Today I get to share another picture book told from an inanimate object’s point of view: a container ship!

Kelly Rice Schmitt is an author of STEAM children’s literature. She holds a B.B.A in Finance and Chinese from the University of Notre Dame and is an advocate for girls in STEM, business, and other fields with gender gaps. She can be found in North Carolina helping other traders grow their businesses, writing for children, and exploring, singing, and creating with her husband and young children.  You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

I SHIP is the story of one container ship’s journey, yet it is really the story of shipping in general and how goods get around the world.  It’s a look at transportation that includes STEM matter that young readers are sure to love, as it’s told from a brilliant perspective (first person from the ship’s point of view).  It also has bright and vibrantly patterned illustrations by Jam Dong that are sure to draw in even the most reluctant readers. As a teacher, I would love to include this book on my classroom shelf.

Welcome Kelly!

Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey?  When did you start writing stories?  What brought you to writing picture books and this specific book?

Kelly: I have always loved writing and studying literature, but I didn’t really start writing picture books until 2015, and it wasn’t until 2018 that I really focused on building a portfolio of work.  My first-ever picture book was inspired by my younger brother’s childhood quirks. When my writing teacher chose it to read aloud and analyze for the class that week, it really gave me confidence. I dove into picture books full force. I love how they perfectly combine words with illustrations to give children a wonderful first experience of art.

Me: This is such a unique angle on shipping told from the ship’s point of view and focusing on trade.  What gave you the idea for this story?

Kelly: I SHIP was an idea I had rattling around for a long time. My background is energy supply and trading, and my first two jobs had “ship tracker” in the title.I followed ships’ movements to estimate U.S. imports and their impact on global supply balances. I knew kids would love this world.  I just needed to find a way to best tell this story.

In 2015, I had written in my idea notebook “Eric Carle’s 10 Rubber Ducks process focused on a cargo ship.” In 2019 I wrote down “Ox Cart Man meets container shipping industry.” Despite the fact that I SHIP has a lot in common with those ideas, I couldn’t make those work until 2021 when a close critique partner and I discussed writing about the ship stuck in the Suez Canal.

The second book in the series, I FUEL, releasing next year, was actually written first. When I brought an early draft of a ship story to my critique partners, they immediately said I should change it to be the ship’s voice just like my other story. It worked!

Me: Growing up on an island in Alaska, I’m very familiar with container ships like the one in your story.  You have some fascinating back matter in your book about intermodal container shipping that I didn’t know.  Was all the back matter your idea?  Or was any of it suggested by someone else (agent, editor, etc.)? 

Kelly: I am a backmatter junkie and almost always create the back matter before I submit a story. In fact, I just wrote all about back matter on Beth Anderson’s blog! For I SHIP, I wrote most of the back matter before I sold it, but then we added even more. My editor, Carol Hinz at Lerner, loves back matter too and together we added the Glossary and Jobs in Shipping and Trade. I also had some items that didn’t make it into the back matter! I had a section all about the lead up to arriving at the ship, and we decided to instead add an additional spread at the opening of the book to show it. Also, much of the Teaching and Activity Guide I created was also in my initial back matter ideas. 

Me: You have a background in energy trading, but did you still have to do a lot of research for this story?  Can you tell us a bit about that process?

Kelly: Although I have worked in international trade, I have never worked on a container ship or even gotten to be on one (yet!). So in addition to books, I scoured YouTube for content from those that work on them. I found a few amazing mariners that document their lives at sea. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with one of them, US Merchant Mariner Bryan Boyle. He helped me add some cool mariner bits to the text that I wouldn’t have thought of myself and also worked with me and the art team to ensure the art was accurate. A cool Easter Egg in the book is the hawk on the spread with the shipping traffic jam. It was based on a photo of a real hawk that flew aboard during load in Savannah and stayed with the ship all the way to Belgium!

Me: I love that you included a size references to the ship (big compared to us, little compared to the sea) which I felt perfectly foreshadowed the climax of the story.  I also loved the current events referenced in your story(i.e., the Panama Canal blockage).  Was your story always this tightly written?  How many revisions did you have to make to get to this state?

Kelly: Thank you so much, I love those themes in this book! The first draft my editor saw that later went to an R&R was actually solely focused on imagining the plight of the EVERGIVEN ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021. It was her idea to make the book more broadly about shipping in general. But the sections you mentioned were mostly unchanged from the first time I sent the revision to her. 

I looked through my folders and I think the final version went through 25+ different versions before it landed as is. Some were minor changes, and others trying a different approach. Most of them were going back and forth with my amazing critique partners who really help me make every word the best it can be. They know my voice and can see things I miss that may be a missed opportunity. I love feeling confident when I hit that “send” button to my agent or editor!

Me: Jam Dong’s illustrations in this book are absolutely wonderful.  I loved the textures and bright colors!  I think the picture with the whales is one of my favorites.  Did you have any illustration surprises?  Any favorite illustrations?

Kelly: I love all of Jam’s work and she has such playful surprises. Adding the hawk mentioned above was a lovely surprise. I also loved seeing all the different objects she chose to fill the ship, including a copy of our book! I also really love the spreads when the ship gets rerouted, how that makes the crew feel, and when they hit the storm!

Me: I saw that you already have news of another book in this series: I FUEL.  Congratulations!  Was this book pitched as a series from the beginning?  Or did that come about from successful sales, etc.?  Any other books we can look forward to from you?

Kelly: Thank you so much– as creators know, it’s a lot of work to make a book. It’s really great to celebrate our stories as much as we can once they start becoming tangible objects! As I mentioned earlier, I FUEL, about the formation and use of the energy that powers our busy world, was actually written first. I felt that I SHIP was more commercial though, and brought it to a conference where I met my editor. At the conference I mentioned that I had another companion story. When I later received my verbal offer for I SHIP, she asked to also see I FUEL, and we ended up with a 2-book deal! It was so exciting. Since then, the series has grown to include even more STEM books told in the first person that will be coming out over the next few years. In addition to this Lerner series, I also have another forthcoming STEM informational fiction picture book from Knopf Books For Young Readers that is also not yet announced.

Congratulations!  They all sound wonderful.  Thank you for stopping by my blog today Kelly.

Dear readers, if you haven’t yet had a chance to read this book, I highly recommend tracking it down.  This is an incredible example of first person point of view grabbing the reader’s attention to convey nonfiction information in an engaging way.