Ushering books through the pipeline is always a labor of love for publishers. For the team at Sourcebooks, publishing Truckosaurus by Karen Shapiro, illustrated by Rachel Foo, is much more than that.
Sadly, the author will not see her project come to fruition. Shapiro, IP manager for the children’s editorial group at Sourcebooks and the Wonderland imprint’s founding editorial director, died unexpectedly last January, at age 57. The publishing of Truckosaurus under the Wonderland imprint is a last gift and memorial for a highly respected and beloved colleague.
Jenn Gonzalez, Sourcebooks SVP and publisher of its children’s imprints, recalled that she and the Sourcebooks children’s publishing team had been strategizing in late 2024 to launch a new character-driven series for the Wonderland imprint. “When we left for the holiday break, Karen told me, ‘I'm working on something—I’ll have it when we're back,” Gonzalez said. In mid-January, Gonzalez, who is based in the New York City area, traveled to Sourcebooks’ Illinois headquarters for a company meeting. Shapiro, she said, “cornered” her and read a draft of Truckosaurus to her. “It was so, so good,” Gonzalez said. “I told Karen that I didn’t think we had to change but one or two words. “And she was like, “Yeah, I think we need to read it to the group.’ And then she passed away a week later.”
Truckosaurus, set in a jungle, is a tale about the wacky adventures of a creature that is part dinosaur and part truck and the animals he meets and befriends. Shapiro “had notes in there for art and everything—it was a fully baked manuscript,” Gonzalez said. “Karen explained exactly what she was thinking: the whimsy, the art style. We were able to take those notes and really run with them.”
Nicky Benson, publishing manager of Sourcebooks’ Wonderland imprint, added that Shapiro, who was the first person she met when she joined Sourcebooks in 2019, “always had a clear vision of what she wanted and was very articulate about what that should look like. We had everything we needed to bring to life what she wanted for Truckosaurus. We changed only one word in it.”
Truckosaurus will be released on March 3 with a 25,000-copy print run. Although its creator has died, it is not going to be a standalone book. Gonzalez and Benson said that they intend to continue publishing subsequent volumes in the series, written by the Wonderland editors.
Gonzalez explained that the children’s team decided, not just to publish Truckosaurus, but also to credit Shapiro as the author. “Karen wrote a lot and her name just wasn’t on things,” Gonzalez said. “She did so much but stayed in the background. She was behind all of the How to Catch books, but would just sit back and enjoy that there were many kids out there loving those books.”
Gonzalez said that most likely Shapiro will not be credited as the author of any subsequent volumes in a series, “because she will not have conceived them—but she did go into Truckosaurus with the intention of it being a series.”
Benson and Gonzalez suspect, they say, that any future volumes will be group endeavors. One reason, Gonzalez said, “is because so many people want to be a part of it, because of Karen. We all want to carry on her legacy. And we all know Karen’s style after working with her.”
Shapiro’s memory remains very much a part of Wonderland’s daily operations. Not only did the staff turn her office into their conference room, but, Benson said, “As a team, we think about her every day. What would Karen do in this situation? What would Karen want? I talk to her out loud by myself in my office. I put her books and things that she’s given me right here on the shelf, and I ask, ‘Is this what I should be doing, Karen?’ And, you know, she gives me signs. For the Wonderland team, she's very much a part of every single day, every single conversation. We try to honor her with the books that we’re making.”
