It’s time to sharpen those pencils! School is back in session!

Dasha Tolstikova has written and/or illustrated many books for young readers, including The Jacket, a New York Times Notable Children’s Book, and A Year Without Mom, which Kirkus praised in a starred review as “fascinating and heartfelt.” She is honored to be illustrating the fourth book in Amy Schwartz’s 100 Things series. As a friend and fan of Schwartz’s, Tolstikova hopes she has imbued this book with both the reverence and humor it deserves. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

100 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT SCHOOL is a picture book dedicated to school. It’s written in a list format by the late Amy Schwartz who sadly passed away before it was finished. However, the project was picked up and brilliantly illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova. Seriously! How does she manage to pull out a whole scene and characters from a running list of words?

Welcome Dasha!

Me: You are a prolific and talented author and illustrator. 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?

Dasha: First of all, thank you so much for having me on and asking all these questions! I’ve talked about this a bit over the years, but my journey to picture book making has been both very convoluted and entirely straightforward—in that I’ve wanted to make books that told stories since I was a small child and did not get into it professionally until my mid-thirties, after trying out a few other careers. I would like to think that the stories I want to make are for the child I was and continue to be, including this latest book, 100 Things I Love About School. I did not go to primary school in the US, so working on this book I learned so much about the different activities kids get to do—I really wished I could go to this school and get to do all the things!

Me: 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?

Dasha: For this project I did digital sketches, but then all of the final art was done by hand with graphite and watercolors. It was very interesting to me to try to balance my own way of making art, while also trying to match the look of the previous books Amy had done. It was a real pleasure really leaning into the cuteness and the outfits of the characters.

Me: I was sad to hear that Amy Schwartz had passed away. Yet I understand that you were friends. How did you come to be involved in the project as an illustrator?

Dasha: Amy and I belonged to a children’s book creators group in Brooklyn and saw each other regularly. I was and am a big fan of Amy’s delightful work and of her as a person and her passing was very sad for me, as well. I was very honored to be asked to illustrate this book and wanted to make sure I did my best to preserve the specialness of the series.

Me: How did it feel to illustrate her work? Were there a lot of notes of what she had envisioned, or were you creating from scratch?

Dasha: There was a final text, a first rough sketch layout, and a teeny bit of research—which was an incredibly helpful place to start. Once I started working, I expanded a lot on both the characters and the research, as well as moved some things around.

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

Dasha: I learned a bunch of new games! For instance, I had no idea what “parachute” was, in the context of elementary school and my editor was surprised to get a sketch of little kids coming down with teeny parachutes.

Another surprise—or maybe more accurately a challenge—was having to come up with roughly 200 different outfits for the children in this book. While working on it, I came up with a tiny backstory for every single one of them, in order to figure out who they were and what would make sense for them to wear.

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

Dasha: I really love the dancing page! But also the snow day!

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

Dasha: If you are enthusiastic about the subject matter you are working on—your readers will be too! When you pick up a book at the store or library I think it’s very clear when creators are really into their story and process, and when they are not. And kids can tell. So, if you are working on something and for some reason you are not excited about it—maybe put it away and find something else you absolutely must work on.

That is great advice. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today Dasha.

Dear readers, this book published in July, but it’s the perfect back-to-school picture book. If you’re looking for fun school reads to include in the classroom or to get young readers excited about school, this is the one. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!