The 2025 Graphic Novel You’re Gonna Want to Know About: A Q&A and Cover Reveal for Ursula Murray Husted’s BOTTICELLI’S APPRENTICE
In 2020 I read just the most delightful graphic novel. It was called A Cat Story and it was from a new creator by the name of Ursula Murray Husted. The story involved two cats on the island of Malta and their various small adventures and ultimate quest. In my review I wrote of Husted that, “Her debut middle grade graphic novel A Cat Story is a lush, sprawling, ultimately very sweet story of two cats and their search for a home of their own. It is simultaneously the grandest and quietest storytelling I have witnessed in a very long time.”
Time passed. More books came and went. And now, five years after that impressive debut, we’re going to finally get another Husted comic. And this one’s a doozy.
Botticelli’s Apprentice (out March 11, 2025) tells the tale of Mella. Here’s a description from the publisher to explain more:
“This funny, empowering graphic novel from rising star Ursula Murray Husted is a gorgeously illustrated glimpse into the forgotten history of Renaissance Italy, following an ambitious young girl’s quest to become an apprentice to the famous Sandro Botticelli.
Life as a chicken girl isn’t so bad, but Mella wants more. Though girls can’t be official apprentices to artists in Florence, Mella has been secretly teaching herself to paint while tending to artist Sandro Botticelli’s chickens.
When one of Botticelli’s actual apprentices discovers Mella’s work, he threatens to take full credit for it. Why does it matter who drew it if it’s good?
With the help of unexpected allies, an important patron, and a tenacious stray dog named Blue, Mella must summon all her courage, smarts, and skills to prove her worth and demand the recognition she deserves.”
Now part of what’s so nice about this is that Ursula was very kind and asked if I could read the book and possibly blurb it. I don’t actually blurb that many things, to be honest. It’s hard, because when you blurb something you’re essentially saying that out of everything you’ve read or seen, this book stands out. But I’d just loved A Cat Story so very much that I was willing to at least read the book and consider blurbing. Ursula passed along the PDF and instantly I fell in love. I fell in love with the art of the book. I fell in love with the story, the characters, and even the naughty dog to end all naughty dogs. I agreed to give it a blurb, but you won’t find my quote on the front cover. Why? Well, turns out someone else loved it and blurbed it and that guy goes by the name of Scott McCloud. Holy moly! Don’t worry though. I’m on the back.
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So clearly I like this book. I like it so much that I didn’t just want to blurb it either. I wanted to do a cover reveal! I wanted to do a Q&A with Ursula herself! And today? I get what I want:
Betsy Bird: Ursula! I am just so delighted to speak with you today, and so equally delighted to allow folks a glimpse at the cover of BOTTICELLI’S APPRENTICE! I suspect that a lot of folks that got some kind of humanities education may have vague associations with Botticelli (“He was an artist, right?”) but it doesn’t really extend much beyond name recognition. In a world of Leonardo da Vinci’s and Michaelangelo’s (more on them later) why did you want to write a graphic novel that centered Botticelli, of all artists?
Ursula Murray Husted: Thank you so much for having me! My main character Mella is an aspiring artist and chicken girl, so I needed to put her in the studio of an artist famous for painting with egg tempera.
Botticelli’s egg tempera masterworks (Primavera and The Birth of Venus) are among the world’s most recognized paintings, his life and work overlapped all four ninja turtle namesakes, and yet we have very little solid information about his life. There are a lot of romantic stories, but none are supported by the historical record. Unlike Michelangelo and Leonardo, we don’t have anything written by Botticelli. We have no personal letters, diaries, or poems. He didn’t even sign or date most of his work!
The challenge with writing historical fiction lies in learning what actually happened so that the story of what else might have happened can be fit into the spaces left between what we know and what we don’t know. With Botticelli, those spaces were more than big enough to fit in a talented chicken girl, a hapless junior apprentice, and a dog who makes very bad choices.
BB: Very bad choices, agreed. Your previous graphic novel, A CAT STORY, was set on the island of Malta and provided this extraordinary deep dive into both the island itself and a range of different kinds of art and artists. If I’m remembering correctly, you did a fair amount of research for that book. What kind of research did you do for this story?
Ursula: I read books/academic articles and interviewed art historians
took a course in egg tempera painting from the phenomenal egg tempera painter and educator Koo Schadler
read some more books
traveled to Florence to see (and borrow from) Botticelli’s most famous paintings
visited historic sites to understand how artists like Botticelli and merchants like Mona Rosa lived and worked during the Italian Renaissance
came home, read some more books
built tiny scale models of the main settings so that I could get the lighting right
…and then I read a few more books.
BB: My god. That’s amazing. But did you read any books? I kid, I kid!
So at the heart of this tale you have Mella who learns to be an official apprentice to an artist but knows that she’s unable to, due to the strictures of the time. What’s remarkable is that you’re able to provide a satisfying ending to her story without doing anything, I’d say, unrealistic. When you’re writing out a comic like this, do you know the ending of the book from the start, or do you discover it as you write/draw?
Ursula: It is more of a discovery process. I usually start out with being able to see one or two middle keystone scenes pretty clearly and then I ask the characters questions and poke at things until the beginning and end of the story fall into place.
BB: In your backmatter (which is fantastic, by the way) you happen to recommend the book EGG TEMPERA PAINTING by Koo Schadler for folks interested in learning to paint that way. I love that you put that in there (and I actually purchased a copy for my library on your recommendation). What advice would you offer young artists who look at people like Boticelli and yearn to paint like that?
Ursula: Thanks! Start with Koo’s book for sure. It is hands down the most comprehensive and easy to understand modern book on egg tempera painting. You can also take her workshops either in person or online.
I am making some videos and tutorials that will be available when the book comes out on my teaching guides page for teachers who want to bring the renaissance art techniques from Botticelli’s Apprentice into their classrooms:
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Most importantly, all young artists should remember that when we look at an artist from history we mostly get to see their good stuff. We don’t get to see most of the early works, the paintings that were ruined, or the drawings that got crumpled up in frustration. Draw from life as much as possible and be kind to yourself on the days where you struggle with getting the pictures in your head out onto the paper. Even Botticelli was once an apprentice.
BB: The question marks might be my favorite part of this painting. Now the hard hitting question, because I am, you see, a serious investigative journalist at heart. In A CAT STORY, your heart was clearly aligned with kitties. In this book? A dog seems to have the bulk of the focus. So which is gonna be? Team Cat or Team Dog?
Ursula: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your question at this time.
The counsel:
BB: Sustained. I know when I’m outmatched. Finally, I know that this book isn’t even out yet, but what’s next for you? What else do you have on your plate?
Ursula: I can’t share specifics, but readers can look forward to more comics with animal characters!
We would expect no less.
Unmitigated swaths of thanks to Ursula for taking the time to talk to me today!
And now… the cover! Please note that the cover design can be attributed to David Dewitt and the book design to Celeste Knudsen:
Okay, here’s a little insider tip that I don’t often tell people. You can always tell which books I love the most by seeing whether or not the tags on my posts say “Best Book of 2024” or whatever year it happens to be. Do you see that this book says “Best Book of 2025” all over the place? Yeah. There’s a reason for that. This is already one of my favorites. And you can pre-order it here, so why risk forgetting to do so before March? Go forth and get it, folks! You will NOT regret it.
Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2025, Cover Reveal, Interviews
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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Bryan Bornmueller says
So exciting!