Tassy Walden Honoree Publishes New Series

Connecticut author and two-time honoree of the Tassy Walden Awards, J. D. Davis, has a new character series hitting shelves this October. Meet Baby Truck—an adorable new board book character who is learning how to be a Big Boy Truck!

Baby Truck Bedtime is Davis’s debut release and the first title in a pitch-perfect, character-led board book series about a little yellow pickup truck whose days are filled with exhilarating activities that are familiar to babies and toddlers.

Davis is a two-time honoree of the Tassy Walden Awards for New Voices in Children’s Literature competition, which is a Shoreline Arts Alliance program designed to encourage unpublished Connecticut writers and illustrators in their efforts to create exceptional books for children.

In 2023, Davis was honored as a finalist in the Picture Book Text category for her manuscript, Baby Truck Takes a Bath. (Acquired by Wendy McClure at Sourcebooks Jabberwocky as part of a three-book deal. Illustrated by Erica Sirotich.) In 2022, Davis was also awarded an Honorable Mention in the same category for her manuscript, Is There Something In my Teeth?. (Acquired by Wendy McClure at Sourcebooks Explore and illustrated by Steph Laberis. Publication is set for summer of 2027.)

“I owe the Shoreline Arts Alliance and Tassy Walden Awards a great deal of gratitude,” Davis says. “The organization provides resources to help Connecticut artists prepare their work for submission. The competition is then judged by a combination of literary agents, editors and art directors. If you are selected as a finalist, it means that industry professionals see potential in your submission. Being honored as a finalist gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going.”

When asked what inspired her to write the Baby Truck series, Davis responded, “I’d like to think that I understand the reasons that kids are drawn to trucks, but I noticed that most of the existing truck books took place on farms and construction sites, which is a lot of fun, but it occurred to me that kids are usually playing with their toy vehicles at home. They are tucking them in at night and taking their trucks with them to the park. I wanted to explore a truck character whose day-to-day activities felt familiar to kids.”

The next book in the series, Baby Truck Bath Time, is scheduled to make its SPLASH in July of 2027. The Baby Truck series brings humor and energetic rhyme to an audience of little ones who love things that go. Baby Truck Bedtime is available wherever books are sold.