Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2013), vividly illustrated in mixed media by Vanessa Brantley Newton, tells the story of Billie Holiday's love of dogs, especially her loyal hound Mister, a boxer. Opening with images of a white poodle in her coat pocket and bottle-fed Chihuahuas, this story is sure to connect and appeal to young children. And as with Amy's other biographical picture books – about photographer Imogen Cunningham with Imogen: The Mother of Modernism and Three Boys (Cameron + Company, 2012),
artist Frida Kahlo with Me, Frida (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2010), and Georgia O’Keeffe with Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O'Keeffe Painted What She Pleased (Harcourt Children's Books, 2012) – it's clear this author has a gift for telling the story of talented 20th century women.

Amy Novesky: I've always loved Billie Holiday, and I couldn't believe that there weren't any picture books about her. Like Frida, Georgia, and Imogen, subjects of my other picture books, I'm inspired not just by Billie as an artist, but as a person. When I think of Billie Holiday, I think of her elegance, her signature gardenia flowers framing her lovely face, the unforgettable tone of her voice. She was an extraordinary person, in addition to being an extraordinary singer.
Q: Writing biographies for children is challenging, especially when the material about the subject's childhood is slim. But by framing your story around Billie's love of dogs, you've created an engaging tale that connects immediately with young readers. How did you land on this as your story? Can you talk about your creative process?
AN: When I set out to write a picture book about Billie, I quickly realized why there were no picture books about her: she had a tough life. A father who abandoned her, a mother in survival mode, prostitution, drug addiction and conviction, early death. Tough themes for a kid's book. But I like a good challenge. Just because she had a tough life, doesn't mean kids shouldn't know about her. Her challenges make her human, and that's something everyone can relate to. And she had this incredible gift! That said, I wanted to find an accessible way into her story. While I was researching Billie's life, I learned that she loved dogs and that she had several in her life, including a beloved boxer named Mister. That's when I knew I had a story (and the title for a book). Billie's dogs were my way into her story.

Q: While Billie Holiday's life is fascinating, some of her experiences are hard to explain for a young audience. But you handled her arrest and drug conviction deftly. How challenging was that to navigate?

Q: You're the author of a variety of titles for young readers, including many that spotlight remarkable women. How do you decide on your subjects? And what do you want to accomplish with your writing?
AN: I write about what inspires me – people (Ganesh, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Imogen Cunningham, Billie Holiday) and places (India, San Francisco, Hawaii). I'm always looking for stories. When I come upon an idea, I spend time researching it, and if I find the thread of a story, if I feel like I want to spend several years of my life with it and believe in it as a book, if I can envision promoting it, then I will start writing. Every story has a life of its own. My new picture book biography manuscript was inspired nearly eight years ago by a New York Times article. But when I started researching this particular artist, I did not connect with her life and her work, and so I put the idea aside, until a year and a half ago when I happened upon a new monograph of the artist's late work, which I very much connected with, and I immediately found the thread, an entire tapestry, of the story and wrote it in a week. It flowed.

Q: What else will we see from you? What's next?
AN: What will I write next? I'm not sure. I have a handful of manuscripts out with editors right now, including the picture book biography mentioned above, and a baseball book, inspired by a story my son wrote. (His stories are much better than mine). Beyond that, something wonderful and true, I hope.