Disappointed that her career in architecture did not lead to designing secret rooms, tree houses, or fantasy gardens, Sarah turned to storytelling, and brings a wealth of experience creating and illustrating space. A watercolorist with formal drafting experience, Sarah is dipping her brushes and pens into the world of picture books and graphic novels. She both writes her own children’s stories and collaborates with others, celebrating finding magic in the everyday world. Sarah lives in Portland, Oregon, with her partner Matt, son Ollie, an elderly dog, several noisy chickens, and some hummingbird pals.
Sarah is represented by Allison Remcheck at Stimola Literary Studio, and is open to traditionally published work, commissions, self-published illustration work, and whatever exciting projects you pitch her way. You can find her at sarahesteinberg.com and https://www.instagram.com/sarahesteinberg/
"You can speculate - I'll investigate!" Siblings Nicki and Ricky are on a mission to solve nature’s puzzles, finding clues in the wilds of their own suburban neighborhood. Their neurodivergent strategies differ, but they do know if they keep their eyes open and work together, they’ll be able to figure out just about anything. Books 1-3, Baffling Birds, sends the siblings to the beach to investigate a wild mystery, into town to solve a puzzle posed by an unidentifiable gift, and to a living history museum to find a topic for a school presentation.
Book 1: The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky – The Mystery of the Shell Tree
While exploring a strip of beach near their house, the sleuths discover broken shells in the branches of a tree. Who – or what – could be responsible?
Book 2: The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky – The Hummingbird Conundrum
Nicki and Ricky must employ the Scientific Method to unpuzzle the purpose of a peculiar gift. Is it a lantern? A bug-catcher?
Book 3: The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky – The Case of the Duck’s Teeth
A museum trip inspires the sleuths to seek the living relatives of a specimen so strange they thought it had to be extinct!
Detectives Nicki and Ricky are convinced that a prehistoric-looking duck is a dinosaur, but the docent (who happens to be their grandfather) says it's not extinct. Time to search! Neurodivergent sibs Nicki and Ricky use naturalist skills and the Socratic Method to find out more about the "dino duck" in the third graphic novel in the Baffling Birds trilogy.
Neurodivergent Siblings Nicki and Ricky must employ the Scientific Method to unpuzzle the purpose of a peculiar gift. Is it a lantern? A bug-catcher? “You can speculate,” Detective Ricky says. “I’ll investigate!” While Aunt Zoe won't explain, she DOES give them a piece of paper with a set of instructions entitled "Scientific Method"... and the sleuthing siblings are off on an in-town adventure.
While exploring the strip of beach behind their house, sibs Nicki and Ricky find a tree surrounded by broken shells. A perfect mystery for Detective Ricky and his sidekick (errr, partner) Nicki! They discover broken shells in the tree's branches as well as piled on the ground. But how and why did they get up there? Nicki and Ricky's differing investigation strategies are a feature - not a glitch.
Introducing young children to bodily autonomy can be tricky, especially when what’s fun with one person doesn’t work with another. I Like Tickles shows a young child looking for animals’ signals, listening to people’s words, and knowing that even if they like a hug sometimes, they don’t have to offer it every time; a variety of situations allows caregivers the chance to talk about the preferences