NPM 2024 Day 1 & Simply 7 with Lita Judge: BLESS OUR PETS

Today is the first day of April, aka National Poetry Month and I have a very special interview to start it off.

Lita Judge is a poet, writer, and illustrator of many children’s books, including Dogs (Abrams), Red Sled (Atheneum), The Wisdom of Trees, and Homes in the Wild (both Roaring Brook). Her books have received numerous starred reviews and have appeared on best-of-year lists from Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and the New York Public Library. Lita lives in New Hampshire, where she used her own pets-as well as friends’ pets and family photos-as models for this book’s art. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

BLESS OUR PETS is the last picture book poetry anthology edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins.  *sob*  Here is a wonderful collection of poems by a wide range of familiar names (Ann Whitford Paul, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Charles Ghingna, Lois Lowry, Lee Bennett Hopkins himself, etc.) all about the pets they know, love, and are forever grateful for.  The range of animals is just as wide, as is the style of the poems themselves.  Some are prayers, some are love songs, and some are hilarious.

Today I interview the illustrator of this book: Lita Judge.  I have been a fan of her work for a few years now (I can’t remember how many) and I was delighted to be able to talk with her about this collection.  Please note: I was also given a copy of the book to review by the publisher (Eerdmans Books), but as always, the opinions are all mine.

Welcome Lita!

Me: You are a prolific (and talented!) author and illustrator.  I can’t imagine there is anyone who doesn’t already know your work, but just in case, would you mind telling us about your artistic journey? When did you start creating art and/or writing?  How did that bring you to illustrating this book? 

Lita: I didn’t grow up thinking I’d become an artist and a writer. I got a degree in geology and worked on paleontology digs when I was young. But as a child I was surrounded by nature. My mother kept a nature sketch journal, which inspired me to keep one as well. And my grandparents were biologists. I spent summers working alongside them in the field, recording my observations on birds in my journal.

Though I wasn’t thinking of art as a career, the pages of my journals was where I learned to see (so important for becoming both a writer and artist) and record my ideas. Eventually, as an adult, I realized I loved creating art even more than being a scientist so I began painting for galleries. But I always kept the habit of keeping a sketch journal and eventually I realized I wanted to create full stories rather than individual paintings.

My first book, One Thousand Tracings, came out in 2007. It is a true story inspired by my grandparent’s. I knew I wanted to keep writing, so my second book, Born to be Giants, was about dinosaurs, inspired by my work on paleontology digs. My first fiction book, Red Sled, came soon after and was actually inspired by a journal I kept when I was a child. From then till today, I rely on my journal as my memory palace, preserving ideas and thoughts and allowing me space to creatively play until I see the next book develop from the pages. 

Much of my work is inspired by nature and features animals. I’m also a lifelong lover of animals and have had many pets so illustrating this book was a natural fit for me.

Me: Your animals are always adorable, but in this book they look SO soft and cuddly!  Can you talk about your art process for this book?  Did you use traditional media or digital, or a blend of both?  What made you decide to use this medium for this book?

Lita: I start all of my illustrations by just drawing and learning how each animal looks. I draw them in as many different poses as possible, sometimes working from life, other times from photos, depending on what is practical. Once I really get to know an animal, I can start thinking about poses that work for the illustrations, focusing on how to build the emotions I want to convey. In this case, how to depict the bonds between the pets and their people often times.

I work with traditional methods of watercolor and colored pencils. I may do some planning with digital, but I never do final art that way. I just prefer the feel of pencil on paper or a brush in my hand. I love the way a watercolor wash will surprise me when I’m working, or the slow process of building color through lots of layers of paint and pencils. I don’t think I could ever give up on traditional methods.

Me:  It makes me so sad that this is the last poetry picture book from Lee Bennett Hopkins, and yet, it has his fingerprints all over it.  How did it feel to illustrate a collection of poetry like this as a fellow poet yourself?

Lita: It was a huge honor! I am such a fan of Lee’s work and admire him as a person. I was lucky enough to meet him at my first conference, I think it was ALA. He was so kind and warm hearted and we had a wonderful conversation. It felt like a big responsibility to work on his last book, but also a huge blessing because I could sense all the love he put into his work.

Me:  Were there any surprises for you in illustrating this book?

Lita: There are always surprises when illustrating but I think this one was especially so because I was illustrating words written by other poets. I usually illustrate my own books, and the illustrations come before the words when I’m creating a book. So to illustrate others’ work seemed at first like it might be restrictive. But the poems were so simple, and yet rich that there were wonderful different paths I could take to create the art. It was a lot of fun and I’d love to do more illustration for other writers.

Me: I love your illustrative approach to every single poem.  Was your art this polished from the beginning of the project?  Or were there pieces that went through many revisions? 

Lita: My art never starts off polished. Revision is a huge part of all my work. I always think of early sketches as the “getting to know the book” stage. By drawing, I’m learning about the topic and the animals or characters, but also exploring the look of a book. I try to keep it playful until I have a plan. And then I need to really focus and learn how to draw every animal and character. That is a lot of hard work and trial and error. Once the drawings are good, then I have to play with color and light. I often paint an illustration several times to get all of that just right. It’s really no different than writing – many drafts go into it.

Me:  What was your favorite illustration that you created for this book? 

Lita: So many fun ones to choose from! I used my own pets as models for many of the illustrations. For that reason I’m particularly fond of the poem, Mouse Dreams, by Lois Lowry. It depicts my own little mouse, Pantalaimon. He was a rescue mouse I raised from a tiny hairless pup who needed care after his nest was disturbed. Pan lived a very long life on my desk in an aquarium, though he spent much of his life sleeping in my sleeve. He’s in many of my books, and was still alive when I painted him for this book.

I also used photos of my very first bird, Tweetie, for the poem, A Prayer for a Parakeet, by Ralph Fletcher. Tweetie and I visited my grandparents a lot, who because of their work as biologists, shared their home with eagles, hawks, and owls. Though Tweetie was small in size, being a little blue budgie, she was large in spirit. She spent much of her life perched on my shoulder, never minding she was so petite compared to all the other birds around her.

But perhaps my favorite illustration is Dreaming of Savannah, by Kristine O’Connell George, because it is a poem about a horse, one of the few animals in this book I never had as a pet. Sometimes illustrations let you live out something vicariously and it was so fun creating the illustration while imagining riding a horse under a star strewn sky.

Me: Any advice for new picture book writers, poets, and/or illustrators?

Lita: Write and draw and read and look at art, and write and draw and read and look some more! And then do it even more!! I think it is very easy to focus on the end goal, holding a book in your hands that you have created. But give yourself time to explore and play and learn before publishing. I think all those years when I was working in my journal, without any intention of publishing gave me loads of practice and time to develop a unique voice. When I did finally decide to write an actual book, it got published by the first publisher that saw it. People told me, “You were so lucky to get published so quickly!” But it wasn’t quick. It had followed years of work, writing and drawing nearly every day of my life. It gave me a daily practice of working. It allowed me to find my own techniques and to develop my own voice.

I love that!  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today Lita.

Dear readers, this book will be released on April 16.  You won’t want to miss it.

And if you’re looking for more poetry fun this month, be sure to check out the Kidlitosphere Event Roundup!  Thank you for stopping by!