Have you ever played the lucky leaf game in Fall?

Laura Smetana has visited my blog before. She is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. Her author-illustrated book, My Love for You Is Like a Garden, is a joyful celebration of unconditional love with bold, watercolor collages of garden scenes and received a starred Kirkus review. Laura is also the author of Ice Cream with Grandpa: A Loving Story for Kids About Alzheimer’s & Dementia (illustrated by Elisabete B. P. de Moraes), which was winner of a Northern Lights Book Award, and Little Squiggle’s Lake Adventure, which she co-authored with her son, Stirling Hebda. When she isn’t writing or painting, Laura can be found talking to kids at school author visits, gardening in her sunhat, and spending time with her family outdoors. Laura lives in the Chicago suburbs with her family. She is a member of SCBWI and the Downers Grove Artists’ Guild. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on BlueSky.

MY LUCKY LEAF is a picture book all about Fall and what better topic for the season than leaves. All sorts of leaves are falling, but can you catch one before it hits the ground? Crayon rubbings of leaves populate illustrations full of texture. This is both a lovely Fall read about a fun game, as well as a way to learn about different types of leaves.

Welcome Laura!

Me: I love the idea of a lucky leaf!  Where did the idea for this picture book come from?

Laura: It all started several years ago when my family and I went on a hike in the Chicago suburbs to admire the fall colors. As the leaves fell from the trees, we started playing a game to see who could catch a leaf before it hit the forest floor. We spent the rest of the afternoon jumping through the forest trying to catch lucky leaves and making wishes on the ones we caught. At the time I wanted to make a book that celebrated the joys and beauty of fall, but I was still searching for inspiration. Catching leaves that afternoon eventually inspired the story for My Lucky Leaf. 

Me: I understand that you use cut-paper watercolor collage for your illustrations. I don’t recall leaf rubbings in your other book we talked about. Can you talk about the media you used to illustrate this book?

Laura: To create the collages, I started by watercoloring sheets of paper the colors of each leaf collected. For example, for the red maple leaves, I watercolored several sheets of mixed media paper red. Then I placed the red maple leaves I collected under the watercolored paper, rubbed over each leaf with a red crayon, and carefully cut each leaf out. Initially I experimented without leaf rubbing, but I wanted to make sure the veins in each leaf were accurate, so I tried crayon rubbing and I loved the result. For several months, I continued that process and by the end of the year, I had made hundreds of leaves.

Me: Wow! What a great idea. Can you tell us a bit about your research process?  How long did it take you to research all the leaves that you included in this book? Did that inform your writing before you drafted this manuscript?

Laura: It took a long time to finish the research for this book and to confirm that everything was accurate—in total over three years! It started when I began collecting fallen leaves. I knew I wanted to include a tree identification aspect in whatever book I made, so I prioritized collecting fallen leaves from trees that had a tag or plaque with that information. I cataloged each leaf collected, noting when and where I collected them, and pressed them under large books to flatten and dry them. After I finished each watercolored leaf, I wrote down the tree identification information on the back so I could note that in the manuscript. Some trees go by a few different names, so for those instances and for a few others where I needed some extra help, I sought guidance from the experts at The Morton Arboretum.

Me: As both author and illustrator, were there parts of the process that were more work to do? How many revisions did it take to get your manuscript to this final state? Did it go through many revisions or was this a gift of the Muse (i.e., good from the first draft)?

Laura: Collecting leaves and making the watercolored leaves was by far the biggest and most daunting part of the process! By the time I decided on the story, I had already collected and watercolored hundreds of leaves. I had a rough outline, but I wanted to make sure that visually there was a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes of leaves between pages. So instead of writing the manuscript first, I built the book, leaf by leaf, onto large sheets of blank paper—going back and forth between each page and my stacks of painted leaves. Afterwards I wrote the text underneath on small scraps of paper, then I added in the girl jumping through the pages. I revised the illustrations and manuscript over the course of several years based on feedback from critique groups, industry professionals at conferences, and my editor.

Me: I love the back matter in this book! I love that you included even MORE info about the many varieties of leaves, as well activities that young readers can do. Did you have to do a lot of research for this section? Or was that all first-hand knowledge?

Laura: Thank you! I always love including more information so readers can learn more. At a minimum I wanted to include a glossary of all the leaves that were in the book, since not all of them are named in the story. During the revisions, the backmatter grew to include a glossary, an art note, fun activities with fall leaves, and a note about the lucky leaf in the book. I ended up choosing a white oak leaf because it’s the official state tree of Illinois where I live. After doing some research I learned that Illinois schoolchildren selected it as the state tree, so I decided to include a brief overview of that history. That took a while to research, but the fun activities with leaves came from first-hand experience when I worked at a preschool. Making leaf art is always a fall favorite!

Me: Can you talk a little bit about how your book came to be published at Flying Cardinal Press? Did you submit your manuscript many places or were they your first yes? Or did it somehow catch their eye in some other way?

Laura: I had submitted my manuscript for many years and received positive feedback from agents and editors along the way, but they said that it wasn’t right for their list or they had another book about fall already. After hearing from classroom teachers, librarians, and art teachers at school visits that they could really use My Lucky Leaf with their students to teach about leaf identification, the changing seasons, and for art lessons, I decided to publish through my own small independent press, Flying Cardinal Press. I’m proud to share that since its founding, we’ve received several awards and accolades, including a starred Kirkus Review and a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. Just like a tree shedding its leaves, we only have so much time to share our stories, and I’m so happy My Lucky Leaf is finally in the hands of readers.

Me: What is one thing that surprised you in creating this book?

Laura: I have always loved fall, but before making this book I had never taken the time to learn the names of all the trees I saw on my fall color walks. Now when I see a tree I can identify, it’s like seeing an old friend—hello red maple, hello catalpa, hello white oak. Creating My Lucky Leaf inspired me to keep learning. Now, when I learn the names of trees I don’t know yet, it is like meeting a new friend. I was also surprised at how creating the book allowed me to slow down and really observe and admire the beauty of each fall leaf. They are truly works of art. I hope readers feel that same sense of awe and wonder at the beauty of fall as they read My Lucky Leaf, and I hope it inspires them to learn more about trees they meet along the way.

Aww! I love that. Thank you for stopping by my blog today Laura.

Dear readers, this book published in September. If you haven’t yet had a chance to read it and you’re looking for a great Fall book to add to your collection, this one is perfect. Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!