Although I am fairly shameless in my love for pop music, I was never a One Direction fan and know very little about Harry Styles other than that he dated Taylor Swift ​and went on holiday with Adele and James Corden recently. But my friend's daughter introduced me to his new album Fine Line, and I'm in love! The music references the 60s and 70s — I can hear little bits of Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, and CSNY — with a lovely California vibe. Standouts for me are Golden and To Be So Lonely.

As I've been writing my own children's book, I've been reading about and researching the market, and one of my absolute favorite discoveries is Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall. Blackall is a two-time Caldecott Medal winner, for Hello Lighthouse, which she wrote and illustrated, and for Finding Winnie, which she illustrated. I'm in love with the illustrations in HL — the different ways she shows weather in the water, the nostalgic subject matter, and the color palette. Plus, it's a lovely and gentle story about humans and the changes brought by time. 

Hair Love, an Oscar-winning animated short, packs an emotional wallop into its 7 minutes. I'm always a softie for daddy-daughter stories, and this one is a heart warmer. Also, in a year in which the Oscars was stupidly short on representation of anyone other than white men, this film is a powerful reminder that all kids should — and need — to see themselves in the art and culture around them. I also found it fascinating to discover that the filmmaker, Matthew Cherry, is a former NFL football player who moved into entertainment after retirement to become a director and producer. 

Zu Orzu is an illustrator and comic book artist originally from Singapore, now based in LA. Her style is dark, with layers of color and shadow, and a strong sense of mystery. I am drawn to her portraits — check out this one of Prince! — and her way of seeing the world. See more of her work and follow here at @zuorzu.

The investigative documentary podcast Scene on the Radio (produced by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University) should be required listening. In past seasons, the host  John Biewen explored racism in America (season 2, "Seeing White") and toxic masculinity (season 3, "Men"), while this season focuses on American democracy ("The Land That Has Never Been Yet"). I was never a good history student — I was more comfortable with the symbolism and language of literature than with memorizing dates, treaties, and facts that felt unrelated to my life. But I LEARN from this podcast, and what I learn feels essential to understanding the time we're living in. 

Morgan Harper Nichols is a writer, artist, and musician, originally from the South but now living in California. She combines beautiful paintings that are sometimes abstract, sometimes recognizable bits of nature — a flower, a mountain, the sky — with poetry fragments. A post will usually have multiple images, each with a part of the full poem. You swipe and are taken into her world, which feels dream-like and wise. Plus, the color palette she adheres to is soooooooo swoon worthy. I just got her new book out this week, and I've been reading one every morning, like a benediction to the day.

My dog Chloe and I volunteer at one of SF's branch libraries a couple of Saturday mornings a month during story time. Marcie the librarian always selects a few books for the hour, and generally they're about animals. (Fact: kids who want to read to and with a dog tend to love books about dogs & other animals! 🐶) A book we read and that I liked so much I bought a copy for myself is The Wolf, the Duck & the Mouse by Mac Barnett with illustrations by Jon Klassen. The story is perfectly and imaginatively absurd, and the illustrations are both fun to look at and a great complement to the text. On one of my favorite spreads, the mouse stands with a pot on his head, clutching a hockey stick, and proclaims, "Tonight we ride to defend our home." It makes me laugh every time!

Also fun and funny: Mac Barnett TED talk