Publisher Profile: Lucky Penny Publications
The CBC asks Melissa Currier Marsted, Founder and Publisher, questions about the publisher.
How did your publishing house start out?
As the founder, I have always been a writer and a reader. I have loved books for as long as I can remember. When the iPad came out in 2010, I started an app called Lucky Penny Press, where we published eBooks with audio for children. A number of our books were translated into Spanish and other languages, including French and Chinese.
Our story actually started two years prior when the 2008 Santa Barbara Tea Fire destroyed 220 homes in 24 hours, including our home of 16 years. We had saved six of the illustrations of Pablito and the Speckled Bear, and within a year we published our first hardcover book, later softcover with audio, and held our very first book signing in December 2009.
In 2015, we received a query from the father of a 14-year-old girl who had written her first middle grade novel. Her personal story, as well as her manuscript, inspired us to publish her book, first as an eBook, then in hardcover as The Scorch of a Skilten. Her book was the precursor for us to meet authors’ and readers’ desires for print.
While on a run in late 2015, I came up with the idea to focus on a series of books for kids about nature and national parks. We published our first two books in softcover print in 2016. Now, ten years later, we are publishing our 13th book in the series and have written our 14th. We have worked with over a dozen artists and illustrators from around the country, whom we’ve met on our travels.
How did you come up with the name Lucky Penny?
As a runner for nearly 50 years (yes, fifty years!), my eyes are always wide open for the joys of nature, or for whatever might cause me to pause. I seem to be a magnet for playing cards, golf balls, and coins, especially dimes and pennies.
I chose Lucky Penny to represent two of my grandmothers, Nana and Granny Lu, who were my greatest sources of love and support as a child. Granny Lu even owned a toy store called The Toy Barn, where I often chose a new book or magic trick. Granny Lu was the daughter of A.C. Gilbert, inventor of the Erector Set, making me the third generation in my family devoted to children’s toys and books. So when I see a penny, I think of my legacy, and I say to myself, “Lucky me!” Thus, Lucky Penny Publications.
Did you know there are three symbols on the dime? A torch, an olive branch, and an oak tree: representing freedom, peace, strength and independence.
Where in the country is your house based? What do you love about being based there?
I grew up in New England and then moved to California for twenty years, just like many of the characters in our books that love the four seasons, I missed the changes in weather and found myself running the Mid Mountain Trail in Park City, Utah, deciding this was the place for me.
Every morning the first thing I do is open my front door or window shades to see what nature has brought to the trees or the plants. This spring a robin built a nest and laid three eggs. Weeks later, we watched the chicks hop across the lawn while the mother robin dug up worms. We have been very lucky to have moose walk across the lawn and eat leaves from the trees. We have water dishes for the birds and hummingbird feeders. Both my dog and my son’s dog have made friends with the squirrels that scurry back and forth across our backyard fence.
And as I write this, one of the happiest moments of my life was discovering a hummingbird nest at our front door. I’ve been watching her for nearly two weeks now (July 2026), checking on her three to four times a day. I find myself drawn to nature more than ever, believing these tiny moments are what really matter.
What are some of your priorities in the next few years?
As the publisher, I truly love taking our books on the road in our Sprinter van with my dog, Clover. We especially enjoy visiting rural libraries and public schools around the state of Utah. Taking our books to public libraries this summer was one of our biggest priorities.
We also do something different than many authors and publishers. We produce poster-size illustrations of our books so that kids look at the posters instead of the reader. Often a student will help hold the posters to increase engagement. We also always bring multiple copies of our books to our readings so we can ask children to participate in reading aloud.
Looking ahead, we have a goal to translate as many of our books into Spanish as possible, and to create eBook and audio versions of every title.
One of our dreams for the Lucky Penny Legacy is to create our first Storybook Trail, with QR codes on each page linking to bilingual audio recordings in English and Spanish. We’re starting this with Flora’s Winged Adventure, and hope to eventually build a full “Lucky Penny Tales” podcast from these recordings.
Which formats does your house prefer to publish?
For the past ten years, we’ve published softcover books using a print-on-demand model. More recently, we’ve expanded into audio and eBook formats. We commissioned two wonderful narrators, a male and a female voice, to bring our stories to life, and we’ve been formatting eBook versions of our titles as well.
We recently piloted this multi-format approach with two elementary schools, providing softcover books to two grades while giving the librarians eBook and audio versions to use at their discretion.
Which titles has Lucky Penny recently rallied behind?
Two of our most recent titles have garnered more recognition than we expected. Ole’s Dark Sky Journey was selected by Utah Humanities as one of Utah’s “Great Reads from Great Places” for young readers, part of the Library of Congress’s 2023 National Book Festival & Roadmap to Reading program. As Dan Brown, Co-Founder of Utah Skies (Astronomy, Awareness, Advocacy, and Education), wrote:
“The artist’s illustrations are beautiful and respectful representations of equally beautiful Utah landscapes. The story captures much important content including cultural and natural history, biology, geology, and astronomy, as well as conveying it in a fun and playful way: well done!”
Rascal’s Year of Adventure was listed in the 2026 Reading the West Book Awards long list, presented by the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. As Adriane Herrick Juarez, Park City (UT) Library Director, wrote:
“This book delights readers with an engaging tale of a curious beaver whose life is celebrated through vibrant text and vivid images. We are all invited to come along and see for ourselves a beaver’s view of the world.”
How has Lucky Penny Publications evolved over the years?
Lucky Penny Publications has evolved in ways we never could have predicted. After publishing our first hardcover book in 2009 (even before LPP), we moved into digital publishing with the release of the iPad and created the Lucky Penny Press App. We published dozens of eBooks, launched our eCommerce website on November 1, 2011, and returned to print in 2015 at the request of one of our youngest authors.
Along the way, we have also had the opportunity to publish books that celebrate language and culture. Polly Caldwell Bookwalter’s Butterfly Beach was translated into Chinese, and we have published several of our books in Spanish, allowing us to share stories with young readers in different languages and across cultures.
In 2015, we thought we were going to write and publish just one book about Utah’s five national parks. Yet every time we think we are going to move on from this genre, we meet a new artist, discover a new story, and another book comes alive.
In 2026, we began working with recording artists, and in many ways our books came full circle. Our stories are now available in softcover, eBook, and audio formats, with additional Spanish translations on the way. Flora’s Winged Adventure was released this summer, and we already had the Spanish translation, audio recording, and posters ready for school and library readings. Our stories can now be read, seen, and heard.
Which frontlist titles would you highlight for schools, libraries, classrooms, or bookstores, and for which grades?
Our current collection of nearly a baker’s dozen books about nature and national parks makes a wonderful educational set, with a focus on kindergarten through second or third grade. We tend to call our books “storybooks” rather than picture books or early readers because the content is intentionally more advanced and designed to engage adults reading with children.
We believe children are capable of hearing and exploring more challenging vocabulary. When they encounter words like “metamorphosis”, our illustrations help demonstrate the meaning, allowing children to connect a more difficult word with what they can see happening on the page. Our hope is to build curiosity and confidence with language through recognition and repetition, while encouraging children and the adults reading with them to explore the natural world together. Often, we will have a parent say to us, “I didn’t know that.”
As a publisher, writer, reader, and parent, I have always loved and lived by Rachel Carson’s words about the importance of an adult sharing a child’s sense of wonder. Her words beautifully capture the spirit behind our books.
“If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.”
Thank you, Lucky Penny Publications!
Learn more about our member publishers by reading more Publisher Profiles.
