On your marks, get set…

Bex Tobin Fine is a writer of two picture books: Floor It! and You Are Home. She has also written for the PBS show Lyla in the Loop. Her past careers include solo violinist, playing with orchestras including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and voice actor in numerous animated shows such as Rolie Polie Olie and Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends. After getting her master’s degree from the University of Toronto, she taught high school English, social science, and sciences. She now spends her time writing and exploring the world near and far with her family. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

Federico Fabiani is the illustrator of two picture books: Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO and I Quit! Before fully dedicating himself to his lifelong passion of illustration, he studied architecture and worked in the creative business, doing everything from graphic design to photography. Originally from Rome, Federico now lives outside Venice with his wife and two young sons, where he is forever trying to avoid stepping on misplaced toys or Agostino, their Standard Issue Cat. You can learn more about him at his website or follow him on Instagram.

FLOOR IT! is a picture book told completely from the point of view of a toddler closest to the floor. What does that perspective look like? A race track of course! The text is a rollicking rhyme that speeds readers through the pages, while the illustrations really bring the text to life in creative ways.

Welcome Bex and Federico!

Me: You both have successful creative careers, but just in case someone isn’t familiar with your work, can you talk about your creative journeys? How did you get started and how did that lead you to the work you’re doing now with books for kids?

Bex: I’ve always loved writing, reading, and anything to do with words. I’ve been a voracious reader since I first learned to read. And from the age of six, I would fill up notebooks, detailing my thoughts and feelings about my day and life in general. But I still remember the first story I ever wrote, maybe when I was seven or so. It was about my two favorite dolls, Molly and Candy, and (so creatively!), it was called The Adventures of Molly and Candy.

I was an on-camera actor as a child and then a voice actor up until my mid-twenties. Although I’ve never noticed acting’s influence on my writing, I’m sure all that early exposure to different kinds of storytelling has had an impact. Over the years, I wrote prolifically—for school, for myself—but not many stories . . . until I discovered picture books!

When our daughter was born, we began taking piles and piles of picture books out from the library and acquired a huge collection of our own. I’m not sure who enjoyed reading the books more, myself or my daughter! It wasn’t long before I couldn’t help myself: I was writing a new picture book-esque story almost every day. At first, I had no intention of sharing anything I wrote with anyone other than my own family. But, as I continued working on the craft of picture books, I realized that there were some stories I absolutely wanted—needed—to see out there in the world. There were things I wanted to tell all children, not just my own daughter, thoughts I wanted to share, ideas I wanted to put out there. That’s what led me to reach out to my amazing agent, Sam, and that’s how I got to where I am now. Of course, the journey is never done, and I continue to work (and play) with words every single day.

Federico: I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. My dad was a terrific artist, even though he never pursued it professionally, and I grew up watching him paint at his desk every night. At school, I spent most of the time doodling in the margins of my notebooks, inventing characters or making comics about the antics of my philosophy teacher, who seemed to have a very interesting, albeit surreal, life.

When it came time to choose a career direction, I didn’t even know illustration could be a profession, so I went with something I thought could channel my creativity: architecture. Little did I know, the vast majority of the time in architecture, at least in my experience, is spent dealing with bureaucracy, legislation and clients, with little left to creativity. I spent a few years in architecture offices, but when I realised it wasn’t what I thought it would be, I started picking up some side projects in web and graphic design. That snowballed into running a small design studio together with a university buddy of mine. We did everything from branding and animation to video and photography.

One day, by chance, I read a blog post of a former client who was looking for an illustrator for a children’s book she’d written. I was about to become a dad, so the timing felt perfect, and I sent her a sketch. Long story short, she liked it, I illustrated the book, and it later got picked up by a major publisher. After that, I decided that, instead of pretending to do other things as an excuse to draw, I should maybe try and make it my career. I sent my work to Jessica Saint Jean, and she agreed to represent me. She’s been nothing but amazing, and she pulled some incredible projects – like this one – out of her magic hat.

Me: Bex, I love the concept of a baby “race car driver” told with amazing rhyme! What gave you the idea?

Bex: Thanks, Jena. That’s so kind of you to say. Well, I was watching an interview with a random picture book editor, and they said something that sparked my interest. They wanted to see a book that really featured the perspective of a baby. My mind immediately went to what a baby has most accessible to them. I remembered being a baby and I thought about when my daughter was a baby, and it occurred to me that the floor is the only thing in a baby’s space that is entirely accessible to them. They have to be lifted or carried if they want to reach anything else, but the floor is their domain entirely. I began really considering how I’d felt as a baby and focused in on my earliest memory: unable to yet speak or properly stand, I was crawling up the stairs of my childhood home when I found two paint splotches on the floor, one shaped like a bird and one shaped like a crescent moon. As I mentioned in my bio for FLOOR IT!, these felt like the most exciting discoveries imaginable. I still distinctly recall that feeling of elation in my remarkable find! And thus it was cemented that my manuscript about a baby’s perspective would have to center on the floor and how seemingly mundane objects and experiences could be the most amazing adventures for a baby.

From there, I compiled a list of regular, everyday objects that Baby would encounter and correlated them to exciting aspects of the natural world. In my first draft, months before I first shared the story with anyone, I envisioned a rug becoming a field of grass, watercolor paint turning into a waterfall, chair and table legs being a forest of trees, a sibling doing yoga becoming a bridge, and the legs of a parent standing in for a mountain, among other things. As time progressed, I added more to the art notes, filling in the blanks and giving more suggestions for how my words could become something exciting and adventurous in the art.

From my earliest draft of FLOOR IT!, there was quite a bit of car-speak in the metaphors I was using. I credit my agent with noticing that and suggesting that I ramp up the metaphor. I had so much fun adding more car and racing lingo that I ended up filling the story with it. So, funny enough, I turned Baby into a full-fledged race car driver as one of the final steps in writing the manuscript for this book.

Me: Federico, I love the way you’ve illustrated this book. Not only do you have some great perspectives, but I laughed at some of the things you included in each obstacle course. Can you talk about the medium you used to create these illustrations? Are you a traditional or digital illustrator (or a blend of both)?

Federico: Thank you! It’s always so nice to find out that readers resonate with what you spent so much time putting on paper.

I’ve always felt very comfortable with digital tools. As a kid, I’d spend hours drawing with a mouse in MS Paint at my mom’s office whenever school was out. It felt like magic to me. So when drawing tablets and iPads came along, I dove right in. My previous books were created almost entirely digitally.

For this book, though, I wanted to bring in a more natural, handmade aesthetic to balance out the surreal quality of the baby’s perspective. I usually begin with very loose sketches on paper, then refine them digitally, where I can play around with scale and composition more easily. This time, after that, I experimented with traditional media like pencils, markers, gouache, spray paint (and a bit of suminagashi, the Japanese paper marbling technique, which definitely took some practice!). I scanned all those textures and elements, then assembled and polished the final artwork in Photoshop, adding some digital details along the way. 

Me: You each approach this really fun story in unique ways. Why did each of you become involved in this project? Why did you want to share this story with young readers?

Bex: That’s such a good question. There are many points of entry for FLOOR IT!: sibling interactions, love of nature, a baby’s love for their parent, tons of car and racing imagery . . .. But what started it all is that I really wanted to champion a baby’s perspective. Often, as adults, we can forget how exciting the world is when we get wrapped up in our everyday lives. So, I really wanted to spotlight how incredibly creative children are, even when they can’t yet speak to share their incredible insights with us.

This story is also a reminder to the adults reading this aloud that our “boring,” regular world can continue to be this thrilling if we remember to notice the adventure. Our imaginations are quite possibly the most valuable commodities we own, because no two imaginations are exactly alike. It means that every single person out there has something incredibly special and individual to share with the world. And I hope in reading this book, people (adults, children, and babies!) get that reminder that they are special and that they have the unique capacity to make life into a wonderful adventure, just like Baby in FLOOR IT!

Federico: Similarly to what Bex said, I’ve always been fascinated by the way each of us perceives the world differently, and by how our emotions and state of mind can influence the way we interpret reality. We can never truly know whether others experience things in the same way we do. The way they see colours, light, or perspective might be entirely different.

What especially intrigues me is how our perception of places changes over time and how memory compresses and distorts space. For example, when you revisit your childhood school or home, everything seems much less grandiose than you remember. Or when you visit a place for the very first time, it can feel vast and full of possibilities, but once it becomes familiar, it transforms into something else entirely. I recently moved cities, so that feeling is still fresh for me, and it probably influenced the development of the art for this book.

For children, everything is new, fascinating, and sometimes intimidating. In a way, I think we spend our lives seeking to rediscover that sense of wonder. I know I do.

Me: The text and  illustrations work so wonderfully together here in this story. Bex, not only did you have to rhyme, but you had to leave things a tad bit open to interpretation. Federico, you were incredibly creative in how you interpreted some of the text. How many revisions did each of you have to make to get this story to the final product?

Bex: I’d say, “Don’t ask,” but that’s actually a fantastic question. The answer is “A huge number of revisions.” I probably did more drafts for FLOOR IT! than I’ve ever done on anything, and I’m someone who doesn’t shy away from edits in general. I don’t mind completely reworking a story, changing the perspective, the style, the focus, anything and everything. But I went crazy editing this, even before I first shared it with my agent! Leaving the words sounding open-ended wasn’t difficult at all because I’d planned the story that way from its inception. I imagined exactly what I wanted the art to say and what I wanted the words to say, and I put those ideas into the art notes or manuscript accordingly. The time-consuming part was how picky I was with the words. I would sit with my laptop and write ten different alternates for each stanza until I felt that the rhyme scheme was natural enough, that I had gotten the idea I wanted across, and that I had used enough (!) nature and then also car metaphors and terminology. Then, once my agent and then editor were involved in edits, I realized I hadn’t been picky enough! And so there were more edits to come.

It was an almost completely opposite experience to getting my first book, YOU ARE HOME (Chronicle Books, 2025), ready for the world, but I loved both experiences equally. I’m sure that two thirds of the alternate stanzas I came up with were completely unnecessary and I could have created many fewer drafts for this story. But the beauty of it was that I loved working on FLOOR IT! so much that I couldn’t help myself. I would lose track of time and have no idea that I spent hours playing with the words. And I guess that’s the clearest sign that I’m in the right field: I love writing.

Federico: There are usually a couple of rounds of preliminary sketches before we move into the final art. Because we pitched the book together, text and sample illustrations, the overall vibe of the book was pretty much already agreed upon, which I guess helps move things along. Jessica was a huge help in shaping those first few images.

I still got stuck on some pages, though, and there were a few choices I wasn’t completely sure about at first. But making a book is truly a team effort, it’s never just the work of one or two people. I feel really lucky to have worked with such a talented and experienced team. Maria Correa, our editor, and Elizabeth Tardiff, our art director, were incredibly patient and supportive, guiding me through some tricky passages. It takes a lot of the pressure off to know you’re in such good hands.

Also, seeing the illustrations on screen and holding the finished book in your hands are two completely different things. I don’t have a ton of experience with that yet (this was my third book), but the editing team does. I’m really glad I followed their guidance. Looking back, those were absolutely the right choices.

Me: Because this is a book where the illustrations both play with the text and against the text, I have to ask: how much did you work together to make the final story? Did you communicate at all? Bex, did you include art notes? Were you surprised by some of the illustrative interpretations? Federico, I love how you’ve laid out the house (with the end page maps) and were incredibly creative with solutions for the baby’s blockades in every scene. What inspired these moments (like the “snack” or the monkey toys)?

Bex: In the picture book-making landscape in general, writers and illustrators don’t work together at all. And it was the same with FLOOR IT! I wrote the entire manuscript, complete with extensive art notes, and then Federico came up with all the artwork. The only difference here is that our agents actually submitted us together. So, where the author would usually submit a manuscript and then the editor would choose an illustrator to pair with them, in this case, I wrote the manuscript, my agent shared it with Federico’s agent, he made a few illustrations, and then the editor took both of us on to make the book. But the process still followed all of the usual protocols. Our wonderful editor, Maria worked with me to complete the editing process of the manuscript, and then the art was created after that, involving the art director. I can’t speak to the rest of the process on that end, but I’m sure Federico will illuminate that.

Some people will tell you they love art notes, and others will say they detest them. I’m definitely in the former camp. Art notes are so helpful because they allow me to intentionally make room in my writing for the art to also tell the story. If I was describing everything with my words, I’m sure my art notes would be shorter or nonexistent. But because I like leaving space for the illustrator, my art notes can be extensive. When I first sent them to Federico, I think they were as long as the manuscript itself.

Despite knowing everything I’d included in the art notes, Federico still managed to surprise me, notably with that fantastically fun spread where the reader gets to look through Baby’s heads-up display (with the hilarious diaper levels and bottle levels!) . . . and with Baby’s super-cool vintage racing helmet. That, I did not expect. And I obviously love it. One thing I very much did expect and am so grateful for is the inclusion of my daughter’s favorite doll on one page. I asked, through our agents, if Federico was willing to put Sasa into FLOOR IT!, and he was so kind as to include her. So, it’s funny that to this day, we still haven’t spoken a single word to each other. But hopefully that will change at some point!

Federico: Art notes can be a tricky subject for illustrators. Sometimes they’re essential to understanding the author’s intent, and other times they just get in the way. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case here. Bex’s notes were spot on, and she made it clear they were only suggestions, so I never felt obliged to follow them (though I ended up using almost all of them, they were excellent suggestions!).

For instance, the text never explicitly mentions that the sidekick is a cat, which is a key detail in the story. I might have figured it out from the “purring engine,” but I’m not always that bright. Thankfully, that was clarified in the notes. The same goes for the fluffy rug, the yoga bridge, and other details. All wonderful inputs that I was happy to include.

Usually, I prefer to read a manuscript without art notes the first time around, so I can start forming ideas freely in my head, develop some sort of imprinting. But that’s not always possible; most manuscripts I receive already come with notes, and I’m usually too curious not to peek. Sometimes I delete the notes afterwards, just to see if I can imagine something entirely different. In this case, though, the text was so concise and non-descriptive that working without the notes would have felt like trying to solve a riddle.

As for the moments you mentioned, they weren’t difficult to picture. In fact, I hardly had to imagine them at all. I have two boys and a cat, so I just looked around my house and documented reality: the towering wooden blocks, the forest of houseplants, the daunting laundry with clothespins scattered on the floor, and the mess of painting supplies and paper rolls are all integral parts of this household. In fact, if I took a picture of our living room right now, it wouldn’t look much different from the endpapers.

Me: Do either of you have any advice for new writers and/or illustrators?

Bex: Everyone’s path is so different, but there are a few tips that I feel are universally useful. When I was first really working on my picture book writing, I read and watched a lot of interviews of writers, and many of them said to read, read, read. Not to be repetitive (but definitely to be repetitive!), I agree with them all. Reading a million recently published picture books was the most useful thing I ever did. And writing. Writing, writing, writing. Like anything, the more you practice, the more versed you get in a particular domain. There’s always so much more to learn, so no matter how much I read and write, I know that reading and writing more will always help me to hone what I create. I remember one writer telling me he absolutely hated writing and editing, and I thought that was the saddest thing ever. So perhaps that should be the one prerequisite to writing: you have to enjoy it. Just as I enjoyed writing FLOOR IT! On those days (or weeks) when I’m feeling down on myself or my writing, I try to remember that I’m doing this because I love it. And maybe that’s the best thing any of us can do. Remember that we love it, focus on the aspects that matter most to us, and find joy in the process.

Oh, and . . . you can do it! You’ve got this!

Federico: I still feel like a new illustrator, so I’m much more comfortable being on the receiving end of advice. But if there’s one thing I’ve recently started to learn – and it’s a hot topic in the illustration community – it’s not to fixate too much on style.

In fields like editorial illustration, branding, or advertising, having a distinctive, recognisable, and repeatable style can make a lot of sense. But in children’s books, the conversation feels completely different. Here, we open ourselves up more, drawing on emotions, memories, and imagination. Some of the pages in FLOOR IT! look very different from one another (like the one Bex mentioned, inside the baby’s helmet), but they serve a purpose, and that’s why I decided to keep them.

Sure, I could have made the entire book more visually and stylistically cohesive, but I find it more exciting to let go once in a while and just follow the flow of the story.

That is great advice Bex and Federico. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, this book published in September. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I highly recommend tracking down a copy. It’s a deceptively simple text with wonderful illustrations. You won’t want to miss it.