Updated: Apr 11, 2022
Rabbit isn't sure he'll ever be brave enough to go on an adventure. He's a homebody who lives in a quiet field of wheat he dreams of leaving every night. His world is enlarged by his friend Dog and Dog's tales of motorbike adventures. But one day, Dog is gone, and with him, go the stories Rabbit loves so much. Dare Rabbit pick up the motorbike and live his own story?
Pick by Corinna Lukyen, Something Good:
RABBIT AND THE MOTORBIKE
Written by Kate Hoefler and illustrated by Sarah Jacoby
Publisher: Chronicle Books (September 10, 2019)
Can you tell me the origin story behind Rabbit and the Motorbike? KH: "I slowly worked on the story over a span of about a year and a half as my life, as I’d known it, had drastically altered. I had experienced a loss, and I felt both stuck (and wanting to stay curled in a ball) and thrown into an unknown where I absolutely could not stay curled in a ball, but had to try out my legs – in some ways, for the first time. I was also acutely aware that no one could do that walking (or living) for me. I now see how much of my own grappling was the very grappling that Rabbit experiences when figuring out what to do with Dog’s motorbike – after Dog dies. What do we do with absence? How do we transform absence back into something that feels like moving forward, and loving, and living? There’s a phrase I have on my fridge that a friend once said - 'in our own patterns, in our own time,' and that’s how Rabbit progresses, and how we all progress. We all have our own timetables, and that’s okay. It's okay that birds have time to build nests in that motorbike’s spokes. I also didn’t see many picture books about fear and grief that also contained adventure and euphoria in them. Quite often, things are only just looking up at the end of the book – and while there’s nothing wrong with that structure, I wanted this story to have what surprised me most about grappling with major upheaval – that joy is still a part of your life – and will be – when you’re on rocky terrain. And while joy (during upheaval) won’t necessarily take the form of a long road trip on a motorbike for most – it might be in a friend’s laugh, a memory, a song, a bloom, a sunrise. It’s still available – right here – right in the middle of things. Sometimes between cries. One of my friends, after reading the book, said, 'I know that Rabbit.' Meaning me. And also talking about herself. I think we’re all a little of both – adventurous Dog, and slow-to-warm Rabbit. (Although I’m probably mainly Rabbit). It was really a lullaby to myself, working through how to live differently, and I had no idea just how many people of all ages would connect to it."
As Corinna Luyken had mentioned in her interview, Rabbit and the Motorbike "deal(s) beautifully with grief and healing." Are there other picture books you love that explore grief, loss or healing? "There are so many great books that deal with how to be present with difficult emotions -- and each one sorts through aspects of healing differently (which I think is so important – there's no one 'right' way). Some favorites that come to mind are Bear Island by Matthew Cordell, Teacup by Rebecca Young and Matt Ottley, The Longest Letsgoboy by Derick Wilder and Cátia Chien, When Sadness is at Your Door by Eva Eland, and Duck, Death, and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch."
What was your favorite picture book as a child? "I had many – but one I remember lighting a fire in me (and making me want to be a writer) was When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode. I think that book carried me as I got older as well and began studying writing formally. In many ways, Cynthia Rylant’s work gave me a sort of 'permission' to create as a fellow Appalachian woman."
Do you remember what you loved reading to your kids at age three? At age five? "You know, I think we were reading the same books at 3 and 5. We had board books, but I remember mainly reading picture books – and both children sat for them, and were interested in them at a very young age. Some of our favorites were A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, Dodo Gets Married by Petra Mathers, The Magic Bed and
Time to get out of the bath, Shirley by John Burningham, Perfect the Pig by Susan Jeschke, Imogene’s Antlers by David Small, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammell, and we LOVED pouring over the pages of Anno’s Journey by Mitsumasa Anno. (That last page still grips me!!!!)"
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "One of THE best picture books of all time (in my own heart) is Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. It’s a book that has it all, walking a perfect tightrope between social honesty and wonder (the power of imagination), and with such a strong triumphant voice. Sometimes I think all creators are chasing a feeling that a favorite book planted in them years ago – and that’s the book I chase. The book I’ll always chase. I’m so glad it exists."
Updated: Jan 4, 2022
Oscar is a whiz in the kitchen, but he’s always dreamed of being a detective. When a squirrel is reported missing, Oscar hopes this will be his big break.
Max's Boat Pick:
DETECTIVE MOLE
By Camilla Pintonato
Publisher: HarperCollins (November 16, 2021)
Can you tell me the origin story behind Detective Mole?
CP: "I wrote Detective Mole at a moment in my life when I found myself having to make a choice between working as a graphic designer or trying to be a full-time author-illustrator.
Before, I used to do both to earn a living, but I wasn’t happy because my dream was to to always work on books. On the other hand, being a graphic designer allowed me to enter a studio and work more serenely. It was a real dilemma.
It was precisely at that moment when Oscar arrived; blindfolded and with his head in the clouds, he’s exactly like me. He is a chef (a very good one) but his dream is to be an investigator. Why? He doesn’t know either, but dreams are always like that.
So there wasn't a precise moment when I thought 'this is going to be a detective story.' The idea came when I wasn't looking for it, and I don't even know exactly how. Maybe it came with a good laugh because a mole is really unfit to do this kind of job!"
Can you tell me how you got started in picture books?
"I fell in love with picture books exactly twelve years ago, when I came back almost by accident to visit an exhibition I remembered I saw once in my childhood and which took place every year in a small town called Sarmede, near the home of my maternal grandparents. The exhibition consisted of a few rooms on the first floor of the town hall and that year the guest of honor was Beatrice Alemagna. I think I stayed there for two and a half hours. When I went out it was dark and I was very clear what I wanted to do in life. I haven’t looked back since."
Who are some other illustrators you admire and what do you think they do especially well? "There are so many. I'll mention just a few that I really love: Oliver Jeffers for his absurd irony, Jon Klassen for his iconic designs, Beatrice Alemagna for her magical atmospheres and Marc Boutavant because nobody makes animals as beautiful as he does!"
What are the contemporary picture books that you hope will become the classics of the future?
"On my dream list:
Little Bird by Germano Zullo and Albertine
What is a Child? by Beatrice Alemagna
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers
The Wall in the Middle of the Book by Jon Agee
The Forest by Riccardo Bozzi, Valerio Vidali and Violeta Lopiz"
What do you think the best picture books do? "For me, the best children’s books teach without doing so explicitly, using irony and simplicity.
Chris Haughton is a master of this, and he achieves it in all of his books. But if I have to pick a favorite, it would have to be Little Owl Lost."
The day the "bad-something" is discovered written on a wall, the kids in the school are nervous, giggly, and curious at first, but then they're worried, confused, sad and angry. Everyone is suspicious. Who did it, and why? They miss the days before the bad-something appeared, because everything—and everyone—feels different now. It takes a lot of talking, listening, looking, and creating something good together to find a way to heal.
Max's Boat Pick:
SOMETHING GOOD
Written by Marcy Campbell and illustrated by Corinna Luyken
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (October 19, 2021)
Something Good has such an important message. Are there any other picture books you love that explore healing? Or coming together--whether as a school, neighborhood or community? CL: "Off the top of my head, I’m not thinking of anything that is an exact fit. But a few books I’ve read or reread recently come to mind in one way or another: Andrea Wang and Jason Chin’s Watercress is an exquisite book that deals with overcoming internal emotional obstacles and coming together as a family. Rabbit and the Motorbike by Kate Hoefler
and Sarah Jacoby, The Longest Letsgoboy by Derick Wilder and Cátia Chien, Michael Rosen’s SAD BOOK by Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake, and Ten Beautiful Things by Molly Beth Griffin and Maribel Lechuga all deal beautifully with grief and healing. And School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson is a surprising take on the topic of school community. Also, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson and E.B. Lewis is a book that deals with the grief that comes from not acting, leaving room for a 'what if' in the reader’s own heart and mind. It’s an incredibly powerful book."
You have such a distinctive illustration style. Are there any other illustrators you admire for their
distinctive style? "Oh my! In this golden age of illustration, it’s impossible for me to choose just one illustrator or just one book. But there are illustrators whose new books I tend to preorder, sight unseen, because I appreciate their work/distinctive style so much. They include: Julie Flett (Birdsong), Cátia Chien (The Bear and the Moon), Carson Ellis (Du Iz Tak), Isabelle Arsenault (Virginia Wolf), Beatrice Alemagna (What is a Child?), Julie Morstad (Time Is a Flower), Jillian Tamaki (They Say Blue), Sydney Smith (Town is By The Sea), Erin Stead (A Sick Day for Amos McGee), Christian Robinson (Leo: A Ghost Story), Shawn Harris (Have You Ever Seen A
Flower?), Jon Klassen (This is Not My Hat), Jon
Agee (I Want a Dog), Komako Sakai (Emily’s Balloon)...
(Three of my favorite, lesser known, no longer living, illustrators with very distinct styles that I absolutely love are Adrienne Adams, Ati Forberg, and Evaline Ness.)"
What do you think the best picture books do? "The best picture books surprise us. They take us on a journey that feels simultaneously unexpected and inevitable. To do this well, the words and pictures each have to leave a little room for the other—
to surprise, to contrast, to delight. This dance between the world of image and the world of sound makes a brilliant picture book so much more than a combination of the two. It’s what turns a book into a world we want to return to— again and again and again.
A few examples: Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis; both Extra Yarn and The Wolf, the Duck & the Mouse by Mac Barnett and Jon Klasssen; School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson; My Museum by Joanne Liu; Migrant by Isabelle Arsenault and Maxine Trottier; The Iridescence of Birds by Patricia MacLachlan and Hadley Hooper; Jon Agee’s Nothing; Michael Rosen’s SAD BOOK by Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake; Saturday by Oge Mora, Mrs. Crump’s Cat by Linda Smith and David Roberts..."
What was your favorite picture book as a child? "As a young child, I loved reading Rootabaga Stories, written by Carl Sandburg, and illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham, aloud with my mom.
I also adored Shel Silverstein’s Where The Sidewalk Ends; The Fire Cat by Esther Averill; The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall; No More Monsters for Me by Peggy Parish and Marc Simont; Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library and Where the Wild Things Are; Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad and Lucille; Tomie de Paola’s The Clown of God; Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches and Other Stories; and Edward Gorey’s illustrated intro sequence for the PBS MASTERPIECE Mystery TV Series! Most of the books that I loved as a child were a combination of beautiful and absurd/strange. It’s a sweet spot for me.
Many years later, as a young adult, it was discovering George Saunders and Lane Smith’s book The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip as well as Lisbeth Zwerger’s illustrations and Sophie
Blackall’s book Missed Connections that started me on my path to becoming a book maker."
If you have children, do you remember what you loved reading to your kids at age three? At age five? "My daughter recently turned 12, and we have read sooo many picture books together that it’s hard to choose favorites. But the first book she memorized completely (in that 3 yr range) was Marla Frazee and Liz Garton Scanlon’s All The World—which our whole family adored. And our favorite book of poetry, without question, was and continues to be Julie Fogliano and Julie Morstad’s
When Green Becomes Tomatoes. A few other favorites were/are Sergio Ruzzier’s Bear and Bee; Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always by Tao Nyeu; Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robinson; Virginia Wolf by Kyo MacLear and Isabelle Arsenault; Emily’s Balloon and Hannah’s Night both by Komako Sakai; Kelly DiPucchio and Christian Robinson’s Gaston; Wave by Suzy Lee; and No Fits, Nilson! by Zacharia OHora. I could go on and on..."
What contemporary picture books do you hope will become the classics of the future? "Everything I’ve mentioned above! I wish more people knew about George Saunders and Lane Smith's The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip. And I think When Green Becomes Tomatoes should be in everybody’s poetry collection (and everything else by Julie Fogliano.)"