Have you ever wondered how an amazing picture book is created? It takes a village and this picture book celebrates every person who helps to create them.

Elisha Cooper is an author-illustrator who received a Caldecott Honor for Big Cat, Little Cat, and his following book River won the 2020 Robin Smith Picture Book Prize. Dance!, one of his earlier books, was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and Beach won the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. In 2016, he was awarded a Sendak Fellowship. His essays and sketchbooks have appeared in the sports section of the New York Times. Cooper lives with his wife, daughters, and cats in New York City. You can learn more about him at his website or follow him on Instagram.

HERE IS A BOOK is a picture book about how books are made, but it’s SO much more than that. It’s a lovely piece of art, a poem, and an homage to artists, authors, editors, art directors, publishers, and readers. It’s all these things and more. It starts with an artist and we get to see her in her small seaside cottage. We see her making art and growing plants and doing what she does. Then she takes her art to a town and we too get to join her work on a journey. The journey follows the work to its physical form, but also goes beyond. I don’t want to spoil anything, but this book is probably one of the most beautiful summations I’ve ever seen of the publishing process and how books are made. It doesn’t go into every finite detail and machine, but it follows the heart and soul we all hope will happen with the creation process.

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

Welcome Elisha!

Me: I can’t imagine anyone isn’t familiar with your work, but just in case they aren’t, can you tell us a little bit about your artistic journey?  When did you start drawing and/or painting (and/or writing)?  How did that lead to where you are now as the author-illustrator of this book?

Elisha: Hmm, “artistic journey.” That phrase sounds very Love Island, which has been fantastic this season, though the last episodes….

But! To answer your question. I think I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I mean, I don’t remember ever not drawing. I grew up on a farm in New England, with cows, goats, barn cats. I drew animals constantly. And I read constantly, on a porch at the top of a hill. It was a pretty good upbringing for a children’s book author, though I suppose I’m saying that in hindsight. So when I thought about writing a book about a book, I had those years of reading and drawing to ground me. And, I had the experience of writing books, being inside the bookmaking process for all my adult life, so here was the fun chance to turn the lens — the pencil really — onto what I do.

Me: I love the watercolor paintings you did for this book, from the full spreads, to each little vignette.  Can you talk about that process a little bit?  Are you mainly a traditional artist? Or do you also utilize digital tools for clean-up?

Elisha: I’m untraditional, and untrained! Like my cat. What I mean to say is, I never went to art school, though I took enough classes in high school to know stuff like perspective. My style is rough. And my process has always been about the process, which is why a book about making a book was so on-point. The process was my usual one, from researching to painting. For the artist’s home I sketched landscapes around Truro, Cape Cod. For the library and city, I sketched around New York. Then I storyboarded in cafés, painted at my desk here in Manhattan, taped the watercolors on my wall and…

…but you know what? I’m lying. Or, shading the truth. As I typed the word “untrained” above I thought about how my first job after college was in the art department at the New Yorker. That was pretty good training. And over the course of writing almost thirty books I’ve worked with some amazing editors and designers at Scholastic, Macmillan, Abrams. All their craft, all their knowledge about bookmaking, has rubbed off on me. I’ve taken from them. I couldn’t be more trained, more fortunate to have been immersed in the traditions of art and books. And my grandmother was a painter. So don’t believe anything I say, except this last sentence.

Me: This is such a beautiful book. The artwork feels as if it could leap off the page, the lyrical text just flows along with such love. It’s quite the homage to every person involved in publishing. The book feels both similar to previous books, like RIVER, and completely different from anything you’ve ever done. Why was it important to you to create this book about books?

Elisha: Oh, thank you. That makes me happy to know the book had that affect. I think that the whole point of art is, if we’re lucky, to affect others. And the weird paradox of art is that we first affect ourselves. We fall in love, with a word or an idea. I find that if I’m working alone at my desk, and I’m smiling about a sentence or a drop of watercolor, that smile will eventually land on a reader’s face, in another place and another time.

And, I love books. It was important to approach the subject with reverence. I felt some responsibility, a little pressure. I mean, a book about a book better be a good book! This was a commentary on what I’ve been doing for the last thirty years.

The structure of the book was essential, foundational. The foundation was words. These building block words, arranged in a pretty careful way, that had to land right even as they describe the messy process of making books: rhythm, teamwork, beauty, structure. I really worked those sentences. Tried to craft their construction with deliberation, because this is a book about us. All of us who make books, who love books. Artists, editors, librarians, booksellers, readers.

Me: I adore all of the picture books you’ve references in the spread towards the end at the child reader’s house. I recognize most of them, but there may be one or two where I can only see a tiny snippet of them that I can’t. Is there a cheat sheet somewhere of what books you’re referencing here? Are they the same you referenced in the cover you did for the Yale Alumni magazine a few years ago? Why did you pick the books you ended up painting in this spread?

Elisha: So glad you liked that spread! I had fun with that one. I included books and authors, from Maurice Sendak to David Macaulay, that I had loved growing up. I also put in books and authors who I’ve come to admire during the years I’ve worked in children’s books — Grace Lin, Doug Salati, Jessica Love. And you’re right, there are hidden ones, little snippets. By my count I painted 18 books. Some obvious, some less so. Any overlap with that Yale Alumni magazine cover are just because these are the guys I love. There’s no cheat sheet, but for anyone who wants, they can look at the spread in the book and write me. If they identify all 18 correctly — and no one has so far — I’ll send them something silly.

Me: Ohh! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I adore pictures that go on and on like the one you have on the back cover. And the picture you have under the cover is a clever inclusion as well for a book like this. Were those illustration choices you made from the beginning, or did they come about from the suggestion of an agent/editor/Art Director? 

Elisha: Both of those ideas — the telescoping image on the back cover, and the case with “book” written on the spines in every language — were mine (all mine! he said humbly!!). But I am proud of these ideas. They came right at the end of making the book. I’m super thankful to my art director and editor for saying yes. Though they did look at me a little funny when I first suggested them: you want to do WHAT? Most importantly, they made it happen: the back cover had tricky sizing issues that needed digital help (thank you, Pamela), and the translations needed careful double-checking (thank you Emma, and the excellent Abrams interns).

Me: What is one thing that surprised you in creating and/or illustrating this story?

Elisha: I was surprised when BTS, the K-Pop supergroup, came to my studio and serenaded me while I painted. That was surprising. I was also surprised when my cat told me, in French, that one of my paintings was no good: Regarde! Ton aquarelle n’est pas bonne. Okay, neither of those things happened, though I do believe cats speak French. I’m deflecting, because I don’t know if there was anything exactly surprising with this book. I knew where I was going; I just had to do the work to get there. Which doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard — there were days when I tore up everything I did, when I was flattened afterwards next to my desk. And there were days that were transcendent, when I learned something I hadn’t known about blue. But mostly it was just good work, making the book, “bird by bird.” Which, given the book’s subject, felt appropriate.

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

Elisha: Nope, none. I resist questions like this because what is true for me may not be true for others. Artistic journeys (again, Love Island!) are varied and meandering. But if pressed I would say this— go to bookstores, libraries, museums. Sit, look. What do you like? What do you not like? Be judgmental. Borrow. Carry a sketchbook. Ride the subway, look at your fellow humans, look at dogs. Draw everywhere. Weather disappointment, because it will come, to all of us. Be kind to yourself. Think about what makes you smile, don’t think about what others like. Lastly, fall in love. That’s easier said than done, I know, but fall in love with what you make. Be a little cocky. I was just up at the Metropolitan Museum, checking out the John Singer Sargent show and his early paintings in Paris. And you could sort of tell when Sargent really loved something he’d done — a dash of light, the edge of a lapel — and I could imagine him alone in his studio thinking, “Dude, nailed that.” I mean, if that’s how people thought in Paris in the 1880s, which I think they did. My cat told me.

Ha! I love that. Je pense que les chats parlent aussi francais! Thank you Elisha for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, this book was published in April. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I highly recommend it. If you are any form of bibliophile or picture book lover , it’s a MUST read. Trust me when I say that you won’t want to miss it.