Termites have destroyed Puddletrunk's last 200 or so bridges. Luckily, there's a bridge-building expert in town: the fabulous Mortimer Gulch, who will gladly rebuild any bridge for a pretty penny. But what happens when a newcomer comes to Puddletrunk who doesn't want to pay for repairs—and has innovative ideas of his own?
Max's Boat Pick:
NEW IN TOWN
Written and illustrated by Kevin Cornell
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 7, 2021)
What inspired you to write New in Town? You started it 12 years ago? That must be some back story! "Hah! Well, I had just signed on to my first book, and I suddenly found myself with an agent (the amazing Steven Malk). He was walking me through all the ways he could help me, and he mentioned that he could represent me as an author as well, if I had any story ideas. So I decided to try and write a picture book. I was very much into P.G. Wodehouse at the time, and I knew that WHATEVER the book was about, I wanted that sort of tone. And I wanted lots of fun things to draw, so that's how it ended up revolving around clocks, architecture, natty waistcoats, dangerous heights and a monstrous villain. Of course, the book was WAY, WAY too long and had some other problems (while it was filled with many a bumbling adult, there were no children), so Steve sent me back to the drawing board several times before I had a version a publisher could actually read. And even then, that version just couldn't entice a publisher, so eventually I gave it a polite wave and pushed it out to sea. Only several years later, after I finished Lucy Fell Down The Mountain, did it seem like I finally knew what I was doing well enough to fix it. So I did another go-around (by this time, version twelve), and then showed it to Grace Kendall, my editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. They really saw its potential as a tale about embracing new people with new ideas, and helped me bring that aspect to the fore. Fast forward several years and several hundreds of thousands of hours later, and here we are!"
You've created quite the hateful villain in Mortimer Gulch (I love that he's a bridge troll, by the way). Are there any other picture book villains you love/love to hate? "Here's where I have to admit something terribly, terribly embarrassing. I don't read a lot of picture books. I don't even recall that many picture books from my childhood. My earliest memories are really just reading Sunday comics. And then when it became my profession and I started educating myself about the genre I had to do it slowly because, the way my brain works, there's a real danger that I'd just regurgitate the books I saw rather than bring something new to the table. I mean... I don't even really read fiction. I mostly read boring ol' non-fiction so that I know how a timber-framed house is put together... or the specific kinds of tools you'd find in a blacksmith's shop. That being said, the big fish in This Is Not My Hat? Cold-hearted."
I'm wondering whether you imagined kids would see through the unreliable narrator from the beginning? Or did you imagine the AHA moment would only come later? Are there any other picture books you love for their unreliable narration? "Well, what I pictured was that kids would be more focused on the story in the illustrations, and the parents on the narrator's words. And then ten... twenty years later... there are the kids, home from college, and this heated argument erupts about the troll dude from that old book, and the kids would be all like that Gulch guy sucks and parents would be like Get em' Gulch! I can't get any of my employees to work either! and all this would culminate in... across the globe... just hundreds of family dinners, ruined. I am the true villain of this book. As for other unreliable narration... hmmm... I'm not sure I can name any offhand? Though I certainly don't trust the old lady in Goodnight Moon... with her ominous rocking... razor sharp crochet needles at the ready..."
If you have kids, do you remember what you loved reading to them at age 3? At age 5? "Alas! We have no kids, and thus can only read stories to our dogs. They listen, but you can tell they'd rather watch squirrels."
What contemporary picture books do you think will be the new classics of the future? "Again, I couldn't necessarily say, what with my hermit-like seclusion from my own genre. But I know Mac Barnett will be there. I also feel so unqualified to judge since I'm really just an illustrator who occasionally moonlights as a writer. But there are some illustrators I've come to follow and I love their work every time. Carson Ellis, Oliver Jeffers, Jon Klassen, Adam Rex, Rebecca Green, Christian Robinson, Corinna Luyken. I've recently fallen in love with the work of Emilia Dziubak. She has such an amazing sense of light."
What would be on your list of 100 best picture books of all time? "I still love Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. Love Leo Lionni's Inch By Inch. I only recently discovered the Harry series of books illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham, but that art completes my life. If we broaden the category beyond picture books and into just kid's books themselves... man... A Light In The Attic... The Phantom Tollbooth... any book by Ed Emberley or Edward Gorey. All the Eds."
Following a circle of family and friends through the course of a day from morning until night, this book affirms the importance of all things great and small in our world, from the tiniest shell on the beach, to the warmth of family connections, to the widest sunset sky.
Pick by Matt de la Peña, Milo Imagines the World:
ALL THE WORLD
Written by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Marla Frazee
Publisher: Little Simon (August 18, 2015)
What inspired you to write All the World? LGS: "At its heart, All the World is a simple list poem of some of the things -- both little and big -- that I love about the world. As I was composing the list, it occurred to me that a lot of other people probably loved the same things and in many ways, it's those things we have in common -- those things we love in common -- that connect us. That's how the list took a leap into something bigger, at least for me and my understanding."
Rhyme is so tricky to get right. What are some of your favorite picture books in rhyme? "My hands-down all time favorite rhyming text is The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Marla Frazee. How Hoberman sustained that rhyme across the whole (long-ish, complex, funny, loving) story and never once took the easy way out or compromised heart or humor for a word that would just work? Incredible."
Surely ALL THE WORLD belongs on a list of modern classics. What are some recent picture books that you hope will make that list as well? "Oh, thank you. That's really touching, to think of it resonating over time like that. I have a list a mile long of books that feel unique and heart centered and important to me. Some of my more recent favorites are Thank You, Omu by Oge Mora, A House That Once Was by Julie Fogliano and Lane Smith, The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee, Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away by Meg Medina and Sonia Sánchez, A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin, and You Matter by Christian Robinson."
All the World is so soothing, like a gorgeous lullaby. It's perfect for a bedtime story. What are some of your favorite picture books for bedtime reading? "When my babies were babies, I'd close my eyes and intone Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd. (I took advantage of any chance I could to close my eyes.) But I wish Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan had been out in those days. It's such a lovely bedtime read."
Do you remember what you loved reading to your children at age three? At age five? "Oh, gosh. Nostalgia hit! When they were three, The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood was a favorite, and years later I published my own loosely-cumulative story (Kate, Who Tamed the Wind) inspired by the structure of that book. We were also obsessed with The Elephant and the Bad Baby by Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs, and Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlburg. By the time they were 5, we loved Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury. We all still quack when asked, by each other, 'How goes the work?'"
Duckworth’s parents think he's a difficult child, so when a snake slides up and swallows him whole, his parents don’t believe him! What’s poor Duckworth to do?
Pick by Sophie Gilmore, TERRIFIC!:
DUCKWORTH, THE DIFFICULT CHILD
Written by Michael Sussman and illustrated by Júlia Sardà
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (June 18, 2019)
What inspired you to write Duckworth, the Difficult Child? "One sweltering summer evening, strolling down Cambridge Street in search of an ice cream cone, the image of a snake swallowing a child flashed through my mind. As I imagined the bulge working its way down the length of the serpent, it struck me as a compelling (if somewhat macabre) set-up for a picture book. I recalled a similar image from The Little Prince, but upon returning home, discovered that the prince’s drawing was of a boa digesting an elephant. (Although, as the prince notes, grown-ups all thought it was a picture of a hat.) I worried that my concept might be too scary for young children unless I made it a funny story, so I decided to model the tale on The Shrinking of Treehorn, by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey."
What other picture books do you love for their dark humor? "My all-time favorite is The Shrinking of Treehorn, in which young Treehorn discovers that he’s slowly shrinking. Like Duckworth’s parents, Treehorn’s mother and father are so oblivious to their son’s needs and preoccupied with their own concerns, that they provide no help at all. ("If you want to pretend you're shrinking, that's all right," said Treehorn's mother, "as long as you don't do it at the table.") Accompanied by Edward Gorey’s marvelous illustrations, this classic tale resonates with any child who has ever felt ignored by the adult world. Other favorites include Spinky Sulks by William Steig, The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey, and The Doubtful Guest, also by Gorey, the Master of the Macabre."
What was your favorite picture book as a child? "Even as a child, I was drawn to absurdist humor, and my favorite picture book was Horton Hatches the Egg, by Dr. Seuss. Poor Horton—tricked by lazy Mayzie into sitting on her egg for 51 weeks while she’s off on vacation—is so dedicated and faithful that we can’t help falling in love with him, and take great delight in the preposterous ending in which a tiny elephant-bird bursts forth from the egg and alights on Horton’s trunk, choosing him over Mayzie. I’m wild about stories in which authors start with a silly premise and then take it to the most absurd denouement."
What was the picture book that inspired you to write picture books? "I read tons of picture books to my son, Ollie, who adored stories and language itself. While the old classics stood the test of time, I was disheartened to discover that the vast majority of newer picture books were mediocre at best. I soon became convinced that I could write much better ones myself!"