Jan Brett’s Blog

     With my doublebassist husband, Joe Hearne, our son Sean and his wife Catherine in the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Bejing, just before concert time

Happy May!

This is Jan Brett and this is my May hedge a gram, the time I take to tell you what’s happening in my life as an author/illustrator.  I’m in China right now traveling with my husband, a double bass player in the Boston Symphony.  The orchestra will perform in three cities in China, then Tokyo, Japan and afterwards we will stop in Okinawa, Japan an island far to the south, to visit my daughter and her family.  I will visit historical sites and try to absorb as much of the culture as I can, in hopes that a future book idea will happen.  I have done a book set in Guilin, China, DAISY COME HOME, starring a little girl who loses her pet chicken.  Guilin is a particularly picturesque part of China and a wonderful place to set a book.  The mountains, which out of the earth like jagged teeth are covered with green and look like silhouettes of animals.  The Li, or crystal river, is home to cormorant fishing.  The fisherman pole bamboo rafts out onto the river with a flock of cormorant, duck like birds that are trained to dive for fish and bring them to their master for a reward.  Although the fishing is now mostly staged, it makes one feel like you are back in the olden days to see it.

I’ve just spent weeks on my letter to children about my latest book, THE ANIMALS SANTA, I call my news notes.  It tells tidbits about the book which will be out next fall in time for Christmas.  We will send out 80,000 of my four-page full-color letter to friends and also have it available to download online.  I usually try to make one page an interactive activity and because it’s a Christmas book, the last page is a Christmas card I created for my friend’s use.  It can be downloaded and copied at your local copy shop or used as it is.  The idea behind my book is that people have a Santa, but how about the animals?  My answer is “Yes!”  In a remote village in northern Canada a group of animal friends find mysterious presents on Christmas morning.  They think they could be from Santa, but no one knows for sure until snowshoe rabbit sets a trap.  Santa is a snowy owl, and my card is from him.  I imagine people sending it from their pet, to their friend’s pets.  Or, if you don’t have a pet, it could be sent as a whimsical Christmas card.  Usually I use a somewhat simpler art style, but because the card was intended to be used by my friends, I use my best effort and employed my “book style”.  I’ll have it up online in plenty of time for the holiday season.  The project took a long time.

Because I spent so much time on my news notes, I’m now trying to catch up with the current book, THE TURNIP.  I set the book in Russia, in the area around St. Petersburg, where I visited two years ago to do research for CINDERS.  I will have to spend some of my time painting in my hotel room during this trip, instead of sightseeing, so I can at least finish one page.

I have loved the turnip story for years, but is unique because in Russia much of the fun is in the telling.  The names of the different characters rhyme and make the word a tongue twister.  Since my English counterparts are not tongue twisters, I had to create a new surprise element to keep the story lively.  As the animals, in this case badgers, line up to pull the giant turnip out of the ground, a bear’s den lies underneath.  In fact, the giant turnip has taken up the Bear’s bedroom!  Can you guess what event will finally unearth the turnip?  Hint, the bear wants that turnip out of her bedroom!

So far, I’ve written the text and have just received some samples of the type, both of which I love.  But one stood out as having just the right qualities to enhance the artwork.  It’s slightly old-fashioned and European in quality, but if letters could evoke humor these would.  Marikka Tamura, the designer at my publisher who I have worked with for many of my books, is responsible for finding some interesting choices of type.  She will send me my story in the new type face and then it’s my job to leave room for it in my artwork, which is harder than it sounds.  Artists are notorious for wanting all the page space for their art!  In the end though, I think illustrators love the look of type and art together and that is one reason why we choose this medium, a children’s book.

I have my book dummy that I use as a guide as I work on the finished pages.  It’s my favorite part of the process, and I tried also tried to leave a little mental energy to bring new life to my pages as they are transformed from the cartoon-like book dummy.

Signing off from Asia, your friend, Jan Brett

Hedgie and Jan Brett greeting the students at
Oakview Elementary School, in  Simpsonville, South Carolina.

Happy April!

This is Jan Brett and this is my April Hedge a gram.   It’s the time I take when I stop my work on my book, take a breath, and try to communicate what I’m doing in my profession.  When I was young, I desperately wanted to be a children’s book illustrator, and I wanted to know what it was like to live that life.  I’m hoping that by describing all the activities we’re doing, it may give some insight to future artists, writers, and teachers of children’s literature.
I am in beautiful Greenville, South Carolina, at the historic Poinsett Hotel.  Yesterday, I spoke and meet all of the children at Oakview Elementary School.  This school won the school and library visit contest last year.   The Upcountry History Museum in Greenville is having an exhibit of artwork from fifteen of my books and last night my husband Joe and I went to a reception.   It’s a fascinating museum specializing in the history of Northwestern South Carolina.  The museum mounted not only my illustrations, but also a superb collection of student artwork from Oakview School.  Two pieces of art from the student’s exhibit were given to me.  They will have a place of honor in our house.  The children used some of my techniques, such as using details, and borders and animal characters.  Then they took their art to another level using interesting mediums such as torn paper, and collage and metal work plus their own soaring imaginations.  It was very inspiring for me to see such talented ingenuity.  Please, please, please, take some time to create your artwork, or write down your thoughts.  The world becomes a vibrant and exciting place when one is surrounded by creativity and beauty.  I spoke to every child at Oakview School and asked them about their interests.  Almost every child not only had a creative interest, they loved reading but also did a sport.   When I asked them what their dream vacation would be, I was impressed by how many want to go somewhere exciting and interesting and different.   And answers were as varied as Hawaii, Miami, Russia, India, China and Dubai.  I felt I was among kindred spirits because I have found travel has helped me create my books.
My school visit to Newfoundland two years ago, definitely influence my decision to set my fall 2014 book, THE ANIMAL’S SANTA in northern Canada. The animal characters are from northern Canada, Arctic Fox, Porcupine, Moose, Lemmings, Red Squirrels, Snowshoe Hare, and Snowy Owl.  The borders are inspired by Native American Porcupine quill embroidery that I first started collecting on a trip to Canada.  I’m currently working on my newsletter to children about how I got the idea for my book.   It includes descriptions of the beautiful first people’s native embroidery.  The letter tells about the Snowy Owl, which remarkably was very visible in my area of Massachusetts this winter.  The Snowy will travel southward when the Lemming and Snowshoe Hare populations are sparse.  We even had a Snowy in the next town to us, Scituate.
I have done one page of my 2015 book, THE TURNIP and have sent it to my editor to see.  We are still working on the manuscript because it will be set in an appropriate typeface and I will know how much room to leave in the artwork.  When I first send the page, it is always a bit of a wrench because we are still trouble shooting at this point.  I have to steel myself  for  any criticism and be honest with myself and be open to the fact that the criticism might just be right.  I say this because it is easy to think a book just flows like a fountain of creativity and there are  no mis-steps.   I have an editor who I really trust and I also listen to my husband, Joe, who although he is a musician has very straight forward and helpful opinions.
It turns out that my school visit has come at a perfect time, because after seeing how much Oakview School strives for excellence and has succeeded, I want to do so as well.
Have fun being creative and keeping up the high standards we all so admire.

Your friend,

Jan Brett

THE TURNIP sketch

Happy March!

I am turning cartwheels with enthusiasm about starting off with my latest book project.  Every month, I tell about what is going on in my life as an illustrator, I call it my hedge-a-gram, and this month is unique because I’m underway with THE TURNIP.
My contact with my publisher is for a children’s book every year, this yearly work cycle is really ingrained in my mind, since this is my 36th book.  What I really would like to express is how powerful and confirming a creative project can be.  There always hurdles, and it is easy to be impatient, but the rewards are like nothing else.  Please give it a try.  I’ve always struggled with the irony that my most satisfying way to tell a story is with drawings not with words.  For me words tap into another world where a story carries you, and I wish I was an inspired writer.   I’ve always been incredulous when after reading a work of fiction, I feel I’ve been in some of the places described, and that the characters are alive somewhere.  I don’t feel the magic when I am writing as much as when I’m drawing, I wish I could.
It doesn’t matter how you are creative, but that you use your imagination in some medium.  It may be that with all the knowledge children are learning in school in order to do well in tests, it will be up to the parents and friends to encourage kids to write fiction and draw and paint.  My sister, who was taught for as long as I’ve written books, says in 2014 children are still bursting with creative ideas.  I don’t doubt her. Sometimes a big success for a child, say actually writing a small book or creating a poster can resonate later and lead to more and more creative projects.  I remember in high school I illustrated GREY’S ELEGY IN A COUNTRY CHURCH YARD for a favorite English teacher.   I hope there will be time for this in the classroom, but if not it’s good to carve out some time at home.
I was once given a beautiful, simple carved wooden toy from Russia of three people and a bear pulling a turnip out of the ground.  I thought it was charming and I remembered the story it went with, THE TURNIP.  The premise, of finding a giant vegetable really tickles my fancy.  I have an acquaintance who grows giant pumpkins, over 900 pounds, and I’ve been to the pumpkin patch.  “It could happen”, I said to myself.
When I traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, 2 years ago to do the research for CINDERS, I had in my mind that I would like to retell and illustrate THE TURNIP in a few years.  Although we passed through farmland on the way to Novgorod, I didn’t see any small farms like we have in New England.  Instead I relied on the Russian Museum of Ethnography and their vast collection of books about life in the olden days.  The clothing and buildings in the old villages were very artistic and colorful.  The printed cloth fabrics of the garments were lovely and each one, with its trim and embroidery seemed a work of art.  I knew I would be very happy to paint the combinations of color and design, especially when a turnip would be the central image, purple and yellow.
My Russian family in the book are European Badgers.  They are rolley, comical, strikingly colored animals that cry out for a story behind their mischievous expressions.  From what I’ve heard and seen on the Internet, they are naturally playful and social.  The other main character is the Russian bear.  In my story she’s a mom with her hands full getting her cubs into their den to go to sleep for the winter.  Unbeknownst to the badger and friends who are trying to pull the turnip up, beneath them underground, the turnip has grown into the space that would be the bear’s bedroom.  When mother bear gets fed up, and gives the turnip the one two… The animals topside are in for a big surprise.
I’ve taken quite a few folk tales and given them a new twist in past books.  My husband, Joe, who is a classical musician, often plays works that are theme and variations, or reworking of an older piece of music by a master.  My favorite is Brahm’s Variations on a theme by Haydn.   I think I feel happy using this device in my picture books because my grandfather, William Thaxter was a great storyteller.  Every time he told a story he embellished it in a slightly different way.  We children loved listening, and even if we knew the end from before, we reveled in the telling.  For me, that’s something to aspire to.
Happy storytelling in your own special way, your friend,

Jan Brett