Will the other farm animals finally agree to go on an adventure with the bravest chicken of them all?
Priscilla Burris is the illustrator and author-illustrator of many books for children. She attributes her love of children’s books and library visits to the East Los Angeles Library. Priscilla loves her role of creating characters and stories for readers everywhere. She lives in sunny Arizona, where she finds the sunrises and sunsets awe-inspiring. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.
SABRINA SUE THE EPIC ADVENTURE is the first picture book with this spunky chicken, but it’s not the first book with her. Sabrina Sue has been a Simon Spotlight Ready-to-Read early reader series. She has traveled to the sea, the city, mountains, and space, but the other farm animals always try to convince her to stay home. So when she invites them to go on an adventure with her, will they travel with her and see that it’s not so scary?
Welcome Priscilla!
Me: Can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey? When did you start writing and/or creating art? How did that lead to where you are now as the author-illustrator of this book?
Priscilla: My creative journey began first as an illustrator, drawing and doodling as a very young child whenever I could find space on a surface such as the backs of old letterhead paper being tossed, and the margin spaces of printouts I was supposed to be studying for my classes at school. My daydreaming and doodling eventually led me to writing story ideas and developing characters for those stories.
It was when I was taking a college class for Early Childhood Education that the ‘light bulb’ went off in my head! When it was announced that our Final Project for that class was to write and illustrate a children’s book my heart skipped a beat and I think I gasped out of pure joy. I grew up right across the street from a public library which was my second home, especially the children’s section. I had just never considered there was a career choice of creating those beloved children’s books, until this Final Project was assigned. I knew then what I wanted to do with my life.
Me: Can you talk about your illustration process a little bit? Are you mainly a traditional artist, a digital artist, or a combination of both these days?
Priscilla: Love this question! Currently, I am primarily a digital artist. However, I continue to create images using a combination of traditional mediums and finishing them digitally. One of my favorite ‘tools’ is a soft #2 pencil. I will often create the line work using this pencil, and then with my hands and fingers I will smudge the lines here and there before scanning in to paint with digital brushes. I love trying new ways to create images from all kinds of tools, creating the textures that want to be there.
Depending on the book project I am working on, and the deadlines I always pay close attention to, I will either use digital brushes that I know will be just what the stories and characters call for, or with an allowance of time I may experiment with using traditional and digital mediums in creating images that are a great fit for the project.
Me: I love Sabrina! She’s such a great character. And every single animal here is adorable! What gave you the idea for this book?
Priscilla: Thank You SO much!! This means a lot to me!
Sabrina Sue began as a chicken doodle that kept showing up on my sketch and doodle pages from way back in 2012 or so! I didn’t know her name yet, although her personality was developing into this spunky, sassy, sometimes bossy, silly chicken character. In 2012 I created an image that was a combination of a photo of a book store’s children’s picture book shelf, with this chicken doodle cut-out and photoshopped onto the image with a speech bubble of her (yelling in a whiny voice), “And where are the books about ME?”
In 2015 I superimposed this chicken cut-out (sitting) onto a photo of wooden fence out in the country in a meadow, just looking out into the distance and this is what I wrote:
“Oh, I am just a spring chicken with big dreams of the sea. Is it as sandy and salty as I have heard it can be? Can you really see forever, and will the waves welcome me? Sabrina Sue sang her heart out most Monday mornings.”
This is when she introduced herself to me. I firmly believe when we write or illustrate characters that keep popping up, showing up on our pages, they will introduce themselves, their name and tell their stories. In other words, I never tried to find a name for this chicken, her name was just Sabrina Sue! I like to encourage creatives for children’s books that their job is to write and draw, let the characters tell you who they are when the time is right. This means lots of writing and drawing needs to happen!
Idea for this book: As Sabrina Sue lives on a farm, her “Farm Friends” seemed the right choices to be her circle of friends that interact together throughout her stories and adventures. Froggy, who is Sabrina Sue’s sidekick who never speaks but definitely has his own personality, was someone we wanted to add in to Sabrina Sue’s life as a helper and fun co-hort.
Me: I understand Sabrina also has an early reader series. How did she transition from those to a picture book? Was that your idea or the publisher’s?
Priscilla: My initial idea for Sabrina Sue was in a picture book format of her just going to the sea. However, and thankfully, the publisher had a much better idea in first having Sabrina Sue go on several adventures in a Ready-to-Read series! She went to the Sea, the Snow, the City, the Sky, the Moon, the Mountains! This was a really great opportunity for our readers to meet Sabrina Sue and her friends, and learn about her adventurous spirit. The picture book idea was then developed once that series was completed.
Me: How long did you sit with this story before you started writing or illustrating it. Once you started the work, did you have to revise it quite a bit? Or was it fully formed after the preliminary work?
Priscilla: I would have to say that this story began forming from the start of the reader series, because there were many aspects of the adventures Sabrina Sue went on that added to the idea of this epic adventure experience she would go on with some familiar situations along with some fun surprises for the characters AND our readers!
There were many, many revisions of first the actual adventure and what that might be, and then the story unfolding as the editing and revising took place. We always want to say as much as we can in a story, but use as minimal an amount of words as we possibly can.
Me: What is one thing that surprised you in writing and/or illustrating this story? Is there anything still left to surprise you at this stage in your career?
Priscilla: What a great question! A few areas of surprise include the idea to create spreads in the book where our reader gets to turn the book sideways! I loved that feature when I was a little girl at my public library and always had fun with any type of unique interaction that took place and surprised me while I was reading picture books. Another surprise that I never expected was our picture book growing from a standard 32-page format to a 56-page format! What a wonderful and actually, exciting surprise because it gives our readers the opportunity to go on this epic adventure with Sabrina Sue and her friends and have a bit more time to enjoy it!
I think, yes, surprises still happen in my career whether it comes from myself in the stories and characters that are still popping up and introducing themselves to me, as well as the publishers and all their hard-working teams and their absolute love and devotion to memorable characters who have stories to tell.
Me: Any advice for other aspiring picture book writers and/or illustrators?
Priscilla: Yes! I love to encourage others who want to write and illustrate picture books to first make sure you are devouring picture books whether at book shops or at the library. Read through piles of picture books for the enjoyment and the education, both. What format, styles, stories and characters most appeal to you and why? Are they the same that you loved as a child or have they changed and why?
Keep writing, doodling, creating, sketching, and developing your characters and stories. The children of the world need your characters and their stories, so keep creating and pour out onto the page what wants or needs to be there.
I also highly recommend joining this professional organization specifically designed for creating children’s books: The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (www.scbwi.org). There is much to learn in this field of publishing and there is an abundance of learning that can take place in a very supportive and inspiring community such as this one. One incredible benefit as a member of this organization, is the opportunity to connect with other writers and illustrators in such a way that will help you grow in your journey in creating picture books.
That is great advice! Thank you for stopping by my blog today Priscilla.
Dear readers, this book published at the end of August. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I recommend tracking it down. It’s a fun jaunt with a great set of characters that encourage the youngest readers to explore the world around them. What’s better than that? Trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss it!