In this week's episode of The Watchung Booksellers Podcast, author and book doctor Arielle Eckstut talks with debut author and life-long educator Dan Gill about developing his story No More Chairs from a one-minute pitch to a beautiful children's book.
Arielle Eckstut is co-founder of The Book Doctors. She is the author of nine books including The Secret Language of Color: The Science, Nature, History, Culture and Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue & Violet. She is also an agent-at-large at the Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency, where for over 20 years, she has been helping hundreds of talented writers become published authors. Lastly, Arielle co-founded the iconic company, LittleMissMatched, and grew it from a tiny operation into a leading national brand, which now has stores from coast to coast, everywhere from Disneyland to Disney World to Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Daniel Gill was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Iona College with a B.A. in psychology. He served in Vista, the national peace corps. During this time, he counselled young inmates at Rikers Island Prison. He attended Columbia University and graduated with a masters degree in urban education and curriculum. Mr. Gill came to the Montclair School System in September of 1970 and retired in 2023 after completing 53 years of teaching. He was part of the committee to redesign the middle schools of Montclair in order to desegregate the schools to comply with a court order. In 2004, Mr. Gill and his students wrote a book on the history of Glenfield. It celebrated the Brown vs Board of Education ruling and its effect on desegregating the Montclair Public Schools. The focus of the book was to look at Glenfield as a microcosm of that decision. His illustrated children’s book No More Chairs was selected by the National Education Association for its 2026 Read Across America Program.
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Books:
A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here.
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The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ.
The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell.
Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff.
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