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Sophie Blackall has illustrated over 30 books and won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 2016 for Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear. Her latest book, Hello Lighthouse is very special and I predict will win many awards. The story of a lighthouse keeper and his family, this book (also written by Sophie) is almost a search and find that I'm sure children will find something new every time they open the book.

MARMALADE BOOKS (MB): What was it like growing up in Australia?
SOPHIE BLACKALL (SB): On my walk home from school I would pass the butcher shop and ask for some of the paper he used to wrap meat to draw on. He would roll up a few sheets and slice a piece of mortadella into the bargain. (I've been fond of butchers ever since.) If I wasn't lurking about the butcher's or up a tree, I was at the beach. I spent a great deal of my childhood in Australia up a tree with a book. My brother was usually in the tree next door, also with a book. We had a brilliantly designed, poorly executed rope, pulley and basket system between trees to exchange books. (We were in our Famous Five period, and fortunately Enid Blyton was prolific enough to keep us fueled.) We only ever read paperback books in trees. For one thing, the book exchange was precarious, and many books went flying down to no man's land between the branches. Also, my tree was a pink peppercorn and oozed sticky sap. And also, we didn't always remember to bring our books down with us, and even though this was hot, dry South Australia, it sometimes rained. SB: A lot has changed since then, but New York never fails to sweep me off my feet. To our great surprise, we won green cards in the diversity visa lottery which gave us three months to pack up our lives and move to the US. It was a grand adventure. We had a three year old and an infant and we rented a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, sight unseen. It was full of mice and a rotting mattress, but...it was still a grand adventure. SB: I am having a wonderful time thinking about my favorite books and what they mean to me, then traveling to those authors' houses to see what I can discover of them there. I am drawing the things they left behind and thinking how our possessions define us. Ahh! I am having the very best imaginable time, researching a book for grown ups about the houses of my favorite writers. One of those writers is Beatrix Potter. I just came back from the Lake District in England, where I stayed at Yew Tree Farm, one of the many farms she owned in the area. After her death she left 15 farms including Yew Tree and Hill Top, which is now a museum, and several thousand acres of land to the National Trust so that the astonishingly beautiful country would be protected for the enjoyment of all. She was an extraordinary woman, an exquisite painter, an inquisitive thinker, a meticulous naturalist, a passionate conservationist and is a hero in the Lake District. She also fell in love, had her heart broken and fell in love again, in the middle of her life. Her first fiancé, who was also her first editor, Norman Warne, died shortly before they could be married. She kept his umbrella and his ring for the rest of her life.
MB: What inspired you to move to New York?
SB: I picked up Moby Dick when I'd been away from the sea too long. Books have a way of finding you at the right time. And if the time is right, Moby Dick, like New York, can sweep a person off her feet. My obsession with Moby Dick took me to New Bedford and beyond. On a beach in Cape Cod, I picked up a whale rib which now hangs above my bed. Whales began to work their way into my books, hidden mostly. But finally, in Hello Lighthouse they appear, as you say, on almost every page, if only as the weather vane atop the cupola.Lighthouses are both compelling and comforting. I love the contrast between the stormy sea crashing against the tower and the cozy round rooms inside, like curling up with a book on a rainy day. I was working on Hello Lighthouse during some of the most turbulent times I've ever known. It was a great comfort to escape into my painting, to transport myself to a tiny island out at sea. Recently a child at a school visit asked, "What were your emotions like when you made Hello Lighthouse?" I told him that there were a lot of bad and sad and crummy things happening in the world when I made this book, and that when the world is full of such things, books offer an escape to a different, kinder world. And if we can't find exactly the world we seek in a book, then we can make our own book and our own world. I grew up by the sea. I first drew with sticks in the sand. I pine for the sea if I'm away too long. As Melville writes, "There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me." SB: The best books are the ones you don't want to finish making. But then you get to live with them out in the world. It's such a pleasure sharing Hello Lighthouse with readers, and getting to visit more lighthouses now the book is out, seems too good to be true.
MB: On your Instagram account you recently shared pictures of your literary dream of a trip to England, including the home of Beatrix Potter. Can you tell us more about this trip and the things that excited you the most?
SB: Like Beatrix Potter, I always have a dozen things going at once, and like Beatrix Potter, I have bought a farm. (Only one, so far.) Right now, Milkwood Farm is an abandoned dairy farm in upstate New York on 21 beautiful acres of rolling hills and wildflower meadows and meandering streams. But in two years time, it will have been transformed into a place for writers and illustrators to gather and spend time together, writing, drawing, talking, walking, eating, drinking, thinking. You can find out more about the project here! www.milkwoodfarm.org

MB: I've read that you hide a whale in each of your books in honour of Moby Dick and in Hello Lighthouse, you can find a whale in almost every illustration. It seems that this new book brings together three things that you really love; lighthouses, whales and the sea. What is it about these things that inspire you?

MB: The level of detail in your illustrations for Hello Lighthouse is amazing. There is so much to discover here, like finding the whales, the anchors on the wife's dress, the bunny slippers on the daughter, the details in the cut-a-way of the lighthouse and the gorgeous waves reminiscent of The Great Wave print by Hokusai. Did you have trouble knowing when to stop and did you have more that you wanted to add?

MB: Are you working on a new project and can you tell us about it?

My thanks to Sophie for this interview. I've only scratched the surface of her very interesting adventures in writing and illustrating. It's always such a pleasure to learn more about the talented and inspiring authors and illustrators in the world of children's literature. Pat Oldroyd

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MY INTERVIEW WITH CHILDREN'S AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR SOPHIE BLACKALL

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Sophie Blackall has illustrated over 30 books and won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 2016 for Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear. Her latest book, Hello Lighthouse is very special and I predict will win many awards.

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#BNStorytime: Sophie Blackall reads IF YOU COME TO EARTH

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophieblackall?igsh=eHA2cWUydnZuYzM5

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Sophie Blackall is an award winning Australian author and illustrator. She is well known for her warm imagery and stories that celebrate everyday life. She has illustrated over fifty children's books and written about thirteen. Sophie writes many multi-layered books that have a deeper meaning than what may be seen at first glance.

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The Daily Heller: For Sophie Blackall, It’s the Simple Things – PRINT Magazine

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Blackall’s “Things to Look Forward to” is an uplifting compilation of everything the author/illustrator happily anticipates.

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In "Big Red Lollipop" the most obvious pattern is sibling conflict. It appears first when the oldest child (Rubina) asks her mom if she can go to her friend's birthday party. Her mom says she is not allowed to go unless she brings her little sister (Sana). She is embarrassed, but she brings her sister to the party. At the party, they get big red lollipops to take home. Sana ends up eating most of Rubina's lollipop and her mom doesn't seem to care. At the end, Sana gets invited to one of her friends birthday parties and now her little sister (Maryam) wants to go. Her mom says the same thing that she said to Rubina. Throughout the book, the mom seemed to favor the younger sibling in allowing them to go to the birthday parties.

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"Pecan Pie Baby" has three major patterns, one of them being a diverse family structure. In this book, the mom is the only parental figure mentioned; however, the extended family is very involved. They show up throughout the book and help with preparation for the new baby.

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Another obvious pattern in "Pecan Pie Baby" is fear and jealousy. The main character, Gia struggles with the fear of losing closeness with her mom. She doesn't want the baby to take her place and for her whole life, it has just been her and her mom. Also, she struggles with jealousy because it seems like all her family can talk about is the "ding-dang baby".

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The third and most obvious pattern in "Pecan Pie Baby" is pecan pie. It is the food that her mom craves most during her pregnancy, and everyone in the family is aware. At the beginning, Gia said that the baby was being a copycat because both she and her mom love pecan pie. She was annoyed because that is her and her mom's thing. In the end, the pecan pie was a way for her and her mom to bond before the baby arrived, and Gia accepted the fact that all three of them love pecan pie equally.

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In "Ahoy" a pattern that is seen throughout the text is vivid imagination. A young captain and his parent are taken on a fantastic voyage in the vast ocean. The story starts with household items such as a mop, paper towel roll, box, jump rope, rug, socks, and, in the image above, a vacuum. A vacuum turns into a giant squid, a paper towel roll into a monocular, socks into seagulls, and so much more. These everyday items take a family through a story of ups and downs, and their imagination takes them to the unknown.

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In "If We Were Dogs," the patterns are imagination and friendship. At the beginning, it shows two friends under a table, and they begin imagining. One friend leads the two on a journey exploring if they were dogs. The other chimes in and says that they don't want to be a dog; they want to be a duck. Each friend has their own personality, but even if they were different animals, they'd still be each other's favorite.

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Sophie Blackall. 9,645 likes · 6 talking about this. Artist

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"Ahoy!" and "If We Were Dogs" both explore imagination and relationship building. In "Ahoy" we see a young kid take his parent on an imagination journey in the ocean. Throughout the story, the kid continues to imagine even when his parent gets caught up in the distractions of life. Towards the end, his parent is fully immersed in the story, and he begins imagining plot twists of his own. Through the story, their relationship grows because the young kid sees that his parent truly cares about him and his creativity. In "We Were Dogs," the story starts when one friend starts imagining what life would be like if they were dogs. They go through scenarios and all of the activities they would do if they were dogs. The other friend is inspired by the imagination and decides that they wouldn't want to be a dog; instead, they would be a duck. The two friends' relationship grows because they value and appreciate each other's differences.

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One of the most present patters in "Hello Lighthouse" is the use of circles. The author and illustrator use circles to show the cyclical nature of life, how the world continues to spin and each of us have out own little circle in life.

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Another pattern present in the book is the use of whales. Whales represent wisdom, family, and emotional strength. Whales are shown 15 times throughout the book! This imagery ties to the story because a big part of the story is the keeper and his want for a family. It is very much a slice of life book in the sense that the man in the story wants a family, finds a wife, and creates that family he was longing for.

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"Pecan Pie Baby" and "Big Red Lollipop" share the pattern of sibling relationships and jealousy. In "Big Red Lollipop," Rubina, the oldest sister, is excited to go to her first birthday party, but her mother insists she take her younger sister, Sana, along, even though that’s not what kids normally do. Sana misbehaves at the birthday party, and Rubina feels that Sana always gets her way and ruins her experiences. In "Pecan Pie Baby," Gia, the main character, is an only child for now. Her jealousy isn’t directed at a sibling who’s already here, but at the idea of the new baby. Gia feels that she’s being replaced, while everyone around her is so excited. When adults talk about the baby, she reacts with irritation and sarcasm. Her jealousy comes from fear of being replaced and that her mother's love will be divided.

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"Pecan Pie Baby" and "Big Red Lollipop" also share the pattern of emotional growth. In "Big Red Lollipop," The story closes with Sana offering Rubina a lollipop after a party of her own that she attended. This is because after Sana went to the birthday party that Rubina was invited to, she ate her lollipop party favor. This small yet powerful gesture shows reconciliation and sibling love. Rubina was able to forgive her and show emotional growth. In "Pecan Pie Baby," Gia’s emotional change happens more quietly but just as meaningfully. As her mother comforts her during one of her upset moments, she reassures Gia that no matter what happens with the new baby, her love will not be divided. Gia’s resistance to the baby softens. When her mom mentions that the baby will probably love pecan pie just like she does, Gia responds calmly. This shows that Gia is truly starting to accept and warm up to the arrival of her new sibling. Her heart is making space for them.

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The theme of this book is gender roles within culture. Ruby's wish is to get an education and play just like all the boys, but is told that because she is a girl she should be learning cooking and homemaking. The illustrations of Ruby aways behind something, someone, or off center represents the separation that is being forced upon her.

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Sophie speaks to the reader a lot through imagery in this book. The most notable pattern is the framing. Each page includes some type of framing weather that be the actual image of windows, or a frame around the image giving the illusion the reader is looking in the window. This encourages the reader to look beyond the words on the page, but to see the entire image.

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Both Hello Lighthouse and Farmhouse have a pattern of recurring shapes. Hello Lighthouse uses the circle while Farmhouse uses squares. Most of her books have recurring shapes as a motif.

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Many of Sophies books have different covers and jackets, this can spark curiosity for the reader and reveals what story may be told.

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Blackall uses different end pages in some of her books. This tells the reader that there is a change with the characters within the story.

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While some books have different end pages, many also have same end pages. This can represent the character staying the same throughout the story, but also the theme and mood being consistent.

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Farmhouse is inspired by a real-life property she bought in upstate New York!

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Sophie uses her eldest child's name in her book "The Baby Tree" and also adds in the book that the story was written because her kids gave her the idea.

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In an interview that Sophie did with Roger Sutton, she told him that part of the reason that she wrote Ahoy! was because of her eldest child, Olive's, imagination as a kid. Sophie said that Olive always asked her mom to act like a patient so that they could be a doctor. Sophie would always do it, and Olive could slather her in lotions and bandages. This connects to the imaginative story in Ahoy!