Q&A with David Bruggink

  

 

 

David Bruggink is the author and illustrator of the new children's graphic novel Pia in the Forest. He is also a product designer, and he lives in Maine.

 

Q: What inspired you to create Pia in the Forest?

A: I think the main inspiration was spending time with my daughter! At the time, she was about 5 years old and had that incredible combination of silliness, cleverness, and a sense of wonder at the world.

 

I thought it would be great to create a character inspired by her – in fact, a lot of the dialog in the book comes from things she said and I wrote down in the moment. 

 

I think part of it came from our dog, too. We were spending a lot of time going on walks on nature paths here in Maine and bonding over a shared appreciation of hiking.

 

Another piece came from my interest in sound recording. In 2020 I built a website called Sounds of Maine (https://soundsofmaine.life) that combined field recordings and videos that I collected from various locations around the state, typically focusing on nature – water, forests, beaches, insects, birds.

 

It was a really meditative experience to gather these sounds. I would find places that had what I thought were interesting palettes of sound, and basically sit down and record audio for 10 or 15 minutes.

 

If you use a decent field recorder or microphone, it amplifies everything around you in a captivating way – all the details start to come out. You're intrigued by things you wouldn't normally be able to hear, like birdsong or the movements or animals or trees. 

 

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

 

A: I would say I worked on both simultaneously. The initial idea was simply a scene I drew of two dogs, a girl, and her dad, on a walk in the forest.

 

That seed grew into a story about these two characters, and I guess it kind of just made sense for them to be inspired by me and my daughter. I started to imagine them in different scenarios, though the forest setting was always a strong contender. This was in conjunction with funny things I was writing down that my daughter would say.

 

I started to develop a workflow where I would begin by writing down what I wanted the overall story or chapter to be about. Then I would break this down into pages: What happens on this page? What happens on the next? And on each page, I would write down the narrative points and conversation, then I would turn these into rough thumbnails. This provided the foundation for the first chapter or so.

 

I didn't create a lot of finalized illustrations at the beginning, except for a few drawings that ended up being part of the proposal and were, I think, necessary to present the vision for the book to publishers.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Pia and her dad?

 

A: I would say their dynamic is playful, humorous, and loving, but they also really enjoy poking fun at each other. Pia is a natural prankster, but Dad is also prone to occasional sneakiness.

 

They love going on adventures together, but there's also kind of this tension where they can sometimes get frustrated or not really understand each other in the way they want.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it a “simple, playful invitation to delight in the natural world.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think that fits well. The first iteration of the book was even more "slice of life" than the final book.

 

One of the main inspirations – and something my daughter and I were reading nightly at the time – was a manga series called Yotsuba&!, which is arguably the quintessential "slice of life" manga series.

 

It's also about a girl and her dad, and it doesn't have villains, or explosive drama. It's just a very enjoyable, funny and realistic time spent with this girl and her dad, and it reminded me so much of my time with my daughter.

 

I wanted Pia to have that same slice of life quality, so that readers could feel they have a chance to settle into the atmosphere of her house, or the forest. I love when books try to really take you to a certain location and establish that sense of place.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I am working on a story for a possible follow up to Pia, as well as some other ideas for picture books.

 

As usual, I'm very focused on animal characters, but since we have a new young person in our household (who turned 1 year old recently), I might want to explore something inspired by him as well. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thanks so much for asking about Pia!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Trisha Fox

  

 

Trisha Fox is the author of the new children's chapter book Jonathan and the Fear: Sam Learns to Face His Fears. She also has written the book Jonathan Discovers What's Inside Him. She lives in Switzerland.

 

Q: What inspired you to create Jonathan and the Fear: Sam Learns to Face His Fears?

 

A: I kept thinking about what children can do when fear does not simply disappear. Children are often told that they just need to be brave or should not be afraid, but feelings cannot be switched off at the press of a button.

 

In the story, Jonathan takes Sam’s fear seriously. He helps Sam imagine how he would prefer to experience the situation, connect with that feeling, and discover the next fitting step. It was important to me to show that a child does not have to be completely free from fear in order to move forward.

 

Q: Can you say more about the dynamic between Jonathan and Sam?

 

A: Jonathan and Sam are close friends who take each other seriously. Jonathan is not Sam’s teacher, and he does not solve the problem for him. He listens, stays by his side and helps Sam rediscover his own strength.

 

Their friendship is built on trust, honesty and mutual support. Sam is allowed to feel afraid without being portrayed as weak.

 

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

 

A: The illustrations were created with the support of artificial intelligence. I planned every scene myself, developed detailed image descriptions, and selected the results that worked best.

 

Many of the images were revised and corrected several times so that the characters, their clothing, their facial expressions and the world of Awen Coille would remain as consistent as possible.

 

The characters’ emotions were especially important to me, because children can often understand what is happening simply by looking at the pictures.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope children understand that fear is a feeling, but it does not define who they are or what they are capable of.

 

They can first acknowledge what they are feeling. Then they can imagine how they would prefer to experience the situation, connect with that feeling, and find one small next step.

 

I also hope the book gives parents a natural way to begin conversations with children about fear and inner strength.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently working on the third Jonathan book, Jonathan at Summer Camp. In this story, Jonathan attends a summer camp on an island in his fictional world for the first time.

 

The book will be longer and much more adventurous than the first two. It combines suspense, friendship, teamwork, and courage with new characters, special challenges, and a bigger storyline.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Jonathan is not meant to teach children that they should simply think positively. Difficult feelings, setbacks and challenging situations deserve to be taken seriously.

 

The stories are intended to show children that they still have possibilities. They can choose a new inner direction, discover their own strengths, and gradually respond to a situation differently. Jonathan is not a perfect hero. He is a child who observes, learns and sometimes needs help himself.

 

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to share more about Jonathan and his world.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Benjamin Abravenel

  

 

 

 

Benjamin Abravenel is the author of the new novel The Past, Again. He is also a physician, and he lives in California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Past, Again?

 

A: I have visited Europe over a timespan of 48 years. Over the past 30 years I have noticed a change in culture. If graffiti is a sort of barometer of societal opinion, then I knew European Jews were once again in trouble.

 

I noted increasing antisemitic slogans and symbolism written on the walls and subways in France, Germany, England, and Italy. I didn’t know if it was spray painted by neo-Nazis or Islamists, but I knew the direction was not a good omen.

After I returned from one trip 10 years ago, I began to see changes at home in the United States in the (not so) far left and (not so) far right “thought” leaders. I sensed anti-Zionism veering into frank antisemitism. 

 

I thought of a comment my grandmother once said after a guest commented “how lucky we were to be in the United States”: “Vell so far.” (Yes, that is in my book during the Passover seder!)

I decided to write a novel questioning the exceptionalism of the United States, raising the question of whether the catastrophic history of Jews in Europe can occur here. Other than The Plot Against America by Philip Roth, I know of no other novel that studies this possibility.

Q: How did you create your character Judah?

 

A: I think all novels have elements of autobiography. Judah mirrors aspects of my personality and development. He is partly an exaggeration of the author's identity and partly an aspirational characterization for the author. 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I completely made changes along the way. I did not know how I was going to end the story until I typed the last page. I decided to leave the ending unknown and unclear, which I feels encapsulates so much of life in general.

 

Q: Especially given the current rise in antisemitism, what do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I wrote the book as a warning to Americans, that it is not impossible for our 2,00-year-old history of persecution to follow us here in America. We need to be on alert that we may be entering a period analogous to early-1930s Germany, and this may be more likely if we enter a severe economic downturn.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am writing an entirely different story. I am uncertain if it will be a short story or a full-length novel. I only discover where the story takes me as I create it!

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes, I loved writing the story and I miss my characters. Writing a story is very god-like. One creates characters out of thin air. Of course, we know that is not entirely true. So much is extracted from our personal histories.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

July 31

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

July 31, 1919: Primo Levi born. 

Q&A with Abigail Cutter

  

 

 

 

Abigail Cutter is the author of the new novel What the Trees Remember. Her other books include the novel The Last of What I Am. She lives in Virginia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write What the Trees Remember, and how did you create your character Dora?

 

A: A friend’s ghost story was my first inspiration. He owns an early 19th century mountain house at the head of a shallow stream that in August 1969 roared into a 40-foot avalanche of water during Hurricane Camille, killing over 150 people below.

 

Years later, a neighbor told of witnessing the ghost of an old woman who had survived the flood in her house on the ridge above the stream’s destruction. She balanced on the roof with her hair and skirts blowing as lightning sizzled around her.

 

That got my attention, and I looked up the woman on Ancestry.com. She was born into a wealthy white family, but her mother, who was born in 1862 to an enslaved couple, was described as white on her marriage certificate. She had passed for white in the early Jim Crow era. I saw a story waiting to be told.

 

Q: The novel is set in the Shenandoah Valley--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: This is my second historical novel set in the mountains of southwestern Virginia where the Valley runs 80 miles between the Appalachian and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The setting is everything.

 

The area has nearly vertical mountains, narrow valleys, and hasn’t changed much over time. Its dramatic landscape is nothing like the rest of the state, but it suffered from the same racism as plagued the more agricultural regions.

 

It’s a place of deep forests, waterfalls, clear streams, and house-sized boulders tumbled millennia ago down the mountainsides. The people are connected to the landscape in a unique way and the forests are cathedrals where nature is supreme.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I drew on Nelson County Library’s extensive local history collection on Hurricane Camille’s devastation, read books about the education of Blacks in Virginia after the Civil War, and explored the internet for information about the plants and trees of the area. I also visited the small town as well as the creek and forest the book describes.

 

The most shocking discovery was in a website developed by James Madison University’s Department of Justice Studies and is called Racial Terror: Lynching in Virgina. That’s where I found a description of the 1904 lynching of a 9-year-old Black boy, Andy Dudley, for hitting a white girl of the same age. For the sake of my novel, I pushed the event back in time to 1894.

 

In addition, I read 19th and early 20th century editorials in The Richmond Planet, a weekly newspaper started by anti-lynching activist John Mitchell Jr. and 13 other formerly enslaved people.

 

Q: As a visual artist and a novelist, how do the two disciplines coexist in your work?

 

A: I hope that being a visual artist gives the reader a stronger sense of place in my novels because I’m particularly aware of how things look.

 

I believe it’s important to bring the reader inside the story’s events as much as possible, and a book’s detail about how it is to be there is part of that experience, even if it is seeing it through my eyes first.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m researching ideas for a third book, again set in southwestern Virginia but in the late 1700s. This region was wilderness for much longer than the rest of the state and the people who lived here had a special toughness, a resiliency, from depending upon their own strengths for their survival.

 

It’s also an area that hasn’t had the historical attention that the eastern part of Virginia has had as birthplace of presidents and being the site of the capital of the Confederacy.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Maybe you’d like to know authors I read again and again and in whose books I underline passages.

 

Anything by Anthony Doerr, but his book of short stories The Shell Collector is my favorite. And I’ve recently read Booker Prize shortlisted The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller for the beauty of his language and compelling plot. Dr. Edward Ayers’ books on deeply researched Virginia history are also a source of inspiration for anyone curious about the history of the South.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Abigail Cutter. 

Q&A with Crystal AJ Smith

  

 

 

Crystal AJ Smith is the author of the new novel Gitwaałtk. She is Haisla, Ts’ymsen and was adopted into the Heiltsuk nation.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Gitwaałtk?

 

A: Gitwaałtk came from the ancestors I believe. I just began writing it 10 years ago and it evolved from a short story to a novel through time. 

 

Q: What do you see as the role of grief in the novel?

 

A: This is an interesting question. Grief is woven into Gitwaałtk as grief is woven in our reality. It is what grounds the story. 

 

Q: How did you create your protagonist?

 

A: My protagonist is a version of me that I wish existed. She had the extreme privilege to learn from her Dz'is (grandmother). To learn our traditional ways and stories, to learn our traditional language and be fluent. All things I wished for but was unable to attain. Though I am attempting to learn our traditional ways and language right now. 

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I had no idea where Gitwaałtk was going. I just put pen to paper and let it flow through me. It was a story that had asked me to write rather than a story I wrote. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am currently working on a sequel to Gitwaałtk as well as a poetry collection. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Gitwaałtk took 10 years largely because I had to put it on the back burner often to deal with life events and provide for my children. I am so grateful that the story chose me and was so patient with me as I gathered the strength to listen to what needed to be written.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Rinat Primo

  

 

 

 

 

Rinat Primo is the author of the new children's picture book On One Foot. Her other books include Dandelion Snow. She lives in Israel.

 

Q: What inspired you to write On One Foot, and how did you create your characters Lily and Hillel?

 

A: On One Foot was inspired by a well-known Talmudic story about a non-Jewish man who came to Shammai and asked to be taught the entire Torah while standing on one foot - in other words, to learn all there is to know in a very short time. Shammai, a great sage known for his strictness, sent him away.

 

The man then approached Hillel the Elder with the same request. Hillel replied: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. All the rest is commentary - now go and study.”

 

In Hebrew, the expression “on one foot” is similar to saying “in a nutshell.”

 

I loved the idea of connecting this timeless wisdom with children’s natural love of physical challenges, like trying to balance on one foot. The names Hillel, Lili, and Tehila are also a tribute to Hillel the Elder.

 

Q: What do you think Yael Albert’s illustrations add to the story?

 

A: The visual team behind the book consists of Yael Albert, a wonderful illustrator, and Michal Magen, a remarkable graphic designer. Together, they brought  the world and the children described in the text to life. Yael Albert created expressive, lovable characters that feel warm and charming without being kitschy.

 

One especially interesting artistic choice was using yellow as the background color throughout the book. At first, we experimented with green backgrounds, which may have suited the natural setting more, but they gave the illustrations the feel of a fancy European kindergarten. That didn’t feel authentic to Israel, which is a warm country where yellow tones dominate much of the year.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book, and how did you first get interested in writing for children?

 

A: I think writing for children is, for me - and probably for many children’s authors - a way of exploring my own childhood. Sometimes it’s even a way of revisiting and repairing parts of it. Each of my books approaches that exploration from a different angle.

 

My memory of what it feels like to be a child is still vivid and deeply present. I understand the way children think. Adults, on the other hand, are much harder for me to understand. We just have so much baggage!

 

More than anything, my motivation is to give young readers the sense that they are not alone in their thoughts and feelings.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I recently wrote a story called Oh, Jonathan!, a picture book for kindergarten-aged children with very little text. It tells the story of a boy whose behavior is misunderstood by the people around him. Right now, together with Green Bean Publishing, I'm working on submitting it to PJ Library. Wish us luck!

 

I’m also working on another book for young teens about twins - a boy and a girl - and the complexities of sibling relationships, especially the unique bond between twins. The book is expected to be published in Hebrew in early 2027.

 

Thank you, Deborah, and good luck with your new book!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb