My First Picture Book, Tova's Sweet Solution
A deliciously sweet picture book story about creativity, resilience, food allergies, and the magic of family..
My first picture book, Tova’s Sweet Solution illustrated by Aurélie Lise-Anne, published by Red Comet Press 4/21/26, is a heartfelt and deliciously sweet story about creativity, resilience, and the magic of family.
Tova loves everything about her family’s bakery—the warmth, the smells, the cinnalove scones. But when a painful tummy ache leads to an unexpected food allergy diagnosis, Tova learns she can no longer enjoy her favorite treats made with honeygrain.
.
Crushed but determined, Tova’s family rallies around her with hugs, songs, and a whole lot of “bakestorming.” But none of their new recipes taste quite right . . . until Tova and her squirrel sidekick, Biscuit, stumble upon a surprise ingredient that leads to the Toviest Tova-size idea ever!
Bursting with playful language, cozy charm, and a dash of culinary creativity, this story celebrates perseverance, problem-solving, and the loving support of a family that always bakes together—no matter what. Perfect for readers who love baking, bold ideas, and stories that fill both the heart and tummy with joy.
Tova’s Sweet Solution is an empowering, playful story with made-up foods and growth mindset that is sure to build empathy and understanding for kids with food allergies.
In award news, Tova’s Sweet Solution has been selected for the Junior Library Guild Gold Standard program!
This means the Junior Library Guild will distribute the book to their network of libraries across the US and Canada.
Who is TOVA’S SWEET SOLUTION for?
Read this book with children if you’re a parent, educator, grandparent, or caregiver of any child with food allergies, or you know kids with food allergies in your community, or you are friends with anyone with food allergies.
Basically, it’s for everyone who wants kids to feel seen and understood!
Why you should read TOVA’S SWEET SOLUTION with kids…
The story builds empathy and understanding. It introduces the concept of food allergies and the emotions that go with them to readers who may not have allergies to foods or readers who do and need to know they’re not alone.
Tova will make kids with food allergies feel seen and understood.
All readers will love the tasty wordplay, loving family, and a main character with grit and growth mindset.
Where can you preorder TOVA’S SWEET SOLUTION?
**You can also mark it as want to read on Goodreads.
How I Took a Terrible Story Idea and Transformed It Into Something Magical!
When I wrote this, I wanted to write about something that I knew about and something that wasn’t well-represented in the children’s book market: food allergies.
My first ideas were terrible. I thought about the real-life stories of my kid getting left out of classroom treats and birthday parties. Sometimes I forgot to send the special allergy-friendly cupcake from home, or a teacher or student brought snacks to share and didn’t give me a heads up. She never could eat them unless it was fruit. SAD, right?
(This still happens, and she’s a 20-year-old college student. She just went to a friend’s parents’ house for a birthday party and couldn’t eat anything. They didn’t even have a fruit tray. She was starving when she got home.)
My terrible story idea: Being left out and feeling sad with no happy ending. That isn’t a story anyone wants to read.
So I returned to brainstorming to try to find a not-so-depressing story idea. I wanted an empowering, playful story with a problem-solving main character.
I decided to write something with non-human characters and made-up word choices to make it more playful and general.
When I thought about the hardest thing for allergy kids, I decided it’s not getting to eat what other people can eat.
So then I thought, what if the main character’s family owned a bakery, but the child couldn’t eat the baked goods? That would be the worst, right?
Now I had the setting and the problem. I needed the main character and the solution that showed possibilities and love.
My initial idea was a fantasy world and a troll main character. My editors asked me to change the troll to a bear, which I did, but I kept the name Tova, whom I had named when it was allerative with troll. (Tova Troll.)
As I mentioned, I also wanted to make the allergy fantastical and not correlated to the real world of gluten or other real-life foods like nuts or dairy. Instead, I wanted to make something with wide appeal, something fun, playful, and made-up. This way, I wouldn’t be excluding anyone’s allergies, but would be more general and relatable in a broad sense.
So I invented lots of foods for the bakery, including the allergen of honeygrain, because bears love honey.
Here’s how I did that…I created a spreadsheet with real foods and started combining words.
It was tons of fun! (When I do my school visits, I can’t wait to help kids combine words and invent their own foods and other wordplay activities!)
Finally, it was time to find the right solution. I invented a fruit that Tova, the main character, could substitute in the made-up bakery foods. (It was very important to me that Tova solve the problem. My pet peeve is when stories have the adults solving the problem. I was not going to do that!)
And voila! My first draft was done.
Then, I revised it SIX-HUNDRED-MILLION times. Or thereabouts. Ha.
Eventually, I sold it to Red Comet Press when I was between agents.
Do you have kids or students with food allergies?
If you do, you can already preorder the book!
Preorder HERE!
Save your receipt if you want the opportunity to join my launch team or get my preorder bonuses. I’ll announce more details about that in January 2026!
Melissa! Huge congratulations on Tova's Sweet Solution and the well-deserved award! This hits home as a food allergy mom who is frustrated by the lack of quality children's books on this topic. So a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for writing this book! I'm looking forward to reading it!