Tag: Ryan G. Van Cleave

Picture Book Review: José Feeds the World by David Unger, illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns

On By Only Picture BooksIn Picture Book Reviews

José Feeds the World
Author: David Unger
Illustrator: Marta Álvarez Miguéns
duopress
30 January 2024
40 pages

This month’s PB review is by Ryan G. Van Cleave (Owner/​Operator of Only Picture Books) and Ringling College of Art and Design Illustration Professor (and OPB pal) David C. Gardner.

 

–Ryan’s Review of the Writing–

I’m always interested in the behind-​the-​scenes story of a real-​world hero’s life, and that’s what this book promises to deliver, being pitched this way: “The true story of José Andrés, an award-​winning chef, food activist, and founder of World Central Kitchen, a disaster-​relief organization that uses the power of food to nourish communities after catastrophe strikes.”

To tackle that big task, author David Unger tells the entire trajectory of José’s life, beginning with him as a child who learns to help others after witnessing his parents do that very thing in their jobs as nurses in Spain. They also loved to cook, and the kitchen soon became José’s favorite room in the house. This is where readers begin to get both the flavors of food (“the smell of rice, saffron, chicken, and sausage floating in the air”) and the sound of the Spanish language (cocina, paella, etc.) directly in the text.

José attends a Barcelona cooking school at 15 and becomes a chef’s assistant and a world-​famous restaurant. A few years later, off to the US he went where he cooked in New York City before opening his own restaurant in Washington D.C.  Thanks to his love for food and his skill in cooking, José began earning award after honor after critical acclaim.

That’s the end of a version of this story that simply tells how a young Spanish boy became a food rock star. But that’s not José’s story. Instead, he became deeply affected by the 2010 earthquake that devastated much of Haiti. Just as he did as a child, José wanted to help others. So, he gathered a group of friends and went there to cook for the survivors.

After returning to D.C., José knew he could do more for others who needed help. He founded World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit dedicated to providing free meals to survivors of natural and human-​made disasters in communities all over the world. The story follows his work to support people affected by disasters in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Guatemala, as well as COVID-​related challenges in California, New York City, and the Navajo Nation. There’s even a very brief mention of the Ukranian Food Fighters at the end.

Without a doubt, José is doing amazing work that’s worth knowing about and supporting. The key to making a successful nonfiction picture book biography–or any picture book, for that matter–is to find a way to make the story kidcentric. Why? Because if a kid reader doesn’t love the story enough to ask for re-​readings, it’s a one-​and-​done book regardless of the book’s other merits (such as beautiful art, which is the case here).

I worry that Unger sacrificed too much of the potential emotional depth of the story to portray a more exhaustive recounting of José’s entire life and career, and to put the focus so much on the many efforts of the World Central Kitchen. Another way that might make this book more kidcentric would be to embrace the parts of this story that kids would most likely be drawn to, such as the wonder, magic, and even the sound of food. We have a bit of that at the start, but it gives way to the robust biographical journey that follows.

Directly addressing the reader in the last page (“And one day you, too, will find your calling and make the world a better place”) seems to address the above concern. Does it work? Like the Ukranian mention, it feels more of an afterthought, though I’m pleased the Career Day visuals suggest all kinds of interesting future careers. If it only depicted a chef? That wouldn’t be a hit with most kids, I imagine.

The mission of this story is a very good one, and José Andrés comes across as an admirable humanitarian. There’s a strong sense of a connected world community and a positive sense of diversity here in both the text and the accompanying visuals. I hope this book brings a lot of attention to the World Central Kitchen since that appears to be the main course of this literary meal.

4 out of 5 pencils

 

–David’s Review of the Illustrations–

Spanish illustrator Marta Alvarez Miguéns starts on a sweet note, showing the roots of José’s compassion: as a boy, in the hospital where his parents worked, bringing water to an elderly patient. His love for cooking starts with his mom in the kitchen. He makes paella with his dad.

In a lovely, abstract flight of fantasy, young José floats dreamily over a giant kitchen table, spices, chicken, and utensils arrayed like a fanciful village, reminiscent of Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. Miguéns takes flight again later in the book, depicting a grown-​up José filling a steaming pot with vegetables that swirl magically around his head, a magician in the kitchen.

The pictures unfold in travelogue fashion now. José, a teenager, approaches cooking school in Barcelona. He cooks in restaurant jobs in New York and Washington, D.C. In a masterstroke, Miguéns brings the two threads of his life together in a touching double spread: a line in a soup kitchen, each person’s face depicted with care and a poignant dignity as they wait, bundled against the cold.

2010, and José responds to reports of the earthquake in Haiti and flies down to help. An image of local volunteers building rows of sandwiches is especially effective, hundreds of sandwiches laid out in a vast grid. Miguéns is mindful of showing other characters helping José in nearly every picture, suggesting humility in the chef. He is not doing this alone.

Next, it’s off to the Bahamas to help, then Guatemala. COVID appears, along with surgical masks, and Miguéns whisks us to the American Southwest, where José and his team help feed the Navajo nation. From California farm workers to Harlem hospital workers, we land in current-​day Ukraine, where José’s organization enlists locals to feed the broken victims of war.

The world events are grim, but Miguéns’ illustrations are hopeful. Each generous spread unfolds like a bright mural. Her vibrant, colorful illustrations remind me of Mary GrandPré’s fluid, almost abstract handling of the human form. Flat shapes tumble and interlock; steam, smoke, flowers, and plants spill and flow over the pages.

The pictures end on a lovely high note: children dressed up for Career Day. A kid in the center wears a chef’s costume. In a clever move, Miguéns has him wearing a cape and raising a spoon like a sword, or a scepter–a superhero, a knight, or a king.

José comes across as all three.

5 out of 5 crayons

David C. Gardner is an award-​winning illustrator and visual development artist. A former artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios, he has illustrated numerous picture books, including Write On, Irving Berlin! by Leslie Kimmelman (which appeared on OPB in May 2018). Published by Sleeping Bear Press, that book won a 2021 Charlotte Award from the New York State Reading Association. His forthcoming picture book is Junia, The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek, written by New York Times bestselling author Kim Michele Richardson. It follows Junia, the spunky mule from the bestselling The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series, in a picture book tribute to Kentucky’s Great Depression Pack Horse Library Project. It’s due from Sleeping Bear Press in March 2024. David teaches illustration at Ringling College of Art and Design.

To learn more about David’s own work, please visit FlyingDogStudio.com.

Industry Insider Interviews: Tips, Advice, and More from 18 Editors & Agents

On By Only Picture BooksIn Agent Interviews, Editor Interviews1 Comment

Instead of having a regular one-​subject interview, I’m going to share 18 interesting, surprising, and/​or useful things said by literary agents or editor in interviews I’ve read this past year. For those of you who care about such things, none of these interviews were at OPB. But maybe down the road I’ll do some a roundup post or two that’s only from OPB, kind of an OPB Greatest Hits! Does that sound like a good idea to you?

I’ll see you back here next week for the final OPB picture book review of 2023.

Anjanette Barr, Dunham Literary

from PBS Spotlight

I always ask myself whether this is something children actually WANT to read about. If you have a great story idea, but it’s on a topic the typical 4–8‑year-old crowd doesn’t care about, then you may need to choose a different format for your book. It’s easy to forget what that age group is interested in if you aren’t spending a lot of time with them, and this is often a glaring problem in manuscripts from new picture book authors. Remember that even though we want adults to enjoy reading our books aloud, it’s always the kids that matter most.

Sheila Barry, Kids Can Press

from cynsations

The hardest part of my job is having to say “no” so many times in a day or week. We turn down far more manuscripts than we publish (we probably reject 100 manuscripts for every one we accept), and I write more rejection letters than I can count.

Many of the projects we turn down are perfectly publishable, but they just aren’t exactly right at this particular moment for Kids Can Press, and it can be hard to keep finding ways to say: “We like your work, but we don’t like it quite enough to contract.” I’m almost always impressed by the graciousness of the people I turn down. But I still don’t enjoy doing it.

Savannah Brooks, kt literary

from Literary Rambles

I’m open [to self-​published or indie authors] so long as the project they’re querying hasn’t already been published. Those I won’t take on because the project really needs to be an Indie bestseller in order for editors to consider it. Otherwise it doesn’t really matter to me unless those projects are problematic/​poorly written. My general advice is don’t try to use self-​publishing as a way to launch yourself into traditional publishing. It backfires more often than it works.

Julia Churchill, AM Heath

from Words & Pictures

Every author is different, every book is different and every campaign is different. Publishers bring expertise, creativity and investment to the marketing of a book and an author. I will look through each campaign and ask questions. If I think it looks basic, I’ll ask for more. If I think they should be using the author more, I’ll ask why they aren’t. If the author and I have any other ideas ourselves, we will bring them to the publisher and talk about how we can make them work. If I see something that has fallen flat on one campaign with another publisher, then I will share my experience and ask why that happened, and if maybe we should re-​route the budget into a different area, or if they still think it’s worthwhile. I ask questions, I make suggestions, I voice my concerns.

What I want for every author is the premium big-​budget campaign, the diamond standard, but very few get that. You can imagine marketing and PR campaigns to be on a sliding scale. Some campaigns are on the more basic end of the scale. If that’s where your author is in this moment, it’s important to know that, so you can deal with it. I can brainstorm with the author what they can do under their own steam, dovetailing with publisher’s efforts, and also ask the publisher to bring in their expertise and some budget in order to help support the author. Everyone wants the book to be successful.

Not all authors want to be in a room presenting to a hundred people, they want to sit in their shed and write – and why shouldn’t they? Some authors do — and love being on panels or at festivals – it’s about knowing the author, and building the campaign around them and the book.

Mary Cummings, Great River Literary

from PBS Spotlight

If I’m intrigued, I send insights about areas to revise. I don’t want to hear back in, like, two hours because I don’t believe the writer will have really pondered and had opportunity to decide whether the revisions seem like a direction that feels right. But I also want to hear back in some reasonable amount of time (a few months would be really long for a picture book, unless my thoughts for revision would have major impact on illustrations for an author/​illustrator).

Adria Goetz, kt literary

from Johnell Dewitt

I particularly love what I call “historical footnote” picture books, that build a story around lesser known bits from history. I’m also looking for picture books that capture ordinary or natural moments that feel like they’re magical—moments like capturing fireflies, bread dough rising, watching a bird murmuration, the Northern Lights, planting a seed and having it grow into a living plant, and so on. We’re surrounded by ordinary magic, and I want to celebrate it! I’m also particularly looking for picture books that explore something peculiar that happens in nature.

Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown, Ltd.

from liveabout dotcom

One interesting thing is that independent booksellers have been compelled to be so much more nimble and creative to stay competitive and so many of them have gotten really good at selling picture books and middle-​grade books.

There would sometimes be a situation when I’d hear that Barnes & Noble “passed” on an author’s book and it used to be devastating—devastating. I would have an inconsolable author and have nothing to really to be able to tell him or her. That’s become less and less the case.

Of course, it’s great if the book is at Barnes & Noble, but it doesn’t need to be there. If they pass —while it’s not ideal—between school, library, and the indies, now we’re able to say, “That’s OK. There are other ways to sell the book.”

Susan Hawk, Upstart Crow Literary

from Writer’s Digest

Keeping texts concise is key – take a look at newly published picture books to see approximately how long they are. Editors aren’t looking for a lengthy text. I often receive rhyming picture books and these can also be a tough sell. Ask yourself if your story must rhyme; sometimes it can open up possibilities if you aren’t bound to a rhyme scheme.

I also avoid texts that teach a lesson. I find that a story that’s in service of a lesson can obscure the star of the story – the characters I want to fall in love with.

Carol Hinz, Millbrook/​Carolrhoda Books

from Picture Book Builders

I regularly see picture book biography texts that are well done but just don’t completely grab me. A common problem with these is pacing. Everything in the subject’s life is given equal weight, so the highs don’t feel all that high nor do the lows feel all that low.

In expository picture books, giving each scene its own spread may still apply, but depending on the approach the author uses, the pagination may be pre-​determined by the structure of the text.

Whether a book’s text is narrative or expository, I firmly believe that a page break has to mean something. The turn of a page should reveal something interesting, different, or new. And when I’m reading picture book submissions, I am looking for a reason for readers to keep on turning the pages.

Christa Heschke, McIntosh and Otis

from Justin Colon Books

Communication is key!!! It’s so important to me that my clients feel comfortable talking to me about any concerns they have throughout the process. I am always here! Most authors will feel a range of emotions throughout the submission process and beyond. Are you feeling disheartened? Would you like to talk strategy? Do you have editors you’d like me to submit to? Are you confused about contract language or what something means? I am always open to suggestions as well. It’s a partnership! Every author is different as far as how often they want to communicate and in what way (phone, email, etc.) and how involved they want to be in particular aspects of the process. So, I always like to be as clear on those details as possible. I want everyone I work with to be happy, know that I have their back, and be comfortable talking through things with me.

It’s also important to understand what each author’s goals are career-​wise and beyond so I can do my best to meet them.

Allyn Johnston, Beech Lane Books

from Picture Book Builders

A picture book is more than anything else a piece of theater, with pictures and words unfolding together as the pages turn and turn and turn all the way to that most important and satisfying one—the final turn from pages 30–31 to page 32.

A picture book is not a static piece of double-​spaced writing on several sheets of 8½ x 11 paper. It’s also not a chunk of writing that sounds like part of a young middle-​grade novel. The text of a picture book is more like poetry than prose. It needs rhythm and succinctness and not a bunch of description and dialog. To steal from Mem, it needs “perfect words in perfect places.” And not too many of them.

If you are a writer but not an illustrator, you of course must leave room for the artist to tell the picture story. But you also must let go of the notion that it is in any way your job to control what happens in the pictures. (No art notes! None. You may think I’m joking! But I’m not.) Your job is to write the best story you can possibly write, one that is so deliciously gorgeous and unexpected and fun in the way it unfolds, and in its emotional power, that no one who reads it can get it out of their heads.

As author/​illustrator Marla Frazee has said so beautifully, “It’s the text and the art that are collaborating in a picture book.” It’s words and pictures together that make the whole. Trust each of them to tell its part.

Naomi Kirsten, Chronicle Books

from Children’s Illustrators

It depends on the project since I work on a variety of formats, from original picture books to novelty books, board books, puzzles, and games. Regardless of the project, though, I typically seek out a style that can be best described as eye-​catching, soulful, and enduring. I also gravitate toward illustration styles that resonate with readers all over the world. I’m committed to reaching all readers, regardless of geography, so an illustration style often needs to have universal appeal.

Another quality that I look for is flexibility. It’s great to see a signature approach or aesthetic in a portfolio, but knowing that an illustrator is willing to step outside of their comfort zone to meet the needs of a potential project is ideal.

Finally, what typically sets an illustrator apart for me is their visual voice: That often comes through in a strong sense of color and line. If an illustrator is comfortable working in a limited palette, I like to see variations on that sensibility. I tend to gravitate toward illustrators who have a style that appeals to children all while speaking to an adult’s sense of artfulness. Since adults are the ones buying books for kids, they are always part of the equation for me—adults are also the ones who will likely be reading the picture book again (and again) to the youngest of readers, so it’s important to have a kid-​friendly style that adults can appreciate, too.

Emma Ledbetter, Abrams

from cynsations

Three hundred and fifty words is definitely on the short end of the picture books we publish! Word counts can vary greatly depending on things like the age group they’re targeting, and whether they’re fiction or nonfiction.

But yes, in general, there has been a trend towards brevity in recent years. I see this not as brevity for brevity’s sake, but because often, a manuscript reads as “too long” because it would simply be a stronger story if it were shorter.

When I edit a picture book text, sometimes I’ll encourage an author to condense when I find that there’s excessive description; too many different plotlines going on at once; or too much information incorporated (this can be a particular issue with nonfiction).

Every word is important in a picture book, where space is precious and limited—so every story needs focus and intent.

Steven Malk, Writers House

from Publisher’s Weekly

The most exciting thing for me has always been reading a voice I’ve never read before, coming across a perspective, point of view, or experience that’s different and new. The advice I always give is just to communicate what it is that makes you unique.

And there’s the really basic stuff of just being professional. You want to come across as really serious about what you’re doing. You don’’ want to come across as someone who’s just dabbling or who doesn’t take the business particularly seriously as a potential career. It is a career. You should demonstrate that, just like with any job.

***

I love coming across a voice I haven’t read before. I love books that open windows into a wide range of experiences. Not many people know it, but I’m a huge fan of mysteries and read them in my spare time whenever I can. I’d love to find a great mystery, especially a mystery with real emotional stakes and a setting we haven’t seen before. I’ve always been a big fan of flawed or unreliable narrators as protagonists. I love music, history, and sports, so I’m always receptive to books that touch on those subjects as well.

Wendy McClure, Albert Whitman & Co

from nancychurnin.com

In terms of process, it’s [writing a picture book] sort of a cross between composing a poem and writing a short essay. For many years I did a column for BUST magazine, and my word count was around 800 words, and once I got used to that limit, it sort of changed the way I wrote those pieces: I’d know, after a couple of paragraphs, whether my pacing and structure was tight enough to work with that word count. If it wasn’t, I’d start over. I find now that I do the same thing with picture books, because working with those texts as an editor has given me a feel for that length. It’s funny, because I still believe in writing first drafts without worrying about word count, and that sometimes you need too much story at first to have enough in the end. But it’s also useful to understand the sense of scale a picture book has. It’s like figuring out what size paintbrush you need. As an editor of picture books, I’m always in that world to some extent! But it’s a little different when it’s your own manuscript. I liked letting my editor (Christina Pulles) make decisions about page breaks and jacket copy, and I was able to sit back more and watch the magic happen, which was fun.

Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties, Inc.

from Cynsations

I often find that our very most successful clients need a gatekeeper—there can come a point when there’s nobody left who will tell an author to “shelve it” or that the author “can do better.” We are the keepers of the castle, the ones you can trust to tell you the truth about the work as we see it.

Maria Modugno, Random House Studio

from Robsanders.com

If I knew the formula for making a finished book irresistible, I would be a millionaire. Even after years of experience, I find it hard to anticipate which titles will really take off. I always pause when I have the first bound book in my hands and celebrate that achievement. What the market thinks is out of our control. Nevertheless, most bookstores use the top seasonal holidays as a hook for a display. Back to school is another important season for picture books. It goes without saying, that the publisher has priced the book competitively and the trim size is right for the story, i.e. some books are “lap books” that can be spread across the laps of two readers; some illustrations call for vertical size and others for landscape.

***

The overwhelming reason that manuscripts are declined is because they just don’t have that extra spark, something that makes them irresistible. And that quality is the most difficult to define.

There are some things you can check—does the story have a distinctive voice? Does the plot work without relying on coincidence? Does it end with a surprise [such as a] birthday party? How does it sound when you read it aloud, or better yet have someone read it to you. Take care that you are not convincing yourself that it’s a good text.

***

I’m a saver of scraps. I have a jar of mismatched buttons that I keep on hand just in case. Don’t ever give your manuscript a funeral. Set it aside for a while first underlining the parts you love the best.

Something that isn’t working completely will still have a number of gems you can use somewhere else.

Brooke Vitale, freelance editor

from Brookevitale.com

So what does it mean to have a book for kids aged 3–7? It means that you need to focus on things these children can understand and can relate to. Keep in mind what a young kids’ experience with the world is and what is interesting to them. A four-​year-​old isn’t going to want to read a book about a ten-​year-​old. They can’t relate to what that character is going through and probably won’t understand the book. Young children are still learning how the world works and wont usually comprehend more complex emotional stories. That’s why most picture books tend to be simplified. A book about bullying, for example, would likely focus on a protagonist stepping up to stop the bullying, not the actual physical and emotional abuse the bullied child experiences.

But more than being something they can understand, books for kids this age need to be compelling. They need to keep a child engaged and actively hold their interest.

If you’ve ever read to a kid, you know that they have notoriously short attention spans. If you don’t have a story that keeps their attention, they’re not going to want to read your book. Find a way to engage them, and keep them engaged.

Educational Activities: Turbo’s Special Delivery by Jean Reagan, illustrated by Eduardo Marticorena

On By Only Picture BooksIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Turbo’s Special Delivery
Author: Jean Reagan
Illustrator: Eduardo Marticorena
24 October 2023
Clarion Books
40 pages

Book description from Goodreads: “There’s a new truck on the road and he goes fast— turbo fast; from New York Times bestselling author Jean Reagan comes a social-​emotional picture book about slowing down and learning new skills. Turbo Truck has always stayed in his lane. That lane being the fast one. But when the only job left is one that calls for a delicate hand at the wheel, Turbo has the chance to prove to everyone—and himself—that he can travel at more than one speed. As Turbo slows down, he discovers the satisfaction of a job well done (even one with no impressive accelerations) and the sights only visible from the slow lane.”

Need some reviews for Turbo’s Special Delivery?

Educational Activities inspired by Turbo’s Special Delivery:

  • Before Reading–From looking at the front cover: 
    • What do you think the story might be about, based on the title and cover of the book?
    • What characters do you think might be in this story?
    • What do you know about trucks? How do they work, and what jobs do they do?
    • What are you wondering about as you look at the front and back cover?
    • What questions would you like to ask the author–or the illustrator!–before reading the book?
  • After Reading–Now that you’ve read the story: 
    • What made Turbo different?
    • If you were in the story, what would you hear, see, smell, and feel at the warehouse?
    • How did you react when Turbo didn’t get a job? Has anything like this happened to you before?
    • How worried were you about Turbo successfully handling the special delivery?
    • Was there a moment in the book that surprised you?
    • What was your favorite part of the story, and why?
    • After the events of this story, how might Turbo act differently in the future?
    • Would you suggest this book to a friend? Why/​why not?
  • Turbo Truck Craft: Create a detailed model of Turbo using cardboard, bottle caps for wheels, and paint. Focus on making parts of him, like wheels or doors, move in slow motion. Decorate Turbo with colors as seen in the book. As you build, think about how each part of a truck works and why slowing down might be important for Turbo.
  • Slow Race Challenge: Organize a race where the slowest person to reach the finish line wins. Mark a starting and finishing line in a safe outdoor area. Discuss strategies to move slowly and steadily, and observe how different it feels compared to a regular race. Talk about the importance of patience and how it relates to the story.
  • Further Reading: Turbo’s Special Delivery features a very special truck. Here are some other picture books about trucks (and truck-​like things). Which of these have you already read? Which of the others would you want to read first? (Click on any book cover for more information on these titles!)

Author Interview: Marty Kelley

On By Only Picture BooksIn Author Interviews

Here’s a little secret about getting interviewed at OPB—if you make books about unicorns, zombies, and farts…you’re in! And while you might think that’s the only reason that author, artist, and teacher Marty Kelley is joining us today, you’d be wrong. He’s also the creator of Imaginary Ancestors, an interactive storytelling project where you get a “brand-​new, completely fictional family member into your life.” Awesome, right?

There’s more to Marty than just his knack for weaving the hilarious with the heartfelt. With a background in elementary education and freelance illustration, Marty possesses a unique perspective on storytelling that’s both educational and entertaining. His experiences in the classroom inform his understanding of children’s innate curiosity and humor, aspects that he deftly incorporates into his work. Marty Kelley is a multi-​dimensional artist who not only tickles our funny bones but also sparks our imagination and speaks to our inner child.

Oh, and he’s the author of this fine book, which is the first of his I’ve read.

Let’s dive into the interview to find out more about Marty right now!

Marty’s Website

 

RVC: Rumor has it that you get your start as an artist by drawing “historically accurate pictures of spaceships dropping bombs on dinosaurs.” True story or is this just more bang-​up work from the Office of Disinformation?

MK: 100% true disinformation…

RVC: Hah. Okay. What’s the REAL story?

MK: I’ve always loved to draw. I spent a lot of my school career drawing ridiculous doodles in notebooks and in the margins of my school books. I spent a lot of my recess time erasing those same sketches from the margins of my books. I’ve always enjoyed creating art and stories that exist in some sort of strange juxtaposition with one another. Spaceships and dinosaurs, for example.

RVC: Please share the story of the comic strip you created during high school. 

MK: I had high hopes of being the next Gary Larson and creating a comic that could rival The Far Side. To that end, I created a single-​panel comic called Major Weirdness. It was exactly as good as a comic from a dorky, untrained 14 year old would be. I sent it to a few syndication houses and a few kindly took the time to send me actual rejection letters instead of just using my comics as place mats.

I eventually decided to start a bit closer to home. I packed up all my comics in a binder, tossed it in my backpack, and rode my bike to the local town newspaper where asked to see the Editor in Chief. The editor took the time to sit down with me and look at my work. After pointing out that I had spelled Weirdness wrong on every panel, she offered to print my comic in the paper once a week, for which I was offered the exorbitant payment of $10 per comic. I still feel like they overpaid me.

RVC: Great story. Now, after high school, you studied animation at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Soon after graduating, you returned to school to become a teacher. What’s the backstory here?

MK: My art school years were great and I loved the Museum School, but their unorthodox way of running a school gave me, as an 18-​year-​old kid, WAAAAAY too much freedom in my choices. Rather than taking several foundation courses in many aspects of art, I was able to focus everything on my tunnel-​visioned view of being an animator. I really just burnt myself out on it in two and half years. After a few bumpy attempts at other things, I got a job as an aide in a local elementary school. I absolutely loved working with kids. After following my girlfriend (now wife) to Florida, where I experienced some of the worst jobs of my life (I’m looking at you, Mystery Fun House…), I went back to school to get a “real job” teaching second grade.

RVC: What are some specific ways that being a second-​grade teacher prepared you to become a professional writer and illustrator of children’s books?

MK: Honestly, I think my time teaching was one of the most important factors in any success I’ve enjoyed as an author/​illustrator. I learned firsthand what kids actually enjoy. I learned how they read and why they make choices that they do in selecting books. As a very frequent presenter at schools, my background as a teacher was invaluable in making me comfortable in front of crowds and understanding how to keep 150 kindergarten kids entertained in a gym for 45 minutes. Something not for the faint-hearted.

RVC: What convinced you to make complete shift to being a story creator?

MK: Lunch duty. You have no idea…

RVC: I can only imagine!

MK: Honestly, I started doing Author Visits to other schools when I was teaching. I’d take a personal day here and there and zip off to another school to talk about books and make some pretty decent money. When I visited the elementary school that I attended as a kid, the largest newspaper in the state came and did a big feature story about it.

When I returned to school the next day, several co-​workers suggested that the next time I was “sick,” I try to avoid statewide publicity about it.

The superintendent, however, was delighted by what I was doing and allowed me to continue visiting other schools a few times per year because she could see that I was working hard to promote literacy. I eventually had to start turning down requests because of my pesky day job. It was at that crossroads, just married, in a new home, with a brand new baby boy, that I decided to chuck teaching and throw myself headlong into the breach. It was terrifying and very, very challenging, but I’ve never regretted it for a minute.

RVC: Share the story behind your first published picture book.

MK: I was working on a few books with no success. Like anybody trying something new, I had no idea what I was doing or how to go about doing it. This was in the olden days before the internet, when dinosaurs roamed freely through our towns. I began haunting the library and bookstores and eventually was able to sell Fall Is Not Easy to a small publisher. I was advised by people in the business that I should try to negotiate a flat fee because books from small publishers rarely sell many copies. I ignored that advice. That first book was in print for over 25 years and did sell a decent number of copies over its life.

RVC: I’m glad you bucked the trend there. Terrific! What was the most useful lesson that book taught you?

MK: Don’t lie to a publisher and tell them that the artwork is almost done when you haven’t, in fact, even started it. Rookie mistake.

RVC: You’ve been waiting patiently for me to ask, so here it is. Almost Everybody Farts—great picture book about farts, or the greatest picture book about farts?

MK: I’m biased, of course, but I’d suggest that it’s the only book about farts that matters.

RVC: What kind of reception did that manuscript have when you summoned the courage to send it in? 

MK: It was a strange mix. That book holds two personal records for me: Fastest rejection and fastest acceptance. When my agent, the incomparable Abi Samoun at Red Fox Literary, sent the manuscript out, we got an email back from a well-​known editor at a huge house exactly 28 minutes later. She was NOT a fan of fart books. 7 minutes after that, an offer came in from another publisher, followed by a second offer from a different publisher. It was the first time one of my manuscripts has gone into a bidding war, too.

RVC: What’s your favorite thing about that book (beyond that cool story you just shared)? 

MK: Thinking about the fact that in a law office somewhere, a lawyer actually had to write an eleven-​page legal contract that had the word “fart” in it about 57 times. That, and the fact that it makes kids laugh so hard. It’s really a joy to share that one at schools and see the kids shriek with laughter.

RVC: You and I know that tons of things don’t make it to the final product when we’re talking about picture books. So, what didn’t make it into that book that you wish did?

MK: HA! On the endpapers, there are a bunch of random people farting. Doctor, yoga instructor, princess, etc. When I originally submitted those pages, they included a nun. She made it through the first round of edits, but then the lawyers got involved. It was decided (not by me) that the book was potentially controversial enough without including a flatulent nun. There was also a page where an uncle was farting directly in a kid’s face. The marketing people thought it was “too aggressive.”

RVC: I think they missed a hilarious opportunity there. 

MK: I still disagree with the marketing folks, but we all need to learn to compromise.

RVC: Let’s talk process. How do you go about creating a picture book? 

MK: I really don’t have a set process. I tend to be a bit unfocused overall, flitting from one thing to another. I’m very curious and really enjoy trying new things. Very basically, I usually start with words. I will scrawl ideas and concepts in my sketchbook. Sometimes they seem to just flow, but much more often, it is a process that takes months or years. I heavily revise everything I create. I typically have pictures in mind, but they tend to get made after the words are finished unless I’m working on a graphic novel. Those are a totally different creative process for me. I think those through almost like a movie or TV show, relying much more heavily on pictures to tell the story and carry a lot of the humor. I really enjoy process and the act of creating.

RVC: How do you balance the relationship between text and illustrations in your work?

MK: Again, it depends on the book. As I mentioned earlier, I really like work that has some juxtaposition of ideas in it. I like stories where the pictures and words don’t always tell the same story, but they work together to create something new. It’s enjoyable to me to have the illustrations show or suggest something other than what the words are saying. For me, that’s a fun element of humor to exploit and play with.

RVC: Have you ever faced writer’s or artist’s block? If so, how do you overcome it?

MK: Oh, heck yes. It happens to everyone at some point. Often, I will just put the project down and take a break, either by working on something else or just doing something completely different. It can sometimes take years for me to take an idea that I like and turn it into an actual, workable story. I’ve also found over the years that projects I struggle with can occasionally be abandoned in favor of projects that incorporate elements of the original project. Lots of my books contain elements that were scavenged from previous “failures.”

RVC: What’s the most rewarding part of making picture books?

MK: Sharing them with a gym full of kids who laugh hysterically. It’s unimaginable rewarding to realize that something you created is bringing that much joy into the world.

RVC: You’re well known for having terrific school visits/​presentations. What are a few of your secret go-​to moves (that other writers should maybe copy)?

MK: Be authentic. Don’t try to be something you think kids will like. Be honest and real with them. Also, tell fart jokes.

Seriously, though, don’t tell fart jokes if you’re not the fart joke kind of person. You know when someone is being insincere. Kids do, too.

RVC: I quite agree. What else?

MK: I keep my presentations very visually engaging. I spend weeks every summer crafting a new digital slideshow for school visits. I work very hard refining the presentation and I go into each school prepared and ready to give it my all.

I keep the kids engaged with interactive elements including places for them to shout things out. I cover all aspects of the writing process in an age-​appropriate way. You really, really have to have a sense of who you’re talking to. Explaining your personal philosophy of using gerunds as a vehicle to further the exploration of the limits of language to a gym full of kindergarteners is probably not the smartest move a presenter can make. That doesn’t mean talking down to them, but making sure that you’re meeting them where they are with useful information presented in an engaging, appropriate way.

Also fart jokes.

RVC: You seem to have a running gag with the trademark symbol on your website and interviews, so let me just ask. What’s the deal there?TM

MK: What’s the deal there?™ is a trademark owned by Marty Kelley Enterprises, Ltd.. My lawyers will be contacting you.

RVC: On no! I’m terrified™.

MK: It’s just my silly push-​back against the ridiculous culture of proprietary nonsense everywhere.

RVC: Fair enough™! Now, what advice would you give to parents, librarians, and educators for selecting quality picture books?

MK: If a celebrity wrote the book or it it’s based on a cartoon series or a movie, maybe keep looking.

RVC: As someone who reads a lot of celebrity books as research (because I write them in my role as The Picture Book Whisperer), I agree with you.

MK: It really depends on what you’re looking for. If you want kids to become enthusiastic lifelong readers, let them choose the books they want. If you think it’s too hard for them, sit with the kid and read it together. If you think it’s too easy for them, take a breath and step back. Not everything has to be a challenge. Not everything needs to be quantified and graded. Let them read what interests them. Suggest other books that may be interest-​adjacent as a way to broaden their reading horizons. Reading for pleasure should actually be a pleasure.

RVC: Here’s one last question for this part of the interview. It’s Brag Time! What awesome upcoming things do you want to share with us? 

MK: The stuff I’m most excited about lately isn’t book stuff. I do have a new picture book coming out in 2026 that I’m excited about, but lately I’ve been working on a lot of sculptural work that incorporates stone, steel, and wood. It’s a joy to work on these and it’s such a different process than creating on paper with words or images.

I’ve been creating and selling a lot of these sculptures and it’s been a really exciting new avenue of creativity to explore.

RVC: Alright, Marty. Great job on the above, but here’s where your true colors will show. It’s the LIGHTNING ROUND! We’re talking zip-​zappy fast questions followed by hustle-​bustle quick answers. Are you prepared to face this challenge? 

MK: You bet™.

RVC: If we overheard you singing in the shower, you’d be belting out…

MK: “Think” by Aretha Franklin. Also, “Get out of my bathroom while I’m showering!”

RVC: If there was a picture book about your life, what would it be called?

MK: Wait, what?

RVC: Your studio is on fire! What’s the one thing you grab on your way out the door?

MK: The fire extinguisher.

RVC: An industry trend you wish would go away?

MK: It’s a tie: Celebrity “authors” and books created to sell toys.

RVC: The unicorn (or fart or zombie) picture book you WISH you wrote?

MK: Well, I hadn’t really given that any thought, but I think you just made it: Unicorn Fart Zombies™.

RVC: Funniest thing a kid reader of your books said to you?

MK: After presenting for 30 minutes to a group of kindergarten students about how I create my books, a kid raised his hand and asked “Do all wrestlers drive red trucks?”

I have no idea where that came from but I told him, “Yup. With whomping stereos.” and he seemed satisfied with that answer.

RVC: Thanks so much, MartyTM!

Picture Book Review: I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People by Anne Broyles, illustrated by Victoria Tentler-Krylov

On By Only Picture BooksIn Picture Book Reviews1 Comment

Holiday House
7 November 2023
48 pages
This month’s PB review is by Ryan G. Van Cleave (Owner/​Operator of Only Picture Books) and longtime OPB friend, Austin McKinley.

—Ryan’s Review of the Writing—

I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People, authored by Anne Broyles and vibrantly illustrated by Victoria Tentler-​Krylov, is a welcome children’s picture book that paints a portrait of Ralph Fasanella’s life with the same fervor and detail the artist himself devoted to his canvases. The book captures Ralph’s journey from a tenacious New York kid to an iconic artist, echoing his dedication to portraying the working-​class experience.

Broyles’ prose dances between simplicity and evocativeness, achieving a balance that engages young readers while touching on mature themes. For instance, in describing Ralph’s early life, Broyles writes, “Ralph often wandered the city until dinnertime, observing the colors, shapes, and textures of the glowing streetlights against the brick buildings. Instead of going to school, he taught himself how to read by studying newspapers on the subway.” Such language not only builds Ralph’s world but also immerses the reader in the symphony of city life that influenced his art.

Tentler-​Krylov’s illustrations must be praised for their dynamism and how they echo Fasanella’s own style—bold, colorful, and brimming with narrative. One can almost feel the texture of the city’s energy in the spread that captures Ralph amidst the clamor and chaos of a labor protest. I’ll let Austin say more about that below in his part.

The narrative deftly weaves Fasanella’s passion for social justice with his artistic development. In a powerful scene, Broyles describes how “It took Ralph three years to create eighteen paintings of workers protesting, union leaders making speeches, militiamen with bayonets, mill owners watching from inside the mills, and more. It was his masterpiece.” This parallel between Ralph’s art and the movement of the American workforce underscores the book’s theme of solidarity and community.

Geared towards children aged 4–8, the book doesn’t shy away from difficult topics like labor rights, instead presenting them through the lens of art and storytelling, making complex concepts a bit more accessible and relatable. The story champions the idea that everyone has the power to create change, aligning with current educational values promoting agency and expression.

In sum, I’m Gonna Paint is an homage to a self-​made artist and a call to recognize the beauty and power in one’s own creativity. It’s a vivid reminder of art’s ability to capture and change the zeitgeist, likely resonating with young readers, educators, and parents for its depth and beauty.

4 out of 5 pencils

 

—Austin’s Review of the Illustrations—

For an illustrator to tackle a children’s book celebrating the life and work of a recognizable modern artist is no simple undertaking. Especially when the artist in question is a primitive whose primary subject matter is a psychological impression of the world in which he grew up. It means that a lot of the reductionist tools an illustrator might use to simplify, streamline, and evoke the spirit of the book’s hero conflict with the journalistic need to echo the subject’s own sensibility; to represent his world, work, and legacy in a specific and recognizable way.

In short, how was Victoria Tentler-​Krylov supposed to give us a picture book that looked and felt like the world as artist Ralph Fasanella saw it, and pay homage to that interpretation without directly imitating his style? How, indeed, can a reviewer begin to describe the work of one without comparing and contrasting it with the other? It is reviewing an interpretation of an interpretation. And yet, Tentler-​Krylov surmounts this challenge with impressive skill, sensitivity and grace, so I will attempt to follow her example.

As an immigrant son, reform school survivor, and former labor organizer, when Ralph Fasanella became a self-​taught painter later in life, he took a forthright and direct approach to create a visual chronicle of the lived experience of the people and the world that he knew, as well as those of his parent’s generation. He drew heavily on the kinds of visual shorthand any illustrator might use to communicate their ideas. X‑ray projections, flattened perspectives, subjective color, expressive as well as descriptive mark-​making, and panels that guide the eye through a juxtaposition of scale are all visual syntax a picture book illustrator especially might rely upon regardless of the biographical subject.

Unfazed, Tentler-​Krylov supplies many touches of her own that make her vision of Fasanella’s epic world uniquely hers, even as it complements Fasanella’s. Her colors are ever so slightly more naturalistic and objective, her perspective and compositions as grounded as they are whimsical, her focus more sharply moment to moment. Her Van Gogh-​esque, Post-​Impressionist hatching used with even more deliberate intent. Where Fasanella described the timelessness of a specific world, its moments played out cyclically like the thrum of a thousand sewing machines, Tentler-​Krylov gives us specific moments in time surrounding the life of an individual person, and by extension, a hint of the seeds of the artistic vision those experiences would germinate.

Compare the family supper Tentler-​Krylov shows us on page 11 with the one Fasanella painted in 1972. Where Fasanella’s depictions of people were hauntingly expressionless, his architecture shaky and his tone somewhat inscrutable beyond the circumstantial, Tentler-Krylov’s settings crackle with life, her dynamic gestures and characterizations sharpened by the wit of a master cartoonist and observer. We can practically smell the bread on the table. Where Fasanella’s compositions are grand and sprawling, Tentler-Krylov’s are as inventive and immediate as any in the medium without ever letting you forget it’s the life of an artist with a very specific vision she’s depicting. In the hands of a lesser illustrator, intimate vignettes like Fasanella stretching canvas or imagining the world he intends to paint as he contemplates the easel wouldn’t have nearly the power they do here.

And as generationally timely as Fasanella’s work was in his era, Tentler-Krylov’s work in this volume is equally so. Especially powerful is the image of Fasanella as a sixty-​year-​old artist in the 1970s, striding palette in hand through a crowd of striking textile workers in Lawrence Massachusetts circa 1912. Also poignant are the illustrations of modern viewers, swirling in a kind of observational dance around representations of Fasanella paintings. If Fasanella’s work spoke to the power of art to transport a viewer to a time and place and thus keep the lessons of humanity alive, one generation to the next, Tentler-Krylov’s illustrations here do the same. And if Fasanella’s paintings helped in some way to create empathy in viewers for the workers and their families he depicted en masse, Tentler-Krylov’s illustrations create empathy for the scion of a single working family. She shares his tumultuous upbringing with us, and through it the artistic drive, passion, dedication and conscience that gave those workers he championed a voice.

5 out of 5 crayons

Austin McKinley makes comic books, cartoons, movies, video games, screenplays, novels and novellas through his company, Flying Car. He shot and appeared in the award-​winning feature documentary The New 8‑Bit Heroes alongside director Joe Granato. His comic illustrations have also been published by Image Shadowline, Devil’s Due/​1st Comics, Alias/​Blue Water Press, Avatar, Boom!, Blue King Studios, and FC9. He wrote and illustrated Squareasota, a weekly cartoon in the Sarasota Herald-​Tribune for seven years.

Most recently, he illustrated Tales of Mr. Rhee vol. 5: Rockstar Paranoia, a graphic novel, BLAZE ya Dead Homie, a one-​shot comic book, and wrote and illustrated RIOT Force, a creator-​owned comic series for Source Point Press.

Editor Interview: Taylor Norman (Neal Porter Books/​Holiday House)

On By Only Picture BooksIn Editor Interviews8 Comments

Welcome to this month’s Industry Insider guest, Taylor Norman, a rock star in the realm of children’s literature as Executive Editor at Neal Porter Books/​Holiday House. Let’s give her a big, warm welcome!

Taylor is the editorial force behind some of the most captivating and impactful picture books you’ll find on shelves today. A connoisseur of stories that are not just enchanting but also empowering, Taylor works to bring narratives to life that kids (and adults) can’t put down.

Before her time at Neal Porter Books, Taylor honed her skills at Chronicle Books and earned her stripes as a writing tutor for 3rd–5th graders—an experience that no doubt lends itself to her keen editorial eye. In terms of academics, Taylor graduated with a major in English and a minor in French, which brings a rich texture to her understanding of storytelling.

Now that you’ve got the snapshot, let’s jump into the interview and find out what makes Taylor Norman an editorial force to be reckoned with!

RVC: On your website, you have a fabulous yearbook page with a photo and some information about you from age 13, including this goal: “I would like to be an editor of children’s books.” Where did that dream come from? 

TN: As I’m sure was true for most of you, I was an obsessive reader as a kid. I had to be told to put my books away at the dinner table. So my first job in junior high was working at our local bookstore, Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma, California, alongside my mom, Patty Norman, who was also a bookseller there and now is the children’s events manager. The children’s section at Copperfield’s is incredible—you go up a ramp to get in, and there are beanbags and nooks and crannies and a giant pillar with a huge tree painted on it. It is treated as such a special space in the store, and it affirmed my sense that the books I read, even as a kid, were important. I got blissfully stuck in the section, reading picture books and middle grade and young adult (to the detriment of my English classes). To this day, the feeling of finding the right book for the right kid—that perfect pairing—looms large in my memory. It’s my goal to make as many books as possible that can be that book, both for the bookseller to hand over, and the kid to receive—that magic book, the book the kid needs in that exact moment.

RVC: It sounds like that experience was tailor-​made for your future career.

TN: Over my years at Copperfield’s, I became convinced that the only thing I knew anything about was books for kids, and if there was a job that would pay me to read them, I wanted it. I also started to realize that, because I had read so many kids’ books, so constantly, I was pretty sure I knew what made a book truly stand out. My job at Copperfield’s taught me how to trust my instincts about books—taught me what I liked and didn’t like. It wasn’t till college at UC Berkeley, where I majored in English, that I began to learn how to articulate why a book worked or didn’t, and crucially, how to talk about why I liked something and why a given detail was valuable. College, when I read adult literature seriously for the first time, is where I learned all the mechanism behind the things I responded to innately as a younger reader. It put reason to emotion. The combination of those skills forms the foundation of my work as an editor.

RVC: At what point did you realize that dream was going to become a reality?

TN: To be honest, I never thought it wouldn’t. From age 13, I wanted to be a children’s book editor, and I made every next step about exactly that. The best confirmation came when I was a junior in college, as an editorial intern at Bloomsbury Children’s—everything about that job lit me up and made me know beyond a doubt that this was the exact job for me. You will never find a more elated intern anywhere than me in 2010. I would happily have done that job for free.

RVC: Hah. That’s a common secret we don’t want to tell our employers, right? Now, how did you land your first editing job (Editorial Assistant @ Chronicle Books)? 

TN: An internship at Chronicle Children’s opened up my last semester in college. I applied, and was delighted to find that my interviewer was Ariel Richardson, who had worked at Copperfield’s briefly some years prior. I got the internship, and about a month later, Chronicle hired a new publishing director for the Children’s group, Ginee Seo. That entailed hiring a permanent editorial assistant, so I applied as quickly as I could. Ginee and I clicked immediately, and shared so many of the same values about the books we loved and the books we thought were important, and thank goodness, she hired me.

RVC: What were the best lessons that job taught you? 

TN: That’s hard to answer. I was at Chronicle for 11 years, so I learned just about every lesson I’ve ever learned in my life from that job. I guess the best lesson is: to value your relationships above all else. My colleagues and authors and illustrators and agents—I take these relationships so seriously and spend some of the best energy of my life tending to them. Being an editor is more like being a therapist than anything else—you are the caretaker of many peoples’ most important efforts and most fervent dreams, the manager of those efforts and dreams, and their champion. Understanding those stakes is imperative.

RVC: Let’s talk about those stakes via a book–what’s the story behind the first picture book you ever edited?

TN: When you first open to acquisitions, you read a lot of books, hundreds, that are publishable. You keep thinking, Is this the one? Is this good enough? If I pass on this, am I wrong? But then you read something that echoes across your whole life and inside your whole self, and you realize: This is the kind of book I want to edit. That’s how I felt when I read Carter Higgins’ Everything You Need for a Treehouse.

RVC: What’s the most important thing that experience taught you?

TN: That book was the first of so many I’d do with Carter, and that relationship—both professional and personal—is one of the major joys of my life. What I knew from the second I read that manuscript was that the person who wrote it had not just a book I wanted to publish, but a mind I wanted to publish. I wanted every thought she had to be synthesized into picture book form. (We are doing a pretty good job on this so far!)

And that’s really what I’m looking for when I’m reading submissions—the book, of course, needs to be precisely aligned with my ability to make it its best self, but I am more importantly reading for the person making it, hoping to find another person who will bring countless singular stories into kids’ hands and minds. When I acquire a book, I’m really hoping to “acquire” the relationship—my hope is always that it extends far further into the future than just a single book’s lifetime.

RVC: That’s a lovely way to put it–so many writers feel like this is such a mercenary industry, but it’s really about relationships.

TN: Absolutely.

RVC: You’ve said, “A good picture book should be able to be read by anybody.” What does that mean to you?

TN: Huh. I don’t know that I agree with the past self that said that. “Able to be read” to be read as in “available and allowed access to”? Yes, of course. But I feel strongly that no one should ever set out to write a book that will be loved by everybody. That’s how we get mediocre, similar, unchallenging books. A good book is a book that lots of kids will love, but for one kid, it will be the only book they love, or the first book they love—the book that makes them realize they’re not alone. The way to make such a book is not to set out to write something that will please broadly.

RVC: Tell me about a picture book or two that were particularly challenging to edit, and what made them so?

TN: Ah those are trade secrets, my friend.

RVC: Hah, okay. I have to ask, right? Now, how important is pacing in a picture book?

TN: Exceptionally.

RVC: What are some of your best examples of great pacing? 

TN: Shawn Harris’ illustration work in Dave Eggers’ Her Right Foot is some of the best pacing I’ve ever seen in a picture book, and dealing with an unusual structure: The book is 112 pages, but the text isn’t all that long, only around 1500 words. Shawn’s innovation was to spool that text out carefully, so that each page has only a sentence or two on it. The effect is twofold—a parent doesn’t have to spend five minutes reading one single spread of text while their listener gets bored and starts to play with a toy (a problem with books consisting of gigantic blocks of text on every spread), and the reader has a sense of suspense. The sentences on each page start to build, and you start to wonder what’s coming. My metaphors are all cliché—the rolling of a snowball, the rumbling of an earthquake, the boiling in a pot—but what Shawn effects by placing the sentences as intentionally as he does is nothing short of an explosion of meaning and emotion when we reach the climax of the book. Shawn’s work in his visual pacing matches perfectly the narrative pacing in Dave’s text.

RVC: Since you brought up Dave Eggers, let me ask something writers wonder about. How is it different working with bigger-​name writers than debut authors? 

TN: The editor’s job is always to make each book its best self. That job doesn’t change no matter who you’re working with. The only difference in the task is that every book has a different best self, even books by the same author, so it’s your job to figure out what that unique best self is, and then work to shape the book according to that ideal self.

RVC: What sets Neal Porter Books apart in the competitive landscape of picture book publishing?

TN: Neal Porter Books places utmost emphasis on the highest quality and importance. Each of those adjectives apply both visually and narratively to the books that Neal has always published. These are books that look like nothing else and sound like nothing else, books that take those risks to greatness. I think the key is that, while we are a business and do have to hope that our books make money, we are looking for true works of art above all else: books that weren’t created with the intention to sell, or with the intention of making their author famous, but were simply created from a place of honesty and storytelling and an understanding of children and childhood. They are books that don’t condescend to children, but recognize that kids have just as vast, rich, complicated inner lives as adults do. They are books by people who value the authentic experience of children and are working to meet those children where they actually are.

RVC: Well said. Thanks for that. Let’s clarify something else that writers often don’t understand. You’re Executive Editor these days. How’s that different than Editor? 

TN: The main difference is in the ability to self-​direct. The team I work with now is much smaller, so we can be much nimbler and make decisions quickly. We have a lot of fun, I have to say! As an editor at Chronicle Books, I was a smaller part of a larger machine, so things took longer and required more elaborate obstacle courses.

RVC: What is the most difficult aspect of your work? 

TN: I wouldn’t characterize this as difficult, because I love it, but I would say that it’s not a job for someone who wants a clean break between work and home life. There are very few minutes in a day when I’m not actively doing my job. It’s my whole life. I feel really lucky about that. But I realize most people probably want a bit more personal time. :] 

RVC: What’s the most common misconception about being an editor? 

TN: That it is easy, and that kids’ books are cute. Also, most people don’t realize that—most people you meet think they want to write or have written a picture book. It’s a very sweet impulse and I’m glad humans are a people with such a pure storytelling instinct, but most of the books I hear about don’t necessarily warrant publication, which can be kind of a conversation killer. :] So I try to avoid telling people what my job is in taxis or at cocktail parties.

RVC: What keeps you motivated to continue being a kidlit editor?

TN: The job itself. The people devoting their lives to this. Art. The way original stories never stop being told. There’s no end to the motivation.

RVC: Here’s one of those commonly asked questions that people still love to ask. How can new authors or illustrators get their work noticed in this competitive field?

TN: Get an agent; say yes to everything; be easy to find online and legible once found; go to events that you don’t feel like going to and talk to more people than you think you should have to. Again, the personal relationships in this business are everything. They are what will get you in it and what will get you through it. Take care of those better than you do your house keys.

RVC: Last question for this part of the interview. What’s the most treasured picture book in your collection, and why?

TN: Rotten Island, by William Steig. I could talk to you for hours about how important Steig is, how much he understood the value of character and how his decision always to lead with story and character rather than concept or “moral” is why the books stand the test of time (and, in many cases, actually convey something meaningful far better than the books who start out with that explicit purpose).

RVC: Totally agree!

TN: The reason Rotten Island is an extremely important book to me is because of how much I loved this book as a kid, and how much I was not the intended audience of this book. Rotten Island is about this island where everything that happens is rotten and everyone on it is rotten, to the extent that even when a flower blooms, they fight over the flower because it’s the first beautiful thing anyone has ever seen. I was a typical good kid, loved my teachers and hated being in trouble, hated people being mad at me, identified as Mary Ann from the BSC because she cried all the time and Baby Spice because my mom was my best friend. But I loved this book. It’s a major reminder to me that we (as both kids and adults) turn to books for all kinds of reasons. Yes, we turn to books to feel seen and to see our realities reflected. But we also turn to books to exorcise the pieces of ourselves that we dislike, to experiment with ways that we don’t feel comfortable being in real life, to go live somewhere as our own categorical opposite and see how it feels. Fiction can be and should be somewhere you can go be someone else for a little while. What a relief that there is such a place! Take me to Rotten Island any day.

RVC: Alright, Taylor. It’s time to up the ante and raise the stakes—it’s the LIGHTNING ROUND! We’re looking for zappy questions followed by zoomy answers. Are you ready?

TN: Yep!

RVC: What makes you roll your eyes every time you see/​hear/​read it? 

TN: “SEL.” Every piece of fiction should be a social emotional learning experience. That’s what reading is! To name it as such feels like a real estate agent trying to convince you that “SoMa” is a different and far more romantic place than “South of Market.”

RVC: Most surprising song on your playlist?

TN: My most listened to albums, by a good margin, are A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory (my choice) and the Snow White Original Soundtrack (my young son’s current obsession).

RVC: Most underappreciated Girl Scout cookie?

TN: Well, you know you’ve become an adult when you suddenly start evangelizing for Peanut Butter Sandwiches over Peanut Butter Patties, and I’m nothing special in that regard.

RVC: If you could trade lives with any picture book character for a day, who would it be and what would you do? 

TN: I’d be a dog in Go, Dog. Go! Not one of the hat conversationalists. Just one of the regular dogs. I’d go to that dog party in the tree!

RVC: What’s a recent picture book that deserves a lot of notice than it’s gotten so far?

TN: Our Pool, by Lucy Ruth Cummins, and There Was a Party for Langston: King O’ Letters, written by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey. These are two of my favorite books this year. Lucy’s is the kind of book that reminds you how important a fun book is—a book that feels exactly like the joy and exhilaration of going to the pool on a hot no-​school day. It’s incredibly inclusive, even down to the fact that the speaker of the book is never identified, so as you read you can kind of “choose” which character you want to pretend to be, depending on which of the many lifestyles you see. It’s a sensational book, literally: Reading it you can sense the squelch in your flipflops, smell the chlorine and the humid changing room, feel the sun burning your eyes. It’s as bright as a sunglasses-​free afternoon and as happy as the ice cream truck coming around the corner. So good.

And Langston pulls off the hardest feat ever—making relevant an artist who most young readers won’t have encountered yet. I can guarantee that this book will be the reason many kids go read their first Langston Hughes poem. The book truly does feel, look, and sound like a party. Jason’s text is beyond engaging, doesn’t just ask the reader to dance but actually makes them want to and actually makes them feel like they’re pulling off all the best moves. And the Pumphreys’ artwork, and general visual concept, is stunning—a whole new world for them, ambitious and ridiculously successful. Everyone brought their A‑game to this book.

RVC: [Note the OPB piece on the Langston book right here!] Complete the sentence in five words or fewer: “Taylor Norman is an editor who…”

TN: believes readers need all books.

RVC: Thanks so much, Taylor!