Torrey Maldonado
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Hey, thank you for having me here.
It's a pleasure.
This story is largely autobiographical.
I wrote this story when I needed to feel just right.
So it's a story about a boy whose mood gets flipped from down to up.
And a lot of people think that kids, adults, we are living in a vacuum.
We operate in a bubble.
And the reality is we live in a village.
And it takes a village to raise a child.
It takes a village to raise a mood.
So in this story, Toby, his village helps
Lift his mood and make him feel just right.
It is.
And I really have to give a hat tip to the school library journal and Betsy Bird.
Betsy Bird, she read Just Right.
And she said something that blew me away.
You know, it's my first picture book.
I'm expecting people to say it's Just Right.
And she called it groundbreaking.
And one of the reasons she called it groundbreaking is for the exact character that you put your finger on.