Making Red & Lulu: One Last Minute Change

Spoiler Alert: This post contains information about stuff that happens toward the end of Red & Lulu. 

Caveat to the Spoiler Alert: But one thing I realized while working on this book is that I don’t think spoilers really apply to picture books in the same way they apply to, say, novels or movies. A picture book might take five minutes to read, but if all goes right, a kid is going to want to read it again and again, even though they know exactly what is going to happen after that first 5-minute read. That’s why I feel okay sharing some details that might be considered “spoilers”. Hey, you might even say there’s even a big, sparkly spoiler right on the front cover of the book...

Red & Lulu is my nineteenth book as illustrator, and my ninth as author-illustrator. You might think that after two decades of making picture books, I would pretty much have it figured out by now. But unfortunately, you would be wrong. I’m still learning how picture books work, and I learned a lot working on this one.

Here’s something I learned on this, my nineteenth picture book: sometimes you need to let the reader do some of the work.

Before Red & Lulu was even printed, I decided to try it out at a couple school visits, to see how it worked as a read-aloud. Over the past few years I had shared many versions of Red & Lulu with friends, family, and a few fellow author-illustrator types, so I had gotten plenty of helpful feedback. But this would be the first time sharing the final book, as it would appear in print.

At this point, first proofs had been printed, and stapled review copies were ready to send out. So this was very late in the process. I had digital files of all the spreads, so even though I didn't have a physical copy of the book, I could easily share it with an audience as a slide presentation.

So I read it to a few groups of kids, and it went really well. But there was one part that didn’t feel quite right, and I wasn’t sure why. In a pivotal scene toward the end of the story, where Red finally finds the tree and is reunited with Lulu, kids didn’t seem to be reacting the way I expected them to. Here are the pages I’m talking about.

And then you turn the page...

When I read the words “Their tree! More sparkly than ever, but definitely theirs!” I expected to get some sort of reaction from the crowd– cheers, gasps, some sign of joy or excitement. But it seemed like as I read those words, I was the only one who was really excited about it. It felt weird. 

One night, I was laying awake in the middle of the night thinking about this, going through the words and the page turns, trying to figure out what the problem was, and I had an idea.

At my next school visit, I tried something different. When I turned the page after the words, Then he turned the corner, instead of saying Their tree!, I didn’t say anything. I just waited for a bit and let the kids look at the picture.

And something really awesome happened. There was this great moment when some of the kids realized that this might, in fact, be Red and Lulu's tree. I heard a few little gasps, and quiet whispers of “Their tree!” and “I think that’s their tree!”. But they didn’t know for sure. There was still some mystery and wonder. That is what I was missing before.

There is a thrill in realizing that this might possibly be the right tree. But by starting that page off with “Their tree! More sparkly than ever, but definitely theirs!”, I was telling the reader with absolute certainly that this was definitely their tree, and I was robbing the reader of that moment of discovery.

So I wrote to my editor and art director and explained the situation, along with this image, showing my suggested changes:

This was very late in the process to be making changes, so I wasn't sure how thrilled they would be about my suggestion. But they agreed, and we made the change. Here’s how those pages ended up in the actual book:

Then you turn the page...

Now, the picture does more of the storytelling, and there is a feeling of wonder as you head to the next page. By removing the words, “Their tree! More sparkly than ever, but definitely theirs,” I am asking the reader to do more of the work, and providing the reader with that moment of discovery that I was robbing them of before. Clearly Red thinks this is his tree- he is chirping with glee. But we don’t completely know for sure until we turn the page.

What happens next? You’ll have to read the book to find out! 

Spoiler alert: It all turns out okay in the end.

Making Red & Lulu: A few things readers might not notice (but I hope they do!)

Every picture book creator has probably experienced this at some point:

You’re at a book signing, sitting at a table. On the table is a stack of hardcover copies of your brand-new book, hot off the presses. You spent a whole year working on it, and years before that thinking about it, and planning it. You poured your heart into it. And now it’s here. You’re proud of this book, and so excited to finally share it with readers.

A customer walks up to the table. She flips through your masterpiece in about twenty seconds, then looks at you, smiles, and says, “Cute!”

A part of you dies inside.

It’s a strange thing, spending months, or even years, creating something that can be flipped through in twenty seconds, or read completely in five minutes. I know that plenty of people will read Red & Lulu quickly and not think much about it, and that's totally fine. I hope those people still enjoy it. But I also hope that some people slow down, take their time with it, and dig a little deeper into the story.

And when they do, here are a few things I hope they’ll notice. 

Note: Since you’re reading this, you’re probably not one of those people who’s going to flip through my book in 20 seconds! So for you, whether you're a teacher, librarian, parent, illustration student, or anyone else, hopefully these are a few points you might find interesting and/or helpful when you’re sharing the book with kids, or just for yourself.  Thanks! 

1. The role that the evergreen tree plays in the story...

Red & Lulu is a story about change. Cardinals, like humans, are creatures of habit. They mate for life. They do not fly south for the winter. Some even make their nests in the same tree year after year. Red and Lulu live in a big, beautiful evergreen. It is the center of their world, the foundation of their lives.

I felt that the evergreen was the perfect symbol for this story about dealing with change, because even its name, evergreen, implies permanence. But of course, it is a living thing, and as unthinkable as it is for Red and Lulu, it is temporary. 

To me, the tree in Red & Lulu represents all that stuff in our lives that seems really important, but actually isn't. Maybe it's the house where we live, or the work we spend our days focused on. The tree brings great joy to Red & Lulu, and ultimately it is the tree, and their shared love of music, which leads Red back to Lulu. But in the end, they are okay without it, as long as they have each other.

2. The role that the song O Christmas Tree plays in the story...

Red and Lulu’s favorite time of year is winter, when people decorate their tree with lights, and gather near and sing: 

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy leaves are so unchanging… 

These lyrics are repeated a few times throughout the story. I chose this song not only because it is probably the most famous song ever written about a Christmas tree, but also because it reinforces the idea of this tree seeming permanent to Red & Lulu, making it all the more unthinkable when their tree is taken away. 

Thy leaves are so unchanging…

Red stands out against an almost monochromatic color palate

3. The role that color plays in the story

On the first pages of Red & Lulu, color is used to help show the passage of time through changing seasons– cool blues of winter, warm yellows of spring and summer, orange and browns of autumn. But once the tree is taken away, the color palate is very limited. As Red ventures into unfamiliar territory in his quest to find Lulu, I wanted him to stand out against a nearly monochromatic background.

But when Red finally finds Lulu, their reunion is celebrated with an explosion of color, thanks to the bright multi-colored lights on their tree.

4. An underlying theme in Red & Lulu: we are all connected in ways we'll never know

In early drafts of Red & Lulu, I debated the extent to which the family who lives in the house next to the tree would be a part of the story. Would they notice Red and Lulu in their yard? Would they notice when the birds were gone? Would they see Red and Lulu in the city, and wonder if those might be the same birds? In the end, I decided to make the people’s connection to the birds more like I’ve experienced in my life.

They try their best to keep the bird feeders full. But sometimes they forget. And one day a squirrel makes his way to the feeder and eats all the bird seed, as squirrels do. And because of that, Red needs to venture out one chilly morning to find some food. And because of that, he’s not around when the trucks arrive to take their tree away.

Nobody in the story is doing anything wrong, from the family deciding to donate their tree to Rockefeller Center, to the workers doing their job by chopping down the tree, to the squirrel trying to find some food. But all of these actions effect others in ways they never know. 

Anyway, I could probably ramble on for longer, but I'll stop there. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope it helps you enjoy Red & Lulu a little bit more. 

In my next post, I'll share a story about a very last minute change I made to Red & Lulu, after reading it to an audience of kids at a school visit and realizing something wasn't quite right.

Fly the W for Lennie Merullo, the last 1945 Chicago Cub!

Lennie Merullo, Shortstop, Chicago Cubs, 1941-1947

About fifteen years ago, I was doing some research for my book, Oliver’s Game, when I came across a familiar name: Lennie Merullo. This Lennie Merullo played shortstop for the 1945 Chicago Cubs, the last time the Cubs made it to the World Series. But the Lennie Merullo I knew was my elementary school gym teacher.

So I tracked down my old gym teacher, and he confirmed that the Chicago Cub Lennie Merullo was, in fact, his uncle. Not only that, but he was still around, and lived a couple towns over from me. Lennie Merullo, the gym teacher, even gave me his uncle's phone number.

So I called Lennie Merullo, the shortstop, hoping he might agree to meet with me to answer a few questions. He was very nice, and offered to stop by my apartment for a visit, which was perfect, because I hoped that if the interview went well, he might be willing to pose for me as one of the main characters in the book, Grandpa Hall. I had built a fake baseball card store in my basement to use as the setting for my story (Grandpa Hall ran a store called Hall's Nostalgia). Having an actual member of the 1945 Cubs pose in the baseball card store I had created sounded too good to be true!

I had some questions prepared, but as soon as Lennie walked in and saw all the old memorabilia, especially the 1942 Cubs jersey, he just started talking. He told amazing, vivid stories about his playing days, stuff I would never have thought to ask about. I don’t think I even ended up asking any questions. I just listened.

Lennie Merullo talking to Cord, who posed as the grandson in Oliver's Game

He had met Babe Ruth and come up to bat against Satchel Paige. He had once committed 4 errors in the same inning, but he had a good excuse: he had just learned that his wife had given birth to their first child.

He brought an old gym bag filled with all kinds of things, including an authentic Wrigley Field “W” flag, which came with a funny story I don’t completely remember about a goofy teammate who thought the "W" stood for “weather”. I remember Lennie cracking up, saying, “He thought it meant ‘Weather Flag!”.

He was happy to pose as Grandpa Hall (though he was mildly offended when I asked him to use a cane as a prop). I realized quickly that I didn’t even have to explain who this character was. Grandpa Hall was a man who loved baseball to his core, even years after his ability to play the game had been taken away from him. Grandpa Hall said that every item in his shop had a story to tell. I didn't need to describe the character to Lennie Merullo because he was the character. It was magical.

Another picture of Lennie Merullo telling stories

When Oliver's Game was published, Lennie and his wife came to the book release party. He even signed some books, if I remember correctly. Over the years he surprised me at a few other book events. It was always great to see him, and he never got tired of talking about baseball.

When Lennie passed away last year at the age of 98, he was the last remaining member of the 1945 Chicago Cubs World Series team. I wish he could have stuck around one more year. I’ll be thinking of him tonight, when the Cubs play in game 7 of the World Series.

Go Cubs!

Fly the Weather Flag!

Grandpa Hall and Oliver, from Oliver's Game, Candlewick Press, 2004

GROWING UP PEDRO, Behind the Scenes: Illustrating Page One

When I was trying to figure out how to handle the opening page of Growing Up Pedro, my first idea was to start off the book with this quote from Pedro himself:

"Ramon is the biggest reason I have gotten where I am. He is the great one in this family. I am still Ramon's little brother." -Pedro Martinez, 1998.

I liked this quote, because it introduced the main theme of the story, and showed that even when Pedro was at the height of his fame, he still gave all the credit to his big brother. For the accompanying image, I wanted to show Pedro Martinez pitching at Fenway Park in 1998, his first season with the Red Sox. I wanted to somehow capture the excitement of being at Fenway when Pedro was pitching. This is the first book I've ever done about a player I actually got to see in person, so this is the first time I really got to pour my own memories into my story and illustrations.

I took this picture of Pedro warming up before a game in 1998.

My first scribbly sketches centered around Pedro on the mound. But none of them felt quite right. So I tried to think back to what it felt like to be at the park on days when Pedro was pitching. I remembered fans waving Dominican flags. I remembered the excitement outside the park, where guys from WEEI handed out K cards to fans as they entered the ballpark (K is the baseball symbol for strikeout). I remembered people going to get food when the Red Sox were batting instead of when the visiting team was batting, so they didn't miss Pedro. And perhaps the most iconic image I could think of when I remembered those days at Fenway: The K Men, out in the last row of the bleachers, dressed all in red, right down to the paint on their faces, celebrating each of Pedro's strikeouts by posting a big red K up on the green wall, and leading the crowd in chants of Pay-DRO! Pay-DRO!

Then I had an idea. I realized that to capture all that excitement, I didn't even need to show Pedro. I just needed to show a small section of the bleachers. Because back then, you could tell Pedro was pitching just by looking around, and feeling the energy in the park. So I made this sketch:

I submitted this sketch to my art director with a note suggesting that the endpapers be red. I liked the idea of opening up the book and seeing the green wall on page one up against the red endpapers, which would match the red Ks and the red details in the crowd. I wanted the book itself to feel like Fenway.

Here's how it ended up looking in the book:

One reason I loved working on this book was the fact that I felt personally connected to so much of the subject matter. Take the K Men for example. I first knew about them when they started appearing at all of Pedro's home games in 1998, dressed all in red, posting Ks. I sat a few rows in front of them during game 4 of the 1999 ALDS against Cleveland, and really got to experience first-hand the excitement they brought to the game.

I took this picture of the K Men during game 4 of the 1999 ALDS vs the Indians.

A couple years later, I became friends with some of the K Men, when they asked me to sign books at a fundraiser they were organizing. They invited me to come post Ks with them some time. The first time I took them up on their offer was Opening Day, 2003.

Here I am with my wife, Sarah, and one of the original K Men, my friend Kirk Carapezza. He taught us some of the rituals and rules, and even let us post Pedro's first K of the 2003 season.

Fenway Park had undergone a major renovation over the offseason, so this was the first game when the K Men were left with no wall upon which to post their Ks. So they tried using a clothes line.

It was tricky, but we did it!

A couple years later, we joined the K Men again. By now, they had relocated to their new home, prime real estate atop the Green Monster. This time I went all in with the red face and all red clothes, and my 11-month-old daughter became the first-ever K Baby!

Walking around Fenway Park as a K Man felt a lot like how I imagine Santa Claus must feel walking around the mall.

Kevin McCarthy, K Baby, me, Sarah, and Kirk Carapezza.

Then in 2013, with the Red Sox on the verge of clinching the American League East division, I got a text from Kirk, asking if we'd like to join them up on the wall that night. So we dig through our shelves looking for red clothes, picked up the kids from school and drove down to Boston.

As you can see, the K Men have chilled out a bit in the post-Pedro years. They don't paint their faces any more (they call it "K-Kasual"). But as you can also see, my older daughter is a purist.

My K Family with the K Men

We posted Ks for Jon Lester, and we talked about Pedro (that's why I had gotten in touch with Kirk in the first place, to talk about Pedro and to ask if he might have some photos of the K Men I could use as reference for my illustrations). And we got to be there when the Red Sox celebrated on the field. My K Kids each got a chance to post Ks, holding them up for the whole ballpark to see. It was a night we will never forget.

A few other little details to look for on page one of Growing Up Pedro:

*Both my kids are in the picture, dressed just how they were on that night in 2013 when we posted Ks. Can you find them?

*There is one Yankee fan in the picture, my friend Jim who helped make it possible for me to go to the Dominican Republic and do some research for this book. He's wearing a Yankee jacket in the illustration, though Jim pointed out that I seem to have accidentally (or subconsciously?) painted a little red dot on his cap, so it looks like a Red Sox cap. See if you can find him!

*Back then, there was a peanut vendor who would throw bags of peanuts incredible distances with amazing accuracy. I included him in the crowd on page one. See if you can spot him! Here's a picture of him I found online:

Rob "Nuts" Barry, Fenway Park, 1999

I loved being able to incorporate so many of my own personal experiences into this book. It made the whole thing feel so personal for me.

All of that was just for page one. I still had thirty-nine pages to go...

And that's why my books take me a really long time!

GROWING UP PEDRO. Text and Illustrations copyright 2015 Matt Tavares. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Inc., Somerville, MA.

The Making of... Over the River and Through the Wood

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how I made one of my illustrations for Over the River and Through the Wood.

For this spread, I started with this verse of the poem:

Over the river and through the wood, 
When Grandmother sees us come
She will say, Oh dear,
The children are here,
Bring a pie for every one.

I decided to show the grandmother looking out the window, watching the family arriving in their sleigh. Here's my sketch:

The idea was to show the scene from right outside the window, so we see the grandmother inside, and we see the reflection of the family in the sleigh. I knew it would be tricky, but if it worked, it would be a great way of showing all the different elements of that moment.

My art director loved the sketch, so then I started painting. Here's my finished painting. Well, the first version of the finished painting...

So I put this up on my wall with all my other finished illustrations and moved onto the next picture. I was pleased with how it came out. But then something happened that made me question it. Any time anyone visited my studio and looked at the artwork on my wall, they stopped at this one. Sometimes people said they liked it, but then there would be a moment of confusion, where they'd say, "Wait a second... so is she... oh, I think I get it..."

People liked the image, but apparently they couldn't quite tell what they were looking at. Was it a reflection of the grandmother, or a reflection of the sleigh? I realized that maybe the picture was a bit confusing. So I decided to add more frost to the window, to make it more clear. Here's how it looked after I made some changes:

I liked this one better... or at least I thought it showed more clearly that we are outside, looking in at Grandma who is inside, and we see the reflection of the horse and sleigh. Done and done.

But then I had another idea (uh-oh...). What if I showed the scene from inside the warm, cozy house? What if we're looking out the window with Grandma, and we see her reflection in the glass? Hmmm...

I liked the idea. But honestly, I didn't like the idea of starting completely over, after all the time I had already spent on this picture. But the more I thought about it, I figured I should give it a try.

I started over, and I made a whole new painting. Here it is:

And that's the one that ended up in the book. I think it works better this way. I like the contrast of the warm interior and the cold, snowy outside. And the curtains make it completely clear that we're inside, looking out.

It's always hard to go back and do something over, especially after I've already spent 5 or 6 days on it. But it's almost always worth spending that extra time to make sure I get it right.

And there was a silver lining here- when I was just about done with this book, a tour group from The Mazza Museum in Findlay, Ohio came to visit my studio. I showed them both versions of this illustration and explained this whole story. The people from the museum loved the paintings, and ended up buying both! So now both of these illustrations are part of the permanent collection of the Mazza Museum! So it all worked out.

Here's another behind-the-scenes look at Over the River and Through the Wood:

Find Over the River and Through the Wood at your favorite bookstore, or at any of the usual places online.

Happy Thanksgiving!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas... behind the scenes

With Christmas fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to post some photos I took while I was working on illustrating 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (Candlewick, 2002). A lot of work goes into illustrating a book, and much of it takes places before the pencil ever hits the paper. Here's some of what I did to try to bring this story to life.

Every time it snowed during the winter of 2000-2001, I went outside and took pictures. To this day, when I see new-fallen snow, it's hard not to grab my camera. This one is of my backyard, back when I lived in Arlington, Massachuestts. Guess I forgot to put the patio furniture away...

I decided to set the story in Beacon Hill, in Boston, since the buildings in that neighborhood were from the right time period. I spent some time wandering around Beacon Hill, and settled on The Nichols House Museum as the perfect setting. For one, it's a beautiful building. Plus, it's a museum house, so it looks much the same as it looked back in the 1800's. And most importantly, there's a lawn outside! I realized that I needed a house with a lawn, because of the line, "When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter". 

One day I headed into Boston right after a snowstorm and got some great pictures that really helped me envision how I wanted my book to look.

This is the point of view I decided to use for the scene when Santa is landing on the roof.

Same view, different snowstorm.

 

They even let me inside!

 When I draw people, I usually find real people to pose for me. Oftentimes I pose myself, because I know what poses I need, and I'm always there. When I was trying to decide what the narrator should look like, I kept picturing him as my friend, author M.T. Anderson. So I asked him to pose for me, which he did. He was such a good sport about it, and he did an amazing job. This was back before he was a National Book Award winner. I bet he doesn't do this sort of thing anymore!

Tobin Anderson kindly posing as the narrator in 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, while my then-girlfriend, now-wife Sarah works as lighting technician. I'm sort of the director at this part of the process.

I wanted to make sure Santa looked really good in my book, so I went right to the big guy himself. He took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to pose for me.  Fortunately he was at the mall, so I didn't have to go all the way to the North Pole (good thing, because I didn't have any money!).

My wife, Sarah, remembered that there was a barn full of old sleighs and wagons at the horse farm where she used to work when she was in high school. So we took a road trip up to Maine, and found this amazing red sleigh, which I used as the model for Santa's sleigh:

sidenote: I used a slightly altered version of this sleigh in Over the River and Through the Wood

I set up this fake Christmas tree in my basement, with nineteenth century decorations. It was up for about a year. It got really dusty.

Sarah and I were on vacation in New Orleans when I found this great model reindeer. Sure, I probably could have found it at a store in Boston, but I bought it. His antlers mostly survived the plane ride. I would hang him in front of my drawing table while I was drawing.

And my mother-in-law's cat, Oscar, kindly agreed to pose as the cat.

Happy Holidays, everyone! Thanks for reading my blog.

-Matt