Q&A with Drew Beckmeyer

 

 

Drew Beckmeyer is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale from a Little Cave. His other books include The First Week of School. He lives in Los Angeles. 

 

Q: What inspired you to create Stalactite & Stalagmite?

 

A: I like having a problem to solve...and I like caves. I was interested in the two rock formations that grow incredibly slowly over a super long period of time.

 

Anthropomorphizing them was initially a fun idea, but the problem of creating an interesting story based around two characters that can't move or really do anything other than chat with each other was fun to work on.

 

The animals that come in and out of the cave are really just there to keep the story moving forward, but at its heart, this is a really simple story about two friends. 

 

Q: How did you create the illustrations for this book?

 

A: I treated the illustrations like sets for a play. The cave is like a three-dimensional foreground, a window to the outside world that changes over time. Like in a set, the background is painted flat. For this, I used gouache.

 

Inside the cave is made of cut paper layered to give it texture and depth. The paper is textured with pastel, ink, paint, real dirt and watercolor. After it is all assembled, I scan it and add eyes, drips, puddles and sparkles digitally. 

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book said, “Both gloriously expansive and goofy—in short, everything young readers could ask for.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I couldn't be happier with that description. If I strive to be anything, it is gloriously expansive and goofy in equal measure. Maybe 60 percent goofy.

 

Q: What surprised you most as you researched the book?

 

A: It wasn't one fact that surprised me, but it was more the constant revelation of how much humans flatten time. Maybe we have to so we don't go insane, but getting a little more intimately conscious of how small an amount of time humans have existed in contrast to other species and then just the geology of this planet... it's something you know, but sitting with it makes you really start to think about things in a different way. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next book is called Geyser and it will be out in 2026. I also am illustrating a book by Gideon Sterer called Snake's Shoes, which is gonna be fun.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Drew Beckmeyer.