Over in the Jungle Audio Book

http://charlotteaward.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/jungread2.mp3

Marianne Berkes, the author of the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated, Over in the Jungle, shared this reading of the book with us.  Enjoy!

Liz

Elise Broach Interview

Note to Readers:  When Dinosaurs Came With Everything has been nominated for the NYSRA Charlotte Award for 2010 as well as receiving additional honors including ABC Children’s Bookseller’s Choices, ALA Notable Children’s Books, and Bank Street Best Books of the Year.  Mr. Frink’s kindergarten class sent questions to Elise Broach, author of When Dinosaurs Came With Everything, and here is her response.

Why did the boy get dinosaurs instead of dogs?

Wouldn’t you rather get a dinosaur than a dog?  :)  I thought it would be more fun if the freebies given out by the various stores were something really, really special that the boy couldn’t get any other way, at any other time.

Why didn’t the dinosaurs eat all the toys up?

Dinosaurs don’t eat toys!  They eat grass and leaves and other dinosaurs.  And in the book, they eat doughnuts, too.

How did you know what colors to use to make the pictures?

I don’t make the pictures for my books.  The illustrators do that.  I love to draw, but the illustrators for my books are much, much better at it than I am.  They choose colors that they think will look good in the picture and match the story.

Why are the dinosaurs different colors?

David Small, the illustrator, chose to paint them that way, probably so readers could quickly tell them apart.

Why did you pick dinosaurs and not dragons?

I already wrote a picture book about a dragon.  It’s called Hiding Hoover.

I liked the idea of doing a book about dinosaurs because readers can learn the names of real dinosaurs while they’re enjoying the story.

Where did the idea come from to give out dinosaurs instead of toys or balloons?

I was thinking of all the little toys, pencils, and stickers my three children always got from local stores and restaurants, and how often they got lost or broken, and then I started thinking how great it would be if the freebie was  something really amazing and long-lasting… like a dinosaur!

Will they really keep the dinosaurs?

What do you think?  What can you tell from the very last scene in the book?  When the mother orders 10 more boxes of doughnuts, what will she be bringing back from the bakery?

What is the boy’s name?

That is a very good question!  Because the book is told in the first person, in the “I” voice, his name isn’t mentioned in the story.  What do you think would be a good name for him?

Liz Yanoff:  Thank you.  And one final question, what projects are you working on now?

Let’s see… I have two picture books coming out:  a board book called Seashore Baby and a picture book about a little boy’s adventures in the jungle with his uncle called Gumption, illustrated by Richard Egielski.  I just finished an early reader (for grades 1-2) based on Masterpiece, my chapter book mystery that came out in the fall.  And I’m working on a young chapter book mystery series right now.

Elise Broach

June 30, 2009

Doris Ettlinger Interview

Introduction by Liz Yanoff:  Thank you Ms. Ettlinger for agreeing to be interviewed by NY students about The Orange Shoes.  I know that my own children were drawn into these beautiful illustrations and our interviewers were as well.  Two classes have questions about your artistic process.

Ms. Ettlinger:  Thank you so much for your interest in my art work in The Orange Shoes.

Ms. El-Bahtity 3^rd grade students ask Doris Ettlinger about The Orange Shoes:

1. Do you paint fast?

Not really.  I can only work at one speed. Slow.  As I approach a deadline I put in long hours, but I don’t think I work faster.

2. How did you draw the pictures?  3. Did you color the pictures or paint them?

I often have a picture in my mind.  When I make the first sketches I try to draw what I imagine.  I scan the sketches into the computer, make adjustments using a Photoshop program.  Then I email them to the editor and art director for approval.  When I get the OK I print out the sketches to the size they will appear in the book.  I trace the enlarged sketch onto smooth watercolor paper using a light table.  (A light table is a piece of frosted glass over light bulbs.)  I develop the traced drawing using all of the reference material I assembled, including photographs of my models.  Then I paint with watercolors.  The last thing I do is go over the original pencil lines with colored pencil to make them darker.  I also use colored pencils for additional detail and make dark colors richer.  Here is a picture of my studio.

You can see my light table on the left.  I have lots of colored pencils.

4. Why did you make the picture showing just the girls’ skirts and shoes?

This is a good question.  Here are some of the “thumbnail” sketches I made when I began thinking about this scene.

In this small sketch, I thought about the school yard and the children at recess, with Delly as just a part of the scene.

In this sketch, I show the schoolhouse on one page and Delly showing off her shoes on the facing page.  In the first two sketches there isn’t much happening.  The important action hasn’t happened yet.

I thought about what action was most important in this scene.  Delly’s classmates destroy her shoes!  I decided to zero in on that action.  Delly’s shock and emotion are communicated in the gesture of her hand.   Very often children (and adults) do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do when they are part of a group led by someone with a strong personality urging them to do something they shouldn’t do.  It takes a strong person to say, “This isn’t right.  I’m not going to be part of this.”  Prudy is the leader of the attack on Delly.  The other girls go along with her.   I imagine that later the girls felt ashamed.  By not showing their faces, they don’t become the bullies in our minds like Prudy is.   The other girls are in the Harvest Festival scene later in the story and they are very happy for Delly.

Another reason I think this is good compositions is because the reader gets to see what shoes of this era looked like and also to see how special Delly’s orange shoes were.

This is one of my favorite illustrations in the book.  I am pleased with how the stripes on Prudy’s dress suggest movement.  And I am very pleased with the expressiveness of Delly’s hand.

5. Did you ever not have an eraser like Delly?
No, I have always had an eraser and I frequently used it.  I still do!  But I make a point of drawing lightly at first.  That way, it’s easy to erase.

6. How old were you when you started to draw?

I don’t know when I began to draw.  I remember painting in kindergarten and not being very pleased with how my painting compared with my classmates’.  Here is a drawing I made when I was about 7 years old.  My mother kept it for many years. I loved fairy tales.  This looks like a combination of Snow White, Rapunzel, Cinderella, and the Cow that Jumped Over the Moon.

And Mrs. Wilcox’s Fifth Grade students asked Ms. Ettlinger:

1. In all the pictures detailed emotion is shown.  How do you show the feelings this strongly?

Drawing is a bit like acting.  I have to think about my character.  How would they express what they are feeling?  I keep a mirror by my drawing board.  Often while I am drawing an emotion, my own face expresses it.  Facial expression is just one part of showing emotion.  Body posture is just as important.  Sometimes when I photograph models they will make a gesture that I might not have thought of.

2. How do you make the faces so detailed?

When I am on the phone and absentmindedly doodling, I doodle faces.  I have always enjoyed drawing faces.  Here are some faces I drew when I was in 7th grade.  I liked to copy faces from the Sunday comics in the newspaper, just as kids today like to copy anime or manga characters.  It’s good practice.

3. Which was harder to draw, the animals, backgrounds or humans?

Backgrounds can be difficult if they involve buildings in perspective.  A natural landscape is a piece of cake.  Drawing man-made things like cars or bicycles are a challenge.  I love to draw animals.  I have a collection of plastic critters that I use as models, especially when I need an unusual point of view.

When I begin a sketch of human figures I use a technique I call “eggs and sausages”.   I then put clothes on the figure and refine the drawing.  Whenever I can, I practice drawing from life.   All that practice makes drawing a figure out of my head much easier.

4. What was it like trying to think of what the characters should look like?

I “see” the character in my head.  Also, while I am doing research for the book, I look at the people around me and look for possible models.  Many people in my books are drawn from my imagination.  But where there is a main character, or a character that appears several times in the story, I like to have a model.  Even then, the character I draw may not look exactly like my model.  I used my niece Tilly as my model for Delly.  But Delly is really a combination of Tilly and the little girl inside of me.

Tilly

Me

5. What inspired your pictures for Orange Shoes?  Why did you choose brown for Delly’s hair?

While doing research for The Orange Shoes I looked at pictures taken by a photographer named Walker Evans who photographed poor farmers in the South during the Depression of the 1930s.  I referred to his pictures when I drew Delly’s home.  Also, I had one of the sharecropping farmers in mind when I drew Delly’s father.

When I first began this project I was reading a book about the painter Pieter Brueghel who lived 500 years ago.  In one of his sketches he drew a beautiful old twisty tree.  In the opening spread of The Orange Shoes I included my rendering of Brueghel’s tree.  I think it has a lot of personality.  Just like Delly.

I’m not sure why Delly has brown hair.  I didn’t want her to stand out because of her looks, that may have been the reason.  Her art work is what made her stand out.  That’s what I feel I have in common with Delly.

6. Why did you put a dog in many of the pictures?

Even though the text that Trinka wrote does not mention pets, I imagined that the Porter family had a dog and a cat.  Being country people I also imagined they had chickens.  Naturally, in drawing a dog I used a handy model; that is, my own dog, Bruce Wayne.  I got Bruce through Petfinders.com.  He was born under a handicap ramp in a town south of Atlanta, Georgia.  One of the other puppies in his litter was hit by a car when it wandered into the road.  That’s when the puppies were discovered.  The mother, who looked like she may have been a Bassett Hound, ran off when the ASPCA arrived.  An animal rescue person brought Bruce and dozens of other puppies north to New Jersey to be adopted.  She gave him the name Doodles, but we renamed him Bruce Wayne, because my daughter thought he looked like a bat when his sharp puppy teeth showed.  His father was obviously a black Labrador Retriever.  So I refer to him as a Bassalab.  He’s VERY friendly.

7. How did you become the illustrator for Orange Shoes?

I had already illustrated 2 books for Sleeping Bear Press.  G is for Garden State and T is for Teachers.  I was delighted when the editors and art director thought my style would suit Trinka’s story.

8. The designs are so vivid, what illustrating methods did you use and how did you get these ideas?

I enjoy doing lots of research before I illustrate a book.  I try to immerse myself in visual information from books, my clipping file and source on the internet.  I also look at great art to inspire me and keep my standards high.  Sometimes I will borrow a composition from an artist, or their combination of colors.  I like to look at art that was created at the time the story took place.  When I worked on a book called, Abe Lincoln Loved Animals, I looked at the art of Currier and Ives, who were the popular illustrators in the mid-19th century.

Liz Yanoff:  A final question, what’s next for you as an illustrator?

I am working on a new book for Sleeping Bear Press that is about the Oregon Trail.  I have not yet begun sketching, but I have found a model for the main character.  At the Oregon Trail website I was able to print a copy of a diary written by a woman who made the journey in 1851.  I also read two middle grade novels in the Dear America series based on actual young people who survived the trip to Oregon.  I am about to contact a local farmer who owns oxen.  I will ask him if I may photograph his animals wearing their yokes.  I wish I could take a trip out west to visit some of the landmarks along the route, but I will have to settle for some good photographs in books or on line.

I am also part of a children’s book writers critique group.  Someday I would like to illustrate my own story.  The other members of my group read my manuscripts and offer polite, constructive criticism.  It’s an exciting process and I’ve made some good friends.

Thanks again for your questions.   If you still have questions after reading these answers, feel free to visit my website which has a link to my email.

Best regards,

Doris Ettlinger

June 16, 2009

http://www.dorisettlinger.com/

Mitali Perkins Interview

Introduction:  Rickshaw Girl has been honored with a Jane Addams honor book award, and we were thrilled to learn more from Ms. Perkins and Ms. Hogan (see interview on July 2) about this wonderful book.  Two third and fourth grade readers enjoyed reading the NYSRA Charlotte Award nominated Rickshaw Girl and asked author Mitali Perkins the following questions.

Ms. Mitali:  Thank you for these good questions.

Why did you write this story:  because you have experienced it or something else?

Both my grandmothers and my mother (that’s a picture of her when she was 18) lived in the villages of Bengal, where RICKSHAW GIRL is set. I grew up hearing many stories of their childhood, and I wanted to write the story as a gift to them.

Then, when I lived in Bangladesh (see map) myself for three years with my husband and children, I met many girls like Naima. They don’t have much money but they have big dreams and high hopes. They love to paint, and play, and laugh, and hear stories, just like kids in America. So I wrote the book for them, too.

Naima loves to create alpana patterns.  Do you like to make them?

I do like to draw alpana patterns, but I’m not as good as my Mother, who is an expert alpana painter (see photo of Mom painting). They are a lot of fun to design and color, and it is actually quite restful to create them.

Is this about your culture or have you just heard about it?

I am Bengali but we immigrated to New York City when I was seven (see photo — I’m the little one), so I didn’t grow up in Bangladesh. My parents both did, though, and they tell great stories about life in the villages.

When did you first start writing cultural stories?  Is this the only cultural story you have made or is there another one?

I love how you can travel to other worlds through books. I like reading books set in other cultures, and writing them, too. Monsoon Summer and Secret Keeper, both for middle school students, are set in India. My next book, Bamboo People, is about two boys, one who has to become a soldier when he’s 15 and the other who has lost his home and his land and is on the run. It’s set along the border between the countries of Thailand and Burma, where I lived for three years.

THANK YOU AGAIN! If you have other questions, please let me know.

Mitali Perkins
<http://www.mitaliperkins.com>
<http://www.mitaliblog.com>

Jamie Hogan Interview

Hello Ms. Yanoff and NY readers!

I am so thrilled to be interviewed and find the questions about illustrating Rickshaw Girl very interesting. I am adding some images along with my responses, since I am a visual person!

First of all, I have never been to Bangladesh. I grew up in New Hampshire. My parents owned a small motel and I liked meeting any other kids that stayed there. Like Naima, I have a sister! Here we are when we were little, always at the pool.

As an illustrator, I get to do some armchair travel, though, with research. This is how I discover how the drawings should look. I do not work with the author. There are editors that work with the author. They work on the manuscript after the author is done writing. Sometimes they edit here and there. Meanwhile, an art director calls an illustrator. In this case, it was Susan Sherman at Charlesbridge Publishing in Watertown, MA. We talked on the phone and e-mailed a lot. She sent me some books about alpanas and Bangladesh villages. I also went to the library. But mostly, I responded to the story. It is a great story, isn’t it? I identified with Naima because I, too, was one of two daughters. No brothers. I was supposed to be a boy named James. Instead, I am a girl named Jamie and I like to draw, just like Naima!

I also listened to Indian music, mostly the soundtrack for “Bend it LIke Beckham” about an Indian girl living in England.

I was dancing around my studio in between sketching for this book.

I like to draw from lots of different sources so besides books on Bangladesh I also had my daughter and her friend pose for me.

Sometimes it takes A LOT of sketches to get the final illustration just right. Here is an example of the process.

This was my first sketch of Naima for the title page. When the story starts she is doing her washing chores. With a washing machine? No!

Then the art director said she needed a scarf on her head.

You can see the art director’s comments in the margin of the layout. I can’t do my drawing just any size. It must fit the design of the book. My “composition” is how I arrange the parts of my drawing into the “layout” of the pages. I learned about design and drawing in art school. I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and illustration was my major. Now I teach illustration at Maine College of Art. And I always talk about good composition with my students!

The art director said I couldn’t show the clothes touching the ground because that is against their custom.

At that point, I got a model. My daughter was 9 at the time, a bit younger than Naima, but I needed to see how the hands and posture would look.

So I went back to my drawing, which I do with charcoal pencil. I like charcoal because it is REALLY black. It has great contrast on the white paper. It is also soft, so it can smudge a bit. I like being able to have soft edges and sometimes crisp edges in my lines. I use Canson Mi-tiente paper that has a slightly rough surface, so the drawings have texture.

I like my illustrations to look like something done by hand, not as slick as a computer, although I do use a computer to scan my drawing when I am done. Then I can e-mail it to anybody, like you!

Here is the final illustration for the title page.

Yes, the small drawings at the beginning of each chapter are alpanas. I had so much fun drawing them. You should try drawing some, too. They often have hearts and swirls, and spirals. Try it!

The art director did not tell me what to draw. She gave me the story all set in book type but with empty spaces all through the story. So I decided what would be best to show. I couldn’t resist drawing Naima when she was mad at Saleem, because he gets to ride his father’s rickshaw and she can’t. It’s fun to draw people making faces.

I got a model again, my daughter’s friend, Nirmala. She was born in Nepal, which shares a tiny border with Bangladesh to the east.

See how messy my sketches are? I get charcoal all over my hands and have to wash them so I don’t get everything smudged. Again, the art director wanted some changes. Nirmala was busy so I had my daughter pose with a scarf for the final illustration.

Nirmala made a better face, though! And even with a photo right in front of me, I have to use my imagination.

There are other ways to get immersed in the story. I found a doll that a friend gave us years ago. It became Rashida’s

doll and I bring her along whenever I visit a school. Here she is on our bed. Guess who likes patterns!

After doing all the inside sketches in black and white, I worked on the cover which would be color. I don’t always work in just black and white. The inside illustrations were done in charcoal pencil on white paper, but the cover was done on colored paper, and I used gouache (pronounced gwash) which is a watercolor paint for the alpana painting. The other color is done with pastels, which are like very bright chalk. They come in sticks that are soft and turn to powder on the paper. The colored dust gets all over my studio. I love to make a mess.

Here is where I sing the praises of librarians. Librarians are like guru guides to the universe. I love them! The librarians at my local branch library are always helpful and suggest things I never would think of. Priscilla Webster at the Peaks island Library suggested I see the movie “My Architect” because it has a scene at the end in Bangladesh. Who knew?

I watched the whole thing. It is a documentary about the filmmaker’s father, Louis Kahn, a famous architect. The son didn’t really get to know his father, so he traveled all over filming the buildings he built and learned about him. When he visited Bangladesh and spoke to some local people, it was very moving. My heart was RIGHT THERE.

And that’s how I felt about Mitali’s story. She wrote it with all the senses and I felt right there, with my heart in my throat, when Naima’s father comes to find her at the rickshaw shop.

After I watched the movie, I took some still photos of some scenes with rickshaws in them.

Can you hear the noise? The policeman’s whistle, the honking horns, the people laughing?

I also really like the signs. I like the mystery of the shapely letters. I can’t read any of it. Can any of you?

I did 6 sketches for the cover. This was one in which I tried to mimic the lettering.

But the art director didn’t pick this one. She thought it looked too typical and decorative.

I looked at some reference she sent for painting alpanas because they picked a sketch in which Naima is painting.

Alpanas are done with a paint made from rice mush. The women do them right on the wall or ground. No sketches.

No changes. No mistakes! I was in awe of their design talent. They have the designs in their head and don’t use any paper. They make amazing beauty with what they have.

I got my model to pose again, because now I was getting nervous about getting the cover just right. I had maybe too much in my head.

And this is the final art, which needed to wrap all around to the back with an area that might have type running over it.

Does anybody notice something missing from this illustration that is on the printed cover?

So you see I work with observation (models, books, photo) and my imagination (inspired by the story) and my drawing skill (which I practice all the time.)

I heard from Susan Sherman after the art was all done that Mitali liked it. Whew! What a relief! I really wanted to honor her family heritage as best I could. Her writing helped my heart to be in Bangladesh, with Naima.

I finally got to meet Mitali! It was before the book was published, at a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Nashua, NH. Besides being an awesome writer, she is a lovely person. I did this portrait of her.

After the book was published, we went to speak together at a school and I learned this story. Maybe she will tell it; her way is so much better. She revisited her family’s home in Bangladesh long, long after they had fled. Another family was living there and she was unsure if they would be friendly. She saw two doves over the doorway of the house. This was her sign that it would be OK. She could make peace with the family in the house. And they did.

Afterwards, I realized that I had put two doves in an illustration that I did for the book, way before meeting Mitali or hearing this story. Do you think this is coincidence?

I think it is cosmic!

So that answers your questions, I hope. There is always a backstory to every book……

I live on an island in Maine which can sometimes feel far away. That’s why reading is so important to me and my family. We can go anywhere!

This is a pastel drawing I did of the ferry that we take to the mainland.

This is the dock where the boat lands.

And if you walk about a mile, here is my house. On the left are my studio windows.

I am inside drawing, right now!

By the way, I have illustrated another book, Maddie’s Magical Ride by Jeanann Alves. She has a horse camp on the island and wrote a fun story about two girls and their horses. I have illustrated book jackets and activity guides. I have even done illustrations for a dog treat package! I recently illustrated another book for Charlesbridge Publishing called Nest, Nook, and Cranny by Susan Blackaby. It is a book of poems about animal habitats and will be out next spring. Right now I am illustrating a Vietnamese folk tale for Oxford University Press. So I have to go back to drawing, and you need to take the ferry back to the mainland. Thanks for your curiosity about Rickshaw Girl, and about illustrating. Start sketching your own stories!

I am standing on the beach waving goodbye to you! Happy trails!

Best wishes,

Jamie

June 9, 2009