Myrick Marketing Publisher Preview Spring/Summer 2025: Part Four Featuring TOON Books, Walker Books, What On Earth Books, Albatros, and Barefoot Books

Myrick Marketing Publisher Preview Spring/Summer 2025: Part Four Featuring TOON Books, Walker Books, What On Earth Books, Albatros, and Barefoot Books

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We’ve an interesting array of titles on display for you today. These are all books that have either just come out or are on the near horizon. As per usual, I have Ellen Myrick and Publisher Spotlight to thank for this sneak peek. Here’s to the smaller publishers, unafraid to try interesting, new things. And I suspect you may particularly enjoy the last book on today’s list…

Pencil by Hye-Eun Kim

Publication Date: March 18, 2025

ISBN: 9781662665530

Woot! Let’s hear it for the wordless books! Teachers are constantly looking for them, but they are often tricky to find. This particular book focuses on the creation of a pencil. After procuring just the right wood in the forest, the wood goes to the factory where it’s cut and trimmed down. The graphite is put inside and then voila! You can draw things with it. Things like… trees. A circular little book, this is, with beautiful South Korean illustrations.

This Makes That by Ivan Brunetti

Publication Date: May 20, 2025

ISBN: 9781662665561

You know I’m always going to be supporting my local Chicago creators, and Ivan Brunetti is no exception. And since this is TOON Books we’re talking about, he’s created a younger graphic novel, this time with a STEAM focus. Consider this his makerspace book. This is really about making things happen and making things work thanks to cooperation. And yes, if candies can make colors and lemons can make batteries along the way, then bonus!

Nop by Caroline Magerl

Publication Date: March 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781761600807

This Corduroy but trade in that department store for a secondhand emporium (named, and I love this, “Oddmint’s Dumporeum”) and a bear in overalls for a tiny ragamuffin little creature. Every stuffed animal in this place longs to get taken home with somebody. Our hero? No such luck. So he finds a little ribbon and after some experimentation he creates a balloon with which to explore the world. Inspired by the author, who as a child created a teddy bear for her father out of scraps that she named Roadkill. It still sits on his desk to this day.

Frank’s Red Hat by Sean E. Avery

Publication Date: May 6, 2025

ISBN: 9781761600661

Aw, this one is very fun. Very fun indeed. So fun that it just won a YABBA Honor (that’s the Young Australian’s Best Book Awards). Now meet Frank the penguin. Frank has ideas – some good, some not. One day, he approaches his fellows wearing a great red hat and gifts it to another penguin. Unfortunately that penguin is swallowed by a beluga whale. So Frank makes more hats and, unsurprisingly, no one wants them. Behold: sad penguin eyes. Then the seals decide they do like the hats and Frank has new things to invent. I enjoyed the deadpan humor of this book so much that I may even forgive the illustrator for inaccurate knitting needle placement in one of the scenes (maybe).

Scout and the Rescue Dogs by Dianne Wolfer, ill. Tony Flowers

Publication Date: June 3, 2025

ISBN: 9781761600494

Sometimes books for kids don’t make it easy on themselves. This series is set against the backdrop of the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires. It’s an easy ready early chapter book. In this story Scout and her dad are traveling in his big rig to deliver dog food to animal rescue shelters , but it’s bushfire season and suddenly they’ve a slew of dogs to rescue. But bushfires don’t focus on just one species, so Scout and her dad better watch out for themselves too! Now this didn’t win a YABBA but it was the Winner of Children’s Book of the Year category in the 2024 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. Nice!

The Greatest Stuff on Earth by Steve Tomecek, ill. John Devolle

Publication Date: March 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781804661420

Ellen Myrick, who presents these books to me, knows me well. So well, in fact, that she knows that when it comes to nonfiction titles from other countries, I have a tendency to kvetch when I don’t see any backmatter. That’s why I was so thrilled when she let me know that this book has detailed backmatter, including a full glossary, a full index, and a comprehensive list of research sources. The focus is on the stuff we have and how it works. Along the way, it also talks about the problems of too much stuff, the consequences of all our stuff. As for the author, he’s a teacher – sort of a Bill Nye of England type. Neat!

Poops and Farts: The Bottom Line by Štěpánka Sekaninová, Miroslava Gomolčáková, and  Daniel Handák

Publication Date: June 10, 2025

ISBN: 9788000074405

My poop tolerance, I will tell you right now, is not particularly high. But, at the same time, I’m a sucker for a good subtitle, and this book delivers that. Now it may not be clear from the cover, but this is a nonfiction title. And thanks to a cast of anthropomorphic poops, it tells you all the stuff you did and did not want to know about #2. And farts. Let us not forget the farts.

Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim by Kobina Commeh & illustrated by Bárbara Quintino

Publication Date: February 4, 2025

ISBN: 978888593622

Here we have a book about a multi-generational relationship between a boy and his grandmother. Kwesi is afraid to swim. His grandmother? She never learned. In fact, to give the boy some context about why, she discusses the pool segregations of the past. To right this great wrong, the two decide to learn how to swim together. This story is based off of the creators’ own experiences. It even manages to talk about a lot of fun West African mythology (involving Mama Wati) who gives them the courage to learn to swim together. Great backmatter at the end too, involving cultural notes from West Africa as well as information on the Akan people, day names, and adinkra symbols.

Ramanadan on Rahma Road by Razeena Omar Gutta & Faaiza Osman, ill. Atieh Sohrabi

Publication Date: February 4, 2025

ISBN: 978888593646

Follows family and friends along this road, breaking the fast of Ramadan together. While everyone walks the same road, each family is from a different culture and background. This is the incredibly rare book that discusses the diversity that exists within the celebration of Islam. And (you may have guessed it, since I’m a bit of a broken record on this) great backmatter!

Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History by Rachel C. Katz, ill. Sophie Bass

Publication Date: March 11, 2025

ISBN: 9798888593684

And finally, a book that is VERY much a book we need for our times right now. 25 protests are recounting, showing kids how to get into some good trouble. Don’t think that it’s all the same stories you’ve seen before, though. There are bound to be a couple in here that surprise you. With vibrant art, the book’s backmatter includes info boxes, educational endnotes, a timeline, and more to encourage kids to consider the changes they want to make in the world. Rise up!

Thanks again to Ellen for showing me these books and letting me share them with you.

More Than Enough: A Conversation with Richard Michelson

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Today’s conversation is one that I’ve been looking forward to for some time. Richard Michelson is an old friend. If ever you’ve been to the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, MA, it would behoove you to also check out the R. Michelson Gallery in nearby Northampton. There, located in an old bank, you will find perhaps the finest gallery of fine children’s illustration available to you anywhere in the continental United States.

Rich’s gallery is not his sole connection to children’s literature, of course, and over the years he’s amassed an incredible array of picture books to his name. One in particular caught my eye recently and I’ve been turning it over in my mind ever since. Illustrated by Joe Cepeda, More Than Enough: Inspired by Maimonides’s Golden Ladder of Giving (out now) cleverly incorporates the eight rungs of the aforementioned ladder of giving into its storytelling. The tale itself concerns a child named Moses whose attitudes towards charity change, in time, to a greater understanding of empathy and understanding.

Today, Rich is kind enough to talk to me about the book:

Betsy Bird: Hi Rich! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions today. MORE THAN ENOUGH is such an interesting and clever book, covering something that (prior to reading it) I would have said would have been magnificently different to put in a picture book form. But before we get into any of that, tell us where the idea for the book came from. What is its origin story?

Richard Michelson: Hi Betsy, Lovely to chat with you, as always! And thanks for the kind words.

Three things came together that inspired me to write this book.

Richard Michelson, photo credit Doug Anderson

#1- Every afternoon when I walk from my gallery to my favorite lunch place (shout out to Paul & Elizabeth’s veggie platter and soup of the day) I pass 4 or 5 people busking or begging for money. One young lady has been on the sidewalk daily for the past two years with a cardboard sign reading ​“Pregnant and Homeless” — the longest gestation in human history. One amiable young man has been asking donations for ​“Black Boys at Risk” for a half dozen years. He waves newspaper clippings and official looking documents. I vacillate between skepticism and belief. I have become friendly with Downtown Dan who lives entirely on the spare change people drop into his guitar case  (which he stores in our stairwell entryway during bathroom breaks and rainstorms). At the end of the day, I’ve watched him happily count out a third of the money collected to donate to those in even greater need. There are other regulars and, of course, some transient and aggressive panhandlers.  I have become fascinated watching parents with children walk the gauntlet. Some give their kids a dollar to drop in various cups, some stop and chat, some pass out slices of pizza. Most look away, tighten their grip on their kid’s arm, and hurry past.

#2-  My wife LOVES to give away money. She does so joyously! ​“The more we give, the happier we become,” she says, quoting Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. I mostly give as an obligation, and not cheerfully. I wish I were a better person.

#3- I was reading Maimonides (yes, I know how that sounds), the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages, and realized he tackled the same issues in the 1100s.

I wanted to create a safe space where parents could approach the topic with their children and begin the conversation about what a fair society would look like So many questions:  How much shall I give? To how many? How often? Am I doing enough? What are we teaching our children as we rush past the panhandlers? Mostly, though, I was talking to myself and trying to understand my own tight-fistedness in light of my wife’s joy in giving. Damn, that is a long answer to your question. Maybe we should end the interview here.

BB: Not on your life, sir. These are the kinds of answers I live for! Now the format of the book is what struck me as particularly unique. You take the eight rungs of Maimonides’s Golden Ladder of Giving and seamlessly integrate them into the story of Moses and his growing understanding of the best ways to give. Did you have a clear sense of how to outline this book from the start or was it a lot of trial and error?

Rich: It was more like trial and error and error and error. I knew I wanted to use the eight rungs of the ladder as my scaffolding (I am on the first rung, where you give less than you should, and reluctantly, but I console myself that I have at least started the climb). The trick, of course, is how to hide the ladder so the story does not become didactic—no one likes to be lectured by parents or authors. The first draft, I confess, was written as a rap song.  The next draft opened with Moses entering first grade – then a year per page turn—until he graduates college and opens his own business.  Yes, it was as unwieldy as it sounds. Next, I had his mother tragically die and his father turn to drugs and sleeping on the streets (I kid you not).

BB: Wow. Just trying to imagine Joe Cepeda trying to illustrate THAT. Of course, the concept of giving the person who is receiving the giving their dignity is not a concept I’ve seen in children’s picture books as much as I would like. Often we see these stories of the unhoused where they fall over themselves in gratitude when someone gives them something. The notion of dignity never seems to play into it. Your book (alongside last year’s The Midnight Mitzvah by Ruth Horowitz) stresses this sense of empathy in a more complex and interesting way. Was that important to you when as you made this book?

Rich: I had a friend visiting, who would not give to the homeless because “they will only spend it on drugs or liquor.” A reasonable objection that I have used myself. That night we went out for dinner, after which– guess what? Yup. He spent his money on drugs and liquor, but for himself.  I wondered what people smarter than me would think of that. In 1791, the writer Samuel Johnson, in answer to the same dilemma said, ​“Why should the poor be denied such sweeteners of their existence?” In 2017, Pope Francis said, ​“Give them the money, and don’t worry about it.”

We tend to think of the poor as different, and less deserving, than ourselves. We praise ourselves for our generosity when we put some coins in a beggar’s cup or write a check to an organization that helps the homeless. We insist on thanks. (I promised myself not to get political, but… how many of us were horrified when President Zelinsky was admonished publicly for not showing the correct amount of gratitude). As I point out in my backmatter (I love backmatter!), Maimonides had a different viewpoint. Tzedakah, the Hebrew word for charity, is not viewed as a kindness, but rather as an act of justice, fairness, and righteousness all rolled into one. Maimonides insisted that it is humbling to help others with less than ourselves,  because we know that we could just as easily be in their position. And the poor person should understand that God could have just as easily given them all they need. Maimonides thought of it as a partnership between the rich and the poor. If anything, he said it is the giver who should thank the receiver for allowing them the opportunity to do a good deed. 

BB: That’s what particularly struck me about your book, yes. And any number of illustrators could have worked on this project, but you were paired with Joe Cepeda. I’m sure you were familiar with his work already. Did you know Joe prior to this book? And how do you feel about the final product and what he brought to the page?

Rich: Joe and I presented together at the Charlotte Huck Festival in 2019. That is the only time we’ve met, but I was impressed with him as a person and, of course, I loved his work. As I recall, my amazing editor (shout out to Kathy Landwehr) sent me 4 or 5 possible suggestions. Joe was my first choice. I was especially pleased when I emailed him afterward to thank him for signing on to the project, and Joe wrote back to say he had no idea I was the author. He loved the story but never looked to see who wrote it! 

Joe brought bright colors, joy, and life to my story. The spread where Moses is fist-bumping Big Jim has an Ezra Jack Keats’ neighborhood feel to me (my parents went to high school with Keats — then Jacob Katz), while being totally Cepeda, which is the highest compliment I can give. Joe also created a multicultural community. While based on teachings in the Mishnah Torah, I did not want this to be pigeonholed as a “Jewish book.”

BB: Finally, what else do you have going on these days? I know you keep your fingers in a helluva lot of pies. Tell us about ’em!

Rich: This is a crazy year for me. I have four new kids’ books out. Besides More Than Enough, there is Next Year in the White House: The Journey to Barack Obama’s First Presidential Seder illustrated by EB Lewis  (Crown and PJ Publishing), which came out in March.

What Louis Brandeis Knows–A Crusader for Social Justice Becomes a Supreme Court Justice illustrated by Stacy Innerst (Astra Calkins Creek) will publish in October, and Fanny’s Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week was Born illustrated by Alyssa Russell (Rocky Pond-Penguin Random House) will be out in November, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Jewish Book Council, which Fanny founded. I should point out that each of these books was sold in a different year, and they all converged on 2025. What a crazy business we are in.  I also have a music/theater piece for adults, Dear Edvard, based on the life of the artist Edvard Munch, opening with a world premiere the last week of June/ first week of July on Martha’s Vineyard. Come join us and I will save you a ticket. And at R. Michelson Galleries, https://www.rmichelson.com/illustration/ we are already working on our 36th Annual Illustration Celebration which opens in November. You can see pictures from our 35th Annual Celebration here:  https://www.rmichelson.com/illustration/ And make sure you scroll to the bottom of the page to see our brand new four-story Children’s Book Illustration mural.

All of which is awesome. I have been to Rich’s annual celebrations in the past and I can attest that they’re fantastic.

A big thank you to Rich for his highly entertaining and informative answers to my questions today. As I mentioned before, More Than Enough is out on bookstore and library shelves now. I highly recommend you give it a gander. It’ll give you, and the kids you serve, a heckuva lot to chew on.

Educational Justice: A Nikkolas Smith Interview About The History of We

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From the moment I saw it, I could see that it was something unique. Something remarkable even.

Now about two years ago I had a running gag with my co-workers about just how popular the Pleistocene was in picture books. I’d joke that you couldn’t throw a dart in a children’s room without hitting two or three of the suckers (Note: Please do not throw darts in children’s rooms). The idea that someone might go back further, then tie everything into the world today in an epic, sweeping, but ultimately understandable picture book? Incomprehensible!

Well… incomprehensible until you take a look at The History of We by Nikkolas Smith (out May 20th). Since this book is a little difficult to encapsulate, I’ll turn to the publisher description for you here:

“An awe-inspiring picture book about the origin and advancement of humans, from author and #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator Nikkolas Smith.

Fossil records show that the first humans were born in Africa. Meaning, every person on Earth can trace their ancestry back to that continent. The History of We celebrates our shared ancestors’ ingenuity and achievements and imagines what these firsts would have looked and felt like.

What was it like for the first person to paint, to make music, to dance, to discover medicine, to travel to unknown lands? It required courage, curiosity, and skill. 

The History of We takes what we know about modern human civilization and, through magnificent paintings, creates a tale about our shared beginnings in a way that centers Black people in humankind’s origin story.”

Now I don’t usually do that many video interviews, but for some folks I’ll make exceptions. And for Nikkolas Smith? Obviously! Enjoy a true behind-the-scenes glimpse.

Big thanks to Nikkolas for taking all that time to talk to me. Thanks too to Jaleesa Davis, Elyse Marshall, and the whole team at Penguin Random Hosuse for helping to set this up. As i mentioned before , The History of We by Nikkolas Smith is out May 20th, so look for it then!

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

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It’s been a day or two since we did a Mo Willems book on the podcast (and you can believe I’m counting down the days until one of those Elephant & Piggie books turns 20). What absolutely kills me is that we did today’s title in complete ignorance of the fact that it was recently adapted into an incredible looking stage production in D.C. with a Chicago-based theater company…. which just closed. Doggone it. This book is interesting for a number of reasons. First off, Mo Willems had already done a Pigeon book (square) and a Knuffle Bunny book (horizontal), but this marked his first vertical book. We discuss our future picture book “Steampunk Monster”, how Sam’s got sass, baby Wild Things, and more.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

The sequel to this book is, of course, Sam, the Most Scaredy-Cat Kid in the Whole World.

Since you cannot see the Manuel Cinema production of this book as a play anymore, why not enjoy this video in lieu of the fact?

Kate’s assessment of Leonardo is interesting. She says he’s the clear child of one of the monster’s from Where the Wild Things Are, but more along the lines of an anemic toddler.

I suspect that this is Mo. It looks like the Dad from Knuffle Bunny, right? I love how she’s looking at the man, like she’s saying, “You’re getting how cute this guy is, right?”

Well. Yes. Kate did count the teeth. Only 148 are shown, so we have to assume rows upon rows upon rows are inside these mouths *shudder*. And we both love that one of these is a gold tooth.

Kate says that this ankle bracelet is “so 2005”. I like the fact that Eleanor here not only paints her regular front-facing claws, but the ones on the backs of her ankles as well.

Okay, so let’s figure this one out. What research books are Leonardo using to figure out who, precisely, is the most scaredy-cat kid in the world? Please note the Nokia on the ground too.

We took a great deal of interest in “BLAGGGLE BLAGGLE!!” Is this a reference at all to the “aagle blaagle” of Knuffle Bunny?

This two-page spread is fascinating. Not simply the use of typography to have such a big impact, but also the color choice. Yellow on pink, eh?

Kate Recommends: The board game Box Two.

Betsy Recommends: The recent Radiolab episodes Everybody’s Got One and Growth.

Review of the Day: Candle Island by Lauren Wolk

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Candle Island
By Lauren Wolk
Dutton Children’s Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House)
$18.99
ISBN: 9780593698549
Ages 9-12
On shelves

An author that can tell you at the beginning of their book that there’s a big secret lurking in its pages, then subsequently make you completely forget all about it until the right time is, to my mind, a good writer. And I surprise absolutely no one when I say that Lauren Wolk? She is a good writer. Not an easy writer. After all, none of her books ever strike me as particularly simple to plot out and write, but a strong one just the same. When I see a new Wolk, I don’t know what to expect or even, in many ways, when or where I am until she tells me. With her latest book, Wolk tackles recovering from trauma (personal, economic, etc.) within the context of a small class war. She also takes time to focus on the process of creating art and what it means to both the creator and the recipients. And that secret? Don’t be surprised if you forget all about it… until it’s too late.

Change can be good. After her father was killed in a car crash, Lucretia and her mother run away from the world to Candle Island, a tiny tourist destination just off the coast of Maine. They’re not going for a vacation, though, but to stay. In the real world, Lucretia and her mother paint and her mother sustains them both with selling paintings. The subsequent fame has turned into a curse. On Candle Island they hope to be anonymous, but that hope is dashed fairly early on. While Lucretia befriends a local boy named Seb and attempts to come to terms with the prickly girl her age, Murdock, her mother discovers an art critic on the island who is determined to interview her. Then there are the wary locals, as well as the snide tourists. Lucretia takes time to tend to a wounded osprey chick, paints in her barn, rides her horse, and tries to avoid three rich teens with trouble on their minds. But when one of the docks is set alight one evening, things on the island take a turn for the serious.

Like many people I first came to Ms. Wolk’s books through her unforgettable Newbery Honor winning title Wolf Hollow. There are elements to that book that still haunt me to this day. Somehow, in the span of just a few pages, Lauren managed to conjure up the most unrepentantly evil little blonde girl you will ever find in a work of realistic fiction for kids. My lingering discomfort has had longstanding consequences, of course. Mainly, that I have difficulty reading other Lauren Wolk books without constantly looking over my proverbial shoulder every page or so for similar villains. Are there bad children in Candle Island? Of course there are. Three little wealthy weasels that pose a threat to our heroine’s happiness. Are they at the same level as Betty Glengarry? They are not, for while Betty was a burgeoning sadist, these three are precisely what they appear to be: rich and bored. That didn’t stop me from worrying about them constantly during my read, which is not the worst way to go through this book. They’re just not on her level.

That Lauren Wolk has given herself the unforgiving goal of writing about the magic of the artistic process is clear. It is also a thankless task, to say the least. While art can be defined in words, the effect it has on the artist, in the midst of their creativity, often defies explanation. Not content to simply discuss Lucretia and her paintings, Wolk doubles down by making two of the other kids on island a singer and a poet. They discover one another’s gifts late in the game but the clear indication is that this is a bond they share, whether known or unknown. And since our heroine is Lucretia, the key to the book are the moment when she paints. She can recognize art in other people, whether it’s a song or a poem, but when she’s in the zone, that’s when Wolk has to put the reader in a similar kind of zone as well. Some kids will come out of this book wanting to paint themselves. Others will take a broader interpretation, and may feel inclined to pursue their own art. Still others, without any artistic inclinations at all, may read Candle Island and come away from it with a slightly better understanding of what it means to either create or appreciate art. That’s what we can hope for anyway.

As for her writing itself, it’s what we come for, isn’t it? There are certain authors for children that are capable of the kind of writing that is not merely full of strong character growth and interesting plotting, but legitimately lovely prose as well. On a single page I found lines that end with glimpses of a “bruise-blue sea.” Or, when Lucretia thinks about befriending the prickly Murdock, she is thinking of, “How adding even a little yellow to the coldest gray could warm it toward something altogether new. But Murdock was a girl, not a painting. I would have to remember that.” I mark in my copy of this book the lines I like best. What’s remarkable about them is how seamlessly they’re integrated into the plot. I suppose, when you get right down to it, not a ton of things happen in this story. There are tense, and sometimes even terrible, moments but at no point did I ever quite figure out where the book was going. I figured that Lucretia would befriend Murdock eventually, and there would be some big scene involving the three spoiled preps, but when the big reveal does happen in the book it caught me wholly off-guard. So off-guard, in fact, that I actually needed one of the characters to spell everything out to me (which, nice guy that he is, he did readily). It’s really a talented title from start. You get what you come for when you read a Lauren Wolk book, even if you’re not certain why you came.

If I seek to find flaw, finding flaws is hard to do. However, there were a couple elements of the book I would have liked to see tightened up. The time period, for one thing, is fairly unclear throughout the book. If I had to guess, I’d say that the story takes place before the advent of cell phones. Otherwise, the book could easily take place today. It’s not like class warfare has gotten any less acute in recent decades. Of course, thinking about it, I’m not entirely certain that Ms. Wolk has ever given a strict date to any of her books. Wolf Hollow and its sequel did, but that may have been because there was a specific war that the plot hinged around. This book could technically take place today, but only if you squint and try to imagine cell phones and the internet not being a thing. It’s easy if you try.

At the end of the day, this is the kind of book that can include a Mark Twain quote like, “The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice,” without anyone batting an eye. Or, my personal favorite, the Edith Wharton line, “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” And remember that secret I alluded to earlier? The Prologue is where you’ll find it. Lucretia tells you that six mysteries waited for her on Candle Island, and she ticks them off. Then she ends by saying, “Each of them exciting in its own way. But none more interesting than the mystery I took there with me.” Challenge the kid you hand this book to (the kind of kid who doesn’t get scared off by slower realistic titles) to try and figure out what that mystery is as they read the book. Odds are, they’ll get so wrapped up in Ms. Wolk’s writing that they completely forget to search for it. That’s Wolk’s power. The ability to intrigue, enchant, and eventually surprise. A beautiful book that is about art while being art.

On shelves now.

Source: Galley sent from publisher for review.

Sneak Preview: A Cat Nap Conversation with Brian Lies and a Peek Inside This Fall Release

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What do we do when we experience extreme creativity in the picture book realm? Sort of a subjective question, I know. I might find something creative that you find pedantic or dull. And you might think something was brilliant that I feel is repetitive and old hat. But there are rare cases where an author or illustrator goes so far above and beyond the norm that they create something that is, quite frankly, inarguably without compare.

Enter Brian Lies.

Today we’re going to talk about his fall title Cat Nap (out September 30th). And since this book is a bit difficult to describe without having seen it first, here is the extended description from Harper Collins:

With lush paintings and intricately constructed 3-D artwork, bestselling and Caldecott Honor–winning author-illustrator Brian Lies introduces a sleepy kitten whose afternoon nap transforms into an epic journey through art, time, and history. Perfect for fans of They All Saw a Cat, Museum Trip, and Jumanji. Includes back matter.

In the warm, late afternoon sunlight, a girl sits on the couch reading a book. Her kitten dozes nearby. But when Kitten notices a mouse and dives after it through a framed poster on the wall, an epic chase through time, art, and history ensues. Is it a dream? That’s up to the reader to decide, but for the kitten, every leap and bound is full of suspense and makes for a masterpiece.

Caldecott Honor–winning and New York Times bestsellingauthor-illustrator Brian Lies creates a truly unique picture book journey that invites young readers through the galleries of an art museum as well as through time, space, and history. As the cat and mouse leap from one page to the next, they are portrayed in the style of masterful artworks from history—an ancient Egyptian relief, an illuminated manuscript, a stained-glass window, a ceramic dog—each painstakingly and lovingly re-created in its original media by Brian Lies. When the sly mouse gets away, Kitten finds himself lost and alone. Will art help him find his way home?

This visual showstopper by an award-winning and bestselling picture book creator offers readers a page-turning cat and mouse chase, an introduction to famous works of art throughout history, an epic adventure story, and a homecoming. Back matter includes information about how each of the illustrations in the book was created, notes on the original artworks featured in the book, and an afterword inviting young readers to make, create, and build things.

Now I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to put up the art from this book first (if you click on the images you can expand them). And only after you have seen them will I dive into my Q&A with Brian about the title. Otherwise, I worry you won’t get the full effect.

Take a gander:

Cool, right? Now please understand that this was all done by hand.

Every. Last. Image.

Oh yeah. We’re gonna have a lot to talk about…

Betsy Bird: Brian! A million thanks for talking to me today about CAT NAP. The term “ambitious” doesn’t seem sufficient to describe this book. What you’ve done here feels as though it should rightfully have taken you a good decade. Where on earth did the idea for this book come from originally?

Brian Lies: This one has been brewing for over a decade.  Our gray Russian Blue / Siamese mix cat Dylan disappeared one day, and we searched the house from basement to attic—no cat! But then several hours later he sauntered into the room, his whiskers covered with cobwebs.  He’d clearly had an adventure.  But where?  We joked that he’d found a wormhole in space and time, and I started imagining him in ancient Egypt.  That turned into an adventure of my own, creating a story in which Kitten encounters a variety of artworks before he finds his way home again.  But the twist would be creating the book images in both 2D and 3D, as close to the originals as possible.  That sounded like fun!

Brian Lies

BB: Yes, but in your rather extensive notes at the end of the book you mention how much easier it would have been to simply digitally place the kitten in each of these images. Instead, you opted to actually go so far as to make pieces that looked like the originals. At what point in the process did you come to the decision to go this route?

Brian: It was baked into the project from the very beginning, a self-dare.  I’ve worked with a variety of materials over the years, and the whole thing seemed a lot more fun if I attempted to create look-alikes of original artworks, all in their original media.  But the project started rolling for real two years ago, when I created a miniature display for Beacon Hill Books in Boston, a permanent, tiny home for their squirrel mascot.  I realized I was problem-solving and making things as I’d planned to do with this book—ultimately it was my “embravening” myself to attempt it!

BB: A perfectly cromulent word. You say that some of the artistic techniques were new for you. Which ones were they and how did you go about learning them?  

Brian: The Mblo portrait mask was probably the one I worried about the most.  While I’ve whittled at sticks with a Swiss Army knife before, I’d never actually carved in wood before this.  And it’s very different from working in clay, where you can always add more material if you need to.  In wood, it’s subtractive, so you’ve got to be sure you can fit the eventual carving in the block of wood with which you start.  And if you get too aggressive and whack a big chunk of wood away, you’re sunk.

BB: Paging through this book, it feels as though you purposely chose the most difficult styles imaginable. Clay! Gold leaf! Illuminated manuscripts! As you went through the Met and selected the pieces that you wanted to use in the book, what factors did you take into consideration?

Brian: My first research trip to The Met was a “what if?” lark—I was just looking for artworks that grabbed my imagination, things that might be fun for Kitten to interact with.  The delightfully odd “Portrait of Emma Van Name” was an obvious choice—it’s one of those strange mid-1800s portraits in which children appear as miniature adults.  In this one, Emma stands next to an enormous wine glass filled with berries.  What’s that about?  And she’s in a ridiculously ornate frame.  Could I duplicate that frame at home, too? 

One thing that was important to me was to reflect world art as broadly as possible.  Every human culture has created stunning pieces of art, and since there was only room for nine artworks appear in CAT NAP, it wasn’t possible to represent the entire spectrum of art history.  But I was able to include Egyptian, Asian, African, Mexican, U.S. and European artworks. I snuck in a trompe l’oeil painting, and some graphic novel-inspired pages, too.  Maybe kids can round out the representation by creating their own museum lookalikes!

BB: I like that! Was there any particular piece that gave you more trouble than you anticipated? Or anything you had to abandon along the way because it just wasn’t working out?   

Brian: In the stained glass pieces, “Gathering Manna,” I had to learn how to work with vitreous paint, which is essentially ground glass paint, brushed on a prepared surface and then kiln-fired.  I found a small craft kiln on Facebook Marketplace, and drove two hours to pick it up in a sketchy handoff in the parking lot of a derelict Friendly’s restaurant off of the Massachusetts Turnpike.  I had several failures with the kiln—laboriously painting pieces of glass, only to have them crack when I underestimated their cooling time.  But like most skills we learn, I developed a sense of how long they had to fire and cool to come out unscathed.

There were two places where I didn’t follow the original artworks as closely as I wanted to.  With the carved Egyptian panels, I knew I couldn’t source stone that was close enough to the originals, so I poured slabs of Hydrocal plaster and after carving the images with dental tools, stained and painted the slabs to look like stone.  And then, with the illuminated manuscript, I was able to source goatskin parchment from India—but the original prayer book is SO small –about 3” tall–that I can’t begin to imagine how the artist painted the miniscule marginal images.  And because we’d have to blow the image up for readers to see it clearly in the book, I decided to break away from strict exactitude, and paint the images larger.  I had to remind myself that the images as they appear in the book were more important than creating an exact “forgery.”

BB: In your Acknowledgements you mention that the photo credits are all public domain courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What was your relationship with the museum when crafting this book? Was it done in conjunction with them, or was it something you proposed and they allowed? (One certainly hopes this will be prominently featured in their gift shop at some point)

Brian: It would be an honor to see the book in their gift shop!   I made my research visits anonymously, but reached out to several experts with questions about particular artworks.  Michael Carter, the Librarian at The Cloisters, was generous in his time helping me view an exact-size facsimile of “The Hours of Jeanne D’Evreaux,” which was an exciting research experience.  But otherwise, I did my homework pretty much unnoticed.

At first, I had thought I might set the book at my other favorite museum, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, where I spent countless hours during my time at the Boston Museum School.  but I have a long-standing emotional connection to The Met—sparked in childhood by E.L. Konigsburg’s classic  book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  As a kid, I loved the idea of copying Claudia and Jamie’s adventure at The Met, and CAT NAP was a way to have my own personal imagination adventure there!

BB: I think your note at the end talking about how you didn’t want your art to look like it was made by a kid when you were a kid is going to hit home for a great many people. How would you best like librarians, educators, and parents to use this book with kids?

Brian: For me, this project was a counterpoint to artificial intelligence.  Sure, a computer can create amazing images through prompts, but where’s the human feel in them?  Could a computer-generated magician’s illusions dazzle us the way a real magician’s does?  Or does the power of a magical illusion come from the fact that we know it can’t be done, but . . . how was it done???   Part of the awe we experience through real artworks is the idea that real humans created them.

So I hope that the story of CAT NAP will inspire some kids to wonder “could I really make that, too?”  The answer is YES!  Skills that previous humans developed can be learned.  Why not YOU?  There’s nothing like that feeling of “I made this!”

I also hope that some kids who never visit museums might get a tiny glimpse of the wider world of art (is it always just a painting in a frame?) and it might spark their curiosity to explore more.

BB: Finally, I can’t imagine you haven’t deserved a rest after this, but what’s next for you? What else is on your plate?

 Brian: I recently Illustrated Melissa Stewart’s Meet the Mini-Mammals / A Night at the Natural History Museum (Beach Lane Books), and then next year is the publication of Diffy (Christy Ottaviano Books / Little, Brown).  It’s a story of how we make connections and stories, as seen through the eyes of my fictional version of an anglerfish whose life is changed when an illustrated dictionary lands on his deep-sea ledge home—and reveals images in its margins that he can’t comprehend.

If I haven’t stressed it enough, I will now. You absolutely need to see this book. Pre-order it now, if you can. Cat Nap, after all, will be out September 30th. Many thanks to Brian for his fantastic answers and to John Sellers and the team at Harper Collins for this early sneak preview.