Hello everyone!
It’s the end of July and we’ve got another jam-packed round-up of everything going on at BookGo right now. This week we’re celebrating a launch we’ve been building toward for months: the English-language version of Things That Blow My Mind About Animals, written by the incredible teenage naturalist and tracker Elvia Gómez Troya, aka Elvia la rastreadora!
If you’ve not heard of Elvia yet, well she’s only the 2025 Scientific Exploration Society Young Explorer of the Year and, as of last week, the winner of the 2026 award for the best Young Science Communicator in Spanish! And when you bear in mind that “Young” means anyone under 30, you get a sense of just how impressive she is.
If you want to see some of Elvia’s amazing work tracking and caring for animals in the jungle or the desert, then check out her Instagram page at @elvialarastreadora. Or even better… buy her incredible new book, which opens up a world of animals and their habitats for children! It’s available to pre-order now on Amazon or via the BookGo website (with 25% off for our pre-order sale).
Our newsletter subscribers can also get an exclusive preview of the introduction, and review copies are available upon request.
In honour of the publication of Things That Blow My Mind About Animals, in this issue we’ve got a preview of the book and details about our upcoming launch events at the Frost Museum and the Children’s Museum in Miami on the weekend of August 22-23. Elsewhere, Tom dives into some incredible bookstores dedicated to children’s literature, and Michael and Nancy share insiders’ guides to writing and publishing for kids. We’ve also got a round-up of other amazing children’s substacks we love.
Here’s what’s in store.
Book Release: Things That Blow My Mind About Animals by Elvia Gómez Troya
Announcement: Book launch in Miami, August 22-23
News: BookGo author Elvia Gómez Troya wins Young Spanish Science Communicator of the Year award.
Feature: “Animal Magnetism in Kids” Lit” by Nancy Merritt Bell
Poem of the Week: “Nest Eggs” by Robert Louis Stevenson
Feature: “The Wonders of Children’s Bookstores” by Tomas Elliott
Author’s Toolkit: “How to Write for Kids” by Michael McKinley
Reading Roundup: Substacks We Love for Children’s Literature
A Nature Book Told Through the Eyes of an Incredible 11-Year-Old Tracker
BookGo is so excited to announce the release and launch of the English-language version of Things That Blow My Mind About Animals by Elvia Gómez Troya, aka Elvia la rastreadora or Elvia the tracker in English!
Elvia wrote and hand-illustrated the original Spanish-language edition at age 11; now 14, she brings a rare, firsthand understanding of animal behavior to a book packed with astonishing facts and her own full-page illustrations.
From following in the footsteps of reindeer in the arctic circle to tracking down jackals in the dead of night in the foothills of Bulgaria, Things That Blow My Mind About Animals offers insights into animal behavior that combine the expertise of a professional naturalist with the sweet and often hilarious insights of a child.
Her stories of discovering storks’ nests with baby bottles tangled inside or tracking down rare insects are deeply inspiring for young children and helpful for any parent or teacher seeking to encourage a love of nature in young people. It’s an eye-opening read recommended for children aged 6-10.
The book features a prologue by Nigel Marven, the wildlife filmmaker and TV presenter known for decades of natural history broadcasting.
About the author
Elvia Gómez Troya, known as Elvia la rastreadora, is a 14-year-old tracker and naturalist from Logroño, La Rioja, Spain. Rather than spending her free time on screens, Elvia has grown up in marshes and mudflats, forests and deserts, learning to read the tracks and left signs behind by the animals she loves. She has an innate ability to read the whispers of the wild, developed from a young age under the guidance of parents deeply connected to nature.
Elvia now channels that expertise into education and conservation, sharing her discoveries through her Instagram account, her talks and her books. Inspired by figures like David Attenborough and her own parents, her core philosophy is simple: love for nature naturally leads to its protection. She has founded a community for nature enthusiasts called Wilders, and dreams of inspiring more children and adults to fall in love with nature and become, as she puts it, “superheroes for a cause.”
Elvia is already the author of a second book in Spanish, Eco Salvaje, and has founded a community for nature enthusiasts called Wilders. She dreams of continuing her conservation work and inspiring more children and adults to become “superheroes for a cause.”
In 2025, Elvia was named Young Scientific Explorer of the Year by the Scientific Exploration Society, and in 2026, she was awarded the prestigious Young Spanish Science Communicator of the Year award.
Exquisite interiors
Announcement: Book launch in Miami, August 22-23 – Come and meet Elvia
If you happen to be in Miami on the weekend of August 22 and 23, come and say hello!
Elvia and her family will be in town for the official launch of Things That Blow My Mind About Animals, which will take place across two events over the weekend. The first will be at the Miami Children’s Museum on on August 22 at 12pm, and the second will be at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science the following day, August 23, also at 12pm.
The Frost Museum is Miami’s combined aquarium, planetarium, and science museum on the downtown waterfront. It has an incredible three-level aquarium, a 67-foot planetarium dome, and permanent exhibits on South Florida’s ecosystems, flight, and the human body. It’s an incredible place for children to discover about nature and all its amazing creatures. Here’s a sneak preview…
The Miami Children’s Museum on Watson Island is a hands-on museum built for young visitors, with interactive galleries covering everything from art and music to a giant sandcastle slide and a mock supermarket. A fantastic place to come with kids and meet an inspiring young nature lover.
Elvia will be sharing some of her incredible stories as an explorer, tracker, naturalist, and adventurer. She’ll be signing books, which will be on sale after the event at a discount for attendees. While stocks last…!
News: Elvia wins Young Spanish Science Communicator of the Year award
If the book release and launch weren’t enough, Elvia’s had even more to celebrate, recently! The Fundación para el Conocimiento has awarded her the prize for Young Spanish Science Communicator of the Year (Mejor Divulgadora Científica “Junior”) as part of the Premios de Ciencia en Español, recognizing her work on biodiversity, wildlife tracking, and environmental education.
Fittingly, the news reached Elvia mid-expedition in the rainforests of northern Sumatra, where she was tracking wildlife with her parents and training local guides.
A perfect send off ahead of the book launch in August!
Preview: Read the Introduction to Things That Blow My Mind About Animals
Want to see more of Elvia’s incredible guide for young naturalists? Download the introduction – an exclusive preview for BookGo subscribers.
Introduction to “Things That Blow My Mind About Animals" by Elvia Gómez Troya
196MB ∙ PDF file
An exclusive preview for BookGo subscribers. Read the introduction to “Things That Blow My Mind About Animals”.
Things That Blow My Mind About Animals by Elvia Gómez Troya launches August 22 and is available for pre-order now.
By Nancy Merritt Bell
“You don’t want to be on stage with kids and animals,” so warned the old warhorse of comedy, W.C.Fields, to any stage actor sober and listening. “You look like a jerk if you kick them. And you’ll want to!” he went on to explain.
Animals and children are a much more natural and welcomed pairing in literature and definitely meant to upstage all adult characters. The kid-and-creature duo has in fact brought into the canon of kid lit some of the most beloved books of all time. You probably see kids read again, and again, new classics like Because of Winn-Dixey and another Kate DiCamillo favorite, The One and Only Ivan. Maybe you, yourself, go mushy when you see on some bookshelf a copy of War Horse, Charlotte’s Web, or The Cricket in Times Square. If you’re lucky, you might all still remember some of the old greats, like National Velvet, Old Yeller, The Incredible Journey, and Rascal.
The charm of many of the books is often in the kid-animal bond, which takes the place of the kid’s missing parent, or the creature brings the balm of wonder and magic into a hard life—or chirpy music from a cricket in The Cricket in Times Square. My entry into book editing and also my great fondness for kids and animals books came from working with author William Loizeaux on Wings, now 20 years ago. In it, young Nick, who is just 10 and has lost his dad, comes across a wounded bird and nurses it back to health. Nick, of course, heals by caring for the bird. But there’s a one-two punch which makes the book extra rich, which comes when Nick has to care for Marice, the bird, in a grown-up way and let her go. And while he misses Marcie, Nick can see more clearly how he misses his own dad. It’s a wonderful book because it is not a lecture saying “be kind to animals”, but a kid’s book about grief and much more.
There is all kinds of magic inside BookGo’s new kid-and-creature book, Things That Blow My Mind About Animals. The kid here, Elvia Gómez Troya, hails from Spain and is also the author. She is 14 now, but she was just 11 when she wrote the original Spanish version. In her book, there is no stray dog who is a trouble-magnet, but there are dozens of real creatures from all over the world. They are not filling a human void, but Elvia tracks them along with her parents. In one chapter, they visit an elephant orphanage in the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, in Kenya, where little Chok, who lost her mom to an animal poacher, wants to cuddle Elvia, who is thrilled to give Chok all the pets and hugs a big baby elephant needs.
Working alongside her parents, Elvia also gets right up close into the lives of the animals she’s tracking. One day she is watching snakes, and on another she’s observing a badger’s family habits and den, and even their feces—and finding out what they had for dinner!
The great charm of the book is Elvia’s enthusiastic first-person account of animal tracking as she regards all the creatures with respect and awe as only a kid can. She has a mission to care for and protect the animal world.
To help young readers feel involved in animal life, there are dozens of Elvia’s own illustrations and also photos of her own animal encounters in the wild. It makes for a gorgeous book, one that is perfect for middle readers who know and love animals, or who are even just curious—there are also loads of Fun Facts for real animal nerds. The images and the electric vitality of the writing make this a terrific read-aloud book for families with kids or young teens.
We’re honored at BookGo to bring you the first English language edition of Elvia’s book, translated by our own Tomas Elliott. This wonderful new book highlights the virtue of being a small independent press. We are a nimble enterprise and can quickly respond to young readers who hope for books by younger writers, which can reflect back their own astonishing experiences with animals and life in the wild.
Why wait for the August 22nd publication date: check out our pre-sales on our website.
By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
In honor of the launch of Things That Blow My Mind About Animals, our poem of the week is another work of art written from a child’s point of view. Stevenson, of course, was a terrific kids’ author (Treasure Island anyone?). This poem, “Nest Eggs,” comes from his collection A Child’s Garden of Verses, which was published in 1885 and contained poems that explored how children see, play, and wonder at the world.
In “Nest Eggs,” a group of children watch over a nest of eggs and find themselves quietly measuring their own growing-up against the birds who are soon to fly free. At the same time, they also discover something that would resonate with Elvia’s work: if we truly care for animals, we have to let them follow their own course; when the birds from the eggs take to the skies, the children ar left plodding in their wake. But that is nature doing what nature does best!
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Birds all the summer day
Flutter and quarrel
Here in the arbour-like
Tent of the laurel.
Here in the fork
The brown nest is seated;
Four little blue eggs
The mother keeps heated.
While we stand watching her
Staring like gabies,
Safe in each egg are the
Bird’s little babies.
Soon the frail eggs they shall
Chip, and upspringing
Make all the April woods
Merry with singing.
Younger than we are,
O children, and frailer,
Soon in the blue air they’ll be,
Singer and sailor.
We, so much older,
Taller and stronger,
We shall look down on the
Birdies no longer.
They shall go flying
With musical speeches
High overhead in the
Tops of the beeches.
In spite of our wisdom
And sensible talking,
We on our feet must go
Plodding and walking.
By Tomas Elliott
This week I’ve been working just about as far away from home as is possible… in Melbourne. I’ve been touring galleries and gardens, and chuckling at the locals wrapped up in their parkas and scarves to protect against the 60-degree weather… What I wouldn’t give for such a balmy winter!
I spent yesterday at the stunning State Library Victoria, which might even rival the Bodleian in Oxford for a place to read and work. Then I got lost for hours in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and even found time for a re-run of Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story at the amazing independent Cinema Nova. It’s one of my favorite films, and the line, “One cannot serve one’s parents beyond the grave,” is surely one of the all-time greats. It hits you right there.
But sorrowful Ozu cinema aside, this morning I was buoyed by a tour of Melbourne’s wonderful bookstores. From the Brunswick Street Bookstore in trendy Fitzroy, part of a very cool independent chain called My Local Bookstore, to the awesomely snug 60s institution The Paperback Bookshop, which was set up to help get international books in the hands of Australian readers long before Jeff Bezos set out to monopolize the multiverse of book distribution. There’s nothing like a tour of a city’s bookshops to raise your spirits and remind you that whatever happens, the world keeps on reading.
And that brought me to another amazing find: Melbourne’s bookstore dedicated entirely to kids. Readings has been an institution of the Melbourne independent bookseller scene since 1969, but in 2016 they added Readings Kids just next door to their original store. Readings Kids has fiction and nonfiction for children of all ages, with free storytime sessions every Sunday morning.
It was such a joy to scan the shelves that it reminded me of some of the other amazing children’s bookstores around the world. Books of Wonder in New York, of course, is the one everyone knows, and I remember spending an afternoon transfixed by its Wizard of Oz collection and living out my You’ve Got Mail dream hoping to run into Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan. Alas…
But I also want to give a shoutout to a bookstore in my neck of the woods: The Alligator’s Mouth in Richmond, London. It’s by no means London’s most famous bookstore (you’d have to head over to Notting Hill for that!) but it has an incredible selection of children’s literature and runs amazing activities and events. Its name is taken from Lemony Snicket, one of my favorite authors growing up: “A book is like an alligator’s mouth. If you see one open, you often end up disappearing inside.” And its founders were veterans of the amazing Lion & Unicorn bookstore, which was opened by Roald Dahl in Richmond in 1977.
I love that The Alligator’s Mouth keeps the magic of children’s literature alive in London today, and on an afternoon in Melbourne, the memory of it brought me all the way home, across 10,504 miles or so… I guess that’s the wonders of children’s bookstores!
Do you have a favorite children’s bookshop or just a bookshop where you love to bring kids or shop for children’s books? Let us know in the comments below!
By Michael McKinley
I was walking along Library Way, otherwise known as East 41st Street between 5th Avenue and Park Avenue in Manhattan yesterday, admiring the bronze plaques on the sidewalk as I went. The plaques were created by the sculptor Gregg LeFevre, and feature literary quotes, authors’ names, and illustrations. There are nearly one hundred of them, but one caught my eye, and my fancy. It read: “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” It comes from the poem “The Speed of Darkness” by the New York-born poet Muriel Rukeyser and it resonated with me because that’s what I think resonates with us. Stories.
The who, what, why, where, and how of being together on the planet. And of course, those stories begin when we are children. Books are what I give to friends who have had children, and books are what I keep giving as the children grow up. I know with my own daughter, who just graduated with a BA in Honors English, that stories have mattered to her ever since we read her the very first one.
So that’s how I think about writing for kids. The page for them is an even better blank, because they have not yet, we hope, been hurt by the world, and so cannot bring that perspective to bear on the story being told, which is something that writing for adults needs navigation. You can, in effect, tell kids any story, and it will engage them if, as with any story, it engages the teller first.
Now, of course, by “any story” I am applying some governors, so we’re not writing about the seven deadly sins, amped up with today’s geopolitical miseries for a young audience. No, we’re writing stories that appeal to their imagination, of what can be possible, and in that possibility, something better for our world.
So, that’s my strategy when writing a story for a kid. What world does that kid see, and what world do I want them to see, how can I turn the dial a little to decorate it for them to make those worlds even better? The answers to that question are infinite, because, as the poet said, stories, not atoms, govern the universe.
If you’re as deep into kids’ books as we are, here are five Substacks worth your subscription!
Moonbow by Taylor Sterling. This is an amazing deep dive into picture books as an art form and why adults should take them seriously. Their recent essay on “The Poetics of Picture Books” is honestly a work of art in itself!
Reading Middle Grade by Afoma Umesi. Afoma is an absolute inspiration. Her author interviews and book recommendation lists are so detailed and useful – the perfect guide through a sea of middle grade reading options!
KidLit Love by Stephanie Affinito. Run by a literacy educator and podcast host, this one blends book recommendations with classroom-ready teaching resources and author conversations.
Indie Kids Books by Darcy Pattison. For anyone looking to publish and market their own children’s books, Darcy’s substack is a must, detailing the highs and lows of getting kids’ books into readers’ hands outside the Big Five.
Books for Our Children by Sylvie Taylor Young. This is a great weekly roundup of children’s literature, with a particular focus on books by and about people of color.
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