Run, Spot, Run

What an illustrator can do for a picture book manuscript

A good illustrator makes a picture book come alive in ways even the author hasn't imagined. The illustrator tells his/her own story, plumping out the words until the book is soft & fluffy enough to sink into.

Here are just a few examples of things the exceptional illustrator, Viv Eisner, added to my bare bones poem, "Totally Polar."  One in particular (the moon made of cheese) made me go "Wow!"  The phrase was sitting right there, waiting to appear, and I didn't even see it. As I learn more and more about picture books, I'm beginning to see what editors mean when they say: "you don't need description." The writing is the skeleton, and you hope the bones are strong. The illustrations are the flesh. They're what make the text come alive in unexpected ways.

Peter Petrosky MacGregor O'Toole is a boy who loves winter. The illustrations above show that vividly. He keeps a snow globe and ice skates beside his bed. A penguin sleeps with him. I didn't imagine penguins, but they're perfect for Peter. He even has a picture of a snowman on his living room mantle.

Peter obviously lives in a way-cool 23rd floor apartment in a city where the trees grow 23 floors high. And why not?  I didn't think of it. That was all Viv. ( No, I haven't actually had the pleasure of meeting Viv Eisner personally. Writers don't pick their own illustrators. Editors do that.) And it's not just the trees that are super cool. We know Peter lives in a magical place when we glimpse the smiling green-and-purple-striped fish circling the iceberg in the park.

I'll end with my two favorites among Viv Eisner's many book-enhancing ideas. When Peter's Mom says: "We're midway through June, and snow is as likely as cheese on the moon," Viv saw a moon made of cheese. She was looking through Peter's eyes. Peter thought snow was likely.

And the delicious-looking "Popsicle port" that goes with the line, "if you see a boy wearing mittens with shorts, sailing white Arctic boats into Popsicle ports," harks back to some of my own best-loved illustrations from when I was a kid. Fanciful. Inviting. And the page actually looks good enough to eat! Funny thing is, when I wrote that line, I had no idea what a Popsicle port would look like. I just liked the alliteration!

I repeatedly find that when I get my first look at illustrations for a book, it brings that book to life for me all over again. It's almost more exciting than getting the check!

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