Torrey Maldonado is a veteran middle school history teacher and an acclaimed middle grade novelist. His books include Hands, What Lane?, Tight, and Secret Saturdays. This month, Maldonado adds his debut picture book, Just Right, to his growing list of titles. PW spoke with Maldonado about the emotions that played a role in writing this highly personal story, and his impassioned call to action for readers.

When did you come up with the idea for this story, and why did you decide to create a picture book rather than use the storyline for a middle grade novel? How did the process compare to your novel writing?

I started writing Just Right in the middle of the pandemic, and through the unexpected loss of my amazing mother. Putting this story on paper in a picture book helped me break down my big feelings in a simple way. I needed to heal, to flip my mood; and this story took a hold of me.

During the writing process, I thought about my own relationship with picture books as a child. I didn’t see myself in picture books—or any books. The language was completely off—not like the way any of my peers or my neighbors spoke. I learned early on what I now tell educators, “If books don’t love kids, kids won’t love books.” When my mother read me The Snowy Day, that changed everything for me. It was the first book where I saw myself and my mom, and kids like me, portrayed as magical. This made me feel that there was magic in me, my people, and the world around me. Ever since that day, I have wanted to do the same with my teaching, my middle grade novels, and now with my picture books. I want Just Right to be my readers’ Snowy Day.

You’ve mentioned in previous interviews that this book has a very personal foundation. Can you share some of that backstory and what it’s been like to reveal such a private narrative?

The story comes straight from my own childhood. Toby’s dad is my dad. I called him my “summa time dad”—sometimes he was there. And like Toby, the boy in the book, I had people who were there for me, and who saw me as family. So many people say, “Hey, nephew” to me. I was wondering, “How do I have this many aunts and uncles?” My mom explained to me, “Sometimes you get to choose family.”

In honor of these family members, I chose to write the book as a feel-good story. I realize that the lightness of it is in direct contrast to the setbacks that I felt when I was writing. And even now, as I start sharing the backstory, I think about whether I should only focus on the light. Or do I get deeply personal and share the fact that I had a dad who was physically and emotionally absent? Or do I talk about my feelings during the pandemic and the loss of my mother? But then I think about what Maya Angelou said, “Be a rainbow in somebody’s cloud,” and I want to remember the rainbows of my life. I’ve learned from my experiences that rainbows are always there even amid the clouds and storms. We just have to find them like Toby’s mom and my mom encouraged us to do.

What lessons do you hope to pass on to your readers? Why are they important to you?

With so many people of different backgrounds today living on high alert for many negative reasons, I hope that Just Right reminds readers to be on the lookout for positive things. There’s so much goodness around us, and we need to preserve it.

I hope that Just Right will spark conversations on how we need to be there for each other—and take action, too. I’d like my readers, and all of us, to ask ourselves every day, “What can I do to make someone feel just right?” and then do it!

You’ve said that you are working on more picture books to follow this story. What can you share about them?

When I started writing my first picture book, a second and a third poured out of me. My second picture book is Little Artists [illustrated by Reggie Brown]. Like Just Right, the book celebrates the loving caregivers and the helpers we find in our lives. My third picture book, Uncle [illustrated by Bea Jackson], is inspired by my friend, “uncle,” and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator, the late Floyd Cooper. It follows the idea of how to be yourself and shine to your fullest.

Growing up poor in the projects, I was truly blessed to have a mom who would do things to make me feel just right. One of the many things she did was hang up an illustrated calendar of African royalty. There was one particular illustration that I couldn’t stop looking at. It gave me a feeling that I could be more than who I was and the projects I lived in, and that I could move beyond that.

Flash forward years later to an introduction to Floyd at an NCTE conference. I told him about the calendar, and he asked me what the illustration looked like. When I described it, he started to laugh and said, “Do you know who illustrated it? It was me!” I couldn’t believe it.

After that, we shared stories about our families and living in the projects and talked about the possibility of working together. I suggested that we write a story to make young people feel the way that his art made me feel. And he said, “Well, go get the contract.” I got the contract, but Floyd left us too soon. Meeting and getting to know him taught me that you can find your rainbows if you keep looking, but it may be when and where you least expect it. So, keep looking!

Just Right by Torrey Maldonado, illus. by Teresa Martínez. Penguin/Paulsen, $18.99 Jan. 20 ISBN 978-0-593-62496-8