Winter is coming.  *shudder* And yet, all those snowy picture books come with it too, full of comfort like hot soup on a cold day.

photo by Antoine De Winter

Marine Schneider is a Belgian author and illustrator who lives in Brussels. Her works include the picture books Life and I, I Am Life, and The Path (all Little Gestalten) and the board books Little Bear, Baby Bear and Big Bear, Little Bear (both Abrams). A traveler at heart, she loves wandering through snowy landscapes—alone or with company. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

HIRO, WINTER, AND MARSHMALLOWS is a story about a bear who doesn’t want to stay inside all winter long and sleep.  She’s too curious about this winter she’s heard so much about.  Hiro sets out and finds a fire briefly surrounded by humans roasting marshmallows.  She sits down to have a deeply thoughtful conversation with one brave little boy.  This story is wonderfully introspective with a gorgeous color palette.  It so beautifully captures a sleepy surreal quality in a fresh illustration style that it will have readers returning to it again and again just to recall it, before it disappears like the wisps of a dream you want to remember.

Please note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review, but the opinions, as always, are my own.

Welcome Marine!

Me: Can you share about your artistic journey? When did you start creating art?  How did that bring you to where you are now as an author and illustrator of this book?

Marine: Very early on, when I was about 4 or 5, I told my parents that I wanted to make children’s books when I grew up. I am not sure if I knew what it meant, that there was a writer and an illustrator involved, but I knew someone had to be making the books that I was reading and loving so much, and I wanted to create my own.

Of course, like all children do, I changed my mind a lot. When I was 18, I had to choose what I wanted to study at university, and I decided to go with graphic design. I think that in my mind, being an illustrator was a dream that could never come true, so I chose the “safer” path with graphic design, something I thought could give me a “real” job. But after a few months studying at university, I realized I absolutely did not want to become a graphic designer, and furthermore, I wasn’t ready to start my studies quite yet. I decided to set off on an adventure that would be the best decision of my life and one that would open the door to become the person and the artist I am now.

I left everything I knew to spend a year (it ended up being three!) in Colorado. A lot of things happened there, but most important is that I got to know myself a lot better. And when I came back to Belgium, I decided that I really wanted to be an illustrator and to study illustration. During my studies, I set off on another adventure to study abroad in Norway, where I met my first publisher. And the rest is history. 

Me: I love the idea of a bear (Hiro) who is curious about winter, but I never would have imagined her meeting a boy (Émile) along her journey.  What gave you the idea for this story?

Marine: It’s actually inspired by a real-life story! I was hiking in Colorado, not far from a friend’s house, and as we were talking, a bear slowly walked in front of us. It was so close that it felt like we could see each other blinking. Luckily, nothing happened, the bear moved away, and we kept on walking. Actually, we rushed back to my friend’s house because I had been so scared. He was from Colorado, so meeting a bear was not as spectacular.

That meeting really stuck with me, and when Versant Sud (the original publisher of Hiro) asked me to make a book for them and told me I could tell anything that I wanted, I decided to talk about that experience. Why do we always separate beings, whether it be human or animal? How can we find ways to coexist on the same planet? 

Me: You have illustrated quite a few books at this point in your career.  This is your debut as both author and illustrator.  What made you want to write a story to illustrate on your own?  Was it hard for you to write, instead of just illustrating?

Marine: I always wanted to write and illustrate, but the writing was quite intimidating for me. Maybe because I had studied illustration in school, and we didn’t have writing classes or anything. It was more like a self-taught discipline. I have always read a lot, and I believe you learn a lot by reading other people’s writing, but nobody ever told me “your writing is good” or “here is where you could improve.” I never had classes on how to write a good scenario, so it was intimidating at first. Especially because Versant Sud told me, “Write anything you want. Make the book you want to make.” When you can make anything and everything, it’s so hard to settle on “what do I want to say? What do I have to say?” Once I started to write, I realized I enjoyed it a lot. I love playing with the words and the language, making them sound good in the mouth, because I write picture books to be read aloud. The more I write, the more I love it, and now I am completely addicted. I would say that I like to write as much as I like to draw.

Me: What did your illustration process for this book look like?  Are you a traditional or a digital artist?  Or do you use a blend of both?  Can you talk a little bit about your process?

Marine: I am completely traditional! I have never learned to use Photoshop or Illustrator or anything like that, and I have to say that I love to have my hands dirty and paint stains on my clothes when I work ; ) It’s such a pleasure for me to play with colors on actual paper!

When I started to work on Hiro, I wrote the scenario, but it ended up changing a lot as the illustrations came about. I sketched a rough storyboard in my sketchbook, and when I was satisfied with the rhythm, the composition of the images, I started to draw. I don’t do sketches on the final sheet. I paint directly. I don’t do outlines then color them in. I paint as a painter would, layer by layer. For this project, I was really attracted to light and how to convey the atmosphere of the book though the changing of the light. I used mostly gouache, acrylic paint, colored pencil, and pastel.

Me: I love the questions Émile asks of Hiro and that they bond over marshmallows.  They are both nervous and shy, and yet they remain to talk.  Why is this an important message you want to share with young readers?

Marine: I wanted to keep it very sweet and simple and cute, but as you said, they talk about important stuff. What does it mean to be human, to feel human? How does it differ from being an animal?

Hiro is as scared but also as curious of Émile as Émile is of Hiro. I thought it was a beautiful idea to show young readers it’s important to talk to know each other, and that because someone might look different doesn’t mean they actually are. And what a gift it is to share our differences and find things that unite us. I used an animal and a human to make it more obvious, but it could also be a meeting between two humans.

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

Marine: Keep looking, seek inspiration in other media than your own (I look at painters, photographers, sculptors, and I read philosophy, anthropology), then blend all that inspires you to make your images. Try a lot of mediums to see what fits your way of drawing the best. Don’t hesitate to blend the mediums and don’t look for your style. It’ll come to you if you work, work, work!

For writers, start with a subject matter that is close to you, because that’s what you know the best. Then use your imagination and your inner voice to make a story that can resemble something we have read before but still feels refreshing and somewhat new, because it’s your own voice and you are the only one who has it!

Me: Any other projects we can look forward to seeing from you in the future?

Marine: I want to tell a long story, so I am thinking that my next book will be a graphic novel — still for children, but longer, divided in chapters, with many characters. So exciting, but totally new territory for me, so it might take a while.

That sounds interesting!  Thank you for stopping by my blog Marine.

Dear readers, this book was released just last week.  If you haven’t had a chance yet to check it out, I highly recommend it.  Curiosity and bravery abound in a winter story full of light.  You won’t want to miss it!