The Working Life of a Picture Book Writer
Writing a story based on Pippi Longstocking at the wee age of nine is one thing. Getting your father to type it up in book form, having his artist friend silkscreen the cover and making 50 copies for friends and family distribution, is fortuitous of the vivid and intelligent children’s books that writer Emily Jenkins currently produces. Jenkins has a series of Bea and Ha Ha board books illustrated by Tomek Bogacki for very young readers and several picture books for young readers including the recently released, Love You When You Whine (FSG/Frances Foster) with illustrations by Sergio Ruzzier.
Since illustrations are, obviously, important to the success of a picture book I wanted to know more about how the relationship of writer and illustrator plays out for Jenkins.
In an email interview she talks about what happens when an illustrator won’t draw a car and pithy advice for those who wish to enter the picture book world.
WAPYB: You studied illustrated books while you attended Vassar--what are some of the ideas/concepts you learned that still influence your process today?
EMILY JENKINS: I wrote my doctoral dissertation on illustrated fiction of the late-19th and early 20th century. Books by George du Maurier, Lewis Carroll, A. Conan Doyle, Elizabeth Gaskell. I think it just gave me great respect for the illustrator's art; a book's meaning changes greatly depending on the interpretation put forward by an illustrator.
WAPYB: What was your first experience like working with an illustrator?
EJ: When Farrar, Straus & Giroux agreed to publish Five Creatures, my first picture book, they had me in for a meeting with the editor and the art director. They presented drawings and books by a number of artists they were considering -- but I found myself drawn to a piece of original art on my editor's wall, which was from Cat and Mouse by Tomek Bogacki. They hired Tomek to illustrate the book, but I didn't meet him until the art was essentially completed.
WAPYB: Has this working relationship changed with illustrators now that you've had quite a few books published?
EJ: After two books together (Five Creatures and Daffodil), Tomek invited me to his studio to look at some of his sketches and brainstorm new ideas. I went -- and the result is our collection of board books for very young readers -- the Bea & Haha books. The stories were inspired by characters Tomek had already drawn on his own. Then he refined their personalities once he had my text. We've worked closely together on other projects as well, including the sequel to Daffodil, which is called Daffodil, Crocodile and comes out next year.
But that's an unusual situation. I am doing books with several artists I've never met. The editors do solicit my opinion much earlier in the creative process now -- I see character sketches and black and white dummies by the artists I work with-- but they generally let the artists work without interference from the writer. The editor communicates with the artist.
WAPYB: At which point in the process do you meet with the illustrator?
EJ: I first met Pierre Pratt, who illustrated That New Animal, when we arrived in Boston to receive an award together for the book! I met Paul Zelinsky once all the work on Toys Go Out was completed. It was at a party thrown by our publisher. I was very star struck (he has been honored by the Caldecott committee many times), but fortunately Paul spilled a strange chocolate martini on me, and after that we were quite friendly. Now we've worked together on presentations we've been doing to promote the book, but I do not plan to kibbitz on his work for the sequel. I pretty much agree with editors that it's best to leave the artist free to do his or her work without authorial interference.
WAPYB: How flexible are you in regards to the text--do you allow the illustration to change the words? How much back and forth is involved?
EJ: I've sometimes changed small things to fix an illustration problem. Sometimes a section of text gets cut in order to make the Pagination of a book work out. But it's always something that's not important. The biggest change I can think of was for Love You When You Whine. I had a description of a child having a tantrum for a lollipop while the mom's car was stuck in traffic. Sergio Ruzzier, who illustrated that book, did not want to draw cars. I am not sure why, though certainly a car presents a challenge to an artist in that parent and child are in two separate spaces, and to be realistic the child should probably be in a clunky-looking car seat. Anyway, I moved the tantrum to "on line at the bank" which allowed lots of bank customers to be traumatized by the tantrum as well, and Sergio's illustration is my favorite from the book. You can see it on my website.
WAPYB: Since you've worked with several different illustrators, can you give some advice to new children's book writers about seeking an illustrator?
EJ: Don't. It is absolutely not your job to seek an illustrator. That is the editor's job and if you attach an artist to a manuscript and the editor likes your story but not the art, then you've got a problem. Submit a story without pictures, unless you yourself are the artist and well-prepared to execute the finished art in a professional manner.
WAPYB: Do you have any stories that you would be willing to relay whereby you were super-extra-excited about what transpired in the writing/illustrating process?
EJ: Love You When You Whine became much, much funnier with Sergio Ruzzier's pictures. He made Kitten extremely naughty in all kinds of ways I hadn't imagined. Generally, seeing the art is my favorite part of the process. I am always thrilled to see my characters and places come to life.
WAPYB: Any advice on writing children's books?
EJ: Know your format. Picture books are 32 pages, including end-papers. That usually means 14-24 blocks of text, allowing for a mix of spreads and single-page illustrations. Then, start from a strong emotion. I think my best work has come from getting in touch with a strong feeling, then playing around to find an amusing or kid-friendly way of representing that feeling.
WAPYB: What do you see as the biggest misconceptions about illustrated books?
EJ: Hm. I think people do try to write them without a real, deep familiarity with their field. Ten hours in the library, armed with a list of Caldecott, Coretta Scott King and Ezra Jack Keats award winners -- that's all it should take to get a nice, solid sense of the wonderful range of possibility in picture books. And the restrictions of the form. I do not think it easy to write a publishable children's book if you don't know what's out there and haven't educated yourself about the stylistic and formal possibilities of the craft.
 Emily Jenkins was born in New York City, grew up in Cambridge, MA and Seattle, WA, studied English at Vassar, and then came to New York to get her doctorate in 19th-century English literature at Columbia. Her dissertation was called "The Reading Public and the Illustrated Novel, 1890-1914," and a chapter of it can be found in the first issue of the journal Book History. Look for her forthcoming books: What Happens on Wednesdays with illustrations by Lauren Castillo, (FSG/Frances Foster, Spring 2007), Skunkdog with illustrations by Pierre Pratt, (FSG/Frances Foster, Spring 2008) and The Little Bit Scary People with illustrations by Alexandra Boiger, (Hyperion BFC, Fall 2008).
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