Congratulations, Carrie Tillotson, on Alpacas Here, Alpacas There!

Thank you so much, Carrie, for sharing the release of ALPACAS HERE, ALPACAS THERE with us! Young readers love STEAM books and I’m sure yours will find many happy readers. Can you share with us a bit about the inspiration for this book? What was your initial spark? Thank you so much for having me, Nancy! The initial spark for Alpacas Here, Alpacas There (Beach Lane Books, February 2025), beautifully illustrated by Elisa Chavarri, came after visiting San Juan Island in Washington state with my sister. As we explored the island, we came upon a farm with adorable, fluffy creatures grazing in the pasture. Neither of us had ever seen or heard of alpacas before! Something about them charmed me from that first moment. I later dove deep into researching how to have an alpaca farm of my own, but I soon learned that alpacas require more time, care, and room to roam than I had available (not to mention my plethora of animal, grass, and hay allergies, plus the price of farmland in my area!). Once I started my foray into writing picture books, I realized I could share my love of alpacas by writing about them. It was actually about 6 years from when I first saw alpacas to when I started writing about them, but sometimes there’s a spark that just won’t leave you alone. That’s how I knew I needed to write about these darling, fluffy friends.

Writing STEAM books requires a substantial amount of research. Often it is the most fun part of our writing process. Did you meet any challenges in your research journey? Oh, definitely. Once I had decided on the compare and contrast structure of looking at alpacas lives in both South and North America, it was sometimes hard to get the Andean perspective on alpacas. Much of the work I found was written by North Americans who were not native to the culture, or the sources I found were written or produced in Spanish, which I don’t read or understand very well anymore. I reached out to the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (CTTC), and one of their board members graciously reviewed an early version of the manuscript. She also asked the indigenous weavers that the CTTC works with many of my questions about raising alpacas in the Andes. I am forever grateful to them, and a portion of the proceeds from this book are donated to the CTTC, whose mission is to aid in the survival of textile traditions of the Cusco region of Peru. Another challenge I faced was the gaps in my knowledge and context of Quechua culture as an outsider. I wanted to be accurate and respectful of both the alpacas and the Andean people for the parts of the book portrayed in South America, so I asked my editor if we could hire an authenticity reader. It was very helpful to get her insights. She even connected me with an alpaca farmer in Peru who was happy to meet with me over Zoom and chat through What’s App. Below is a photo he sent me regarding my questions about the types of grass alpacas eat. I can’t thank them both enough for their help!

Often one of the most difficult parts of crafting our books is not deciding what to include, but deciding what to leave out. What did you choose to leave out of this book and why? I left out some of the more basic facts about alpacas. For example, that they spit when agitated, have no upper teeth, or that they poop in communal dung piles. I didn’t want to the book to read like an encyclopedia entry about alpacas, but rather wanted to focus on the theme of comparing and contrasting alpaca life between North and South America. It was hard to leave out some of those interesting facts, but I wanted to stay true to my vision of sharing how, for both alpacas and humans, that no matter where we live we all follow similar rhythms of life.

What tip can you share with teachers who want to use your book in the classroom? It can be used in the language arts classroom to compare and contrast the two different settings in the book—South America and North America. How are alpacas’ lives different depending on where they live? How are they similar? For a math-based lesson, have students make a Venn diagram characterizing the features of alpaca life that are the same and different depending on their location. For social studies units, extend the compare and contrast thinking to discuss how people from various parts of the world have diverse ways of living, or how humans are in relationship with their environment through farming. Or use it in the science classroom to talk about the relationship between the needs of plants and animals and the places they live. Congratulations on this book release! What comes next for you? Can you give us a peek at what you are currently researching? My next picture book hasn’t been announced yet, but I can say that it’s a silly, hopefully laugh-out-loud, informational fiction picture book that I can’t wait to share more about soon. I am also currently researching for a nonfiction book on another one of my favorite animals.

About the author: Carrie Tillotson is the award-winning author of picture books like Alpacas Here, Alpacas There; Counting to Bananas, an Oregon Spirit Book Award Honor Book and Amazon Editor’s Pick; B Is for Bananas, a Good Housekeeping Kids’ Book Award winner, SCBWI Crystal Kite Honor winner, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books of the Year selection. After getting a master’s degree in public health, Carrie worked as a biostatistician for more than ten years and now sculpts her interests in science into playful picture books. She lives in Oregon with her husband, son, and two dogs, who are always going bananas. Carrie is represented by Tracy Marchini at BookEnds Literary Agency. Visit her at CarrieTillotson.com. Nancy Castaldo is the author of many award-winning books for young readers. Look for news about her latest releases here.