Here’s the cover and an inside spread from my new picture book, When the Babies Came to Stay, which will be published by Viking Press in the spring of 2020. The illustrator is Jeanette Bradley. (jeanettebradley.com)

At the beginning of the story four babies turn up on an island, one on the mail plane, two on the ferry and one on a pile of nets. What should the islanders do with them? The librarian solves the problem.

Of course she does! Librarians are the smartest people and they’re always helpful.

(Full disclosure: I was a librarian for many years and a lot of my closest friends are librarians, too.)

The story answers the question what should we do when people turn up on our shores?

The answer: make them welcome, give them a home, and take care of them!

As the librarian says, “Where we’re going is more important than where we came from.”