Q&A with Brooke Bourgeois

 

 

 

Brooke Bourgeois is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Penelope's Balloons. She is based in London.

 

Q: What inspired you to create Penelope’s Balloons, and how did you come up with the idea for your character Penelope?

A: Penelope’s Balloons actually started out very, very differently. It wasn’t about an elephant at all! It started as a project when I was getting my MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, and it was the story I went to grad school to try to tell.

 

The story is actually about my brother Matthew, who has autism. Growing up, he had a very different relationship with object permanence.

 

So when a toy, a book, or even one of my parents’ cars would get lost behind a bookshelf or pop to the grocery store, for Matthew, it was like those items disappeared from reality. To me, it was almost like he had to watch over the objects to make sure they continued to exist.

 

As a result, I wrote a story about a boy who had a house where all of the furniture was made out of balloons. Every day he would come home to make sure the balloons were tied down—that is, until his sister accidentally leaves the door open.

 

But, when I put pen to paper, it became a little convoluted, and it cast a lot of blame on the sister character. So, some of my fellow students suggested that I abstract it a bit. Making the main character an animal might make the story more accessible to a wider audience. 

 

I decided to keep the balloons, but this time, the character would take them with them wherever they went. So then, I had to find the most dangerous environment for the balloons: the jungle!

 

From there, I wanted an animal that had the highest contrast with the balloons—a heavy elephant with light and airy balloons that are their favourite thing in the world made a lot of sense. I sketched a Peter Elephant and then Penelope Elephant, but Penelope ultimately was the one that just felt right. 

 

Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first--or both simultaneously?

 

A: Most of the time, these things sort of come together! When I work as a single-panel cartoonist, the caption usually comes first, but in this case, the first idea for the story came to me as images—a bit like a movie. I started off with a visual storyboard, and the main words came later. Though, for some of the vignettes where alliteration is at the center, the words came before the images. 

 

Q: The author Isabel Quintero called the book a “beautiful debut about holding on to what really matters—friendship.” What do you think of that assessment?

A: I was really moved by Isabel’s words! The main message of the book is really about community. The end of the book is semi-inspired by the end of It’s a Wonderful Life when all of the main character’s friends and neighbours show up to help cover a debilitating loss. The best feeling in the world is being caught when you “trip” and you thought you were walking all alone. 

 

I’ll never 100 percent know with my brother—as he has limited verbal expression—but when we had a special need—like making way for 10 cumbersome, vulnerable balloons—our family just adapted to make it a part of our larger set of rules. It was never a burden, just an extra factor to look out for.

 

When our communities “see us” no questions asked, the jungle is a little less scary. This is especially the case for the neurodiverse, but I hope the message of friendship rings true for all readers!

 

Q: Can you say more about why you decided to have Penelope be an elephant?

 

A: I tried several different iterations of characters before settling on the elephant. At first, Penelope was a human boy. Then, she was a beaver who was very carefully making a dam. But when I settled on the red balloons to pop against the green in the jungle, the natural contrast was a gray elephant. 

 

In the book, the color does a lot of the emotional storytelling. When doing color tests, I wanted the main character to feel incomplete without her red balloons, and an animal who was grey and wore neutral clothing seemed a good visual solution. Additionally, elephants are heavy, so the balloons, in addition to the brightness, could offer a little light that would offset that. 

 

When Penelope loses her balloons, it is so significant to her sense of self that without them she doesn’t feel right. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on two things actually! I’m working on a second children’s book which is also about big emotions—following a little bee who doesn’t quite know what to do when she gets too angry. 

 

I’m also working on a graphic novel for adult readers—the first in a series—about the retelling of Greek myths from the perspective of the goddesses, which is much more similar to the cartooning work that I do for magazines. 

 

The projects are very, very different from each other in style, tone, and audience, but they do offer me a great opportunity to alternate and approach each project with fresh eyes. 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Thank you so much for the interview! Much like Penelope’s navigating the jungle with her balloons, none of it would be possible without the incredible communities who paved that path for me, especially my colleagues at the Cambridge School of Art, my amazing agent Gwen Beal, my editors at Union Square Kids Emily Duffy and Tracey Keevan, and, of course, my family—especially my brother Matthew. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb