sounds as he scratch scratches along the sand looking for a new home. And the kids can, excuse me, sort of call and repeat with me. So, I think it was really my life as a reader that led to being a librarian and that led to being a writer. It's so funny because I haven't been a practicing children's librarian for probably 30 years, but I
4:27 still have dreams, probably more like nightmares, where I'm at story time and the kids are all assembled and I can't find the right book that fits the theme of my story time. [laughter] So, it still haunts me to this day. >> And I too have older siblings and there's always a competition. Were you the one that were like, I'm going to read the most books right now? >> Well, in that endeavor, we were sort of a team all together and we have enough years between us that it wasn't too competitive. So, but they did teach me the measure of a good book. And my sisters taught me that you turn to the last page first and read the last page and if it makes you cry, that's a really
5:10 good book. So, don't ask me how I grew up to write funny books because it's quite the opposite. What advice would you offer writers navigating the process today? [sighs and gasps] >> Well, my experience is so different because we're going back now uh 35 years maybe. I wrote my first book. I didn't even have a computer. So, I actually didn't have any idea how to submit a manuscript or what it looked like or who to send it to. And a friend of mine took my scribbly notebook draft and typed it up for me just so I could even read a clean draft. And so back in my day, you literally
5:57 put the self-addressed stamped envelope in with the printed pages and send it off to an editor at a publishing house and then just wait a really long time to find out if you even will be read. And for me, I was really lucky because I was working as a librarian. We had a conference every year at this is at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh where I grew up and I was working there and they brought authors and their editors every year to this conference. So I met this editor in person just over a lunch or something for this event and it gave me the idea that I had a name of somebody I could send to. He kind of peered at me over his glasses and said,
6:43 "Are you a writer?" And I didn't even know how to answer at that point, but he invited me to send him something. And this was Richard Jackson, who oh gosh, he's no longer living, but he was really a premier editor for many, many years in the business. And so I once I had that connection, I just sent the manuscript off and it got lost in the mail two times. So I would wait for like months and then call them up and they would say we have no record of this hermit crab story, right? So I was like, "Well, what do I do?" And they were like, "Send it again." So I sent it again. Well, by the third time, it was so frustrating, but it actually worked in my favor because
7:26 the editor felt so terrible that they kept misplacing it that he read it like the day he said, "Send it to me certified or whatever." and he read it that day and called me on the phone and said, "I want to publish this." So, I was just so incredibly lucky. And I know that's so different from the stories of the hundreds of um you know, I remember hearing Maline Langel speak and she said she could literally wallpaper this big room in her house with all the rejection letters she had received. So, I've since had those, but I was just very lucky on that first book. And I again I really didn't even know how fortunate I was because I had made a connection with an
8:09 editor and now he said show me anything else you have. So things that I had been working on I was able to then have an avenue to send those off. So, so that brings me to I don't even have an agent, which these days I really think you have to have an agent to even get read at the publishing house, but in my day, you know, I had I basically had that relationship with Richard Jackson for 15 years. So, I had somebody always ready and willing to read the next thing and support that. And then with Judy Moody, at that point, Dick was sort of semi-retiring. And so I started working with Mary Lee Dunovan at Candowick Press. This goes back 25 years. So now
8:53 I've been with her. Dick ended up retiring. And so I stayed with her and with Candlewick Press for these 25 years. So again, I'm so lucky to have an editor who's so eager and willing to look at and read and support the next work that I do. But I do think it's important, as I mentioned, for aspiring writers to to get an agent because you really need an inroad to editors these days. Even back then, you'd get thrown on a slush pile and somebody's job was to read through the slush pile, but you don't know if you would ever even make it to an editor's desk. It's really difficult because you start to lose faith in yourself and confidence. And the writer editor relationship is like a
9:37 marriage. It's just two people who have to connect at some level. And that's a very special relationship that is often hard to find your way to. Perseverance is really the key because uh there's so many times when maybe the the book or the story is really good, but it just doesn't fit that editor's personality or that person's list. Maybe they just published a book about a frog and yours is about a frog. You know, you have no idea what all is is the thinking behind the scenes. So, so it's really important to also sort of if you're going to submit to somebody, well, I guess your agent, that's where the agent
10:22 would come in. Like for me, I try to get to know a person's list, if I'm going to submit to them so that I know what they're publishing. But that's where an agent, it's brilliant because they have those connections and will likely know who might be interested in in that book. But the rejection, I would say, is a hard part of the whole process. And we've all been there and um it can be really discouraging. You've created so many compelling characters such as Judy Moody. When you're developing characters like that, what do you focus on first? [sighs] Every reader has their little rituals. A
11:07 favorite chair, a stack of books waiting nearby, maybe a notebook, a candle, or a warm cup of tea. That is why we are happy to share Harney and Sun's fine teas as an affiliate partner of the Storyteller Shelf podcast. Whether you're settling in for a writing session, reading one more chapter, or putting together a thoughtful gift for a fellow book lover, Harney and Suns has beautiful tees that make the moment feel a little more special. You can shop through our affiliate link at harney.com/disount/stoteller. And storyteller is in all cap. When you use our link, it helps support the podcast and keeps conversation like this going. It's funny you say that because it's
11:51 really hard to write a character description just pulling it out of thin air. At the beginning, I knew that I wanted to have a character where I could showcase a lot of different moods because I wanted her to be an everyday kid that had ups and downs and joys and disappointments and successes and failures just like every kid and I wanted them to be able to relate to that. So I thought of the idea of moods. Also when I was going around to schools at that time and speaking to hundreds of kids around third grade, the kids would always ask me, "Are you ever in a bad mood?" And can you write a book when you're in a bad mood? And so I realized they had moods themselves and somebody
12:35 was probably telling them, you know, you're in a bad mood. So, um, I was working on this idea of moods with the character and then I thought, "Oh, Moody can be a last name." So, I had her last name first and then I was making lists of first names and when I hit on Judy, it rhymed and I I thought, "Oh, great." And then I had the idea of moods, but now I had to create a character that I'm not just pulling things out of thin air. Trying to think of what I was like when I was 8 years old. And I thought, well, I always had messy hair. Still do. Never wanted to brush my hair. I love to collect things. And I was sort of making lists of things I remembered like that. And then I gave
13:20 some of those attributes to Judy Moody. So came out of some truth of my own life. And then I put her into stories and episodes that I knew from growing up with so many sisters. but to make it different from my own life because I didn't want to just write exactly what happened to me. So I instead of I'm the youngest of five and so I made her the older sister so that I could put those shoes on and see what it's like to be the big sister. And then I had to give her a sibling, right, that she could play pranks on or rescue when he falls asleep on the bus. So I gave her a little brother thinking that'll make it different from having all these
14:05 sisters. So you can kind of see it was sort of organically thinking through what are the attributes but also you don't know at the beginning. So part of it was then I took what I had and I think you always want there to be something of yourself or sort of a kernel of truth about your character that you know really well and then I took that character and I put her into scenes that I wrote and they were just little vignettes originally of funny things that happened growing up with sisters but I made it happen to Judy and Stink. And I wasn't really writing a book at that point. And I was just trying to get to know who the characters
14:50 were. And one of the ways I also do that is I put them in dialogue with each other. So once I get them talking to each other and you know they have responses, I feel like I get to know a little bit more who they are. You know, I think you always want that element that feels true to be there, but you also want to be have the freedom as a writer. I mean, we write fiction, right? So, you want to be able to use your imagination and make stuff up and have the freedom to go beyond what the what happened in the actual story. So, the original stories were all based on things I remembered from the sisters,
15:36 but and I would say the first Judy Moody book has the most stories that are that really happened. But from there, Judy Moody took on a life of her own and certainly became her own personality and person. And from there on, it was just making stuff up that was true to Judy Moody rather than true to the original childhood stories, if that makes sense. >> It definitely does. That actually brings me to my next question. You've written many genres. If you could give advice for a young writer, emerging writer, how do you think about plot and pacing when writing chapter books in middle grade? It's a good question because that first
16:23 struggle is what form if you know the story you want to write or you have a character that you want to put into a story, what form would be best? And I don't always know that. So, for example, I wrote a picture book that was five pages long about a girl whose father was a bridge builder and took her around to these bridges. But my editor then read the picture book and said, I just know there's so much more to this story. And that became my first novel called The Bridge to Nowhere. So that was a case where I didn't really even know myself that there was so much more to that particular story. So it is a good question and a hard one sometimes to figure out and sometimes you have to
17:09 try different formats. I mean, the age of the character will help that if you know, you know, you're writing about a 5-year-old or a fouryear-old, you're not going to probably have them be the star of a middle-rade novel. So, but I think the exercise in a way of writing picture books is so helpful even in novel writing or chapter book writing because as you know picture book writing has to be so spare in a way and it makes it forces you to um be so judicious with every word choice and I hadn't my first 10 years of writing before Judy Moody I wrote picture books and then I hadn't
17:54 written any for many many years until recently I wrote a picture book called that's not out yet but it's called Owl Sees Blue and it's very poetic and I was struck by with the editor going like how much we would have a five minute discussion just about one word you know should we keep that word there or should we you know that kind of thing so it's really good training in a way because if you're Like me, I tend to overwrite. So when I went to write Judy Moody, I had so many stories I wanted to tell. It was like I wanted this book to be for third graders, but it was like longer than a Harry Potter novel. So
18:40 I went back to sort of my picture book training and tried to go back and just really really cut. And I think writing picture books helps you to do that to to not just overwrite and to try to pair things back to those essentials. And of course then what happens to me is I overwrite. Then I cut it way back in revision. Then I send to an editor and then my editor wants me to explain certain things or add things. So I go back to having too many words again. So, as you know, it's a it's a long process. And I think most of my books seem to land in that early independent reader chapter book area. And I think some of that is just because
19:27 it's an age I loved as a kid. It's an age of kids I really love talking to and being around. And I find them just so smart and so funny at that age, but old enough to really to really get the jokes and the humor of Judy Moody and to really relate to a character's ups and downs. So that's part of it for me that it just sort of comes out that way. I guess I think another thing is it's helpful to go and read in different genres because then that might help you decide, oh, I think mine falls into easy reader category or I think I have more to say than what would work for a picture book. >> All right, Megan, tell us what do you love about writing?
20:13 >> Well, [snorts] kids ask me this question all the time. you know, what's it like to be a writer and do you like being a writer? And it's so hard to articulate why I think it's the best job in the world. So, I tell kids things like, well, if I'm on a deadline, I get to stay up late. I get to go to work in my pajamas cuz I just go upstairs in a little room in my house to my computer. But truthfully, I think it has to do with storytelling and it has to do with back what I was saying at the beginning of something so powerful about making the connection with a reader. So I think what I love about writing is
21:00 well first of all I get to spend my days in my imagination right? So how great is that? And um I have a friend who said she loves being a writer because she gets to make stuff up until it's true. And I love that because I feel like that's what I do for a living. I make stuff up, but hopefully it feels true. And that's where the connection with the reader or the child comes in. How do you as a career author ensure that you're maintaining your passion and productivity? >> Well, I'm getting older now, so I am slowing down a bit. But in the in the really busy Judy Moody stink years, it
21:48 just took a lot of discipline because I was writing sometimes three to four books a year and always juggling and trying to keep deadlines. And my editor would make me I still saved some of them because I can't even understand what they say, but she would make me these calendars and she would color code everything and when the book was and when this had to be done and you think you're done with a draft, but then you've got other books coming to you to be proof read and all of that. So, there were many years of really working really hard and juggling lots of things. But now I'm slowing down a bit to where I'm just kind of doing more what I want and how however the mood
22:31 moves me, I guess, would be a way to say it. And um and I'm having fun writing some nonJudy Moody things. So like Bunny and Clyde is still very humorous and very funny, but they're animal characters. It's a rabbit and a chipmunk. And so I give them human qualities, but they also have some of their rabbity and chipmunky qualities. I have so much fun playing with them cuz in the first adventure they have always been good. They're two good nicks and they return their library books on time and they make their beds in the morning and they compost their apple cores and they wonder what it would be like to be bad. So, this idea really caught me and I
23:16 thought, "Oh, this could be so funny where you try to figure out what it's like to be bad." Well, how would you find that out? They go to the library, of course, to look up about being bad and they go in and say, "Do you have any bad books?" And the librarian's like, "Well, we like to think we have good books at the library." So, I was having so much fun with this idea of good and bad. and they read books like Two Bad Mice and Bad Kitty and Interrupting Chicken and they learn all these bad behaviors and they try to put some of them to good use, but everything bad they do turns into something good. So, they just can't quite be bad. And u I was just having so
23:58 much fun with that. But, you know, you you don't know until you really you have the book and you're really testing it with kids. And so I remember the first time I read it aloud to a class of third graders and they were just screaming. They were laughing so hard and they were screaming, "They're good. No, they're bad. No, they're good." And so again, it's like I'm following something that is funny to me, but then I realize that really captivates kids because they're struggling with good and bad behavior themselves. So they're recognizing, you know, what's good and what's bad and calling that out.
24:44 >> Will you tell us a little bit more about some of your newer books and what's coming out soon? >> Well, I actually have two books out this month. And so the first one that came out early February is a brand new book in the Bunny and Clyde series called Bunny and Clyde on the Lamb. I actually had to fight for that title on the Lamb because I think it sounds so funny, but the publisher was afraid kids wouldn't know what that means. But on the cover you you'll be able to see them. They're on a tandem bicycle and they're trying to escape their pursuers. And so you can get the idea that they're on the run, right? Um, so Bunny and Clyde in the first adventure, they just
25:30 couldn't be bad. But in the second one, they are accused of stealing their friends of taking their friend's tooth fairy money. So, their friend Thornton puts they they tell him about putting the tooth under the pillow, which he does, and he gets a coin, and then the coin goes missing, and all paws turn to Bunny and Clyde. And so, they have to go on the run or on the lamb. They They try to find out in this one, they go to the library and find out what outlaws do. And they read about all these different outlaws. And of course, the real namesake, Bonnie and Clyde, were bank robbers. And they find out that the real Bonnie and Clyde hid out after robbing a
26:16 bank in an abandoned amusement park. And I just love that visual. So, I wrote a bunch of scenes where they're hiding out in the in the amusement park trying to hide from their friends who think they took the tooth fairy money. And when Bonnie and Clyde were hiding out, Bonnie would always write poetry. Clyde played the saxophone. I don't know why you would do that in hiding. So, they go to this abandoned amusement park and they hide out in the teacup ride and Bunny's trying to write some poetry and then they hear footsteps and voices and they think they're going to be discovered. So they run into the Hall of Mirrors and of course the Hall of Mirrors makes Bunny, you know, 10 times
27:00 taller and Clyde, who's the chipmunk, his cheeks 10 times wider. And so it scares off the pursuers and the illustrations. You have to look at the book just for the illustrations for those chapters there. Scott Nash just um I I probably drove him crazy putting that in there, but he just did an amazing job because in one of them you see like 10,000 images of the character and he had to draw all of those. Um, so anyway, um, in that adventure, they're they're on the lamb. And then I have one more idea for Bunny and Clyde that I'm noodling on that, um, I I have a local bakery near my house
27:48 called The Criminal Bakery because their pastries and cookies are criminal and they the logo is a pair of handcuffs. And so I thought Bunny and Clyde would be all over this. They would see the handcuffs and be sure that something criminal is going on at the bakery. So I'm thinking about having them going undercover at the bakery. >> These sound so fantastic and hilarious. And for everyone listening, we will be putting some links to Megan's books on her landing page on our website. So please stay tuned for that. But before we wrap up, is there anything else that you wanted to share with our audience? Oh, I guess I forgot to say the other book that just came out is the second
28:28 book in the Fairy Door Diaries. And this series is so completely different for me because I'm usually all about the humor, but these are fantasy books. And the character is Eliza of the Elves, and she lives on Cape Cod in a little cottage with her mom and little sister. and she upstairs off of her room there's a a crawl space under the stairs that she calls the land of stair and she finds a little tiny fairy door and whenever Eliza goes through the fairy door she ends up in a whole different landscape of a magical world that is peopleled by in each adventure different kinds of fairies. So, the first adventure she's with the flower fairies, and then the
29:14 brand new one is called Eliza and the Hobgoblins. And hobgoblins are fairy folk that are kind of like tiny little elves. And they're very impish and mischievous. So, she goes into their magical world, but for this one, they follow her back through the door and come into her room, and she's supposed to be cleaning up her room, and they create all kinds of havoc. So, it's really fun. >> Well, we are so looking forward to it and we appreciate you sharing all of your thoughts and all of your insight and all of your experience with our storytellers today. >> This was fun. >> Thanks for listening to the Storyteller Shelf podcast. If today's episode helped
29:56 you, please subscribe and share it with a friend. In the link below, you can explore our educational library and learn about what's coming up next, including our live summits and the BB Notable Book Awards. We also publish a limited number of curated blog features for authors and publishers who want to spotlight a book we believe will truly serve young readers. And for companies and organizations that support Kidlet creators, we offer ways to partner through sponsored episodes and select opportunities that are a strong fit for our audience. Until next time, keep writing your story. >> [music]
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