Q&A with Bex Tobin Fine

 

 

 

Bex Tobin Fine is the author of the new children's picture book You Are Home. She is also an educator, a violinist, and an actor.

 

Q: What inspired you to write You Are Home?

 

A: I initially drafted a straightforward narrative story about a child’s home burning down, based on my own experience of having that happen as a kid.

 

And then perhaps a day or two after sending it to my agent (I don’t believe I ever gave her the chance to read that first version!), I started writing some poetry about the many ways in which home is not just a house or necessarily any location at all.

 

Immediately, I knew that I wanted my story about home to be hopeful and universal—something that any child, or person of any age, could potentially relate to.

 

When I sent the new pages to my agent, we agreed that these words had to form the basis of a story about home from the perspectives of multiple children.

 

Everything I wrote in You Are Home is entirely heartfelt and comes directly from my own experiences and beliefs, so the story’s inspiration draws from many aspects of my life. “Home is a feeling as much as a place” would be the central message of the book.

 

When the first child’s home burns down, we watch them regain a sense of home over the course of the book, even if we don’t see them planted back inside a physical home.

 

That was incredibly cathartic for me to write, since it took me over a decade to come to that same emotional denouement, and I still grapple with the residual sense of missing “home” or not quite feeling “at home” occasionally.

 

The idea that one can find home in different places, by engaging in different activities, and through friendship and community really inspired me.

 

I wanted to express how many ways there are to experience home—how many different paths can be taken. But my very favorite is the notion that each one of us is always home. Because we can be our own homes. 

 

. . . home is something you carry close/ wherever you go, like a turtle—secure/ in its shell.

. . . And you are home.

 

Q: What do you think Andrés Landazábal’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: When I wrote the words, they were an entire world in my mind, complete with images and colors and feelings. But the moment I saw Andrés’s initial sketches, the story became ours—a collaboration where one part cannot be considered without the other.

 

I feel very fortunate to have worked with Andrés on my debut book because I know that he put just as much of himself into You Are Home as I did. Every illustration is more technically brilliant, detailed, and vibrantly colored than the last.

 

But the true beauty of Andrés’s paintings lies in the deep and varied emotions he conveys on every page. And I appreciate so much how my words and his art meld into a whole where each complements the other completely.

 

Everyone who has worked on You Are Home cares deeply about the concept and the message, and it means so much to me knowing how much love and passion has been poured into this book.

Q: How would you define the concept of home? What do you think the book says about the idea of a home?

 

A: As I couldn’t resist mentioning already, home, for me, is more of a feeling than a place. Perhaps that stems from my early loss of my physical home. But I like to believe that thinking of home as a feeling gives more flexibility.

 

 In You Are Home, depending on how you count it, there are 13 different definitions of “home”! These include home being nature, home being a book, and home being community.

 

So, rather than giving a specific definition of home, I would like to suggest that home can be anything we want it to be—anything that makes us feel “at home,” at ease, like we belong.

 

Once we stop thinking of home as a place, there is no limit to the possibilities for what home can be. And different people, places, and activities will feel like home to different people.

 

You Are Home encourages readers to expand their concept of home and also appreciate themselves as an ever-present source of home.

 

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

 

A: This is the greatest and most important question. It’s what prompted me to write picture books in the first place. I hope You Are Home lets kids know that feeling “at home” and finding one’s place in the world is difficult for everybody.

 

I vividly recall feeling “not at home” through much of my childhood, even before my home burned down. At the time, it seemed to me that I was alone in feeling that way. And I truly believe that even the most challenging situations are eased by the knowledge that others share our hardships.

 

In my own way, I have also tried to give readers a very broad guide to finding home and feeling at home through the many different ways in which home is presented throughout the book.

 

I hope kids will understand (emotionally or logically) that home can be anything they need it to be and that, at their core, they have the strength to be their own home even when it’s challenging.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: We just sent the final version of my second picture book, Floor It! (Random House Children’s), off to the printer. As I know from receiving my advance copies of You Are Home, one of the most exhilarating parts of publishing a book is holding that first hard copy.

 

And, of course, I never stop writing—coming up with new ideas, fleshing them out, and editing, editing, editing.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview with you, Deborah! This book is so close to my heart, and I’m grateful for the chance to share some thoughts on it. More about me and the book can be found on my website: www.booksbybex.com.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb