This wide, wonderful world contains many things. Some things are as big as a family of bears; some are as small as a reflection in a puddle. Some things are felt rather than seen. In between it all is . . . you. What kinds of things will you collect?
Pick by Julie Falatko, Yours in Books and Antwan Eady, Nigel and the Moon:
BIG AND SMALL AND IN-BETWEEN
Written by Carter Higgins and illustrated by Daniel Miyares
Published by Chronicle Books (April 12, 2022)
Can you tell me the origin story behind Big and Small and In-Between?
CH: "For a very long time, my working title for this book was A Collection of Things, which is exactly what it was. I drafted this bit by bit over the late months of 2016, one three-line stanza at a time. The election cycle was bleak and draining. I was still working as a school librarian which was equal parts rewarding and exhausting. Stealing time here and there to squeeze out a little vignette was all I could create.
At first, it was a list of small things that made me happy. I wasn’t necessarily intent on these scratchy poems becoming a book, but it slowly started to take shape: here’s this list of small things, and the list is getting pretty big.
Well, what about small feelings, thoughts, or moments? Not just things. And just as the list of small things was starting to feel big, what would a small list of big things feel like? What about big feelings, thoughts, and moments? And if small moments can feel big, can big moments feel small?
After establishing the bookends of big and small, in-between was a very satisfying middle. I think it’s a book you can read from front to back, from big to small—but it’s also a book made up of very important moments you can flip to and sit with for a while."
For those who love Big and Small and In-Between, can you recommend a few other picture books that you think they might also enjoy?
"Some of my all-time favorite books are A Hole Is to Dig by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak, Do You See What I See? by Helen Borten, and Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran and Barbara Cooney.
And I’m seeing now, for the first time, how connected Big and Small and In-Between is to this history. Look at that list: a book that celebrates how kids catalog and think about things, how visuals make us feel, and a magical tribute to childhood and imagination."
We're certainly living in a golden age of picture books, but are we living in a golden age of conceptual picture books? What are some other conceptual picture books you love?
"Conceptual picture books feel like such a natural extension of how kids interact with their world. Do you need a beginning, middle, and end to scrunch down and intensely study a roly-poly bug for a few quiet, magical minutes? Or marvel at a particular shade of magenta? Not really. But there’s a bigness to that experience, right? Kids are incredibly adept at understanding something mundane that actually isn’t at all. An experience is a narrative for them.
Two books I love that do this beautifully are Is Was by Deborah Freedman and Time is a Flower by Julie Morstad.
The design of Big and Small and In-Between is certainly a necessary partner that supports its conceptual narrative. It’s atypical in both page count and trim size and has four spectacular spreads with unfolding-paper-engineering. (I don’t want to know if there’s an actual term for that!) I’m always drawn to picture books that play with their physicality. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith and Round Trip by Ann Jonas have remained incredibly formative for me."
You spent 10 years as a school librarian. How did you go about choosing your collection? I'm also curious how your time as a librarian shaped how you approach making picture books?
"School libraries are a living, breathing collection, incredibly specific to the community which they serve. Collection development (including the weeding!) was always one of my favorite parts of the job. Librarians make so many decisions: who are my patrons? Who aren’t they and how can I make sure they see they aren’t the only people in this world? What can I acquire that supports and extends the curriculum? What can I acquire that kids might otherwise not see because of the curriculum?
My elementary school librarian introduced me to Round Trip, and there’s a direct line from my first grade self to making books today.
Sometimes I wonder if a storytime on a random Tuesday was foundational to a kid’s whole entire life. I’m unlikely to know, and maybe they won’t for many years either! But picture books can be sticky like that."
What do you think the best picture books do? Is there a book that you think does this particularly well?
"The best picture books are keenly aware of the child reader, whether that means speaking their language, honoring the reality of their experiences, or observing with close-up precision what matters to them.
Books I love that do one (or more) of these well are Float by Daniel Miyares, I’ll Fix Anthony by Judith Viorst and Arnold Lobel, and The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson. I love the way Tana Hoban’s books of photography do the same thing visually, particularly Look Again! and Shadows and Reflections."
What contemporary picture books do you hope will become the classics of the future?
"Okay, this is so difficult and we could discuss it for days, right? I hope readers many years from now are clutching beloved copies of Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora, Have You Ever Seen a Flower? by Shawn Harris, and Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time?
"My shelves might already be sagging with the books I’ve mentioned above, but I can’t make a list like that without Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni, A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry and Marc Simont, Fortunately by Remy Charlip, and Clocks and More Clocks by Pat Hutchins."
What picture books coming out in 2022 are you most looking forward to reading?
"I am very much looking forward to To Make by Danielle Davis and Mags DeRoma. I’m positive it’s going to hit the sweet spot of everything I love: sparkly language, observant and true, a visual treat that celebrates childhood."
When Nigel looks up at the moon, his future is bright. He imagines himself as…an astronaut, a dancer, a superhero, too! But it’s Career Week at school, and Nigel can’t find the courage to share his dreams. It’s easy to whisper them to the moon, but not to his classmates—especially when he already feels out of place.
Max's Boat Pick:
NIGEL AND THE MOON
Written by Antwan Eady and illustrated by Gracey Zhang
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (February 15, 2022)
Can you tell me the origin story behind Nigel and the Moon?
AE: "Thank you for this question. Nigel's a story about a young boy who's afraid to tell the world his dreams, so he shares them with the moon at night. I was inspired by my childhood and my love for the moon. The distance between myself and the moon felt like a safe space. I didn't have the language for it in my younger years, but looking back, I realize that's what drew me to it. So, I built upon that. I also used this story to process grief. In the story, Nigel's parents have the same jobs that my parents once had. This was my way of honoring my late parents. But I also wanted to highlight our everyday heroes...ordinary people doing extraordinary things."
What contemporary picture books do you hope will become the classics of the future? "Love this question! Off the top of my head, here are a few that instantly come to mind...books that I've sat with, revisited, and studied. The Old Truck by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, Drawn Together by Minh Lê and Dan Santat, I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith, The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López, The Night Gardener by Terry and Eric Fan, Watercress by Andrea Wang and Jason Chin. A recent book that I love, and I’m certain I’ll study one day, is Soul Food Sunday by Winsome Bingham and C.G. Esperanza."
What picture books coming out in 2022 are you most looking forward to reading? Big and Small and In-Between by Carter Higgins and Daniel Miyares, The Blur by Minh Lê and Dan Santat, Lizzy and the Cloud by The Fan Brothers, and John's Turn by Mac Barnett and Kate Berube."
Do you have a favorite bookstore and / or library? "Bookstore - The Storybook Shoppe in downtown Bluffton, South Carolina. This bookstore has everything I love about children's books, and you can feel it as soon as you walk through those doors. It's magical. They only carry children's books too.
I also love Live Oak Public Libraries in Savannah, Georgia. Years ago, when I was starting out, I researched picture books at these libraries. The librarians there were always so helpful. They believed in me, too. Sometimes they'd give me books straight from the cart before they were shelved. haha."
Have you ever seen a flower? I mean really . . . seen a flower? I mean way down in the clover with your face down in a flower? Have you ever seen a flower using nothing but your nose? Breathe deep . . . what do you see?
Pick by Corinna Luyken, Something Good; Il Sung Na, The Dreamer; The Pumphrey Brothers, The Old Boat; Adam Rex, School's First Day of School:
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FLOWER?
By Shawn Harris
Published by Chronicle Books (May 4, 2021)
Can you tell me the origin story behind Have You Ever Seen a Flower? SH: "There’s a Hermann Hesse short story called Iris where the narrator ventures into a flower and finds some existential truth there. I think that’s what got me thinking about a flower as an entry point to the natural world. I was also reading one of Knausgaard’s season books, where any crumb or bit of tchotchke he focuses on leads to a revelation. So I thought I’d try my hand at choosing some specific thing with the idea of eventually talking about bigger ideas. Flowers seemed worthy muses. They’re good at attracting attention. By design, the attention of bees, but it works on humans too— that’d be useful in designing a cover later and getting people to notice the book. Anyway, I just kept looking deeper, and asking questions, and the lines I was writing started giving me ideas for exciting page turns and reveals, and that’s when I had a hunch it might make for a good picture book."
From A Polar Bear in the Snow to such a riot of colors! Can you explain how you chose your color palette? "Every book has a different soul, and so do different mediums. That’s the first match I try to make when I start experimenting on a project. I get a lot of ideas from drawing with kids, and I like to use materials that a lot of kids have access to. My niece was into colored pencils, and she had a rainbow-tipped one that we got really into. I combined that with a neon pink, and a few others (I only used 6 or 7 colors in the book), mixing my own colors on the page rather than using too many secondary colors. Though I tend to press overly hard, so I went through a lot of my select colors. When it came time to print the book, we substituted normal magenta ink for a neon pantone, which was tricky to color correct, but it gives the book that extra dialed-up-to-11 pow."
Who are some other illustrators you admire for their use of color? "I have a special love for preseparated colors, especially hand-separated (mostly pre-digital) art like Marc Simont’s 3-color art in the early Nate the Great books, and Tomi Ungerer’s The Three Robbers and Zeralda’s Ogre. Christian Robinson is probably my favorite contemporary palette maker. Look at that Nina cover!" Are there other picture books you love about the wonder and connection to the natural world? "Brendan Wenzel’s They All Saw a Cat is always an inspiration. Carson Ellis’s Du Iz Tak? is a wondrous invitation to live amongst the bugs. A new favorite that came out last year is On the Day the Horse Got Out by Audrey Helen Weber. Sneakily naturalist."
What contemporary picture books do you hope will become the classics of the future? "All of those I just mentioned, and Cátia Chien’s new one with Derick Wilder, The Longest Letsgoboy, and everything Klassen and Barnett do, especially together, like the shapes books (Circle is my favorite). Also School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex & Christian Robinson, The Old Truck by the Pumphrey Brothers, Wild by Emily Hughes, and Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "I keep rolling my previous answer into the next question, so many of those books I just mentioned, plus already-crowned classics like The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak, as well as Sendak’s version of E.T.A. Hoffman’s Nutcracker, Fortunately by Remy Charlip, back to Sendak—his books with Ruth Krauss like Open House for Butterflies, and A Very Special House—The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard, George and Martha by James Marshall, The Amazing Bone by William Steig, and The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer, to name a small bundle."
What picture books coming out in 2022 are you most looking forward to getting your hands on? "The new Barnett/Klassen joint, a retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Also Jon is doing a retelling of a lesser known folktale called The Skull. That might come out the following year though, I’m not sure.
Beatrice Alemagna has a very good Gianni Rodari story coming out this year, Telling Stories Wrong. Also, Isabelle Arsenault illustrating The Mouse Who Carried A House on His Back by Jonathan Stutzman, and Carson Ellis illustrating This Story is Not About a Kitten by Randall de Sève."