Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Fox All Week by James Marshall

We’re doing something a little different today. You may already be familiar with my colleague and fellow School Library Journal blogger Travis Jonker. Travis writes over at the wonderful 100 Scope Notes site. Usually we don’t collaborate on much, but today we are pleased to reveal two sides of the same book. JIM! by Jerrold Connors is the story of James Marshall. Over at 100 Scope Notes, you’ll get an exclusive reveal of the book’s case cover, never before seen on this good green earth. And here? On my site we’re talking with Jerrold about the book’s creation. After all, how do you write a picture book about a man who made picture books?

Coming out on May 20th, the book is probably best described by its publishers (Dial) in this way:

“A picture book biography of the late, great James Marshall—illustrator of Miss Nelson is Missing and the George and Martha series—and as clever, delightful, and daring as Jim himself

Author and illustrator James Marshall let kids in on the joke. He knew little kids were smart, and he didn’t talk down to them in his stories. He was right—kids loved his picture books. Decades after his death, the characters he illustrated—Miss Nelson, Viola Swamp, George and Martha, Goldilocks, Fox and His Friends—are still beloved. James Marshall should be at least as famous as his characters, and now he is, in his own picture book biography. Created in an irreverent style inspired by James Marshall’s own art and storytelling, this delightful biography, featuring James as a fox, celebrates in both form and content what made James—“Jim” to his friends—so talented, funny, and special, and what has made his tales last. This time, Jim is the main character.”

Jerrold was kind enough to answer some of my questions about the creation of the book.

Betsy Bird: Jerrold! Lord above it is good to talk to you about JIM! I saw a very early version years ago and haven’t stopped thinking (or jabbering about to other folks) since. But let’s get the true origin story from the horse’s mouth. Where did JIM! Originate?

Jerrold Connors: Hello, Betsy! It’s great to talk to you too. Jim! started immediately after my time at the University of Connecticut where I was the 2017 James Marshall Fellow. Before going, I had reached out to Julie Danielson (who was the previous Marshall Fellow) to ask if there were any “must-sees” in the archives. Julie responded and we began messaging back and forth a series of “omg did you see . . .” and “omg I just saw . . .” type texts. By the end of the week, I must have impressed her with my wide-eyed enthusiasm because she invited me to join her as co-author on her for-adults James Marshall biography. I accepted and we began writing a few sample chapters. It was great to work with Julie, who is, as you know, a terrific writer, but the project never quite found its footing. Julie suggested I try my hand at a picture book version of Jim’s life. I resisted, she insisted, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

BB: Okay, let’s double back and talk about James Marshall. In many ways he was one of our greats, but since he never had a WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE level hit, he has a tendency to get a little forgotten sometimes. First and foremost, how did you first learn about him?

Jerrold: You nailed it. Jim didn’t play as big a role in my school days as did Tomie dePaola, William Steig, or Jose Aruego. All the same, Jim’s work has always felt incredibly familiar to me (I sometimes wonder if Viola Swamp lives in the subconscious of most people my age). I really got into his stories when I was a bit older and would read the Miss Nelson books to my niece and nephew. I’d say that was when I first started thinking of him as my favorite author.

BB: And what draws people to James? Why has he lasted as long as he has and what’s his unique appeal?

Jerrold: I think it’s that Marshall’s works feel real in a way that Sendak’s or Lobel’s don’t. You know? Sendak offers beautiful lands of imagination, Lobel offers cozy worlds of fantasy, but Marshall’s stories have this real-world-relatable feeling about them. His Fox, for example, attends public school, and you have the feeling his mom might be a single parent.

BB: So, in making a picture book biography you had any number of directions you could have gone. You went: Let’s turn him into a fox! Better still, the book is very much inspired by his own style. Was that just a given from the minute you thought about making this book or did it come to you later?

Jerrold: The earliest concept of this biography (which existed only in my head) was to use Jim’s own stories as a springboard to talking about his life. The working title of the first chapter was going to be “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Alligator.” But once I put the idea to paper, the Fox appeared and I knew immediately it was the right choice. There was no thinking involved.

As for the art, I am . . . let’s say . . . adept at mimicry. I could have attempted the book in a bang-on, completely Marshall style, but I knew to give the story meaning, it had to come from a more personal place in me. The style is my own, done in brush, ink, and watercolor, but the framework (the chapters, the titles, the vignettes) are very Marshall. I received a wonderful compliment from Breanna Carzoo (author of Lou and Greenlight) after she saw this cover. She said “You captured his essence while still being YOU!” I think that was when I knew I did it right.

BB: One of the things I love about this book is how much it focuses on his friends in his life. Maurice Sendak and Arnold Lobel amongst them. When you were writing the initial manuscript were they always there or did you add them in later? What do they bring to the story of James’s life?

Jerrold: They came later, when I found it was impossible to talk about Jim without acknowledging the deep friendship he shared with Maurice. Part of this is how important it was to Jim’s development as an artist. He was twelve years younger than Maurice and looked up to his friend as the greatest working children’s book artist. Maurice, for his part, considered Jim the funniest and most honest. Arnold and Anita Lobel were close to him as well, several of their books are dedicated to each other. And that’s the other reason I wanted to include them: These creators weren’t just creating in a vacuum. They were real people with real relationships. I think that’s a fun thing to think about.

BB: Tell us a little bit about your research. Who did you speak to? Where did you go?

Jerrold: My research is, thanks largely to Julie Danielson, extensive and exhaustive and I do, at this point, consider myself one of this country’s top Marshall scholars! That said, I was always most concerned with the feeling of the book. There were two standout moments that helped me establish that feeling. The first was talking to Jim’s agent, Sheldon Fogelman, who said “Jim was one of the two kindest people I’ve ever met in publishing.” (I asked “Who was the other?” and he said “Jerry Pinkney.”) The other was meeting and spending an afternoon with Jim’s partner, Bill Gray, to whom Jim’s final book The Owl and the Pussycat is lovingly dedicated.

I saw the dummy for The Owl and the Pussycat during my time as the Marshall Fellow, actually. I had full access to UCONN’s James Marshall Papers and I saw so many incredible things: sketchbooks, manuscripts with editor feedback and revisions, even personal correspondences. But The Owl and the Pussycat dummy was something else entirely. You could feel the care and love Jim was putting into each and every stroke on each and every page. And the fact that he knew this would be his last book… phew. There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of easter eggs in my book, but The Owl and the Pussycat gets special attention.

BB: A picture book biography is, by definition, a limited thing. It can be exceedingly hard to siphon down a life to 32 or 40 or 48 pages. What did you have to leave out that you would have loved to include?

Jerrold: I’m lucky in this respect. The book was bought at 64 pages, already a generously thick picture book, but midway through the project, Jess Garrison and Jenny Kelly, my editor and designer, proposed taking the book to 80. My initial reaction (and reply) was “I worry there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing,” but I took their suggestion, drafted 16 pages, and then ate my hat. Jess’s and Jenny’s suggestion—which was to show Jim at the height of his career—completes Jim’s story in a very satisfying way.

BB: James was gay, a fact that was not widely advertised at the time (with understandable reasons). Do you touch on it at all in this book?

Jerrold: It would have been impossible not to. While his being gay was, as you say, not advertised, he was never anything but open and honest to his friends and publishing colleagues. And if you look closely at his books, you’ll see he allows some of this honesty into his work—I consider It’s So Good to Have a Wolf Around the House to be a coming out story, for example. It’s these stories, the ones where his characters were the most open and vulnerable, I think, that prove Jim truly was one great artist.

BB: Finally, what are you working on next these days?

Jerrold: I have a book coming out in June from Boxer Books which is as different as different can be from Jim! It’s called Big Rhinoceros, Little Rhinoceros, and if Jim! is George and Martha, Big Rhinoceros, Little Rhinoceros is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. After that, comes a project I’m working on with Tracey Keevan over at Union Square Kids. I will tease it with a single word: COWS.

Cows! Could there be anything better?

I’d like to thank Jerrold and Garrett Bond at Penguin Young Readers for this discussion today. As I mentioned, JIM! I out everywhere on May 20th, and you’re just going to absolutely love it. A book worth of its subject, and then some.