Glow by Nancy Stone

I first got connected with Nancy Stone through a mutual connection of ours in the publishing world. As soon as I heard the premise of Glow I knew I had to feature it, and I’m thrilled to report that it is out TODAY, June 23, 2026:

Cordelia believes in facts. Frano believes in destiny. They’re as different as storm clouds and sunshine―until they discover three baby white storks that glow with mysterious light. No one else can see the glow, just Cordelia and Frano―and she wants nothing to do with the boy. Yet with a massive hurricane barreling toward Florida, the birds’ very survival depends on this unlikely pair.

What do you love most about living near the North Florida coast?

The coast of North Florida is an ancient, magical place. The Timucua people settled here around 2400 B.C., thriving on the region’s abundant fish, game, and plant life, some of which still exists today. I live a few blocks from a wide, clean beach with almost no commercial development, where I’ve watched dolphins frolic in the Atlantic on moonlit nights and caught more than a few spectacular sunrises.

What I love most, though, are the marshes and hammocks along the western edge of our town. Now protected parkland, they’ve been left mostly in their natural state, so you can still picture how wild and alive all of North Florida once was. My daughter’s high school even had marshland right on campus. That’s where GLOW began—I dreamed it up waiting in the pickup line, wondering what I might find if I got out of the car and went exploring.

Fun! I love how GLOW explores resilience and mental health in addition to climate change and environmental stewardship. How did you know these elements needed to be a part of Cordelia’s and Frano’s story?

Kids everywhere are growing up in an unpredictable, sometimes threatening world, and the effects of climate change are often an anxiety-inducing part of their childhoods. Approaching that honestly, but with an emphasis on action, pulled me straight into Frano’s and Cordelia’s inner worlds. The two of them have clashing personalities and perspectives—and family lives complicated by divorce and a parent’s depression—which turned out to be fertile ground for exploring how kids carry stress, and the very different ways they learn to cope.

Cordelia armors herself with facts and lists, certain that if she can just control enough variables, nothing else will fall apart. Frano does the opposite; he chases signs and Destiny with a capital D, sure his luck will hold. Neither strategy is built to survive a hurricane, and the storm puts both to the test. What carries them through isn’t being fearless; no one is, and resilience isn’t the absence of worry. Instead, these kids find the courage to keep going by learning from each other, accepting that reality is never black-and-white, and embracing a little bit of wonder.

And their opposite approaches definitely add tension as well! I also love the GLOW educator guide for teachers and librarians on your website. What do you think are the necessary elements of an educator guide?

A strong guide always does two things, I think: respect how little time teachers and librarians have and still ask kids to go deep. So the GLOW guide is built to be genuinely usable, mapped to ELA, science, and social-emotional learning standards, with discussion questions sorted by theme so an educator can easily pull out exactly what fits the moment. I hope these questions make kids curious enough to use their critical-thinking skills and lead to classroom debates.

Even more important than the questions, though, are extension activities that address all aspects of the book. For example, my guide includes STEM-based activities like tracking a real hurricane through NOAA data or auditing the plastic in your own school cafeteria. And it handles Frano’s father’s depression with care, including a note for educators who want to preview those passages first. Of course, hands-on projects, like designing the storks’ light language or sketching what you hope for, are essential—and fun!

Indeed! What are some of your current projects?

Along with a psychological thriller for adult readers, I have a new middle grade novel in the works, another story rooted in the space where the real and the magical overlap. This one’s about a girl who obsessively traces seven lucky hearts to keep her injured dad safe. She’s quit swim team because water feels like falling ever since his accident, her best friend’s gone rogue, and high school is looming. At least nothing else can change, right? Then a nearby mysterious lake sings her a song, pulls her under, and spits out a boy who’s been trapped in its depths for over a century.

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