The Movie-Tie-In edition of The Wild Robot next to the original edition

My love of animation is what first made me want to go to art school. I grew up watching classic Disney animation and going to animation festivals and pouring over the pages of books about the making of animated movies. In college I studied storyboarding and character design, and I even went on to paint backgrounds on an animated TV show on The Cartoon Network. So to see one of my books come to life as a feature animated film is a dream come true.

The director of The Wild Robot movie is Chris Sanders, who co-directed the How To Train Your Dragon movies and Lil0 & Stitch, among others. He also co-wrote the Disney movies Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, among others. Those are some of the best animated movies to come out in my lifetime, so I knew that Roz and Brightbill and all their friends were in very good hands. I had many meetings with Chris and his producer, Jeff Hermann, over the course of the filmmaking process, and I got inside look at the gorgeous artwork that went into making the movie.

As with all book-to-movie adaptions, some changes were made to the story. But the filmmakers kept the big important themes, characters, and details, and I am so proud of my friends at DreamWorks for creating a beautiful and emotional animated movie.

Voice Cast

Lupita Nyong’o as Roz the wild robot
Pedro Pascal as Fink the fox
Kit Connor as Brightbill the goose
Catherine O’Hara as Pinktail the opossum
Bill Nighy as Longneck the goose
Stephanie Hsu as Vontra the robot
Matt Berry as Paddler the beaver
Mark Hamill as Thorn the bear
Ving Rhames as Thunderbolt the hawk

Here’s a link to view the first movie trailer.

And here’s a link to the official website: www.thewildrobotmovie.com

The post The Wild Robot MOVIE! appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

One day, when I was five years old, I went into my parents’ bedroom and began looking through my mother’s makeup. I loved my mom, and I loved making art, so it was only natural that I was curious about the “paint” she put on her face.  I didn’t know what to do with makeup, of course, and when my mother found me, her makeup was smeared across my cheek.

My mom’s reaction was simple, but amazing. She just smiled, cleaned my cheek, and then she showed me how to put on makeup. We had a terrific time trying on makeup, together.

Isn’t that wonderful? I love that I felt free to explore and experiment. I love that my mom joined me and encouraged my curiosity. That might be my favorite childhood memory, and I wanted to tell a version of that story in a picture book.

At first, I thought I’d simply retell the actual story of what happened with my mom, but as I worked through my ideas, the story changed in several important ways. To begin with, I decided not to name the main character after me. Giving him a different name helped me let go of my real-life experience so the story could develop in its own, natural way. After considering many names for the boy in my story, I finally settled on Fred. It’s a good name. It’s friendly and familiar, and I love the quick, punchy rhythm of Fred Gets Dressed. It’s the perfect title for this book, and it’s fun to say, which is a nice bonus.

When making picture books, I find that the art comes more easily once I’ve figured out the design of my main character. So, early on, I began experimenting with different drawing styles and designs for Fred. I thought about Fred’s age and personality, and about the tone I wanted to set for this story, and he gradually came to life.

Early experimental sketches for Fred

I already mentioned the time I put on my mom’s makeup, but on other occasions I played with her jewelry, tried walking in her high-heeled shoes, and explored her colorful clothing. I combined all of those moments into Fred’s story, and we see him looking through his parents’ closet, and then dressing up in his mom’s blouse, scarf, shoes, jewelry, and makeup. Fred is smaller than his mom, of course, so her blouse fits him like a dress. And just as I did, Fred accidentally smears makeup across his cheek.

Early sketch from Fred Gets Dressed

Since the story is about Fred getting dressed, it made sense for him to start off undressed. Fred spends the first part of the story au naturel, but I made sure to always pose him in such a way that we never see his private parts. Scenes of a boy gleefully romping naked through his house add a nice touch of silliness to this sweet story.

Sketches of Fred romping

Fred’s mom, with her pinkish skin and red hair, is based on my own mother. But the story isn’t only about Fred and his mom. I thought it was really important to show both of his parents supporting and encouraging him, so I included his dad in a small but significant role. Unlike my dad, Fred’s dad has dark hair and an olive skin tone. And since Fred is a combination of his parents, his skin tones include both pink and olive green.

Finished art of Fred’s parents

I wanted Fred’s home to embody the nurturing people who live in it, so I filled it with a variety of houseplants, as evidence of the family’s nurturing spirit. After all, it takes love and attention to properly care for plants. With all that love to give, Fred’s family also needed a dog. Oh, and I thought their home should have plenty of books, art, curtains, rugs, and wooden floors. Those familiar, tactile details help make Fred’s home seem like the kind of cozy place where a child would feel free to explore.

Sketch dummy page with cozy details

Fred Gets Dressed is a simple story, and I wanted the art to have simple compositions which would focus the reader’s eye on the characters. But I also wanted the art to be interesting. Simple but interesting is a tricky balance to achieve, so I started small, by making dozens of tiny thumbnail sketches depicting scenes from all around the house. Then I made bigger, more refined sketches based on my favorite thumbnails.

A page of thumbnail sketches

Another page of thumbnail sketches

Until now, my books have all been written in the past tense. But when I started writing this book in the past tense, something felt off. I really wanted readers to care about Fred, to feel connected with him, and I was ready to use every tool at my disposal to make that happen. So I tried writing in the present tense, and I quickly realized it was the perfect fit for this story. Present tense makes everything seem spontaneous. It’s almost like we’re sitting with the narrator, watching the story unfold, together. We want to see what Fred does next. He seems real, and we’re cheering him on.

Unfinished manuscript

My favorite color is pink. I usually use it as an accent color in illustrations, but I decided to feature pink more prominently in the palette of Fred Gets Dressed. I painted the illustrations digitally, using only four colors: pink, green, black and white. By overlapping those colors and changing their transparency, I was able to get a surprising variety of color and texture that creates a sense of warmth throughout the book.

Detail from the printed book

At one point I told my editor that I didn’t want this story to have any tension at all. Fred’s experience is so sweet and innocent that I just wanted him to have this moment without any problems. As it turns out, Fred never encounters any real problems, but there is a moment when readers might feel some tension. And that’s the moment when Fred’s parents first find him dressed up like his mom.

Early sketch of Fred facing his parents

Sketch dummy page

To heighten this scene, I used the book gutter to create separation between Fred and his parents. The physical distance is tangible, but is there any emotional distance? I wasn’t going to tell readers what to think, so I made this a wordless spread, and readers can only wonder what’s going on inside each of the characters. However, the characters don’t give much away because I illustrated them with no expressions or body language. This scene is like a blank canvas upon which readers can project their own feelings. Some readers might see nothing unusual here and feel no tension, whatsoever. Others might feel slightly uncomfortable with this scene. There’s no right or wrong way to feel, I just want readers to feel something. And then, when they’re ready, they can turn the page to see what happens next.

Finished spread from the printed book

I could say plenty more about Fred Gets Dressed, but I think I’ll stop here. Yes, this is a book about a boy who dresses up like his mom, but it isn’t only for boys and moms; it’s for everyone. Through her words and actions, my mother let me know that she would always love and accept me, no matter what. With Fred Gets Dressed, I simply wanted to tell a sweet, fun story that depicts the kind of unconditional love everyone deserves. My dream is that, in some small way, this story might help readers love and support the people in their lives, too. But that’s a lot to ask of a book. If Fred Gets Dressed can get readers to smile and think and feel a connection with the characters, I’ll consider it to be wildly successful.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy Fred Gets Dressed.

Fred Gets Dressed was published on May 4, 2021.

Click HERE to order Fred Gets Dressed from an independent bookstore near you.

The post The story behind Fred Gets Dressed appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

But that wasn’t the whole story. You see, from the moment I started dreaming up The Wild Robot, I was also dreaming up the sequel. It would be another survival story, only this time Roz would have to survive in civilization, with cities and humans and other robots. Well, it’s taken a while, but I’ve finally written and illustrated that sequel. If you have a few minutes I’d like to tell you about The Wild Robot Escapes.

Warning: There are a few spoilers for The Wild Robot included in this blog post.

Color sketch for the book cover

At the end of The Wild Robot, Roz is badly damaged, and she’s taken away from the island, back to the robot factory where she was made. And I picked up from there as I turned my attention to The Wild Robot Escapes. I began by simply asking myself questions:

• What happens when Roz arrives at the robot factory?
• If her body is repaired will her computer brain be affected?
• Where does she go after being refurbished?

To contrast the wilderness of the first book, I wanted Roz to now experience as much of the civilized world as possible. I wanted her to experience cities and towns and rural areas. I wanted human characters and robot characters and domestic animal characters. And there would have to be futuristic technology: computers and machines and vehicles. As I thought about the future, I asked myself more questions:

• What will our world look like in 50 or 100 years?
• How will technology change our lives?
• How will our lives stay the same?

Although the story would have elements of science fiction and fantasy, I wanted it to seem as believable as possible, so I did plenty of research. I read books and listened to audiobooks and watched documentary films and went on research trips.

I visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Robotics Department.

JPL is developing a wide variety of robotic machines. You may already know about some of them.

While I researched, I also started mapping out the story. I wrote down all my little ideas, circled the good ones, crossed out the bad ones, and drew arrows from one idea to the next as I imagined the sequence of events. I worked chronologically, writing notes about the first scene, and then the next, and the next, all the way to the end. I did this over and over, and with each story map the plot became a little clearer in my mind.

So. Many. Story maps.

At this early stage, my editor, Alvina Ling, acted mostly as a sounding board. We’d meet for coffee, I’d explain my vision for the story, and she’d share her expert opinions. Then I’d scuttle away to continue working on my own.

Once I felt good about the overall story arc I switched gears and focused on developing the finer details of the characters and the settings. I decided to set part of the story on a farm, so I researched anything related to farming.

A few of the books I read during my research

I studied the history of farming, and new ways of farming, and how technology will change farming in the future. I visited a corn farm in Nebraska, a small family-run farm in Maine, a research farm in Pennsylvania, and a dairy farm near the Hudson River.

There are many different kinds of farms

Food scientists are already creating meat, eggs and dairy in laboratories, without any animals at all. And some scientists predict all animal-based foods will be artificial in the future. But I’m not so sure. In the future, I don’t think there will be fewer kinds of food, I think there will be all kinds of food: real eggs and artificial eggs, vegetables grown in gardens and in greenhouses and in hydroponic facilities, milk from cows and sheep and goats and laboratories, and food produced with technology that hasn’t been invented yet. I think there will be infinite kinds of farms making infinite kinds of foods. And I thought long and hard about the kind of farm, and the kinds of farmers, I wanted to include in this story.

The questions kept coming.

• If farm animals could talk, what would they say?
• How might farms be improved in the future?
• Can an animal farm ever be truly humane?

Some of my farm questions were uncomfortable, but they were important. I would have to handle these subjects very delicately, indeed.

The outline had 90 plot points, and I developed each one into its own chapter, so the book has 90 short chapters

Once I had a detailed outline of the plot, it was time to write. The first few chapters flowed pretty smoothly. But the further I went, the clearer it became that the plot wasn’t as solid as I’d thought. Certain scenes didn’t make sense. There were too many characters. I needed to simplify the entire story arc. I spent countless hours researching and writing chapters that took place in a zoo, only to decide later that the zoo chapters were problematic, and I got rid of them all. I agonized over the names of each new character, trying to include a variety of names, renaming characters again and again, searching for the perfect name for each one.

Progress was slow, but after months of writing and revising, I had finally typed up a decent draft of the manuscript, which I emailed to my editor. She read it over and made all kinds of edits: she might correct bad grammar or point out clunky sentences. She might ask me to rename a character or rewrite bits of dialogue. She might suggest I delete a word or a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter. I carefully reviewed all of her notes, and then revised the text accordingly.

The manuscript became filled with notes from me and edits from my editor

If I wasn’t working on the text I was working on the art. I made pages and pages of small thumbnail sketches as I decided which scenes to illustrate. Those thumbnails were used as the basis for tighter sketches, which I drew using a computer program called Photoshop. I emailed my sketches to the Creative Director, Dave Caplan, and he and my editor gave me notes on how the sketches might be improved. When the sketches were finalized, Dave began assembling everything into one master file, so we could get an idea of how the finished book would look.

Thumbnail sketches

Finished sketch

The designer started building this file, with the sketches and the latest version of the text, and we got a feel for how the finished book would look

Originally, The Wild Robot Escapes was supposed to be published in October of 2017. But the book was developing at its own slow pace. The research, the story mapping, the writing, the revising, the sketching and illustrating, none of it was going as quickly as I’d hoped. My publisher, Little, Brown & Company, gave me as much time as they possibly could, but there comes a point when books simply cannot be printed and distributed to stores in time to meet the publication date. That deadline was ticking closer and closer. I was obsessed with getting the story right, but things just weren’t falling into place fast enough. All I did was work. I was stressed out and losing sleep and of course my work suffered. Finally, I had to admit to myself, and to my publisher, and to my readers, that I couldn’t complete the book on time. The book would have to be delayed. It felt like I had failed. But I’d rather be late and get the story right than be on time and get the story wrong. We moved the pub date back six months, and I needed all of that time to get the story right.

One big reason why this book took so long has to do with my writing style. Let me explain…

The Wild Robot involves familiar, natural things, like geese. Most readers can imagine what a goose looks like, so I didn’t have to spend much energy describing the goose characters. Nor did I have to describe trees or clouds or ponds. Even my description of Roz was minimal. This freed me up to streamline the text and to concentrate on moving the story forward. That simple writing style worked well, and I wanted to maintain it in the sequel. However, the sequel didn’t take place in a familiar, natural setting, it took place in an unfamiliar, futuristic setting. Drones, airships, driverless cars, the inner-workings of a robot, I had to write about all those technical things, and more, in a way that would be easily understood by a young reader. And it took a long time to get everything right.

The very unfinished ARCs

Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) are the early, unfinished copies of a book that publishers send out to reviewers. In the case of The Wild Robot Escapes, the ARCs were very unfinished. I spent another 6 months frantically reworking the text and the art AFTER the ARCs were printed. I was disappointed that book reviewers would be reviewing such an unfinished version of the story, but I couldn’t waste energy worrying; I still had a ton of work to do. Incidentally, if YOU got your hands on an ARC, I hope you’ll also read the finished book…it is so much better.

The First Pass Pages with my handwritten changes

The publisher sent me the First Pass Pages, which are paper printouts of the story, with the words and art in place. From that point on, all text changes were to be made by marking up those hardcopies with pencil. And I made many, many changes. I revised words and sentences and paragraphs and chapters. Characters were renamed. A new chapter was added. Other chapters may have been deleted or rearranged…it’s all a blur at this point. I read the entire story aloud, over and over; revising the text as I went, making sure each sentence flowed into the next. The text improved with each pass, but it was never quite good enough. I stayed up late and woke up early and spent all day, everyday, trying to get the entire text to feel right, all 35,000 words.

When my sketches were approved I began work on the final illustrations. My illustration technique involves painting simple shapes with black ink on paper, drawing certain details with pencil, scanning those paintings and drawings into my computer, and layering them over top of each other. You might call my technique a “digital collage.” Many parts of the process are tedious and time-consuming, and there was no time to lose, so I hired an art assistant to help me speed things up.

Final illustration

Eventually, the sketches were replaced with the final illustrations, and we got an even better idea of how the finished book would look

The First Pass Pages bounced from me to the editor to the copyeditor. They’d make corrections, and add my handwritten changes to the manuscript, then I’d receive a clean, updated printout, and I immediately went about making more changes with pencil. Then I’d send the marked up pages back to my editor. Around and around went those pages. The months flew by, and there was that next deadline, ticking closer and closer. Once again, I was stressed out and losing sleep and my work suffered. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally polished off the text and the illustrations, and I sent them off, into the depths of the publishing company, where they worked their way through various departments: editorial, design, copyediting, production. When everyone had done their part, the master file went to the printing press, where the actual, physical books were printed. And a month later, I received my first copy of the finished book.

Amazingly, it all came together

The Wild Robot Escapes is the story of a robot torn between two worlds. Roz was designed for her new life. She was designed to work alongside humans and robots and to live in the civilized world. But her computer brain is filled with perfect memories of her old life on the island. She grows to care about the new characters she meets, but she misses her old friends and her son and her home. And so our robot must discover for herself where she truly belongs.

My books have all presented their own challenges, but no book has challenged me quite like this one. I had to develop a futuristic world, filled with futuristic technology and characters and settings; I had to make sure everything was believable and that the science made sense; I had to tell a story that readers could relate to, that was exciting and warm and honest, and use language that flowed when read aloud. There were so many considerations that it seemed like I’d never make it all work. But I just kept going. I gave this sequel absolutely everything I had, and I did so because of you, my readers. Your response to The Wild Robot was so incredible that I was determined to make this sequel meet your expectations. I hope with all my heart that I succeeded. I hope you enjoy The Wild Robot Escapes.

As always, I encourage everyone to buy books from independent bookstores. Because, if we only buy books online, then bookstores will disappear, and I’d hate to live in a world without bookstores.

The post The Wild Robot Escapes…FINALLY! appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

What I love most about writing children’s novels is how it forces me to focus on what’s truly important to the story. I don’t want to bore young readers with unnecessary details. And so, when in doubt, I keep the story simple. This approach worked pretty well in The Wild Robot. The story takes place on one island, with a limited cast of main characters, and involves familiar things like geese and forests and ponds, and of course, robots.

It was important to me that I maintain that simple writing style in the sequel. However, the sequel takes place in a much bigger and more complicated world. The Wild Robot is about Roz learning to survive on one island. The Wild Robot Escapes is about Roz learning to survive in civilization, with humans and robots and technology and industry, in rural and suburban and urban settings. It’s complicated stuff, and I’m trying to simplify it for readers of all ages, and it’s taking longer than expected.

This is my long, rambling way of announcing that I need more time to write and illustrate The Wild Robot Escapes, and we’ve decided to move the publication date. Instead of coming out on October 3, 2017, it will now be published on March 13, 2018. I’m sorry to make you wait longer, but I’d much rather have the book be late and get it right, than be on time and get it wrong. So I hope you’ll stay tuned for more announcements, and I really hope you’ll check out The Wild Robot Escapes next spring. I promise it’ll be worth the wait.

The post The Wild Robot will escape…next Spring! appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

Back in 2008, while working on a picture book called The Curious Garden, I spent a lot of time making sketches like this-

I loved imagining scenes of nature living in surprising places. And that got me thinking about scenes of unnatural things living in surprising places, and I made a few sketches like this-

I was really intrigued by the image of a robot in a tree, and a question suddenly popped into my mind: What would an intelligent robot do in the wilderness?

I had to get back to work on The Curious Garden, but that question never left my mind. In my free time I scribbled notes about a robot in the wild. I drew more pictures of robots in trees. I’d always enjoyed reading science fiction, but now I was studying science fiction-

Some of the sci-fi/fantasy books that inspired me

Most people don’t know that the word “robot” comes from a 1920’s science fiction play by Karel Čapek. The play is called R.U.R., which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots. Karel Čapek (with a little help from his brother) invented the word “robot.” But he also invented one of the most familiar tropes of science fiction. In R.U.R., robots realize they don’t need their human masters, so they rise up and destroy all of humanity. And sci-fi writers have been telling variations of that story ever since.

However, I wanted to tell a different kind of robot story. I wanted to tell the story of a robot who finds harmony in the last place you’d expect. I wanted to tell a robot nature story.

Some of the non-fiction books that inspired me

The years rolled by. I finished The Curious Garden, and went on to write and illustrate several more picture books. And all the while I was quietly tinkering with my robot nature story and studying everything from artificial intelligence to animal behavior to outstanding children’s novels.

Some of the novels that inspired me

In 2012, after years of studying and thinking, I returned to the question that started this whole process: What would an intelligent robot do in the wilderness? To answer that question, I invented a robot character named Rozzum (a subtle nod to Čapek’s play), and tried to imagine how she’d handle life in the wilderness.

Robots can take almost any shape and so I considered different designs and capabilities and purposes for Roz. She had to be strong and intelligent, but not too strong and not too intelligent. If readers were ever going to relate to a robot she would have to be vulnerable, not invincible. And it might help if she were humanoid—that is, if she had arms and legs and a head—so readers could imagine themselves in her shoes. Most important, she had to be able to learn.

And then there was the issue of Roz’s gender.

Some famous gendered robot characters

We all know that real robots are neither male nor female. But the gender issue gets complicated when dealing with robot characters. Authors and filmmakers and playwrights almost always have to choose a pronoun (he, she, it) for each character, and by doing so they’re committing to a gender, or lack thereof, for each character. At first, I assumed “it” would be the appropriate pronoun for Roz. But I had trouble caring about her when she was an “it.” So I considered using a gender-neutral pronoun, like “ze,” or inventing a pronoun just for my robot characters, like “re,” but the story was challenging enough without having to explain invented grammar. Like so many science fiction authors before me, I decided to choose a gender-specific pronoun for my robot character. I looked closely at Roz’s personality and the way others saw her and I decided she would be female.

Early Wild Robot sketches

For this to truly be a “robot nature story” Roz would need to encounter a wide variety of natural elements. And the story would have to take place in the future to explain the existence of intelligent robots. I imagined how the wilderness might look in a few hundred years, and two things occurred to me: 1) because of climate change and rising sea levels, animals from far and wide might eventually be forced together as they all seek higher ground, and 2) some of that higher ground might become completely surrounded by water, forming new islands. With that in mind, I set the story far in the future, on a rugged northern island that was formed by rising seas, and that had a diverse array of weather and flora and fauna.

Once I’d settled on Roz’s design and a setting for her story, I began working on the plot. I started with the same exercise I use for my picture books: story mapping.

So many story maps…

I spent a year mapping all the possible directions for the story. There was so much to consider! How might a robot become wild? Do robots have anything in common with wildlife? What kinds of lessons could Roz learn from a tree, or a storm, or an opossum? And why is Roz on an island in the first place?

After I’d mapped and plotted absolutely everything it was finally time to write. But I was nervous. So I procrastinated by making myself some writing rules:

• You’re not a poet, just tell the story plainly
• Keep Roz mysterious by writing in the 3^rd person
• Make the chapters as short as possible
• Write with symmetry and repetition, to mirror robots and nature
• Give the narrator a conversational voice, especially during slow scenes
• Understand the motivation behind each of Roz’s actions

With my writing rules and my story maps and my research and my notes and my sketches in tow, I drove out to a cabin in the woods, brewed a pot of coffee, and opened my laptop. There was nothing left to do but write.

I began typing. I was no longer looking at the story with binoculars, but with a microscope. Up close, I realized just how hard it is to find the right words. But I tried not to self-edit and I let the words flow.

I used a program called Scrivener to write the story. It’s great for organizing notes and research and chapters.

I spent over a year cobbling together my first draft of The Wild Robot. It was rough. Very rough. But Little, Brown & Company liked it enough to sign it up and in July of 2014 it became official: my robot nature story would be published! There was just one problem…I didn’t know how to finish it.

Luckily, the wonderful Alvina Ling was on my side. My old friend and editor gave me her notes and I got back to writing. Over the following year-and-a-half I rewrote the entire story. Repeatedly. In the first draft, Roz was a soldier who arrived on the island via plane crash. But many of my early ideas presented serious logistical problems and I routinely went back to the drawing board. I did more research. I resumed story mapping. I lost all confidence. Things were moving in the wrong direction.

But I kept going. I simplified everything. The plot, the characters, the writing all became simpler, and they gradually started fitting together like puzzle pieces. The story grew more metaphorical and philosophical. The Wild Robot was feeling less like science fiction and more like a fable.

Dave Caplan is the creative director who worked with me on the book’s design. Together, we made decisions about the jacket art and the case cover, chose paper stock and typefaces, and planned the placement of each illustration.

Dave dropped my sketches into place so we could get a sense of how the words and pictures would work together

Most authors have very little control over the appearance of their books. But as an author and illustrator, I worked on every aspect of my book’s appearance.

I made dozens of sketches before I figured out the cover design

I hand-lettered the front cover, spine, and title page

One day, Alvina informed me it was almost time to print the Advanced Reader Copies of The Wild Robot, so I should polish the text and complete the cover art and as much interior art as possible. ARCs are the early, unfinished copies of a book that publishers give to booksellers and reviewers to drum up excitement before publication. I wanted the ARCs to make a great first impression, but there was only so much I could do in the time allowed. I sent in the final cover art, a few rough sketches, and the best draft I could muster. The ARCs were printed in July 2015, but I wouldn’t finish the words and pictures for another six months.

A pile of ARCs

I had mixed feelings when the ARCs arrived. It was exciting to see The Wild Robot in physical form, but I knew the finished book would be very different. Oh well. My publisher sent out the ARCs and responses started rolling in. The Wild Robot received its first official review in November 2015, two months before I finished working on it. Miraculously, it was a starred review.

I rewrote entire chapters.

I changed character names.

I obsessively examined every word.

Eventually, I switched from Scrivener to MS Word so my editor could easily comment on the manuscript

When I wasn’t furiously typing, I was furiously sketching.

Final sketches were made in Photoshop

It was now time for the “First Pass Pages.” Alvina explained that we’d reached the home stretch, and going forward, all text changes should be minor and would be made by marking up printouts with a pencil. This seemed a little archaic, but it’s easier for everyone to keep track of changes if they’re all in one physical document. So they sent me the pages, I marked them up, the copyeditor reviewed my changes, and the designer updated the master file.

The Pass pages got pretty messy

The last six months of the process were chaotic. My social life and sleeping habits went straight down the drain as I frantically reworked the text and frantically created the final art. I didn’t want the illustrations to tell the whole story, just to set the tone, so I tried to keep them simple and moody. Simple or not, I had sixty-five illustrations to create, which was daunting. It seemed like this project would never end.

A few final interior illustrations

Dave dropped final illustrations into the book file, and the file was eventually sent to the printer

Dave and the production team reviewed proofs of the jacket and some of the interior art, and then worked with the printer to ensure that the final books would look just right.

The 2nd proof of the jacket

We took the extra step of proofing the art on the actual paper stock that would be used in the book

And then things took a tragic turn. On December 25 Alvina’s husband lost his long battle with cancer. His passing devastated everyone. Alvina immediately took a leave of absence. Suddenly, the book I’d been obsessing over seemed meaningless. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball. But my publisher needed me to finish this book, once-and-for-all. At the end of a marathon project, I crawled across the finish line.

On January 12, 2016, I sent off the very last revisions. Years of studying and thinking and mapping and sketching and typing and illustrating and revising had finally come to an end. My work on The Wild Robot was over.

A month later, this showed up.

My first finished copy of The Wild Robot

            The Wild Robot is the story of Rozzum unit 7134, a robot who wakes up for the very first time to find that she’s alone on a remote, wild island. Roz doesn’t know how she got there, or where she came from: she only knows that she wants to stay alive. And by robotically studying her environment she learns everything she needs to know. She learns how to move through the wilderness, how to avoid danger, she even learns how to communicate with the animals. But the most important lesson Roz learns is that kindness can be a survival skill. And she uses kindness to develop friends and a family and a peaceful life for herself. Until her mysterious past catches up with her.

It took eight years, but I finally found an answer to the question that led me down this path. What would an intelligent robot do in the wilderness? She’d make the wilderness her home.

The Wild Robot is now available wherever books are sold. As always, I encourage everyone to buy books from Indie Bookstores for reasons I explain in this Blog Post.

The post The Wild Robot lives! appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

I really love teachers. My mom and aunt and grandmother were teachers. Many of my friends are teachers. And I’ve had dozens of truly remarkable teachers throughout my life. So it might seem strange that I’d celebrate teachers with a children’s book about a monster teacher. But that’s what I did. Let me explain.

One of the best things that ever happened to me was a surprising act of kindness, from a primary school teacher who I thought was a monster. I was a sensitive little kid at the time, and my teacher was strict, and humorless, and tougher than anyone I’d ever known. I was convinced she didn’t like me, and I was stuck with her for an entire school year.

But then one day my teacher became very interested in one of the drawings I’d made in class. The drawing was of a country road lined with telephone poles, all of which got smaller and smaller as they faded toward the distant horizon. My teacher was especially interested in the fact that I’d drawn the scene in one-point-perspective. I’d never even heard of one-point-perspective, I just drew the scene as I imagined it. But my teacher was so impressed that she immediately took my drawing to the art teacher and the principal, and insisted that I be placed in our school’s advanced art program. Thanks to my “monster” teacher I began taking advanced art classes, taught by a high school art teacher, surrounded by other young art students. And just like that, I felt like a real artist.

The timing could not have been better. You see, that was the year my parents split up. It was a complicated situation. But when life was tough I had my art to keep me company. The self-confidence I gained from feeling like a real artist was invaluable during those years. And I might not have developed my artistic skills, or a sense of confidence, if not for my monster teacher.

Here’s one of the earliest sketches I made for this book. Ms. Kirby looked very different back then. And the art was similar to that in my book Children Make Terrible Pets.

I can recall plenty of purely wonderful teachers from my childhood. I could have easily created a sweet story about a wonderful teacher doing wonderful things. But I wanted to challenge my readers’ idea of what it means to be a teacher. I thought a story about a difficult teacher and a difficult student working through their differences would be more surprising and funny and honest, and would better reflect the unexpected little life lessons that often happen between teachers and students.

I had fun imagining Bobby and Ms. Kirby interacting in the park. And I tried to think of what might get them to let their guards down.

I tried to come up with a natural series of events, that would lead Bobby and Ms. Kirby to see each other in a different light.

I needed to make sure my story ideas were on target, so I started asking people about their own experiences in school. I asked teachers how they handle difficult children. I asked children how they handle difficult teachers. I asked my friends about their experiences in primary school. People had a lot to say. And their words helped me refine my ideas.

The story I decided to tell is about a gruff teacher named Ms. Kirby, and a sensitive kid named Bobby. We see the whole story from Bobby’s point of view. In the beginning, he imagines Ms. Kirby to look like a monster, so we see her as a monster. But then Bobby bumps into Ms. Kirby in the park, and the shock of seeing her outside of school helps him realize that she’s not just a teacher, she’s a person. And just as my teacher seemed less like a monster after helping me, Bobby’s teacher looks less like a monster as he slowly learns that she isn’t so bad.

I loved how Bobby and Ms. Kirby were so awkward when they first saw each other in the park. But I needed to rethink Ms. Kirby’s facial expression.

In this sketch Ms. Kirby’s facial expression tells us that she just wants to be left alone. And her big, goofy hat reinforces the idea that she has a life outside of school.

I didn’t like this first experiment with the final art, and I decided to rethink how I was doing things.

I began simplifying the color and design.

I ended up with a clean, simple art style, which helped me focus on the delicate details of the story.

It’s a tricky operation, creating a story about a little kid and a monster teacher. I wanted both of my characters to be flawed but likeable. I took inspiration from a thousand different experiences. The words went through countless revisions, and the art has changed considerably over time. But after tinkering with my ideas for several years they finally turned into a visual story I thought my readers might appreciate.

And now the book is finished. It’s entitled My Teacher Is a Monster! (No, I Am Not.). I hope you enjoy.

NOTE: Happily, the feud between Amazon and my publisher is over. However, I’d still encourage you to buy my books from an independent bookseller by clicking the Indiebound link below.

Indiebound.org

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I also love the culture of books. I love places filled with books. I love talking about books. I love the power of books. And I really love people who love books, which is why I love booksellers.

Booksellers are curious and intelligent and interesting people and they’re always finding new things to be excited about, thanks in part to all the books in their lives. They love matching the right book with the right reader. They bring authors and artists into our neighborhoods. They do story times for children.  They provide a setting to learn and grow and interact with our communities. There would be no book culture without booksellers.

(Nor would there be book culture without libraries, librarians, publishers, and readers. They are all required. But back to booksellers…)

So I’ve been confused by the bizarre negotiations between Amazon (a different kind of bookseller, but a bookseller nonetheless) and my publisher, Hachette. Things have gotten messy, and as a pressure tactic Amazon has made it difficult or impossible to buy Hachette’s books, including my books.

It actually makes me sad that Amazon, a bookseller, would be willing to hold my books hostage. I thought Amazon loved books? I thought it loved MY books? How could it hold books hostage if it loves them?

The answer, of course, is that Amazon does not love books. To Amazon, books are just a Loss Leader. Amazon loses money on books, but uses them to lure customers toward more profitable things. “Check out our mysteriously cheap books,” whispers Amazon. “And since you’re here, why not reorder some regularly priced batteries and soap?”

To sell things like batteries and soap Amazon has driven down the price of books, which is convincing people that books aren’t worth much. But that’s not true. Books change lives, and they’re beautiful objects, and they have a special place in our history and culture. Books are worth a lot.

Bookstores that can’t compete with Amazon’s artificially low prices die off. When bookstores disappear, so do booksellers and book culture.

Now Amazon is taking aim at publishers. Now Amazon is holding my books hostage.

Amazon is destroying my favorite things!

Honestly, the book industry probably needed a kick in the pants. Amazon has forced publishers and booksellers to improve efficiency, and that’s a good thing. But now Amazon is threatening the entire culture of books so it can sell more batteries and soap.

What do you think will happen if Amazon succeeds and destroys its competition? Do you think it will continue slashing prices when it’s the only bookseller left? Do you think it will continue giving us great bargains out of the kindness of its heart? Am I the only one who wants to live in a world with bookstores and book culture and a healthy publishing industry?

I love bargains as much as the next guy, but I have limits. I could not support a company that used, say, slave labor, no matter how great their bargains. (And Amazon’s working conditions aren’t much better than slave labor). Likewise, I cannot support a company that is destroying so many of my favorite things.

The truth is, our addiction to Amazon is what has empowered it to destabilize the book world. I can’t blame anyone who wants to buy inexpensive books, and when cost and convenience are of paramount importance to you, then click away…or better yet, check out free books from your local library. But before you get your next Amazon fix, take a moment to think about what else is important to you. If you care about books, if you care about culture, if you want to live in a world with bookstores, then I encourage you to wean yourself from Amazon. There are other ways to buy books online.

And to those who say this is all just part of our inevitable march toward a new culture of convenience, well, that’s not a culture I’m willing to support at the expense of all else. Instead, I choose to support the people and places and things that I love.

I’m sure Amazon will resume selling my books, eventually. But even when they do, I hope you’ll consider supporting your community and the culture of books. If you want to live in a world with bookstores, then you need to buy books from bookstores.

Click HERE to order a book from an independent bookstore.

And click HERE to pre-order my upcoming book.

This post was originally published in 2014, but is probably still as relevant as ever, today.

The post Amazon Is Destroying My Favorite Things! appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

If you’re familiar with my children’s books you’ve probably noticed that my art style changes from book to book. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1) I get bored, and so I try new things to keep it interesting.

2) I let my illustrations to do most of my storytelling. But I think certain art styles are better suited to tell certain kinds of stories. So I change my art style to better tell each particular story.

With that said I want to talk about my inspiration for my picture book Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. The initial idea for the book was a simple thought experiment: I wanted to see what would happen when an anthropomorphic animal character (that is, an animal character who walks and talks and lives very much like a human) got in touch with his true animal nature and became wild.

From The Story Of Babar

I began by studying how other authors and artists handled anthropomorphism. I read countless children’s books that involved animal characters, books like Watership Down, Animal Farm and The Story of Babar. I also studied animated films for ideas. I grew up loving classic Disney films like The Jungle Book, Robin Hood and Fantasia, films that did interesting things with anthropomorphism, and so I returned to those films in my search for inspiration. And I pored over books like The Illusion of Life, which discusses the entire Disney animation process, from initial ideas through development, production, and even post-production.

Art by Eyvind Earle, for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty

Art by Mary Blair, for Disney’s Peter Pan

Disney  artists like Eyvind Earle and Mary Blair were master illustrators. Their jobs were to design the look and feel of characters and of scenes and of entire animated films. Their modernist style led me to other mid-century illustrators such as Charley Harper, Roger Duvoisin, Leonard Weisgard, and the team of Alice and Martin Provensen (who both happened to have backgrounds in animation).

Scene from Disney’s Paul Bunyan, styled by Eyvind Earle and Walt Peregoy

Art by Mary Blair, for Disney’s Peter Pan

Art by Eyvind Earle, for Disney’s The Truth About Mother Goose

Art by Charley Harper

From The Clean Pig, by Leonard Weisgard

From The Animal Fair, by Alice and Martin Provensen

From The Fireside Book of Folk Songs, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen

From Veronica by Roger Duvoisin

I studied all of those various artists and storytellers, and many others, as I began work on my picture book.  I took notes on how my favorite authors handled animal characters, story arcs, and the relationships between words and pictures. I covered the walls of my studio with copies of my favorite illustrations from those artists, I literally surrounded myself with my favorite art, and I began to notice patterns in my taste. I found that I liked how these artists used layers of line and texture over big bold shapes of solid color. I liked how their art was high contrast and how they often used simple, unified color palettes. I might like how one artist handled plants, and how another handled texture, and how another used white space, and I tried to come up with unique ways of combining those different elements in my own art.

Slowly-but-surely my story began coming together, and slowly-but-surely my art style evolved into something new and exciting for me…a style that I thought was particularly appropriate for the story I was trying to tell.

A page from Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

A page from Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

A page from Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

All artists have outside influences (whether they realize it, or not). I’ve chosen to actively pursue influences, rather than passively wait to be influenced. Sometimes I discover new directions for my art by experimenting in my sketchbook, other times I discover new directions by analyzing how I feel about the work of other artists. In my tiger book, I think you’ll see hints of Eyvind Earl, Mary Blair, the Provensens, Charley Harper and Leonard Weisgard. You might even hear whispers of The Story of Babar, Frog and Toad, or Animal Farm. But my hope is that I’ve combined all of those different inspirations in my own unique way, to tell the story of how Mr. Tiger found his true self.

The post Mr. Tiger Gets Styled appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

I thought these ladies were being nice, but I later realized they were just trying sell me stuff!

My second favorite activity, after making children’s books, is traveling. So I was ecstatic when the United Nations International School (UNIS) in Hanoi, Vietnam, invited me to spend a week at their school as a visiting author/illustrator. But if I was going to fly all the way to Vietnam I wanted to see as much as I possibly could. So I began planning a two-week trip, where I could explore the Vietnamese culture and countryside, as well as visit the UNIS school in Hanoi.

After a painfully long flight I landed in the Hanoi airport, and immediately hopped aboard an overnight train heading north. I shared a sleeper cabin with a French couple, and a girl from Quebec. They were all very nice, and we chatted for a couple of hours before hitting the hay. But I’m a light sleeper, and falling asleep on the clanging, jostling train car proved to be impossible…

CA-CLUNK, ca-clunk! CA-CLUNK, ca-clunk! CA-CLUNK, ca-clunk!

The northern town of Sapa is seriously foggy

I woke up at the Lao Cai train station, near the border with China, and found a car to drive me an hour west, through foggy, winding roads, to the mountain town of Sapa. The town was a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns: farmer’s markets glowed green with leafy vegetables, motorbikes zigged and zagged over every paved surface, and groups of indigenous women wore their customary handmade attire and patrolled for tourists to whom they might sell embroidered bags and Technicolor scarfs.

Me and my new friend Sung hiking around waterfalls

I spent the next three days hiking and eating and taking photographs in the countryside surrounding Sapa. My days were spent with Sung, a wonderfully peaceful woman from the Black Hmong tribe, who spoke fine English thanks to years of guiding western tourists around those parts. Sung took me to waterfalls, jungles, terraced rice paddies, small villages, across precarious bridges and along muddy mountain trails.

A view into the valley by Sapa

My favorite moment with Sung had to be when she took me to a little lunch spot in the village of Lao Chai. She sat me down in the main dining area (which consisted of picnic benches under a wooden canopy) and then she disappeared into the kitchen. When I realized she was eating lunch with the cooks, I sheepishly poked my head around the corner and asked if I could join them. I guess most tourists prefer the picnic benches, but I was alone, and much preferred getting to know Sung and her friends. They pulled up a chair for me and the cook brought over some of the most delish sautéed greens I’ve ever had, along with some tasty spiced pork and rice, and a can of coke. While eating, I peppered them all with questions about their daily routines, and Sung translated. They laughed at how excited I was to hear about everyday activities like planting rice and raising buffalo. To top it all off, I sat beside a window with a view I won’t bother describing, just look at the glorious picture below.

My view from the lunch table in Lao Chai

After exploring the North for three days, I got back on that overnight train and returned to Hanoi. Once in Hanoi, I quickly found my way onto a bus that took a group of twenty of us west, to Ha Long Bay. Several hours on the bus brought us to a harbor, where our group boarded The Calypso, a worn, but pleasant boat that would take us deep into the fantastical mountain islands that have made Ha Long Bay a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Calypso was one of dozens of boats making the trip, and so a fleet of us set sail for the islands. The Calypso provided us with lovely bedrooms, and meals, and the crew even gave a nice little cooking lesson and a Tai-Chi class the next morning.

On a boat in Ha Long Bay

The crew must have noticed the date of birth on my passport when I checked in, because after dinner the main lights turned off, strobe lights turned on, Vietnamese techno blasted from the speakers, and a birthday cake appeared before me. It was ridiculous. But it was a fun night. The other guests were good sports to sing Happy Birthday to a guy they hardly knew.

While in Ha Long Bay we stopped off to see a giant cave, and some of us went sea kayaking through tunnels to explore a lagoon in the center of a ring shaped island crawling with monkeys. My imagination couldn’t get enough of the scenery, and so I found a little time for watercolor painting.

I managed to squeeze in an hour or so of watercolor time

Before I knew it we’d landed back at the harbor, and were boarding the return bus to Hanoi. I had an amazing week of traveling around northern Vietnam, but it was time to prepare myself for the United Nations International School. Check back soon to read about my week at UNIS!

Here are a few more photos from my first week in Vietnam.

This nice woman grilled me up some yummy snacks

This bridge needs railings

This was a very common scene around Sapa

These two are cooking me lunch in the kitchen

Greens and Pork!

An elementary school

Northern Vietnam seems to be loaded with precarious, foggy bridges

There’s no end to the islands in Ha Long Bay

This is a big cave filled with tourists, in Ha Long Bay

Kayaking in Ha Long Bay!

I don’t know, the absurd trash can in my room on The Calypso really made my day

The post My Trip to Vietnam! appeared first on Peter Brown Studio.

So I was sitting in my living room this morning, reading some book about Lateral Thinking and sipping my coffee, when my phone rang. The screen on my iPhone told me the call was coming from Seattle, and I remembered that I have dinner plans later this week with Seattle friends who’ll be in town. But then I realized that, in Seattle, it was 6:30am, which would have been a really weird time for my friends to call me. I was confused.

I answered the phone and instantly heard the unmistakable din of a room full of giddy librarians. A voice said, “Peter, this is the Caldecott committee calling you from Seattle, and we’re thrilled to tell you that Creepy Carrots! has won a 2013 Caldecott Honor!” And then I heard the committee burst into giggles. My girlfriend, Gwen, was sitting beside me at the time, close enough to hear the whole conversation, and she gave me a celebratory punch right in my shoulder when she overheard the news. She’s got a mean jab. My shoulder still hurts. Anyway, I responded to the committee with something like, “Get OUTTA here! No way!!! This wasn’t even on my radar!” To which the committee replied, “Well Creepy Carrots! has been on OUR radar for quite some time now, and we’re so happy to give you this news!” Then they told me to keep my trap shut until they made the official announcement later in the day and I just kind of awkwardly stammered and said, “Ok, thanks, thanks so much! Um, bye! Ok? Ok, bye! THANKS!” And then I waited for them to hang up.

For anyone who doesn’t know, the Caldecott Medal and Caldecott Honors are awards given out annually by the American Library Association, to the most distinguished picture books for children published in the U.S.A. Since the U.S. has the biggest publishing industry, and the biggest library association, that makes the Caldecotts the biggest awards in picture books. Remember how some of your favorite kids books from childhood had those shiny silver or gold stickers on the front?

When I got off the phone my girlfriend and I hugged and danced and maybe even cried a teensy bit. Then I called my mom, who works in a small public library in New Jersey. She’d be proud of me just for putting on clean undies in the morning, so hearing that her son won a freakin’ Caldecott rendered her just about speechless. I called my agent, Paul Rodeen, who has a voice like an air horn, and his head almost exploded with the news. I called my assistant, Ellen, who calmly said something like, “Don’t plan on getting anything done today.” I spoke with Aaron Reynolds, the amazing author of Creepy Carrots!, and we basked in the glow for a moment or two. And of course I spoke to Justin Chanda and Lizzy Bromley at Simon & Schuster who have given Creepy Carrots so much love.

I’d just like to give a HUGE thanks to Aaron Reynolds for writing such a wonderfully weird story that I could really sink my teeth into. Creepy Carrots! was a joy to make, and it wouldn’t have happened without his warped sense of humor and impeccable writing skills. And a huge thanks to Paul Rodeen for managing my book deals and career with such gumption. And a huge thanks to my friends at Simon & Schuster who’ve been so good to me and to the books I’ve made with them. Oh, and of course I have to thank the ALA, ALSC and the Caldecott Committee for liking my work!

The Caldecott winners were finally announced publicly and then my email inbox began to fill up, and my facebook and twitter pages went ballistic. This year was a pretty amazing year for picture books, and as I said to the Caldecott committee when they called me, winning a Caldecott never even crossed my mind. It’s such an honor to join David Small and Jon Klassen and Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Pamela Zagarenski as this year’s winners of the Caldecott Honors and Medal.

Thanks everyone. It’s been a fantastic day.

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