Today we’re excited to chat with award-winning author, poet and cat-wrangler Lee Wardlaw about My Book of Firsts: Poems Celebrating a Baby’s Milestones (Red Comet Press, 2025), illustrated by Bruno Brogna.

Though this is her first poetry collection, it’s not the first time Lee has visited us. She was one of our Potluck Poets back in 2012, the same year she won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku (Henry Holt, 2011). We loved her purrfect “Catku” and the recipe she shared for Kitty Litter Cake. Me-wow!

Because My Book of Firsts is written from a baby’s perspective, the poems are that much more endearing. This emotive hug of a book is a joy to read aloud with its playful, inventive rhymes, lively cadences, and rich vocabulary. Each precious milestone from baby’s first year is cause for wonder and celebration, whether a First Day, First Friend, First Outing, First Word or those magical First Steps — and Brogna’s adorable animal families add just the right touch of charm and tenderness.

With its padded cover and allotted pages for recording your own baby’s milestones, this delightful book is an appealing keepsake for new parents, making it the perfect baby shower or birthday gift that families will be proud to share.

We thank Lee for telling us more about her literary bundle of joy with wonderful personal photos and a yummy recipe. Enjoy!

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Congratulations on My Book of Firsts! How does it feel to have published your first poetry collection, and what was it like working with Red Comet Press?

First collection? Delighted!

Red Comet Press? Delightful!

My agent – Ginger Knowlton at Curtis Brown, Ltd. – tried to sell this collection, off and on, for 25 years. The time was never right. I’d discover that another author or anthologist would’ve just published something similar to it; or editors would say, “We’ve already got a book like this in the works.” We also heard: “This is not a kid’s book; it’s a gift book for parents.” (Well, yes. It’s both!) At one point, I thought: Maybe the time will never be right! But before I had a chance to shelve the manuscript again, Red Comet Press bought it.

The folks at Red Comet are amazing. I love working with a smaller publishing house. They Zoomed with me to discuss the lay-out of my poems and the illustrations – something no other editor had ever done with me before – and have had lots of fresh and clever ways to publicize and promote the book. Oh, and they just sold the Italian translation rights at Bologna! (Bruno Brogna, the marvelous illustrator, is from Italy.) So I’m one happy baby, Baby! 

Please provide a little backstory about how this brand new book baby came into being. What was the most challenging part of the process?

I got the idea for the book while raising my son, celebrating with him every single ‘first’ that first year – and beyond. (He’ll turn 29 on May 30th – and he just got a raise. Party!)  I wanted to remember and honor and share all those incredible firsts with other Moms and Dads, whom I knew would ‘get it’ too.

Watching PJ take his first steps, for example: I marveled that despite a multitude of stumbles and tumbles, he just kept on keeping on – and did so without any fear or hesitation or frustration. I, as an adult, attempting to do the same, would’ve been swearing up a whirling dervish and hailing a taxi five minutes in. Yet a baby’s drive (no pun intended) to become independent, to do it ‘all by myself,’ speaks loud and proud about our innate human spirit.

Too, babies need to move; they need to attempt the New and Different, because each time they do, all 100 billion neurons their brains are born with (twice the number of neurons we adults have, with half the size of our brains) fire up and make connections, which enables communication, growth, learning, development, etc.  A baby’s brain is a thing of wonder. And everything a baby learns to do and touch and feel and hear and taste that Year of Firsts is wonder-full – and worthy of celebration!

As for the most challenging part of the process: remembering what it felt like to be a baby! Most people don’t recall much from that first year, because a lot of it, at the beginning, is at the perceptual, not conceptual level. I have a single-image memory of laying on my back, in my crib, and seeing a woman’s face, very close to mine, looking down and me – smiling.

Later, I ‘recognized’ her as my mother. I also remember a card I got on my first birthday. It showed a cartoony, yellow duck sitting next to a pink  birthday cake, one candle aglow. The card had a little tab at the bottom that you could pull, causing the duck to blow out the candle, replacing it with the number 1. I remember loving that card; I was mesmerized by it, pulling the little tab over and over and over again, v-e-r-y-c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y, laughing at that silly duck and the disappearing flame. (I actually have a photo of myself from my first birthday. The card is on the ground beside me.)

So since I didn’t remember much of my babyhood, I spent a lot of time looking through our son’s photo albums and watching his videos, making notes of the sights and sounds and flavors and touches, etc. I thought a baby might remember… 

I love that the poems are told from the baby’s point of view. Why did you decide to do that?

That decision just made sense. The ‘firsts’ are experienced by the baby, so why not have the baby be the narrator? Too, I thought the baby’s reactions to each momentous milestone would be stronger, more visual, more immediate if told in first person. The baby’s personality would come through better, too.

You’re published in many different genres, both fiction and nonfiction, from board books to YA novels. Do you have a favorite age group to write for? Which genre do you find the most challenging and why?

I love writing funny fiction for middle graders. I have a great ear for dialogue for that age group (5th-8th grade) and outline each chapter, each scene, by typing conversations between the characters. I also think I’m hilarious. I laugh out loud at my own jokes, enjoy my own witty repartee. I was having a phone convo the other night with my husband and son. I made a joke that was very clever, and when no one laughed, when they both kept chatting, I had to interrupt: “Excuse me! Did you hear what I said? That was funny!” My son said: “Yes, Mom. Good one! Now moving on…” (Too bad I can’t remember the joke now, Jama. Your audience would’ve been in hysterics.)

The most challenging genre? No contest. Picture books. I’ve had ten picture books published, and I’m still not sure how I wrote them. I love Mem Fox’s quote about the difficulty of writing this genre: “Writing a picture book is like writing War and Peace – in haiku.” 

I find it curious that two of my picture books were written in haiku! 

How many poems did you initially write for this collection? Can you please share one that didn’t make the final cut?

I originally wrote nine. Then I realized those wouldn’t be enough for a picture book, so I added three more: “First Friend,” “First Game,” and “First Book.” I also wrote a rough draft for a poem called “First Ouch.” I didn’t include it in the collection because it’s not a milestone nor an achievement to acquire your first boo-boo! And, no, I’m not sharing it! 

Please share a few tips for writing good rhyming verse.

1. Read 500 rhyming poems for children. 
2. Read another 500 poems.
3. And another 500. (Don’t stop there! You’re just getting warmed up!) 
4. Read every single one of those poems out loud at least twice. You need to have a great ear for rhythm and rhyme before you write it, so tune those ears!
5. Avoid stale or predictable language. Don’t just pluck the first rhyme that comes to you. Reach higher, deeper for the best. You’ll know when you find the perfect one. I love this quote by poet Eve Merriam: “I’ve spent weeks looking for precisely the right word. It’s like having a small marble in your pocket. You can just feel it.”
6. Avoid stale or predictable rhyme/rhyme schemes. Good verse is more than end words or patterns that sound the same. Poems that merely rhyme a lot of nouns (cat, mat, hat), and that rarely feature varying sentence lengths or enjambment, can be soooooo tedious to read.  

You probably cherish all the milestones in your son’s life, but which one from his first year is especially memorable?

His first full sentence. I’m not known for my culinary skills, but one night, when Patterson had  just turned two, I baked a spinach lasagna. I’d seen the recipe in Parents magazine and hoped it had been taste-tested by a committee of picky-eating toddlers. As PJ forked in his first bite and began to chew,  I held my breath. Then he swallowed, grinned and said: “This is a good kind of dinner!” I almost cried. Now, whenever we cook something new in our house, my husband and I will exclaim: “This is a good kind of dinner!” If PJ is with us, he won’t look up from his food. He’ll simply say: “I don’t remember saying that, so let’s move on.”

I know your first word was “kitty.” Please share a few more of your own “firsts”:

Book:

My first favorite was Margaret Wise Brown’s Pussy Willow. It was a giant Golden Book. I made my mom read it to me every night. I still love it. It’s brilliant. And the illustrations by Leonard Weisgard are lovely, dark, and deep. 

Friend:

I had two ‘first friends’ who lived on our dirt road in Erie, PA. 

One was named Wendy. I wanted to be named Wendy! She was six and rode a two-wheel bike. I wanted to be six and ride a two-wheeler! I was only 2.5 or 3, and looked up to perfect Wendy with awe…

The other was a boy named Patrick. We took swim lessons together when we were 3. One day, he held out his wrist and showed me the toy watch his parents had bought him. I wanted a toy watch, too! I ran home and asked my mama if she would buy me one. She said, No, but she could make me one. She stuck a Band-Aid on my wrist, and drew the face of a clock on it. I had a wrist watch and it said 4:00! I ran down the street to show it off to Patrick. He was not impressed. What a jerk. 

Pet:

A cat, of course! Got him when I was 7. He drooled a lot.

Favorite Food:

I loved steak, baked potatoes, and Drumsticks ice cream cones!

Published Poem:

My first was published in my junior high school literary magazine. It was a melancholy, melodramatic poem about a girl mourning her dead boyfriend. I did not have a boyfriend – dead or alive – at the time. I was 13. Enough said.

What was your first reaction upon seeing Bruno Brogna’s illustrations for the book? Do you have a favorite spread?

I let out a long sigh of delight. I L-O-V-E his work. The art is endearing, exuberant, joyful! My favorite spread is “First Outing.” Bruno brings alive the hustle and bustle and fun of that first outing without making the mom look tired. I know I was! 

What’s next for you?

I’m working on a couple of picture books and another poetry collection. Not saying more than that! Hahaha!

Can you please share a favorite kid-friendly recipe with us (perhaps something your son really enjoyed when he was little)?

I couldn’t find the Spinach Lasagna recipe that he called “A good kind of dinner.” So, instead, here’s his favorite Mac ‘n’ Cheese recipe:

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MY BOOK OF FIRSTS: Poems Celebrating a Baby’s Milestones
written by Lee Wardlaw
illustrated by Bruno Brogna
published by Red Comet Press, April 2025
Poetry Picture Book for ages Baby – 1 year, 32pp.
*Includes blank pages for recording personal milestones

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🐰 SPECIAL BOOK GIVEAWAY 🐻

The publisher is generously offering a brand new copy of My Book of Firsts for one lucky Alphabet Soup reader. For a chance to win, please leave a comment here no later than midnight (EDT) Wednesday, May 21, 2025. You may also enter by sending an email with BABY in the subject line to: readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only, please. Good Luck!

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Lovely and talented Ramona is hosting the Roundup at Pleasures from the Page. Waltz on over to check out the full menu of poetic goodness being served up around the blogosphere this week. Enjoy your weekend!

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*Interior spreads text copyright © 2025 Lee Wardlaw, illustrations © 2025 Bruno Brogna, published by Red Comet Press. All rights reserved.

**Copyright © 2025 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.