Joy Steuerwald is the author and illustrator of the children's picture book The Cutest Brave Little Bunny. Her other books include The Peculiar Pig. She lives in Fremont, California.
Q: What inspired you to create The Cutest Brave Little Bunny?
A: My agent at the time let me know about a publisher who was looking for a book about a bunny, but that wasn’t an Easter story. So I thought about what this little bunny’s story would be.
Eventually, I landed on a concept I remembered from when my son was about 4 years old. He didn’t like it when people would always tell him how cute he was and he would reply “I’m not cute, I’m handsome!”
That led me to thinking how grown-ups usually go straight to the “cute” card when they talk to, or about young children. Handsome wasn’t the feel I wanted for the story of course, so I thought about how this character wanted to be considered for more than just their appearance.
The funny thing was, that as I was writing the story, I couldn’t help but craft it with Nancy Paulsen in mind. In my contract for my first book with Nancy, The Peculiar Pig, she had first look on submissions for my next manuscript.
She did end up reviewing the book dummy for The Cutest Brave Little Bunny (which was originally called “I’m NOT Cute”) and actually passed on it! But then shortly after, she did decide to acquire it.
Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first--or both simultaneously?
A: I usually think simultaneously about text and illustration. My first book started as an illustration and I wrote the story to go with it. This book started as a concept where I knew the main character was going to be a bunny.
A lot of times I need to sketch out the character and get to know them before I can write their entire story. Most of my early sketches don’t even show up in the book but are just research to “finding” the character.
I usually do a dummy for my stories if I plan on illustrating them. A lot of times things change and I adjust page turns and edit text as I create the dummy. And of course, once the story was acquired by Nancy Paulsen, we did further text edits.
Q: The School Library Journal review of the book says, “Embedded in this gentle tale is a helpful framework for children who have long since grown weary of being patronized by the grown-ups around them.” What do you think of that description, and what do you hope kids take away from the story?
A: I feel this description is pretty accurate even though “patronizing” might be a strong word. It’s validating when a wonderful organization like the SLJ understands what you’re trying to convey.
I hope the story helps kids think about their own self-worth and not letting what other people say define them. This is for a very young audience, so it isn’t meant to be an obvious lesson where they’re thinking about self-worth.
For the adults reading the book, I hope they think about how it’s not always necessary to comment on outward appearance.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I just finished illustrating a tourist-type book with a Canadian publisher I work with a lot. I have a dozen stories in different stages of revision, but just sent off a dummy and manuscript to Nancy Paulsen. I’m hoping we’ll do this third book together! I’m also working on new illustrations to update my online portfolio, joystewy.com.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I left my literary agent and am currently looking for new representation. Besides writing and illustrating my own books, I would love to create amazing art for other author’s manuscripts. I can draw anything, but enjoy illustrating kids, animals, and the natural world, plus would like to illustrate anything science related!
I’m available for school, library, and bookstore author visits, and will be at the Fairyland Book Festival in California, September 2025.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
No comments:
Post a Comment