Jonathan Roth is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars. His other books include the Rover and Speck series. Also a teacher, he lives in Maryland.
Q: What inspired you to create Almost Underwear?
A: The initial spark came the moment I learned, in early 2021, that NASA engineers had attached a tiny piece wing cloth from the Wright Brothers’ first airplane to a small helicopter named Ingenuity that they were getting ready to test on Mars.
From my many visits to the nearby National Air and Space Museum, I also knew that Neil Armstrong had carried fragments of the Wright Flyer on his own trip to the moon (which he brought back and are on display there).
When these facts collided in my head, I became instantly compelled to want to tell the story of these milestones of flight from the point of view of an inanimate object that witnessed it all.
I was inspired by the notion that all new technologies are, by necessity, pieced together using older technologies - like how the Wright Brothers had to go to a department store in Dayton to buy cloth (a type of muslin typically used for “ladies’ undergarments” at the time) to create the first airplane!
On an emotional level, though, the story is really about the act of commemoration: both Neil Armstrong and the engineers of Ingenuity went out of their way to acknowledge that their feats are only possible due to other’s earlier accomplishments.
Like all of us in the arts or sciences, they stand on the shoulders of others, and this was a strikingly tangible way for them to show it.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that particularly surprised you?
A: Besides the Air and Space Museum, my research was all in books, articles and the internet (I asked NASA if I could go observe some of Ingenuity’s test flights on Mars in person, but they still haven’t got back to me).
I think the thing that surprised me most came after I was done, and for the first time saw a book of mine go through a stringent fact-checking process (by a pro brought on by my publisher, Little, Brown).
She was remarkably thorough, even noting that something from a supposedly trusted news source was incorrect. Even with the internet – or maybe because of it – true truth is hard to find!
Q: What techniques did you use for the illustrations in this book?
A: It’s an unusual mix of historical photos, realistic drawing and a cartoon-like personified object. Thinking back, I’m not quite sure why I envisioned it this way, but it’s probably because the source photos are so powerful in themselves that I wanted kids to see them firsthand.
But I also wanted to make the piece of cloth a character, as well as draw characters and scenes which weren’t photographed.
The main thing was to have the story be compelling and accurate, and then have the illustrations show that story in a graphically fun and informative way. All the final art is done digitally on a Wacom Cintiq tablet.
With big thanks to my agent Natalie for helping secure all the photo rights, which are mostly all in public domain but still involved a lot of work to source and attribute!
Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book said that “it’s the work’s narrative voice, which alternates between droll humor and geeky enthusiasm, that makes this textile yarn a delight from takeoff to landing.” What do you think of that description?
A: I’ll take it! I think of humor as the main element in my books in general, so I’m glad that even with nonfiction I can at least be “droll.” And I think it’s “geeky enthusiasm” that causes most writers to delve into their subjects, with the goal of passing this enthusiasm on to our readers.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m both working on the fourth book in my Rover and Speck graphic novel series and, as always, playing with new ideas. None, sadly, involve underwear, but that kind of lightning rarely strikes twice.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I got to launch Almost Underwear at Air and Space, steps from the Wright Flyer and the cloth that Neil Armstrong took to the moon. It was truly a special moment for me, and I hope in some small way my book can help kids connect these objects and get them pulling at other fun threads of history.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Jonathan Roth.
No comments:
Post a Comment