5 Ws, Jeckyl Island, swatches, CubeSats, and New Year's resolution: author Suzanne Jacobs Lipshaw
Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI. In this piece, meet author and SCBWI-MI Events Coordinator Suzanne Jacobs Lipshaw.
Was it always your plan to teach? When did you find you had a
knack of writing for students?
I didn’t decide to go into teaching until my sophomore year of
college. Growing up I always thought I’d be a writer. In elementary school, I
was that kid who when assigned a two-page paper, wrote ten. I received my first
rejection letter from Western Publishing Company (they published the Little Golden Books) for my manuscript Boogie the Snail when I was twelve.
In
high school, I was co-editor of the school newspaper and co-wrote articles for
the “High School Happenings” page of the
Royal Oak Tribune. As a freshman
in college, I majored in journalism, but, possibly ignorantly, decided I need
to be pushy to be a journalist and that wasn’t part of my personality and
rethought my major.
I focused on things I found the most rewarding and being
with kids as a day camp counselor kept topping the list. I took my first
education class that year and never looked back. Now as a nonfiction Kid Lit
author, I have combined both passions!
Do you remember your first teaching assignment? Ultimately, you
crushed this teaching thing, but what were the early classroom days like?
I do! My sophomore year at MSU, I was selected for The Elementary Intern Program, which provided a lot more hands-on classroom experience than the
traditional track had.
My first internship was with a fourth-grade teacher at
an elementary school in Okemos. I spent one day a week there and mostly helped
students who had questions while working independently.
One day, my mentor
teacher was introducing a writing lesson and out of the blue called me up to
teach. I was the type of person who liked to be prepared, and this was way out
of my comfort zone. She told the students I used to major in journalism, so I
was the perfect person to teach them how to write a newspaper article.
There I
was up in front of twenty-some kids all waiting for wisdom from me. I shot an
apprehensive look to my mentor teacher who suggested I start with the basics of
good journalism. That was all the info I needed.
I did a lesson on using the
five ‘W’ questions and the students were off and running. She was one smart
lady. She knew I was nervous to get up in front of the classroom, so she threw
me in using something I was familiar with and good at.
What was it about Special Education, kids with reading and other
challenges, that drew you into the field?
I know it’s cliché but watching the
lightbulb turn on for students who struggle shines a light across the entire
room and the warmth filled my heart.
What were some of your most rewarding moments in your long career
in the classroom?
When you work with kids there are so
many rewarding moments. Overall, the aspect of my teaching I am most proud of and
brought some unpredictable rewarding moments was the unique teaching program I
developed.
My mission as an elementary resource room teacher was to motivate,
engage and empower my students to realize that even though they struggle in
some areas, they are destined to do great things. Beginning in the 2013-14
school year, I started teaching my developing readers through a program I
created called “Themed Project Based Learning Approach” (TPBLA).
The projects all centered on a high interest yearlong
theme. The theme for the 2014-15 school year was
Oceanography. That year my students boarded an imaginary yellow submarine from Northville, Michigan and
embarked on a yearlong journey to explore the undersea world!
Their
adventure began on Jekyll Island, a small island off the Georgia coast with a
virtual field trip to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Our tour guide, Kira,
taught us basic facts about sea turtles and how those found sick or injured are
cared for in the center’s hospital. One of the first turtle patients we met was
Mahi, a juvenile green sea turtle who was missing her right front flipper.
She
also taught us about the dangers sea turtles face because of human disregard.
This was when Kira helped me carry out a secret mission—to inspire my students
to advocate for and help these endangered creatures.
Kira explained that Mahi’s
care was expensive. To help with the costs, people could symbolically adopt
Mahi for fifty dollars. Without hesitation one of my fourth graders jumped out
of his chair, pumped his fist into the air and shouted “Yes! We can do
that!”
Students
decided to inform our school community about the threats to sea turtles. To
accomplish this, they chose to put on a taped “virtual assembly” informing our
school community about the threats.
While researching, students discovered that
cold weather stranded many Kemp Ridley sea turtles along New England beaches.
This news further motivated my students to make a difference. These leaders
decided to sell reusable collapsible water bottles for donations of $5.00 or
more to help with the plastic problem that is plaguing our oceans.
They
designed a logo with “Protect Sea Turtles” imprinted on the water bottles and
introduced the fundraiser at the end of their virtual assembly.
The
assembly was successfully received, and donations came pouring in. My readers
were thrilled to donate $1,711.38 to the center! Watching my students become
leaders in our school and contributing to a cause that became dear to us all was
heartwarming.
In your bio, there’s a line about comparing paint swatches at the
local Sherwin Williams. Do you like to paint the walls in your home often? Or
do you have another use for different hues of paint?
Ha! In light of this question, it’s obviously not a great line to
imply my love of interior design. Looks like I’m going to be tweaking my bio. .
.
Between teaching gigs, I stayed home to raise my sons Josh and
Jeremy. When Jeremy, the youngest, was going into kindergarten I entered a bit
of a mourning period. What was I going to do when both boys were in school? I
knew I would volunteer in their classrooms, but it wasn’t going to be enough to
keep me busy when Jeremy entered first grade. I started thinking about what I could
do part time.
One of my friends suggested I go back to school for interior
design since I was always helping my friends decorate their homes and I took
her sage advice. Two years later, I had an associate’s degree in interior
design and had secured a position as a part time designer.
Fast forward to Jeremy in middle school when I felt something
missing in my life. After pondering, I realized it was working with kids as the
middle school didn’t need parent volunteers in the classroom.
So, I quit my interior
design job and started substitute teaching. My second job was covering for a
resource room teacher. It was a two-week assignment that lasted six months. I
was back in my element, and it reaffirmed my true passion was teaching. The
following year I got a job with Northville Public Schools and the second half
of my teaching career began.
I still dabble in interior design for my friends
and enjoy seeing our mutual vision for a room in their home come to life. Also,
I’m great at picking paint colors if I do say so myself.
Your newest title RUGGED RAX: The Little Satellite that Could,
will be out in the world before this interview publishes. What can you tell us
about your latest picture book?
Rugged RAX launched (pun intended) on
December 10, 2025. Publishing, like many NASA launch dates get scrubbed. That’s
what happened to RAX—twice. But RAX has now landed on bookstore shelves. Here’s
the blurb.
Imagine you are part of an engineering team
tasked with designing and building a mini but mighty satellite—a CubeSat
named RAX. Your CubeSat’s mission? Gather space weather data to help scientists
prevent massive blackouts caused by solar storms. But this team
failed during its first attempt; will it succeed this time? RUGGED
RAX is the true story of CubeSat RAX and is packed with a payload of space
science and engineering for STEM enthusiasts ages 5-9.
What was the impetus that launched you into the world of
satellites?
My son, Josh, while a junior at the
University of Michigan, introduced me to CubeSats, when he joined the Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) in 2013. CubeSats are miniature satellites built from 10xm x 10cm x 10cm cubic
units and are extendable to larger sizes. They are much cheaper to build and
deploy than larger satellites and provide an immense amount of information
about space in a tiny package.
During Josh’s two years at MXL his
team designed, built and tested three CubeSats. I was enthralled with every
step of the process. Once I began my writing journey, I contacted MXL’s founder
and director, Dr. James Cutler, and through discussion I decided to write a
book about MXL’s first CubeSat—Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX).
Additionally, I am revising my first middle-grade fiction novel
inspired by an experience my younger son Jeremy had rock climbing and my
fascination with the moon. Is this the middle grade novel you
ended up writing and getting published?
The launch of Decoding the Moon—my first
venture into fiction and my first venture into middle-grade—is on February 25,
2026! This one is literally and figuratively a dream come true! (A story for
another blog.)
Here’s the blurb: Avid rock climber Levi Manes thinks his newfound
fear of heights is enough to shake up his twelve-year-old life. What he didn’t
realize is, three months later, the tragic death of his mother would fracture
his entire world. To make matters worse, Levi’s dad, unable to face his grief,
moves their family from their home in the Detroit suburbs to a small town in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Can the combination of some secret codes, rock
climbing, and the Supermoon pull Levi’s family together and bring them the
closure they each desperately need?
Currently, I have four informational fiction and nonfiction
picture book manuscripts out for query (these are
now published – several of my nonfiction manuscripts, one which was from my
weather unit, never found a publishing home – I currently do not have any
manuscripts out for query), three of which were inspired by one of my
yearlong science themes. Did you enter each year with a plan
to use your science themes to create books, or did the book material present
itself as the project gained steam?
My yearlong themes were born from a combination of my passion for
the topic and their high interest level for kids. Additionally, it was created
at a time when the Common Core was first conceived and the requirement for
teaching nonfiction had increased.
I chose four themes since I had some of my
students for four years: space, oceanography, national parks, and weather. My
goal was to inspire my students and engage them in science material I was
passionate about and that would motivate them to read and learn more about the
topic. Once I took my first nonfiction picture book course, I realized using
ideas from my units was a natural progression.
What’s the common thread in these non-fiction works?
Continuing my mission to inspire, educate and motivate students
and show them they can make a difference in our world.
Is it true that your writing career began with a New Year’s
resolution?
 |
| Me in fourth grade |
Yes! Eight years ago, I decided if I didn’t make a concerted
effort to carve out time to write I was never going to accomplish my dream of
becoming a children’s book author. So New Year’s Eve 2016, I made a resolution
to make writing a priority and it was the first resolution I’ve ever kept! I
picked up a manuscript I started years back—a fiction middle-grade version of
what eventually became my first published picture book I Campaigned for Ice
Cream—and continued with it.
I also resolved to take classes to further my
craft. One of the first courses I enrolled in was Kristen Fulton’s Nonfiction Archeology. The idea of writing nonfiction strongly resonated with me because I
taught developing readers by immersing them in a different science theme each
year and I saw nonfiction as a natural progression from my method of teaching
to my writing. The course inspired me to try the ice cream truck story in a
nonfiction picture book format, and it worked. And from there I was hooked!
What’s next for you?
I am currently revising the very crappy draft of my second middle
grade novel and researching another nonfiction picture book. Stay tuned…
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