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Big ideas: who am I, what makes me “me,” uniqueness vs sameness

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Big ideas: who am I, what makes me “me,” uniqueness vs sameness

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Example questions: If I change, am I still the same person?

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Big ideas: mortality, the meaning of life, grief, memory

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Big ideas: mortality, the meaning of life, grief, memory

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Example questions: Why do living things die? How can memories keep people with us?

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Why do living things die? How can memories keep people with us?

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Sydney Smith is a children's book illustrator. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife and two sons.

He has been awarded multiple awards for his illustration and writing, including the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration.

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2010: Mabel Murple by Sheree Fitch (NImbus)

2011: There Were Monkeys In My Kitchen by Sheree Fitch (NImbus)

2012: Toes In My Nose: And Other Poems by Sheree Fitch (NImbus)

2014: Music Is For Everyone by Jill Barber (Nimbus)

2015: Grant and Tillie Go Walking by Monica Kulling (Groundwood Books)

2015: Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson (Groundwood Books)

2016: The White Cat and the Monk: A Retelling of the Poem "Pangur Bán" by Jo Ellen Bogart (Groundwood Books)

2017: Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz (Groundwood)

2018: Smoot: A Rebellious Shadow by Michelle Cuevas (Dial Books)

2019: Small in the City by Sydney Smith (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)

2020: I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)

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"Deft poetic language pairs with the resonant watercolours of Sydney Smith to create a book that is more than a memoir and more than conveying a message...Incomparable."

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September 3, 2019
We interviewed Sydney Smith, award-winning illustrator of children's books and now author of his first picture book Small in the City. He has illustrated titles including The White Cat and the Monk, by Jo Ellen Bogart, Sidewalk Flowers, by JonArno Lawson, on The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books in 2015and Town Is by the Sea, by Joanne Schwartz, winner of the 2018 Kate Greenaway Award and listed as one of The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books in 2017. Originally from Nova Scotia, Smith lives and works in Halifax, Canada.

September 3, 2019
Our interview begins with Sydney's response about his role as an illustrator and a storyteller.

At a certain point, in the journey of an illustrator, you come to an understanding that you are only as good as the collaboration between the text and image. If the story doesn't read well you have failed and if all your efforts were to highlight your skill as an artist the project suffers.

Your childhood has impacted your work as an illustrator. In what ways?

I am sure that it's not true for everyone but my relationship with art making came from challenging moments in childhood. I was never exceptionally talented in drawing, and I didn't enjoy drawing more than anyone else when I was very young. I moved a lot after my parents separated and in those places I met friends and bonded through drawing. Mostly superheroes and monsters (secretly I still love drawing monsters). When I moved away from those friends I continued drawing as an escape or sanctuary. This happened at the age that many kids stop drawing, around 12 years old, when they are told that if you can't "draw" you shouldn't do it. And it's an age when most kids feel awkward and alone.

You have suggested that it can be limiting creatively to focus on the sense that you are creating a book "for children".

I have found that I get in trouble when I make art for anyone but myself. That includes the audience. Even the term "children's book" can be limiting. We all have limited ideas surrounding what it is to be a child and it's hard to dive deep when you are jumping from such a low height. Instead, we should be asking what is to be human, including children. And then just write for yourself. That was a gradual mental shift I had while working with Sheila Barry, the editor at Groundwood Books. She didn't impose on the creative process, instead she nurtured a self-confidence that I hadn't known before.

Preliminary versions and sketches for cover of Small in the City, Sydney Smith

Small in the City is the first book that you wrote and illustrated. What did that experience tell you about how you approach your work? Does the idea for a possible story come first or do sketchbook drawings inspire a direction?

Small in the City is my first written book. I have always wanted to write and, through the experiences of collaborating with authors, I have learned what type of stories I respond to and where my strengths lie, as well as, where they do not. Not having written before, I had no sense of my own voice or style of writing, instead I came at it more systematically. I knew that the benefit of being both illustrator and writer is that the text and image can weave and dance more intricately so I tried to write a story that couldn't fully be told in the images or the text.

One of the drawbacks of illustrating for a separate writer is that sometimes the manuscript I am offered is too complete by the time it reaches me. Often, there isn't enough room for the illustrations to fully develop as a coauthor. Given the room, they can add layers to the story, change it, and make a more dynamic narrative with multiple levels of interpretation. That engages and challenges the reader and ultimately results in a more rewarding experience. This is what works for me and how I like my stories told.

﻿I learned in Town is by the Sea that illustrations can create an unreliable narrator. By showing a separate truth than the text, there is a dissonance that occurs and as an illustrator, I have a special advantage. When there is a discrepancy between images and text the reader looks to the images for the true reality and a new, more complicated comprehension occurs. From there on, there is an alliance between illustrator and reader. The text or the voice of the character is then interpreted and informed by the truth of what you see. I knew that I wanted to tell a story that was told through a voice of an unreliable narrator. There are parts of Small in the City that show that the character is hiding their true feelings.

Preliminary sketches by Sydney Smith for Small in the City,

Small in the City started as sketches. I filled sketchbooks, and taped photos to the wall. In fact I did as much preparation as I could, but really, I was stalling because I was terrified of writing. I was afraid that I couldn't write.

Photo research shots and sketches by Sydney Smith for Small in the City

Writing my own book has taught me that there is a special chemistry that happens when I collaborate with other authors. I love the challenge of problem solving and the thrill of risk taking when working with another author's text. When I write for myself there can be a bit of a feedback loop and I'm never satisfied. There is an extra level of responsibility when working on an author's text. I want to do as much as I can to honour their work. I think that can bring out my best work I can give.

Do you plan to write more books and also continue to illustrate for other authors' work?

My plan is to continue writing and collaborating for as long as the stories keep coming.

We admire the subtle pacing within your books and the impact of layout, even within your illustrations (the miners in a sliver at the bottom of the page in Town Is by the Sea, for example). Adding the spread (and dismissing page count!) while the boy waits for his father to return added such drama. Is that an instinct for storytelling that drives you to make those decisions?

I think there are a few instincts in play. I enjoy anticipating how the reader follows the story. It's a bit of a tightrope walk when trying to manipulate the audience. Be too obvious and they will push back, be too subtle and you risk confusion. I want to make the book challenging but I also don't want it to be osbcure. There needs to be a payoff for the challenges you present the reader.

Adding the silent spread was intuitive. Some stories I have worked on were possible to punctuate with silence. Pacing is important to the flow of the story and engaging the reader but it also involves knowing when the story needs the sustained ring of the words. Illustrations can control how the story is read and can add weight to words or flip them upside down. There's a lot of power there.

When I was a kid my dad went to a psychic. He asked them about his children and they said that I should be a movie director and that I would be as famous as Spielberg. I never forgot about that. I get a lot of inspiration from the innovation film and languages of film and picture book illustrations are very similar.

Growing up in Nova Scotia, what aspects of your early years there influenced your creative work? And in what ways?

It's hard to identify what Nova Scotia brought to my creative work. I grew up around books, libraries were sanctuaries, and my sister is a poet. My older brother displayed a deep passion for his interests in maps and nature, my mother is an extremely empathetic person and my father's love of photography always informed my love of images and also helped solidify my memories of childhood.

After returning to my home of Nova Scotia, I have the privilege of seeing it with perspective. Much of the six years I was away I was working on material that transported me back. More and more, I have been creatively drawn to the beauty of water, reflections and light. These were some of the elements of my childhood in Nova Scotia and continue to be at the core of abstraction or distortion of life and memories.

The country is quiet and there were moments of mindfulness and the sublime found in unremarkable places. I suppose I am always trying to recapture those feelings.

You have referred to a "rural mentality" that rejects the limelight or attention focused on an individual. How did that atmosphere affect you? Does it still inform your work as an illustrator and now as an author?

It may occur around the world but I have found there is a certain allergy to pride in the communities I grew up in. "Don't get too big feelin' " translates to "Pride comes before a fall". For the people of many rural communities, fortune is fleeting and not to be trusted. My grandmother often said "I didn't ask for much and that's just what I got". It can be difficult at times to admit having goals and dreams. What's even worse is when they come true.

I think I pay a lot of attention to tone in the stories I illustrate and it is related to my fear of pride. It can be unseemly to bathe openly in sentimentality and I believe readers prefer the implications of vulnerability and raw emotions. I know I do. There's a sweet spot, balancing on the edge of sentimentality, and I try to balance there but sometimes I fall right in.

Your illustrations are often framed like a graphic novel or comic. What (beyond your love of Calvin & Hobbes and comics in general) leads you to this approach? And when do you abandon that format for full-page treatment?

Panels can help any lots of ways. They can be useful as a way to pick up the pace as in showing a character travelling or to describe the details of a scene.

You are still considering the page as a canvas. Even though there are images that are split up around the page, they still have to work visually as a whole. I like how much information can be condensed onto a page and the format itself can communicate the mood.

Choosing the right format for the page, all depends on the text. What moments are descriptive of actions, what describes an emotion and when is it time to stop. Is there a moment that needs punctuation? Where a character stops or a character has moment of clarity? Or perhaps when something sweet and/or quiet occurs. The illustrations control the speed of the reader and forcing a pause in the readers voice with a full page or double page or even a wordless spread, can highlight a moment and the words echo. By using a variety of formats on the page, the illustrator has a wider range of control over how the text is read.

Though your technique does vary from book to book, brushwork figures prominently. Can you elaborate on why that is often your medium of choice? Primarily with a Pentel Brush Pen?

I've always used ink, probably because of my early interests in comics, Rackham and Gorey. But for me, ink and brush is therapeutic. I am naturally a nervous person with an unreliable confidence but the brush encourages me to be the person and artist I would like to be. The brush works best when you are relaxed and confident, the character of the line is so beautiful when you trust in it and play. Play is something I forgot in drawing. Professionally illustrating can take up a lot of time and I am trying to encourage myself to enjoy experimenting and improvising again. The book I am finishing right now has no brush and ink. Instead I have experimented with other materials and I'm having a blast. I think that it comes through in the final results and that's the best you can ask for. Whether the risks I took succeeded or not, at least I had fun.

What is the most significant change you have seen within your work as your career has progressed? Did it surprise you?

I had a moment, when I first moved to Toronto, when I decided that I would pretend to be the artist I wanted to be. I was starting work with a new publisher, Groundwood Books, and I saw the opportunity to reinvent myself. Before that, I had been stuck working in a way that grew to be unsatisfying but I thought that I had to be consistent. But it turns out nobody cares. So I pretended to be confident, I pretended to be the artist who trusted their own intuition. After a while I forgot I was pretending. That's not to say I changed. I just gave myself the permission to be myself. That's always hard. Every day I have moments when I question my own validity.

You are a fan of Edward Gorey books. What about his work impresses you or speaks to you as an artist?

Edward Gorey was a master of ambiguity in the way he combined his text and the way he framed his images. Implying a gruesome death or a hideous crime is so much more impactful than just showing it. The darkness of his stories was also quite thrilling. Obviously, he wrote for himself. It must have created problems for his publishers when his mysteries were too gruesome to be marketed to children, but he answered to his own mind and the results were innovative and singular.

A challenge can also drive you as an artist. What do you foresee as the next approach that may provide a creative risk for you?

Challenging myself is the primary goal of working. I cannot be excited about a project unless I challenge myself to take risks and work outside my comfort zones. I tend to start a project open and free and build up rules as I go. Most of my challenges are about breaking those fake rules. Or setting my goals and expectations so high that although I may never reach them I still achieve far more than I could before. The fake rules I impose are usually about materials I use or the way I pace the story or external expectations. For the next book, I play around with materials I haven't tried before and a style that is different than I am used to.

Thank you, Sydney, for sharing your work and your process!
A selection of Smith's work For more on Sydney Smith:

﻿All images are used with permission from Sydney Smith, Groundwood Books and Holiday House. © 2015 by JonArno Lawson, illustrations © 2015 by Sydney Smith.
Reproduced with permission of Groundwood Books Limited.

The White Cat and the Monk © 2016 written by Jo Ellen Bogart, illustrations © 2016 by Sydney Smith. Reproduced with permission of Groundwood Books Limited.

Town Is by the Sea © 2017 written by Joanne Schwartz, illustrations © 2017 by Sydney Smith. Reproduced with permission of Groundwood Books Limited.

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An Interview with Sydney Smith - Art of the Picture Book

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September 3, 2019 We interviewed Sydney Smith, award-winning illustrator of children's books and now author of his first picture book Small in the City. He has illustrated titles including The White Cat and the Monk, by Jo Ellen Bogart , Sidewalk Flowers, by JonArno Lawson, on The New York T

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I TALK LIKE A RIVER - Art of the Picture Book

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In Scott's tender story, a young boy struggles with ridicule at school when his words tumble out, sometimes hard to understand. One day, his father takes him to the river and there he learns a new way of looking at his challenge.

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Writer, Painter, original picture book creator

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Shangri-La Presents: From Asia with Heart | Xiong Liang

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original picture book creator

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Picture books are not just stories; they are gateways to deeper learning and thinking. They build connections between different aspects of life, making them invaluable tools for education and personal growth

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Learn to Draw with Sydney Smith | Small in the City | Canadian Children's Book Week

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The Hans Christian Andersen Nominating Committee of the CBBY is honoured to introduce Cai Gao as a candidate for the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

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HCAA 2024

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In Baoer, Cai Gao uses a decentred perspective, but with an innovative colour scheme, dominated by the contrast between black and red. This story was adapted from The Strange Tales of Liao Zhai, a popular Chinese classics with about 500 folktales told by Pu Songling of the Qing Dynasty.

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Author: Tadashi Matsui    Illustrator: Cai Gao

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Based on Tao Hua Yuan Ji (Peach Blossom Spring) by Tao Yuanming, an illustrious poet during the Jin Dynasty (265-420), A Tale of Tao Hua Yuan reflects the longing towards beauty in us all. The protagonist, a fisherman, gets lost and discovers an utopian world by accident. The kind locals, who led simple yet satisfying lives, were unaware of the chaos outside of their world. The fisherman eventually grew homesick and left the world adorned by blossoming peach flowers. When he wanted to return, that world was nowhere to be found.

Tadashi Matsui, often hailed as Japan's "father of picture books", was introduced to a painting on Tao Hua Yuan Ji at a young age. Awed by its beauty, Matsui penned his picture book A Tale of Tao Hua Yuan for schoolchildren in Japan and invited renowned Chinese artist Cai Gao to illustrate for the book. Cai's use of colors and strokes, both deeply influenced by Chinese aesthetics, add to the splendor of Matsui's words.

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Hao Guang Cai, writer, and his MrGrimmpress.

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格林繪本網 www.grimmpress.com.tw 閱讀是最好的遊戲，繪本是最好的玩具。格林文化永遠為孩子打造最高品質的繪本！

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Come and soak in the intricacies of Chinese culture,
wrapped in touching tales of familial love!

I highly recommend this series for bilingual parents
who are not only keen in supporting their kids' language acquisition,
but also want to nurture their kids' deep love of the Chinese culture.

These books artfully weaves in food, drink and play into introduction of our beautiful culture.

We love the 中国风 illustration style!

Set of 7 books written by 郝广才

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Come and soak in the intricacies of Chinese culture,wrapped in touching tales of familial love! I highly recommend this series for bilingual parentswho are not only keen in supporting their kids’ language acquisition,but also want to nurture their kids’ deep love of the Chinese culture. These books artfully weaves in f

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57 Years Apart - A Boy And a Man Talk About Life

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58 Years Apart - A Girl and a Woman Talk About Life

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The large scale paintings below were originally exhibited in a group show whose title Go, Said The Bird is drawn from a poem by T.S. Eliot

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Discover the life of Japanese artist Anno Mitsumasa, a beloved and prolific children's author and illustrator, best known for his wordless picture books.

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Kansas State University Department of English

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Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall

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Interview w/Lynn Brunelle, Jason Chin, Review of Life After Whale

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Interview w/Lynn Brunelle, Jason Chin, Review of Life After Whale

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Maria Marshall

Jul 25, 2024

13 min read

Lynn Brunelle A four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for "Bill Nye the Science Guy," Lynn Brunelle has over 25 years' experience writing for people of all ages, across all manner of media. Previously a classroom science, English and art teacher for kids K-12, Lynn has created, developed and written projects for Chronicle, Workman, National Geographic, Scholastic, Random House, Penguin, A&E, The Discovery Channel, Disney, ABC TV, NBC, NPR, The Annenburg Foundation, World Almanac, Cranium and PBS.

She's an award-winning author of over 50 titles, including Haiku EW!, illustrated by Julia Patton (2024), Turn This Book into a Beehive , illustrated by Anna-Maria Jung (2018) , Big Science for Little People: 52 Activities to Help You & Your Child Discover the Wonders of Science (2017), Mama Gone Geek (2014). Camp Out! (2007), Mama's Little Book of Tricks, illustrated by Jessie Eckel (2007) and Pop Bottle Science (2004).

Jason Chin is an author and illustrator of many acclaimed books. He received the 2022 Caldecott Medal for Watercress , by Andrea Wang and a Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus award for Grand Canyon . While researching his books, he's gone swimming with sharks, explored lava fields and camped with scorpions at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Jason loves making art, learning about science, and getting outside to hike, bike, ski and explore.

Jason grew up in a small town in New Hampshire that happened to be home to Caldecott medalist, Trina Schart Hyman. Hyman presented regularly at his elementary school, and they met when he was a teenager. She became his mentor and guided him as he pursued a career in the arts. Jason studied art at Syracuse University and began his illustration career while living in New York City. In 2009 he published Redwoods , his first book as both author and illustrator. Since then, he has written and illustrated numerous award-winning books that combine his passion for nature, science and art. Jason now lives with his family in Vermont.

He's the author/illustrator of 7 books, including The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey (2022), Island: A Story of the Galápagos (2021), Your Place in the Universe (2020), Grand Canyon (2017), Coral Reefs (2011), and Redwoods (2009). And the illustrator of 10 books, including Watercress by Andrea Wang (2021), Nine Months: Before a Baby Is Born by Miranda Paul (2019), Pie Is for Sharing by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard (2018), and Water Is Water: A Book About the Water Cycle by Miranda Paul (2015).

Their newest picture book, Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall , was released on June 4th.

LYNN - E.B White was my first favorite author. My parents read to me. I loved Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little , of course, but even as a kid I really connected with his essays about living and working in New York and Maine. I loved the whole All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot as well as Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I couldn't get enough of Misty, of Chincoteague by Margurite Henry. As far as picture books, I really loved Robert McClosky's Time of Wonder and Blueberries for Sal. Lyle, Lyle Crocodile by Bernard Waber and anything by Leo Lionni.

There are so many great books on these lists! Lynn, what was the inspiration for Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall?

Thank you so much for sharing the book's back story. Jason, what about the Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall manuscript appealed to you as an illustrator?

A still lake and the Galapagos sound like divine places to write and sketch. Lynn, what was the toughest part of writing Life After Whale? How long did it take from the first draft to publication ?

It's so frustrating to reconcile sources sometimes. Jason, as both an author/illustrator (one of my favorites being Grand Canyon ) and illustrator of both picture books and middle grade books, do you prefer either format? What's the hardest part about just being the illustrator of picture books?

JASON - As author and illustrator, the main challenge is in the amount of work involved. It typically takes me a year and a half to write and illustrate a book. When I'm illustrating a book written by another author, the volume of work is reduced, and the challenge is to become deeply engaged in the material. Life After Whale was a joy to work on because the text was so engaging. It was easy to get obsessed with blue whales and whale falls.

Interesting. What's something you both want your readers to know about Life After Whale?

JASON - I like the spread of the living whale on pages 10-11 (the text begins "She is a blue whale..."). The light on her back was particularly challenging and I'm happy with how it came out. I also like how the tail recedes into the blue making the whale look especially long.

I like this picture too and the wonderfully illustrated size comparison. Jason, many illustrators leave treasures or weave their own story (or elements) throughout the illustrations. Did you do this in Life After Whale? If so, c ould you share one or more with us?

Review of Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall

Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall

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The Picture Book Buzz - Interview w/Lynn Brunelle, Jason Chin, Review of Life After Whale

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Interview the dynamic duo of Lynn Brunelle and Jason Chin about their stunning nonfiction picture book Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall.

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To what a living world Will demand of you." -Octavia E. Butler
When a whale dies, its massive body sinks. This colossal creature-an enormous, graceful mammoth of the sea-tumbles, sways, and ultimately free-falls to the ocean floor. The whale's descent, spanning the vast gulf between the surface and the abyss, is a kind of miracle, bridging two worlds: the illuminated surface and the shadowy underworld.

There is so much we don't know about the deep ocean, but what we do know is astonishing. The ocean's deepest point extends approximately 36,000 feet below the surface. Beyond 600 feet, light no longer penetrates, making photosynthesis impossible, yet 98% of marine life resides on or near the sea floor. Life at these depths depends almost entirely on "marine snow"-organic matter drifting down from the ocean's upper layers.

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In Death, New Life: The Science And Symbolism of a Whale Fall | Atmos

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When a whale dies, its body creates a new mini ecosystem on the ocean floor-a process full of biological and poetic lessons for those willing to learn them.

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Life after death - Whale and Dolphin Conservation

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When whales die at sea their bodies sink to the ocean floor locking away more carbon every year than half a million trees.

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The first thing one notices about Britta Teckentrup's latest book The Swing (Prestel Publishing) is the object itself; it is much longer than traditional formats (160 pages) and a much smaller size too (a square, 22 centimetres, give or take). The size in itself promises a different kind of reading experience, and this continues as the reader opens the book.
The unusual, non-linear, narrative focuses on a swing, situated on a hill overlooking the sea and explores many of our deepest human connections: friendship, love, loss and the creation of memories. The page layouts mirror the lack of linearity, alternating between different formats; this includes full-bleed double spreads, vignettes, and different placements of the text, and sometimes no text at all. This allows this long narrative to remain fluid, while in a way also mimicking the differing speed and movement of the swing itself. Teckentrup's signature artistic style and palette choices always communicate so much in terms of emotion, and this latest tome is no exception; it radiates from the page.
Throughout the book, the swing remains a constant, passive, silent witness while time, seasons, weather, relationships and emotional connections evolve and revolve around it. "The swing had always been there", like a transcendent presence preceding us and also outliving us. It is a deeply profound, quietly reflective book and I was curious to find out more about how its theme but also its form had come to life. I was delighted Britta agreed to answer few questions about it.

Hi Britta, Many thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions about The Swing; I wanted to start with asking about how you came to create this book? What was the inspiration for it?

The inspiration came when I looked at old photographs of the swing in my grandmother's garden - my childhood swing. I also drive past the playground, where I played when I was a child, every time I visit my parents in my old home town. I started to develop an eye for swings and spotted old and new ones in the most unusual places. Some of the places felt haunted - especially the abandoned swings - places full of stories and memories. I started a series of artworks based on swings and the seed for a book, where a swing would take centre stage, was planted: a book about life, memories and the passage of time

There is not an obvious linear storyline in the book, though there are links between some of the characters; how did you decide the order in which each story would appear?

It was a lot of trial and error and the structure of the book went through many different stages. I wanted to keep the stories in the book as fleeting as the characters who visited the swing. I t was quite difficult to find the right flow and I rearranged the pictures and the stories in the book many times and I ended up losing quite a few of the characters and adding new ones to make it all work. I knew that I wanted to start and end the book with almost the same sentence, but in a different tense - past and present. I also knew that I wanted the swing to be abandoned and overgrown at some stage and to be able to give it a new lease of life. Everything else just kind of happened as I went along ...
I used the seasons and wordless spreads to help with the flow of the book and to give it some breathing spaces between the different characters. I also made sure that every sad story was followed by an uplifting one. Peter is probably the most important character for the structure of the book as he returns to the swing after many years and brings change.

I love how each double-spread has a different layout; it emulates the movement of the swing in a way - a succession of panels to pick up speed, a full bleed illustration to slow the narrative down and what I particularly love are all the little details spilling out of frames. How do you decide the design for each page, and did the length of the book impact the layout?

The length of the book gave me the freedom to experiment with many different layouts, which was wonderful. The layouts almost reflect the way life can feel - fast, slow, quiet, loud, big, joyous etc. I also like how the square frames can't contain the details - it is almost as if life spills out of the pages ...
You have published books with several publishers, some of which are British and some of which, like Prestel, are German. How do the experiences differ? Do you think there is more freedom, or maybe open-mindedness, in what picturebook makers can create in Germany (and maybe Europe more generally)? I am thinking for example about the format and length of The Swing, but also its themes.
There is such a variety of publishers with different target groups in every country that I find it quite hard to generalise and compare 😉
When I moved to Germany, I picked two very 'arty' publishing houses so I can only speak for those two publishers - Prestel and Jacoby & Stuart. (There are plenty of publishing houses in Germany that are not quite so open-minded ...). Prestel is a publisher of children's books as well as art books - which fits my background perfectly. (Jacoby & Stuart publish books for children and adults, graphic novels etc.)
I am usually given the freedom to choose the format, come up with the design & typography and the amount of pages, which to me is the perfect way to create a book. Both publishers support me in creating books that reach adults and children alike.

Is there an illustration or story you favour in the book?
Probably the story of Peter or the sequence where the swing stands in the middle of the sea? My favourite illustration is either the two girl exchanging secrets: "The swing was a place to share secrets", or "On some November days the sea completely disappeared."
Finally, can you tell us more about some of your forthcoming projects?
There are quite a few forthcoming projects with various publishers. The next book for Prestel will be another book about emotions - a follow up to When I See Red, which was a book about anger and rage. The new book will be my take on courage and fear.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions, Britta.
The Swing is published by Prestel Publishing and is available now to buy from all good bookshops or can be purchased via our partner bookshop, Storytellers, Inc.:

Britta's next title with Prestel, I'm Not Scared, a second adventure in the Big Hedgehog and Little Hedgehog series, comes out on 9th May.

All images © Britta Teckentrup

Source: review copy from publisher

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The Story behind the art: "The Swing" by Britta Teckentrup

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The first thing one notices about Britta Teckentrup's latest book The Swing (Prestel Publishing) is the object itself; it is much longer than traditional formats (160 pages) and a much smalle...

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The Swing｜ Britta Teckentrup 【Picture book reading with music】

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Britta Teckentrup - Illustration & Fine Art

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"上盐湖"  鲍尔吉 原野

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"上盐湖"  鲍尔吉 原野

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新京报 编辑 张婷 王铭博

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死亡和凋亡不应是儿童文学的“禁区”

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作为儿童文学作品，鲍尔吉·原野的《上盐湖》选择以“死亡”为路径，去讲述“如何生长”。

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Big ideas: joy, meaning, success, gratitude

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Big ideas: joy, meaning, success, gratitude

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Example questions: What makes life good? Does having more always mean being happier?

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What makes life good? Does having more always mean being happier?

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Big ideas: rules, equality, rights, punishment, forgiveness

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Big ideas: rules, equality, rights, punishment, forgiveness

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Example questions: What does it mean to be fair? Should rules always be followed?

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Big ideas: trust, loyalty, empathy, caring for others

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Big ideas: trust, loyalty, empathy, caring for others

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Example questions: What makes a good friend? Can you love someone different from you?

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Big ideas: morality, intentions vs actions, kindness, selfishness

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Big ideas: morality, intentions vs actions, kindness, selfishness

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Example questions: What makes something good or bad? Can a bad person do good things?

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Big ideas: reality vs imagination, how we know things, lies vs truth

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Big ideas: reality vs imagination, how we know things, lies vs truth

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Example questions: How do I know what’s real? Is it ever okay to lie?

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Big ideas: choice, free will, consequences

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Big ideas: choice, free will, consequences

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Example questions: Why do we have to follow rules? Are we free to do anything we want?

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Big ideas: growing up, impermanence, memory, history

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Big ideas: growing up, impermanence, memory, history

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Example questions: Why can’t we go back in time? Does change make us better?

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Big ideas: our place in the natural world, respect for animals, stewardship

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Big ideas: our place in the natural world, respect for animals, stewardship

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Example questions: Do animals have rights? Should we always take what we want from nature?