THE ANIMAL’S SANTA sketch page 28 and 29

Happy June,

This is Jan Brett and this is my June Hedge a gram. I stop everything once a month to tell about what is happening in my professional life as an author/illustrator. The BEA or Book Expo America is a big convention in New York City. The nation’s publishers present next year’s offerings to bookstores, libraries and book lovers. I was there thanks to my publisher Penguin and I saw bound copies of my fall 2013 book CINDERS, a chicken Cinderella for the first time. It looked classic but very ornamented, with special treatments on the jacket to make it stand out. My name is in a lovely copper foil, the display type for the title is in a raised, lightly textured pale sparkle ombre, the image of Cinders in her pumpkin sleigh pulled by Swedish Blue ducks is highlighted by a varnish which gives the image both depth, and lastly a jewel-like patina is added to Cinder’s ornaments. She’s in a fancy ball gown. The options for the jacket printing are ordered in advance and added during the printing. That means the full effect is only guess at. When I see the finished book it is very dramatic. I signed advance copies of the book which are given out for free at the Expo, and book lovers line up to receive an autographed copy. I’m even beginning to recognize some of the loyal BEA goers that stand in line every year.
At the publisher we spoke about our fall book tour which will last three weeks. Since the chickens are the main characters in this book, we had a great time imagining how fun it would be to have chicken owners across the country bring their feathered friends to the booksignings. However, the book store owners did not share our enthusiasm. My chickens are very docile and personable, but our bus is a very small space to share with chickens, and I would worry they would miss their coop where they have plenty of room to run around and perch at night.
My editor and I had a constructive meeting at the Standard Hotel before a party put on by our publisher, Penguin for authors, illustrators and booksellers. I have been working on my 2014 book, THE ANIMAL’S SANTA. I’ve completed the dummy, but a picture book is 32 pages and although I usually write for that amount of pages, this time I have one scene too many. We discussed which scene would be left out, and we will probably have to go back and rewrite part of the manuscript. I have a completed dummy, which is a smaller size book I sew together out of typing paper so I can visualize how the art will look in sequence, the way one would see a finished book. Not only does that problem have to be solved, but I was not happy about the border design. I have the “window” in the shape of an owl which gives a hint from page one about who the animal’s Santa is. In the past, the windows have been in the shapes of eggs, hearts, gingerbread cookies, mittens, and in the case of ON NOAH’S ARK in the shape of various animals. I like the owl windows, but I chose porcupine needlework as the background or to use the computer term, wallpaper. Because it is a native American handicraft that I love and collect I thought it would be perfect, but once painted in it looked drab, not beautiful and nuanced as it is in reality. I love the birch bark I used in THE MITTEN and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, but I wanted to try something new. I’ll spend the next few days trying different solutions perhaps using knitted patterns that have a wonderful texture and are colorful and have a cozy feeling. I might also add some evergreens in the border, since the fragrance of balsam is so much a part of Christmas.
Once the book is finished and I see the beautiful bound copy, I sweep away all the challenges and disappointments I feel when creating the book, and revel in the world of creatures and folk crafts that form my new offering. Some books stall out during the writing, some take a long time for the characters to feel real, and this one may take extra time to iron out a perfect balance of narrative, in the big images and decorative flourishes in the borders. Although it is a Christmas book, I don’t want it to look like a Christmas card. It is children’s literature first and foremost.
Good luck with your creative projects, and join me in doing all that good problem-solving work that will hopefully produce a dynamic an artistic result.

Your friend, Jan

The Fairy Godmother arrives from CINDERS, a chicken Cinderella

Happy May,

Every month, I stop what I’m doing, and let kids and interested children’s book enthusiasts know what I’m doing, in the hopes it will help you with your creative projects, or just shed some light on how I go about creating a children’s picture book.
I say “creating” because I write and illustrate my books. The artwork is what really drives my interest, and has been the part of my job that really defines me. that is why I will sometimes retell a favorite folktale or fairy tale. Last year I illustrated Cinderella. Because I find chickens both beautiful and fascinating, I made them my main characters. Chickens, when living in medium sized flock of many ages and of both genders, with plenty of room to move around have many human like behaviors. They can be loving, or form best friends, they can get jealous, or bossy.  In my flock there is a great amount of flirting and male solicitation at the moment, which escalates in spring. The mothers are very protective of their babies, and are very patient with them as they teach them to eat, drink and come when called. All their personalities went into my book characters, and it was great fun to observe them, and then paint what I saw.
When I first thought about illustrating Cinderella, I was resistant because tend to I shy away from stories that use magic or a rescuer to save the character. The more I got into the story though, I thought that the transformation of the bedraggled, unhappy girl into the blooming confident women, is a rite of passage that can happen to a lot young women . When viewed in that way I liked the story more.
It?s always difficult to say goodbye to my characters when I’ve finished my book, but I always make sure I have a another book idea waiting in the wings. Actually, more than one! Often I’ve talked to my trusted editor about these book ideas, and she will give me a go ahead.Last summer on a hot steamy night, I got an idea about the wild animals Santa. Where it came from I have no idea, especially since I usually do my creative thinking in the morning when I’m fresh. I was so excited about this story idea that I wrote it all down, as if I heard it before and without giving it another thought, emailed it to my editor. She liked it! I didn’t know it then, but there would be many drafts and much thought as I would turn over that initial idea trying to make it a complete story. My editor kept insisting that I keep pushing and carve out a satisfying story, and I finally did. I would have been terribly discouraged when I first wrote my piece if I had known how much more work I had to go. That’s what editors are for, and the best ones manage to make you work hard without feeling like it was a bad story to start with. The writer or artist is always vulnerable when the ideas are just forming.I think that’s why a lot of creative people don’t like to talk about their work until its near completion.
I spent a few weeks working on my 32 page dummy, a cartoonish, sketch version of my book, and then took it to NY to talk about it with my editor, Margaret. We finalized the trim size, which is how the dimensions of a book are described. Then, both of us edited out as many words as we could, now that we had the artwork to describe events. The things that can’t be painted, like the fragrance of fir trees, the feel of frosty cold air or the jingle jangle sound of broken ice will be described in the words.  I?ll try to tell as much of the story as I can in the pictures.
Yesterday I started on my first double page spread, actual size. I experimented with different shapes in the borders, and played attention to what colors would be in my palette. Since my book takes place entirely outside in the snow I thought about the animals that I would cast as the friends of the two Snowshoe Hares that are the main characters. When Margaret and I met in NY we thought long and hard about what the animals would wear. It could be their natural fur coats, it could be just sweaters like what dogs wear, or they could have costumes that look like they were from another culture, either real, or imaginary.  I like the thought that my job entails important decisions like, ?what the animals will wear!?
One of the reasons I chose Snowshoe Hares as characters is because of their amazing winter coats. They are brown in summer, which makes them blend in when they have babies. Then in fall, patches of white start appearing. By the time the world is white with snow, they are too, except for their ear tips which remain black. I’ve always thought that was the most surprising thing. There is a bird, the Ptarmigan that does the same thing.Its feathers go from brown in summer to white in the winter, except for black tips on their wings.I set my book in Scandinavia so I could include a hedgehog as one of the animal friends, just because I like hedgehogs. Hedgehogs don’t live in the Americas. I also put in surprise appearances of a badger, wolf and moose, other fun animals to draw. I have to save the best until last because of the way I’ve told my story. The animals are all guessing who the Animal?s Santa is, and they are wondering who has been leaving gifts on Christmas.It turns out that its a Snowy Owl. The Snowy Owl is the largest Owl in North America, and it also lives in Polar regions across the Atlantic. Its a fearsome predator of small furry animals, but because of the magic of Christmas he is benevolent. Curiously, the color, white, of its feathers and the way the feathers are arranged on its face, make the Snowy looks like a bird-Santa.  You can imagine the feathers framing its face looking like a beard.
I’m looking forward to continuing to work on the finishes of my book, my favorite part of the process. Good luck with your story ideas, and don’t ignore that seemingly strange idea that pops up from who knows where. I might just be a future book.
Happy Spring,

Jan Brett

Sketch for THE ANIMAL’S SANTA 2014

Happy April!

This is my April hedge a gram. Every month I take a breath to oversee what I’m doing artistically and write about it. In the past aspiring writers and illustrators, and especially children, have been curious about the steps it takes to create a book, and these Hedge a gram’s give a little insight on how it’s going.
This year, it’s been a rocky start. One hot summer night last year for no reason, I got an idea about an animal’s Santa. I love the traditions of Christmas because we use our imaginations and fancy. I’ve always been fascinated by snowy owls ­ and the fact that they breed in the Arctic, and many fly south in winter, particularly to Boston’s Logan airport which is about 20 miles from us. Every time we fly out of Boston, I’m glued to the window trying to pick up a teeny blob of white as we taxi. So far, I’ve never seen a snowy owl, but because of their beauty and singular faces they are photographed a lot, and I enjoy seeing the images. They have an otherworldly gaze as if from a faraway place, and their white color and black rimmed yellow eyes give them a look of sorcerers. When I wrote my first draft of THE ANIMAL’S SANTA, I had the snowy owl in mind as Santa. It is a creature of the far North that is beautiful and mysterious. It travels south every winter and its white face reminds me of a Santa, even appearing to have a smile in some photos.
The first draft didn’t have enough substance, so I spent weeks trying to cobble together a storyline which could be receptive to my original idea of the mysterious visitation of the largest owl in North America from the Arctic.
I wasn’t getting any traction writing my story, so I switched to telling the story in pictures. This is unorthodox for me, because so far all my books have begun as manuscripts. I used all my usual techniques to try to puzzle the story together. I’ve been thinking about it while running, thinking about it while listening to music, and asking myself questions before falling asleep, hoping my unconscious mind will help me out.
When I was a little girl at Wilder Memorial nursery school in Hingham, Massachusetts, where I grew up, we made native American headbands, and we were able to choose a feather to have stapled to it. I was thrilled with the prospect and was enamored of a book I had at home at the time which described different Native American tribes, their art work and clothing. My grandfather fueled the flames of my interest by taking us for walks in the woods where we tried to walk like Native Americans, making no sound that would scare the animals. Our nursery school teacher had two huge bags of white turkey feathers. One bag held white feathers that had been dyed black at the tip to look like eagle feathers. The other bag had feathers dyed rainbow colors, including unusual ones I recognized from my crayon box of 200, like chartreuse, magenta, and turquoise. I was overwhelmed with the choice. Do I choose the more authentic eagle feather, that would look like the headdress in my book, or do I choose one of the vibrant colors that please the eye? Years later, I’m still grappling with that dilemma. I’m writing a book about the animal’s Santa. Does my cast were fascinating, elaborate clothes like out of the Hobbit? Or, do the animals wear just a nod to clothes, taken from Native American items I’ve seen in the Harvard Museum’s collection. Idea number one would be colorful and charming, idea number two would be perhaps more true to the spirit of my story. I’m working on both ideas at once, and will go to New York this month to work with my editor, but I’m drifting toward the same decision I made 59 years ago at nursery school, when I chose the “eagle” feather.
Creating a children’s book remains a mysterious process, and one that has highs and lows. The rewards are worth it, and never fail to amaze me.
Good luck with your creative projects, and don’t give up on your idea!

Happy Creating, your friend,

Jan Brett

The Fairy Godmother

Happy March!

This is Jan Brett with thoughts about my books. I am primarily an illustrator, but I like to write the story myself, or retell a familiar one, so that makes me an author/illustrator.
I’ve just finished the last piece of art for CINDERS, a chicken Cinderella which will be published in September 2013. I knew there would be a lot of detail in the chickens and in the ballroom costumes, and many characters on each page, but I underestimated the time it would take, and I spent November, December, January, and much of February working long hours to complete my year long project. I usually work every day, but the flexibility I get from working at home in combination with having one big deadline a year makes it easy to get behind. I think there may be another reason it is so hard to finish a book. I get to really like my characters and the combination of the setting, in this case Russia, and characters, in this case chickens I may never have a chance to paint again in book form. It’s hard to say goodbye, and I feel myself resisting sending the last piece of art in that will end it.
Luckily I can get started on a new book, and be energized by imagining a new world and characters. I’m struggling with getting a great storyline for my 2013 book, THE ANIMAL’S SANTA. Normally I get the manuscript in working order, to be approved by my trusted editor. This time though, she has many questions, which means the story isn’t really working for her. This gets difficult, because it’s hard to retrace one’s steps, then change things but still keep the original story idea. I’m taking a different tack and using illustrations to tell the story and see if I can get it right. Then I will go back to words and checking with my editor. It’s extremely difficult to plow through negativity, but I listen to my editor because she has very good ideas and instincts. Sometimes I’ll use the trick of solving problems by asking myself to fix something before I go to sleep, turning over the idea just as I’m nodding off. I think about the story when I run too. Not on a fast run or a race ­ but on fun runs. Sometimes, the fresh air and oxygen flow will kick off an idea. My husband is a good judge, and he can give me a lot of useful input as well. It is very hard to know how much criticism to let in, because it taints the story, and then “pouf” you have nothing.

I recently heard Lang Lang a famous pianist perform. I was in the audience and was swept away with his interpretation of Rachmaninoff’s second piano Concerto. Afterwards there was a reception when he answered questions from concertgoers at a small gathering. I didn’t ask a question, but I thought about what I would’ve asked if I was a bit quicker in thought. First, I would have to say he’s an artistic genius and that is always a fascination. My question would be how often in his creative life does he have pivotal ideas ­ the kind that in cartoons show a lightbulb over the character’s head, or they could be called “Aha moments”, or epiphanies. I thought I’d write down a few of mine.
When I was just starting out as an illustrator, I brought my portfolio, which consisted of animals dressed up in clothes, to a publisher. The editor that looked at it said, “Children’s books are about children, why don’t you illustrate children?” I said,”They are too difficult to illustrate, they are too important and make me feel too serious.” The editor said, “Just imagine a zipper on those furry animals, and pretend there is a child underneath.” That made sense to me and I drew children after that.
Another “aha” moment was when I sketched on tracing paper with a pencil. Ideas just flowed. Why? I don’t know, but now if I get stuck I get out the tracing paper, and lay it over white paper. Something about it triggers my creative thoughts.
My editor, Margaret once suggested if I get stuck, to change the storyteller to “I”. You can write the story, then change the first person tense to one of the character’s perspectives, once the storyline is alive and well.
This is a strange one, but if I eat a sugary breakfast like pancakes with maple syrup and add fruit and a good strong cup of tea with honey and milk and sit down on a sunny day first thing in the morning, I tend to get a lot of good incoming ideas. A clean desk also helps.
Never, never tell your good story idea to anyone until you get it down on paper. The internal drive of storytelling is very delicate. If you field your story to a lot of people, and tell how you’re going to do it, it is like letting the air out of a balloon. After it’s written down and you feel it is finished, then it’s okay to get another opinion, painful as it may be.
Creativity is somewhat mysterious, but when a work of art unveils itself like when I heard Lang Lang’s concerto, it is obvious to all. As Gertrude Stein said, “A rose is a rose is a rose.”
Happy Creating, your friend,

Jan Brett

On the way to the ball!

Happy February!

Every month I mark the first day by gathering my thoughts about what I’m accomplishing as a children’s author and illustrator, and what’s next! I put in an exclamation point because I am full of a lot of bottled up energy about CINDERS, the book I’m just finishing, and the coming year’s book project.
I have one and 1/2 double page spreads to finish on CINDERS, plus all the corrections and continuity fixes. I work from a dummy, that I make early on in my book building process. Its in sketch form, and I leave many details for when I work on the final paintings. For example, every book has a subtle color palette. In this book I had three elements of color that I knew were going to be influential. One is the white/blue of the ice and snow. It would be in all the outside scenes, the borders, and the interiors of the Ice palace. Then, there is Cinders dress. I wanted her to be light, innocent and bride-like. She would be competing with all the other chickens in their colorful Russian finery, and I wanted her to stand out. I created a dress befitting a princess in white and pink. Then, there is the orange pumpkin. Orange is a more fiery, southern color, and when I saw white pumpkins at Halloween I thought that maybe a white pumpkin would be an option. However, it didn’t ring true when I painted the pumpkin. As a child, the part of the Cinderella story I liked best was the transformation of the mice, pumpkin and rat to coach, footman and coachman. I was especially pleased to think she could ride in a sleigh, it being set in a Russian winter. Since I wanted a connection between the sleigh and pumpkin, I knew it would have to carry the same colors especially orange. In Saint Petersburg, I was lucky enough to see some old Russian sleighs in the museum of Ethnography. So my three colors are white/blue, pink and orange. Two other colors played minor rolls, the dark blue black of the night sky, and the soft yellow of the hay in the chicken house. When the book is about half completed, we (my editor, art director, and designer, Margaret, Cecilia and Marikka) start thinking about the jacket design, probably the most important image in the book. That is when some of the colors that tell the story can be used, and they will add to personality of the book.
I think of myself as an illustrator before being an author, or more accurately, I tell my story in pictures. You can see how colors are like characters, and how I can shape characters by using color. Prince Cockerel, being royal wears purple, and I made sure he was the only character that does except Cinders on the very last page, but then, she’s a princess. At least I hope they got married! Maybe Cinderella’s wedding would be the subject for another book.
Thank you everyone for entering the contest on my website, for a school visit. I will never forget the wonderful people in Windsor, Newfoundland where I visited last spring. Next time I go, I would like to drive and go on the ferry, so I can stop and see things, and go out whale and bird watching. There is one Moose for every 4 people in Newfoundland, so I would hope to see a Moose as well. Windsor is not a large town, so don’t get discouraged about the contest if your community is not large. The website tabulates how many “likes” they have put on the Facebook page.
My husband Joe is working on a video that will show how to draw Cinders, and some of the scenes we saw in Russia and how they were transformed in my studio to become part of a chicken fairy tale. I will also have Cinders (real name Eddie, Prince Cockerel (Elof) and a few other of my poultry stars and starlets to show you. My friend Janet, who raises Silkies, is going to let me have a pair of her beautiful whites. The video should be up by April!
Happy Creating, your friend,
Jan Brett

CINDERS a Chicken Cinderella jacket

Happy January!

This is my January Hedge a gram, the time each month I stop working on my book and give you an update on the work I’m doing.
I’m painting very intensely the finishes of my 2013 picture book, CINDERS A CHICKEN CINDERELLA, set in olden days Russia. Most of the interior spreads are finished, I have four more to go. The jacket, probably the most crucial art in the book is finished. Marikka, one of the talented designers at my publisher, Penguin Putnam, has shown me the final design of the jacket. The “display type” is what the the letters spelling the title of my book is called. Marikka found a type face in a giant book of different type faces that looked like it came out of a fairy tale. Then a calligrapher, a person who artfully forms letters with strokes of a special pen wrote out the title and my name using the type face as a guide. The calligrapher can pull the letters closer or further apart to balance them perfectly. If you are illustrating a story of your own, the cover of a book report, or any art that incorporates lettering, you have the opportunity to reflect the content with the style of lettering. For example, if you are writing something short and humorous, like a funny short story, you might choose an informal lettering style. If you were writing a story about dragons, for another example, you could be a little playful and decorate the display type with reptilian scales. Let’s say you were writing about volcanoes. The display type could be smokey and vaporous on the top of each letter, and the gray could turn to a molten orangey red an the bottom of each letter. Next time you are in a bookstore you can see the work of some of the world’s most talented book designers on the jackets of the books. The size and shape of the letters are important, as well as where they are placed on the jacket, and the color too. Sometimes its easy to guess what kind of book it is by the display type.
In this book, I have added a fold out page showing the fancy ball at the ice palace, the place where Cinders meets the Prince Cockerel. I needed a lot of extra room to show the chickens in all their finery dancing and swirling to the music. Normally, a children’s picture book has 32 pages, but in this one instance the printer will configure the dimension of the pages so they will open up from a folded position so I will have twice as much space to draw the dancing chickens. When the pages are folded, it will look like two ornate doors carved out of ice. I admire all the different breeds of fancy chickens, and it was fun painting them and choosing ball gowns for the hens and elegant jackets and britches for the roosters. When my husband Joe and I were in St. Petersburg Russia last spring, we visited the Museum of Ethnography, where I was able to see close up, and from all sides, the traditional dress from many parts of Russia. During early January I’m visiting my daughter and her family in Okinawa, Japan. During the long flight, and a few hours each day, I work on the doors to the ice palace. Because they’re ice I mainly use the colors; ultramarine blue (a deep icy blue) Prussian blue (a turquoisey blue),Van Dyke brown(the color of coffee), and Viridian green( a mineral green with not much yellow in it). I only need a very small palette to hold those four colors and that makes it easy to balance everything when painting in a small space. I also brought a special lamp that mimics natural daylight, and it takes up almost a whole suitcase. In case you have never noticed, the light bulbs in the lamps one uses can make colors look different.
Besides working on the finishes for CINDERS I am working on the manuscript for a book titled THE ANIMAL’S SANTA , hopefully for 2014. One night last summer, at about 12:00 AM I got an idea that intrigued me so much I had to write it down. This never happens to me because my mind is most ready to be creative in the morning. I couldn’t stop writing until the whole story was written down. My editor Margaret likes it but she doesn’t think its quite complete. During my trip I will work on it by reading it over and perhaps doing a simple dummy version of the book. This is probably one of the more difficult parts about creating a book. The publisher is the final decider so I must push myself more than I normally would to get the results that will make us both happy!
Since it is the first month of the New Year, I make a New Year’s resolution. This year I’m going to be more prompt about answering emails and phone calls. I am going to pick up my art desk and surrounding work space more often and not be late on my book next year. Those are very difficult goals for me.
I hope you will begin an exciting new creative project as well.
Happy New Year! Your friend Jan Brett

Happy December,

This is the time I stop everything to write down a few thoughts about what I’m doing with my books. Since I begin work on the story in January, December is the time I’m tying things together – in this case my “chicken” Cinderella story. I love going out to visit my chickens in their backyard coop and in our barn. It is a beautiful warm day today for December in New England, so my chickens are taking sun baths in their enclosed outdoor pen and dust baths too. The ducks are in courtship mode, so the male Mandarins and East Indies are displaying to the females. For male Mandarins, I have a colorful one like the type seen in the wild, and a pale whitish one that stretch their heads up high and spread their hood-like feathers. All of the time they call out as if making sure the female is watching. The Indies who are a beautiful beetle green-black color, flap one wing on the pond surface repeatedly, or pretend to drink over and over to impress the females. I chose a Swedish duck to play the part of the horses to pull the sleigh. The ducks are harnessed three abreast in “Troika” fashion that is traditional in Russia, and their harness is set with bells. If you’ve ever seen the movie, Dr. Zhivago, you’ll remember the indelible scene where Dr. Zhivago and Lara sleigh to the snow bedecked abandoned estate with it’s onion domes. There is much traditional architecture in the movie, but it is not suitable for children as it has adult subjects. But I was very moved and inspired by it.
My editor has dear friends that have chickens and our conversation often turns to the chicken societies we observe in our flocks. We both thought of a chicken Cinderella when we discussed different strategies for helping out the chickens who were low in the pecking order. Lately, my chickens have been getting along well together. Around Valentine’s Day when the days get longer and the females begin laying, the chickens have more intense relationships. The roosters are fun to watch as they vie for the hen’s attention. Sometimes they’ll jump up into a box of soft pine shavings and twirl around until the nest is made. Then, the rooster who by this time has rounded up an interested companion, will call to her to get her attention. The roosters really do make a lovely purring sound to coax the females onto the nest. Usually the hen will hop right up and lay her egg. When I feed live mealworms in the morning, which is their favorite treat, sometimes the roosters will forgo, instead tossing the mealworm up in the air for the hen to notice. Sometimes they gobble them up themselves, you never know. Roosters are famous for the little dance they do if they are interested in a particular hen. It involves stamping their feet in a circle around the hen, or being next to her dragging one wing on the ground. It’s hard to describe what they do with their head, but they tip it and look out of the corner of their eye. I think that is what is meant when someone says a person “cocks their head” as the expression is short for cockerel, a young rooster. I’m not sure I have been able to put in all my chicken’s body language in my book that makes watching them such a treat. Truthfully, a chicken is hard to paint and to capture its beauty. The colors and shimmer of the feathers is gorgeous. When I do go to poultry shows where there are thousands of chickens exhibited, all sparkling clean and in top condition, it is enchanting to see all the varieties of color and patterns. Lacing, stripes, spots and spangles to say nothing of the iridescence of most plumage and you have a chicken fashion show. I was able to design a double page spread with two foldout pages to show different chicken breeds dancing at Prince Cockerel’s ball in the Ice Palace. Of course it’s a perpetual disappointment to paint the chickens because in real life, movement causes the light to shine in different ways that show a shimmer of changing colors on their feathers.
In the olden days, farms and estates would often have collections of fancy chickens above and beyond their table birds and egg layers. When we went to Russia, I was happily surprised to find the elaborately painted panel in Catherine the Great’s winter palace depict different elegant chickens, including the very unusual breed I keep, called Polish. It has a poof of feathers on top of its head like a snowball. Cinders of course is grey but when she is dressed for the ball and transformed by her fairy godmother the gray looks more like silver, and you can see how elegant she is. The male counterpart of the Silver Phoenix, which Cinders is, has a 4 foot long tail and flowing saddle feathers that sweep the ground. He has a huge red comb that sets off a snowy Collar of feathers on his greeny-black shining chest.
Fairy godmother is a White Silky, a fascinating breed that was described in the 1200′s when Marco Polo traveled to the Far East. The silky has fluffy fur-like feathers, a fluffy topknot, turquoise ear-lobes, and five toes instead of four. Strangely underneath all the feathers the Silky’s skin is dark, almost black, as is its eyes. I could not think of a more ethereal chicken to play the part of the fairy godmother than the Silky.
In CINDERS, inspiration comes not just from my journey to St. Petersburg Russia but also for my own backyard!
I hope you will transform some of your experiences to stories as well – happy imagining!

Your friend,

Jan Brett

Bend Oregon MOSSY

Happy November,
This is Jan Brett with my November Hedge a gram. I’m here to tell you what’s happening in my year of being an author-illustrator. Although I have written and illustrated children’s books since 1981, with the publication of my first book, FRITZ AND THE BEAUTIFUL HORSES, every following book seems like the most important book I’ve ever done. Like any creative project there is a feeling of vulnerability, because an artist’s work is so personal.
My husband and I spent three weeks in October on our tour bus, following down the East Coast of Florida to the South and into Texas, and up the Imperial Valley of California, ending in Washington state. Thank you to everyone who attended my booksignings. I hope many of you had fun drawing Mossy along with me. If you weren’t able to go to a booksigning, you can see the How To Draw demonstration on a video on my website. The demonstration also will appear on a smartphone when you place it over the QR code on the flap of the jacket on MOSSY.
The turtle organizations that joined me at many of my stops added a great deal of excitement to my appearances. I hope reptile lovers were excited to see live turtles and that nature lovers learned, as I did, that turtles have rich and fascinating lives. In Fresno, California I was astounded when the gentleman waiting to have his book signed told me of his one hundred and ten year old Sonoran tortoise. It is indigenous to the Southwest United States and lives in the Sonoran Desert. The turtle belonged to this man’s grandfather and has been passed down from grandfather to father to the man at my book signings, and someday to the man’s son. And, from the excited look in the boy’s eyes, I hope their turtle will live even longer and be cared for in the future by the boy. I don’t think tortoises of this size have natural predators, and the danger would be not having food or water. From what I understood, the tortoise had the run of their large yard.
I saw quite a few turtles that were very beautiful at the signing in El Dorado Hills, California. The local turtle Society brought a huge African tortoise that marched across the parking lot, stopping only to visit with children which it was especially attracted to. The best part of the tour was seeing the wonderful drawing the children bought for me to see. I’m sure they will be well known artists in a few years!
I learned a great deal from booklovers at my signings. I was pleased to hear that ARMADILLO RODEO is often given to children when studying the five senses, that THE UMBRELLA is used when studying Central America, and that THE THREE LITTLE DASSIES is one of the books compared when reading all the versions of the three little pigs folktale.
Now that I’m back in my art studio, I am hard at work on CINDERS which I need to complete by just after Christmas. I took special time with the jacket, a very important element in the book, because it asks the viewer to open the book and read it. I like books that have an element of curiosity or ask a question in the illustration. I picture CINDERS riding her sleigh on the way to the ball. She is wrapped in a down feather cape so her dress isn’t a giveaway. I saved the dress for when she stuns the revelers at the ball with her entrance. After seeing the gorgeously lavish and elegant fancy dresses in the St. Petersburg, Russia museums, it was hard to choose the right one. I finally chose white, because it looks innocent and Prince Cockerel was after all looking for a bride. I did add some pink feathers and rubies for glamour. I love working on the final drawings, it’s my favorite time in the creation process. The best part is when I start with the basic concept and then as I paint it goes in an unexpected direction. Memories of my trip to Russia flood back to me as well as the happy times I’ve sat on a hay bale in my chicken barn in the midst of my flock. After the chickens realize I’m not bringing them a treat or (horrors! trimming their beaks and toenails) they hop all around me, often flying onto my shoulder acknowledging it makes a nice perch. The most curious are the young males, or cockerels who often fly up to my shoulder or onto my head. It is interesting to see who’s the boss, because it changes from time to time in what season it is.
As CINDERS gets completed, my new story for 2014 is evolving and I have a go-ahead for my editor. It is about the wild animal’s Santa, who is a snowy owl.
This is Jan Brett wishing a creative fall as the days get shorter until December and our imaginations, larger!
Jan

Happy October,

Every month I gather my thoughts and try to describe my activities as an author illustrator. When I was a youngster, I knew I wanted to illustrate children’s books, but other than a notion that I would be coloring all day long, I didn’t know what else was involved. Now that writing and illustrating picture books is my profession, I find that there are many ways to be creative and support my books,

Next week a big bus will pull up outside our house, covered with artwork from my new book, MOSSY. Our publisher, Penguin Books, arranges for the bus to take us on a three week bus tour.  It’s indicative of the age we live in, that we can be rolling down the road, focused on the next signing, when we will receive an email from someone driving by who has seen the web address displayed on the bus. It is especially rewarding when the child of the passerby tells his parents that I’m the author he knows about from school.

You can see all the towns we’ll be stopping at all cross the country on my website. The bus travels long distances at night when we are sleeping in the back. We can watch a sunset in the desert in Arizona, and wake up the next morning in a fog bank next to the Pacific Ocean.  One thing is consistent, which is that many parents who have a child that either loves art or writing will visit the signing to encourage their child to create their own work. It is fascinating to see the artwork that kids bring to the signings. It is original as only children?s artwork can be, and it reflects a personal style that is fresh and authentic. I have high hopes that the child will keep on with their habit of creating works of art, precursors of future art projects that may shape our world. I am also in awe of the teachers that come with arm loads of books from their personal libraries. I sign one book for everybody, but I have bookplates for any extra books. If time allows I can sign every last book! It’s also exciting personally to meet teaching students.They will have so much impact on our country’s future. My sister Sophie is a teacher and she specializes in speech pathology, after teaching 6th grade for many years. I can always count on her to think up new ways to use my books with her students. For example, I write a newsnotes letter for children about each book that is published. For Mossy, I painted a box turtle, then all kinds of vegetation so a child can cut out the moss and flowers and create their own garden on Mossy’s back. In case you haven’t read my new book, Mossy the turtle grows a garden on her back. Sophie took my idea a step further. She cut out the pieces, laminated them, and then put a velcro dot on the back of each of the flowers so her students could craft their own gardens for Mossy. Now she’s going to add to the fun and find all kinds of objects Mossy can carry on her back, from toys to food. Then she can work on categorizing skills with the kids.

Since my husband and I travel on the bus, rather than fly around our country to booksignings, we  can set up my signings in a unique way. We are able to bring our own sound system, and a backdrop in case someone wants to take a photo.  We bring a huge amount of posters, which we give to the first 100 people at each signing.Since there are 25 destinations, that adds up to a lot of posters! We give buttons to everyone in line, and we also give out the All About letter I just mentioned. As everyone enters the bookstore, Hedgie the Hedgehog will be there to greet the children. He loves having his picture taken. I will be bringing my art materials so I can give the children a drawing lesson on how to draw a turtle. It will be like the video you can see from the the QR reader on the back flap of Mossy. If you like, bring a pad of paper and pencil for your child, I’d love to have children draw along with me.

In the past, I’ve left my artwork at home while I’m on my book tour, but this year I’ll be bringing artwork for the book I’m currently working on, CINDERS, a chicken Cinderella. I have a few mornings off, so I will work on the paintings. The book is set in olden days Russia, and I am intrigued by the gorgeous ball gowns and fancy uniforms that I will dress the chickens in. I’m at the stage in the book when I’ve got over 1/2 done, and my Russian chicken coop, that I am painting feels like a real world to me. Usually, I’m able to visit my chicken characters, because I have lots of real chickens at home, and I’ll miss them on the bus tour. They are getting quite agreeable about posing for me!

I hope I’ll meet lots of book lovers on the tour. I hope to see you there.

Your friend, Jan Brett

Happy July!

July is an important month for me because of the celebration of our country’s independence.  Because our daughter is in the Marine Corps, as well as her husband, I’ve seen firsthand the sacrifices our military men and women and their families make for our country.  I would like to appreciate them in this correspondence.
July is also the beginning of the Tanglewood season ? the music festival that my husband, Joe is a part of.  In fact, it is his 50th summer playing with the BSO in Tanglewood.  I love the concerts that unfold throughout the summer, with the Boston Symphony playing in an outdoor setting.  Soloists and conductors from all over the world travel to Western Massachusetts and I’m always astounded by their artistry.  Joe and I especially look forward to a concert conducted by the talented St?phane Den?ve, with superstar Yo-Yo Ma as soloist in August.  The concert is named in honor of my mom, Jean Brett, who was a wonderful teacher and a lovely person.
I love letting my mind wander and be directed by the music ? I find lots of creative ideas are sparked by the complexity an extraordinary art of the live concert.
My books are inspired by events and places.  We planned a trip to St. Petersburg in order to gain knowledge about Russian culture, hoping it would add to the setting of my chicken Cinderella story I’m working on right now.  We spent about a week in St. Petersburg with a trip to  the city of Novgorod on an additional day.  We were guided by a most knowledgeable and professional guide, Tatiana Ivanova, who was in addition a lovely travel companion.  We visited Peterhof, Catherine’s Palace and the Hermitage which were awesome in their scope and representation of Russian culture.  But it was the living arts that made the trip a lifelong memory.  We heard a magnificent concert in the Grand Hall of the St.Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, with conductor Yuri Temirkanov and piano soloist Vladimir Feltsman.  The musicians were incredible, and the Hall was intimate and invoked the different era.  We also went to a ballet, Parc, it was one of the most indelible and moving performances we have ever seen, with dancing that was so natural and compelling that we were limp with wonder.  Because, in my book the chickens wear Russian folk costumes, we attended a concert and folk dance recital that was also at the upper limits of performance art, and will be a great resource for the characters in my book.  I can’t even begin to describe the Russian character and culture from our small trip but our experience of the performing arts was explosive, and romantic and proud in a way that I deeply respected and admired.  I have a lot of pent-up excitement about our sampling of the arts in St. Petersburg which will surely come out in my book CINDERS!
Probably the most significant time I spent in St. Petersburg was at the Russian Museum of Ethnography.  There were many traditional clothes on display as well as handicrafts and samples of houses and unique decorations.  There was a bookstore that was like a treasure trove for me, with outstanding books of photos of Russian dress and others about traditional dwellings.  Photography was allowed, and the Russian safe keepers of the collection even allowed us get behind some of the barriers to get certain angles of the artifacts.  There was one huge volume I brought back showcasing the work of a Russian whose life work was documenting the traditional folk dress across the country.  It is truly a labor of love, and I will find it inspiring and authentic for use in my story.  It is by Serguei Glebushkin, and it has an English translation.  I spent almost every night paging through the book, amazed by the extraordinary traditional dresses.
We took a far drive southeast of St. Petersburg to the wooden shingle style old settlement of Novgorod .  It was a thrill to be in these old structures with the gingerbread woodcarvings and onion domes.  On the way we passed the most lush, unspoiled farmland and countryside, at this time unused because of the collective farm model of production.
We also visited a dacha or summer cottage by the Baltic Sea, in an arts colony.  One of the dachas once upon a time belonged to the composer Shostakovich, another to Ivan Pavlov the famous scientist.  Our hostess was from a famous acting dynasty and she entertained us with the traditional dinner including a yummy dish called ?Herring under a fur blanket?, and let us use her banya or Russian sauna.  I loved steaming in the Birch enclosure, but I have yet to master the stoicism of not screaming out loud when the freezing cold water is poured on you!  This will probably be the one Russian experience I will not put in my book!
Now that I’m home, I’m looking long and hard at all my chicken?s expressions for use in my story.  The body language is ever changing and never fails to make me laugh.  I have lots of baby chicks, and there is high drama with their mothers, and in one case, a father who take their jobs very seriously.
Between a trip to Russia and many new additions to my flock, I have lots to be inspired by.  As I settled in to put the pieces together, my thoughts go out to all of you and to all of the creative minds out there that I hope will join me in creating your own unique and wonderful stories.
Bye for now, your friend,

Jan Brett