Updated: Nov 8, 2021
Everybody in the red brick building was asleep. Until . . . WaaaAAH! Rraak! Wake up! Pitter patter STOMP! Pssheew! A chain reaction of noises wakes up several children (and a cat) living in an apartment building. But it’s late in the night, so despite the disturbances, one by one, the building’s inhabitants return to their beds—this time with a new set of sounds to lull them to sleep.
Max's Boat Pick:
EVERYBODY IN THE RED BRICK BUILDING
Written by Anne Wynter and illustrated by Oge Mora
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (October 19, 2021)
What inspired Everybody in the Red Brick Building? AW: "A few things inspired the book. The first was a fascination with how apartment neighbors interact. I grew up in the same house my whole childhood, so when I was an adult living in apartments, the dynamics were so interesting to me. Once I woke up to the sound of a child singing Jingle Bells on the other side of the wall - it was so clear and it just lifted my mood. Moments like that stuck with me. I tried to write a full-length play that explored those themes, but it never worked out. So when I started trying to write picture books, this was one of the first ideas that came to mind. When I wrote the manuscript, I was living in an apartment with my kids, and apartment living was all they’d ever known. We had lots of wonderful books that featured houses, but I wished we had more books featuring apartments. And because I had already been thinking about apartments so much, possibilities for interactions were right at the top of my mind when I started working on Everybody in the Red Brick Building."
I find cumulative tales so fun to read, but they're also tricky to get right. What are some of your favorite cumulative text picture books? "They are tricky! When I was younger, I had a big book of stories and poems. Usually, I’d turn straight to The House that Jack Built and read that one over and over. For contemporary cumulative stories, One Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree by Daniel Bernstrom and Brendan Wenzel is a favorite."
Everybody in the Red Brick Building is such fun to read aloud! What are some of your favorite books to read aloud? "Saturday by Oge Mora. There’s a moment when Ava and her mother don’t want to miss the bus, and the mood quickly pivots from quiet and calm to loud and intense. There are so many big emotions in that book - excitement, disappointment, frustration, joy. Reading it out loud feels like performing a really great monologue.
Speaking of performing, I can’t forget Punk Farm by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. It’s definitely our noisiest, most energetic read aloud. We all get really into it!"
What do you think the best picture books do? "I think the best picture books have bits of language or imagery that stay with you and work their way into your life. One example is Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis. It’s a book that teaches you another language - bug language! Sometimes my kids pick gladenboots for me. Or I’ll wish we had a taller ribble. It’s like you get access to an inside joke between everyone who loves that book.
Another book that does that is Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. I love the structure and logic of the story, as well as the beautiful connection between the two characters, and the phrase 'same, same but different' gets a lot of use in our home.
In a different sense, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson and E.B. Lewis also stays with you. It has an unexpected, sad ending that feels very true to life. Sometimes when we finish reading it, one of my kids’ will sit and stare at the final page for a while. Several of Jacqueline Woodson’s books have endings that never leave me."
What did you love reading to your sons at age three? At age five? "At age 3, Stick and Stone by Beth Ferry and Tom Lichtenheld, Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, Baby Goes to Market by Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank, Blue on Blue by Dianne White and Beth Krommes, and My Red Balloon by Kazuaki Yamada were definite favorites. At age 5, Whoosh! By Chris Barton and Don Tate, Boats for Papa by Jessixa Bagley, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown, and I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and
Gordon C. James were all winners. Another great thing about all these books is that they’re special at such a wide range of ages. They’re all still favorites in our home."
What contemporary picture books do you think will be the new classics of the future? "Little Owl’s Night by Divya Srinivasan is 10 years old, and it certainly feels like it’s achieved classic status already. The Old Boat by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey and All the World by Liz Garton Stanlon and Marla Frazee also feel like modern classics."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "What a question! That’s so hard! To avoid hand-wringing, brow-furrowing and page flipping, I’m going to pick one that definitely makes the list for me. A Big Moon Cake for Little Star by Grace Lin. Magical, breathtaking, satisfying, perfect. We never get tired of that book."
It fell from the sky on a Thursday. None of the insects know where it came from, or what it is. Some say it’s an egg. Others, a gumdrop. But whatever it is, it fell near Spider’s house, so he’s convinced it belongs to him. Spider builds a wonderous display so that insects from far and wide can come look at the marvel. Spider has their best interests at heart. So what if he has to charge a small fee? So what if the lines are long? So what if no one can even see the wonder anymore? But what will Spider do after everyone stops showing up?
Pick by The Pumphrey Brothers, The Old Boat:
IT FELL FROM THE SKY
By Terry Fan and Eric Fan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (September 28, 2021)
Can you tell me the origin story behind It Fell From the Sky?
Eric: "Like all our books, It Fell from the Sky had its start as a standalone image Terry and I did about ten years ago. It showed a group of insects wearing top hats surrounding a marble that had fallen into the garden. When we start writing a book, we like to use an image as a starting point, as a springboard for our imagination. As you go through the process of interrogating the image the story begins to slowly reveal itself. It’s the same process we used for our last three books, and it tends to work much better than starting with an empty page, which is always a little daunting."
Terry: "Another inspiration for It Fell from the Sky is the fact that Eric and I both collected marbles when we were younger. We loved the mystery and beauty of these humble little glass worlds. Over time we discovered that there were rare marbles and handmade marbles that were nearly a hundred years old. They all had evocative names like onionskins, 'end of the day' marbles, agates, gooseberries, micas, lattice-core, Benningtons, lutzes, and sulphides. We learned to identify the handmade ones by the two rough patches at the marble’s poles, known as pontils. The pontils are where the marble was cut from its cane by a glassmaker. For our story, we used the most recognizable, machine-made marble, which is the cat’s eye. Since the book is partly about discovering the wondrous in the mundane, we wanted something very ordinary that was still intriguing and mysterious, when taken out of context."
Your penultimate double-page spread was just breathtaking. Are there any double-page spreads that really stand out to you? Eric: "Thank you! The two recent examples I can think of were both gatefold spreads. There’s a spectacular one in I Talk Like a River, by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith, and a lovely gatefold spread of a lemon meringue pie in Nice Try, Charlie! by Matt James. Come to think of it, maybe we should have made our penultimate spread a gatefold!"
Your books always seem to have this larger message, which you deliver with such nuance and care. So I'm curious to know: What do you think the best picture books do?
Eric: "Thank you! That’s so nice to hear. We always strive to deliver a message that isn’t too didactic, that emerges naturally from an entertaining story. For me the most important aspect of a book is to expand the boundaries of the reader’s imaginative world. I just read a middle grade novel called In the Wild Light, by Jeff Zentner, and one of the characters says at one point: 'fear wants to make your life small.' I think books, at their best, do the opposite. Books want to make your life large, your empathy and imagination more expansive, your dreams bigger."
Terry: "Yes, thanks for such a lovely compliment. I think the best picture books can be appreciated on different levels, Where the Wild Things Are being a perfect example. For very young readers, it can be enjoyed simply as a magical adventure. However, it offers much more and lends itself to deeper analysis. That’s one of the reasons it impacted me so much as a child because even if I couldn’t fully understand the underlying psychological complexities of the story, I could sense it on an emotional level, which imbued the book with even more mystery and power. Kids love to be challenged in that way, and in my case, Where the Wild Things Are went beyond entertainment and acted as a springboard for my developing imagination."
You have such a distinctive visual style. Who are some other illustrators you admire? Eric: "There are so many. As far as contemporary illustrators, just to name a few:
Sydney Smith, Small in the City
Isabelle Arsenault, Colette’s Lost Pet
Carson Ellis, Du Iz Tak?
Matthew Cordell, Wolf in the Snow
Christian Robinson, Last Stop on Market Street
Dena Seiferling, King Mouse
K-Fai Steele, A Normal Pig
The Pumphrey Brothers, The Old Truck
Matt James, The Funeral
Cindy Wume, Ten Little Dumplings
Kadir Nelson, The Undefeated
Esme Shapiro, Alma and the Beast
Julie Morstad, Time is a Flower
Phoebe Wahl, The Blue House
Marianna Coppo, Such a Good Boy
Jon Klassen, This Is Not My Hat
Brendan Wenzel, They All Saw a Cat
Benji Davis, The Storm Whale
Shaun Tan, Eric
Matt Forsythe, Pokko and the Drum
Daniel Miyares, Hope at Sea: An Adventure
Akiko Miyakoshi, The Way Home in the Night
David Biedrzycki, Invasion Of The Unicorns
Dan Santat, After the Fall "
Terry: "All of the ones Eric listed! There are many others, and I couldn’t possibly list them all here, but I’ll add some that Eric hasn’t mentioned already:
Eliza Wheeler, Home in The Woods
Rashin Kheiriyeh, Story Boat
Kenard Pak, The Fog
Jillian Tamaki, They Say Blue
Marc Martin, A Forest
Sophie Blackall, Hello Lighthouse
Pete Oswald, The Bad Seed
Samantha Cotterill, Charlotte and the Rock
Chuck Groenink, Hungry Jim
Katie Cottle, The Blue Giant
Sabina Gibson, Unicorn Magic
Chris Turnham, The Wish Tree
Chow Hon Lam, The Bold, Brave Bunny
Scott Magoon, Breathe
Sandra Dieckmann, The Secret Forest
Brian Floca, Locomotive
Jacqueline Alcántara, Jump at The Sun
Charly Palmer, Keep Your Head Up
Mark Teague, Cat Dog
The O’Hara Sisters, Frindleswylde
Jay Fleck, Tiny T. Rex
Byron Eggenschwiler, The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt Rebecca Green, How To Make Friends With a Ghost"
What contemporary picture books do you think will be the new classics of the future?Eric: "It’s always tough to know what will be considered a classic in the future. This is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen seems like an obvious choice. The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg, which I guess is already a classic? I’d love to see any of the books already listed become a classic, too."
Terry: "I can think of many contemporary picture books that deserve to become classics, but it’s very tricky to predict, so I won’t even hazard a guess. Consider Goodnight Moon. It’s one of the most popular picture book classics of all time, and yet it performed poorly when it was first published. It was even banned for a time. I always found it so sad that Margaret Wise Brown didn’t live long enough to see her book become the classic that it was destined to become. A true classic persists for generations, so at the very least, it takes decades for a book to become a classic. Enough time is needed for kids to grow into adulthood and then pass on the love of a book they remembered from childhood to their own children, and then so on."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? Eric: "I’ll just name my two of my favorite picture books: Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, which my parents read to me a hundred times when I was little, maybe a thousand times, at my insistence. Then there’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and basically anything by William Steig. He’s such a brilliant writer, and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble goes to some unexpectedly dark places for a picture book; there’s genuine existential dread in the story, which gives it a lot of punch and emotional resonance."
Terry: "I'll have to repeat Where the Wild Things Are, because it has always been my favourite. A
few more are Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, and Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola."
What do you do when you meet a ghost? If you follow the essential ghost care tips (provide favorite snacks like mud tarts and earwax truffles, for starters), you'll see how a ghost friend will lovingly grow up and grow old with you.
Pick by Kevin Cornell, New in Town:
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH A GHOST
By Rebecca Green
Publisher: Tundra Books (September 5, 2017)
What inspired How to Make Friends With a Ghost? RG: "This book was inspired by my love of Autumn, but the idea came about when I was working on a different project, as many ideas do. I was walking my dog and thinking of illustrations for a client project - one of those illustrations was a girl and a ghost by the fire. I was considering what the girl might offer the ghost to drink. I thought of cider but then I realized I didn't know if ghosts even liked cider. At once a flurry of ideas popped into my head about a guide to ghost care - what do they like to eat, drink, or do for fun? I sat in my kitchen that day for hours dreaming and writing, and I'm so glad I did - it was so much fun bringing that all to life." What was it like to both write and illustrate your own book? I'm curious how that process compared with illustrating someone else's words? "Illustrating someone else's words, I've come to find, is much more challenging. I actually just finished my last illustrated book for another author and am currently only working on writing and illustrating my own. I feel there is much less pressure and struggle when it's my writing - the artwork falls into place and I don't overthink it."
Let's talk ghost stories! Besides your own, of course, do you have any other favorite picture books about ghosts? "I'd definitely like to get my hands on Oliver Jeffers's new book, There's a Ghost in this House. One that I've read and loved is Leo: A Ghost Story by Mac Barnett and Christian Robinson, and one of my favorite childhood ghost books was Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell."
You have such a distinctive visual style. Who are some other illustrators you admire? "Thank you! My work has changed a lot over my career so it's hard for me, even, to understand my own style. That said, I love the work of Isabelle Arsenault, Andrew Wyeth, and Roger Duvoisin. Recently I've been inspired by Jiří Trnka, Zbigniew Rychlicki, 100% Orange, and Miroco Machiko."
What was your favorite picture book as a child? "One of my favorites was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz. I can't tell you how many times I checked it out at the library. I felt like it was one of the few books where I saw a character just going through a crap day! I guess I just felt like it resonated."
What contemporary picture books do you think will be the new classics of the future? "Hopefully the one I'm currently writing. I kid! I don't know, I'm actually not the most well versed in contemporary picture books. It's a world I'm part of but I mostly stick to the art side, and to honing my craft."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "Rumpelstiltskin, retold and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky comes to mind. I remember being in awe of the illustrations as a child, like I was holding precious artwork in my hands. It's on my bookshelf today, too, and just last week I was admiring all the painstaking details the artist did. He painted that in oil over watercolor underpaintings. Who paints picture books in oil?! It's just so stunning."