This Q&A and Cover Reveal Has Nine Lives: We’re Talking The New Cat with Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic and Chris Park

Cats. Apparently 2026 is a good year for them in picture books. Not that there’s ever, really, a bad year, but so far we’ve seen such splendid titles as Arthur’s Cat by Johan Leynaud, translated by Sarah Ardizzone, Crouton by Kristine A. Lombardi, and a particularly gorgeous adaptation of the folktale The Boy Who Drew Cats by Lafcadio Hearn, illustrated by Anita Kreituse. Alongside such stellar company you might be forgiven for thinking we’ve seen the best cats that the year can offer.

And then you see today’s book.

The New Cat by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic, illustrated by Chris Park, is out October 6th, and this is one title that you’re really not going to want to miss. Its cover? Built to put others to shame.

The plot of the book? I’m so glad you asked:

Old cat Hunca Munca thinks his family’s baby is a new cat (with hardly any fur!). As the baby grows, he teaches it all the things a growing cat needs to know: how to clean himself, how to share food, and the best way to yell at a wall. Above all, he teaches the young boy how to be gentle. In time, Hunca Munca passes away. But the boy still remembers what the old cat taught him. And when the boy becomes a big brother, he teaches the new baby all the things a growing cat needs to know. A hilarious and heartfelt celebration of a very good cat.

You know the drill. To get to the cover, we must first talk to the creators themselves:

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Betsy Bird: Stephanie! Always a pleasure and a delight hosting you on my site, particularly when you’ve something toothsome to share. And The New Cat is incredibly toothsome indeed. Normally I begin my interviews by asking how an author got an idea for a picture book. I’m asking you that question now. Whence this book?

Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic: The New Cat is based on a true story that happened in my house about 13 years ago, and it’s a universal story that I’m sure many pet-blessed houses see play out in their own lives. Far from being a “pet death story,” this book is more about the lifelong lessons our pets teach us: kindness, empathy, playfulness, and gentleness. 13 years ago, I had a toddler and a cat named Hunca Munca and what I saw in their interactions was that Hunc really did teach my oldest son the art of being gentle and being patient. (I’m attaching photos from that time that inspired it all. Also, the cat behavior represented in the book is very true to life as cat owners will know: they do play fetch, chase invisible bugs, and scream at blank walls.)

Around the time Hunc died, I had just started musing about trying my hand at picture books, so I sat down and wrote this story. It was, quite literally, the first picture book I ever wrote. Back then — the very beginning of my picture book career — I was unagented and I used this story to query agents and also submitted it to editors’ slush piles. However, after quite a few rejections, I recognized the inevitable and put the story away for a long time. But a few years ago, I dug it out again, gave it a read, thought it was still pretty good, and asked my then-agent to put it out in submission. The story that went on sub and was successfully acquired was the exact same story I had written all those years ago with zero changes made to it. It just goes to show that timing can be everything in this wacky business.

Betsy: So Chris, are you a cat person yourself? Did you have any real-life counterparts to observe as you made this? 

Chris: I am not a pet person; I like and enjoy other people’s pets but I don’t want any of my own (I already have kids!). I would be happiest as, like, a pet uncle . . . someone who gets to play with animals but doesn’t have to do the hard work of taking care of them.

BB: Let’s talk a little bit about some of the choices you made with this title. The New Cat has a distinctly different style from your previous collaboration with Stephanie (Touch the Sky). Triangles, for example, seem to play a significant role. The typography of the title on the title page even reminded me a bit of The Cabinet of Dr. Calgieri. Tell us a little bit about how you came to this particular look.

Chris Park: This was a style I had always been exploring, even before Touch the Sky. TTS was such a unique book in that it required movement. Motion had to be seen and felt—it almost became like a third character in the book. With The New Cat, Stephanie’s words and the overall pace didn’t require that same sense of motion. Instead, it required a stillness and calmness that loss and grief often feel like. So I focused a bit more on the shapes and the weight that geometric shapes offer. Stillness was the main word I kept coming back to when creating images for this book. I was very intentional to step away from the style of TTS; this story required it.

Betsy: Stephanie, I want to follow-up on my previous query to also ask how an author takes an experience from their own lives and processes it in such a way where it works on the picture book page. What’s your strategy? 

Stephanie: For me, there’s no “strategy,” it’s more an instinct, I think? It’s about really paying attention to childhood experiences, finding the core truth and universality of them, and realizing that if your kid is going through it (or if you went through it as a kid) then surely many kids are going through the same thing. As to “how” that works? I truly don’t know and it’s that’s exactly why I would never be good at teaching picture book writing. I just see it and then I write it. My kids are my touchstones for all of this, and I’m sort of worried that, as they get older, I will lose that touchstone for picture books and have to write teen books!

Betsy: You sort of kicked off your picture book career with dead animals. The End of Something Wonderful was this breath of fresh air in a landscape of dead pet narratives. In a way, it kind of feels like you’re returning to your roots with The New Cat. Was that in your mind at all as you wrote this book? 

Stephanie: Oh, man, you know, it’s actually broken my heart that The End of Something Wonderful went out-of-print last year. I still get messages from people weekly who tell me how often they read that book and recommend it to other people. R.I.P.! But your question: it’s actually the opposite. The End of Something Wonderful came into existence only because The New Cat was rejected for being a “pet death” book that had “already been done before.” Of course, I disagreed because, as I mentioned above, this book isn’t about mourning the loss of a pet, it’s about how our pets stay with us for the rest of our lives. BUT, it did have me reading a lot of pet death books that were already out in the world as I tried to figure out what actually hadn’t been done before. Writing that book also coincided with a time when my oldest son was particularly interested in cemeteries and, in fact, had an 8th birthday request to visit a cemetery as a family. Answering all his questions reminded me of how my older sister and I had lots of backyard funerals as kids.

Betsy: Chris, getting back to the art, I’m particularly intrigued by the image of the cat. It’s essentially all eyes and no mouth with black triangles for legs. This means that the eyes have to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to facial expressions. It’s expressive and representational, but also recognizable and fun. What were some of your influences for this look for the cat? 

Chris: My embarrassing admission is, I am lazy. If I can get away with not drawing details, I will do it. But I also relish the challenges that come with the quirks of my personality.

So yes! I did let the eyes work a bit more, but it was fun. I’m glad Hunca Munca’s personality can still shine through those eyes. I think most of a cat’s personality is in the eyes anyway.  Black is my favorite color, so a jet black cat is always a fun thing for me to see. (I’m also not superstitious!

Betsy: You have a very subtle way of showing the progression of aging with Hunca Munca. The fur gets a little less smooth. At another point you see small white furs in the coat. It’s subtle but there. Could you tell us a bit about how one conveys the passage of time in a picture book? 

Chris: Oof, that’s a tough one, and I’m not sure I’ve mastered that yet. There are of course easy ways of portraying time (people grow or shrink, clothes and hairstyles change). I think what interests me that’s also challenging is changing a character just enough but still retaining some key characteristics so that a reader isn’t confused.

BB: Stephanie, once again you’ve been paired with the incredible Chris Park. Did you know that Chris would be your illustrator as you wrote this? When you do know the illustrator, does it affect your writing at all (do you think to yourself, “Chris is really going to have a ball with this spread”)? 

Stephanie: He really is amazing, isn’t he? But no, because I wrote this book so long ago, I had no idea The Incredible Chris Park would be the illustrator at the time of writing it. However, when it sold to The Incredible Carol Hinz at CarolRhoda/Lerner Books after Touch the Sky had been acquired, I did have hopes that maybe Chris could do this one, too. In fact, I was back home in Minneapolis for the launch of Touch the Sky and our publishing team had a picnic celebration in a park, and while we were eating, I sort of teased The Incredible Danielle Carnito, our art director, that maybe we could get the band back together for The New Cat. She just smiled and remained non-committal. Of course, I was overjoyed when the team did decide to approach Chris for it.

BB: Visually, how do you feel about the final product? 

Stephanie: I mean, you’ve seen it — it’s amazing! I love every bit of it. The patterns, the rendering of interior light, the humor, the shapes of the cat and his brilliant green eyes, and the tenderness on every spread. Plus, a naked tushy bit that calls to mind the Hilda animated series for me! Check out the black backgrounds — it’s CAT FUR! (At least, I am pretty sure it is — Chris can confirm his brilliance on this one.)

Betsy: Okay. Chris, was there anything that you tried with this book that ultimately didn’t work in the end? Anything you had to scrap? 

Chris: Love this question! I really wanted to somehow tell the story completely from a cat’s POV. There are just so many bizarre compositions that could come from it—a cat’s POV would offer so many interesting images and angles. But that would restrain the story a bit too much for my liking. To me, it would be like watching an interesting movie in a one-shot take: a cool and novel perspective, but this story required more than one viewpoint.

BB: And back to Stephanie…. I have to ask it. You have a lot of fun with names in this book. The cat, for example, is named Hunca Munca (lovely Beatrix Potter shout-out). The child in the book has the name “Jerrold”. Is there any particular reason why you chose that name?

Stephanie: Our mutual friend and fellow incredible author, Jerrold Connors, likes to play practical jokes and this was one that possibly misfired for him? Because naming the baby “Jerrold,” a “ridiculous name for a cat!” was my revenge. That’s all I can say on the record, but next time we see each other, I can say more.

BB: I KNEW it!! Finally, you both seem to have lots of irons in the fire. What’s next for you? What are you working on? 

Stephanie: Well, I just finished edits for our second Zombie and Brain book with Laan Cham and our Bloomsbury team, and this installment has Zeb and Brian going to school where adorable and brainy hijinks ensue. That one is coming out spring of 2027. I also have an unannounced picture book that I’m super excited about — the illustrator attached to it is AMAZING and it is another one of my picture books from way-back-when. You’ll love it because it’s been described as “Revenge of the Giving Tree,” and oops, there will be death in it! Because of course there will be. I can’t seem to get away from death, but then again, I guess none of us can!

Chris: Oh gosh, I’m really being torn in two directions. I have a book I’m working on that’s about building forts. The author, Molly Beth Griffin, is such a genuinely sweet human, so I can’t wait for that book to come out. I’ve got other potential projects, but I might have to decline them because I really want to work on a very personal graphic novel about fatherhood, immigrant fathers, and generational neglect. Sadly, it seems a bit too common, but I think it’s an important story to tell. The whole reason I became a children’s book illustrator was to have people connect emotionally through my work. The New Cat was the perfect book for me to keep honing those skills.

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That’s the spirit!

And here, of course, is the glorious cover itself:

You must admit, it was worth the wait.

Loads of thanks to Stephanie and Chris for turning over this cover reveal to me today, and for taking so much time and care in answering my questions. Thanks too to Carol Hinz and the team at Lerner for helping to put this together. The New Cat is on shelves October 6th with Carolrhoda Books, so be sure to look for it then!

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026, Cover Reveal, Interviews