Ok no story today because I’ve got the Meet Aaron Becker part coming at the end.
Though, I have to say I was so excited for Quest
after hearing him speak about Journey at #LA14SCBWI
that I could barely wait to see him at Hicklebee’s 🙂
Title: Quest
Published by: Candlewick Press, 2014
Written by: Aaron Becker
Illustrated by: Aaron Becker
Word Count: zero (wordless)
Pages: 40
In one word: ok, I’m just going to use is, quest!
In one sentence: Two kids with magical crayons go on a quest to try to find more and save a magical world.
Favorite pages:
Likes:
I love how we get to visit SO MANY different places in this book!
Great teamwork by the boy and the girl!
All the little hidden things that tie all the locations together. Love looking for the crayons in the sculptures 🙂
How the bird is always sure what to do. Take a close look at him each time you see him.
How this takes the story of Journey and makes it even more epic, but is still a book all of it’s own.
Learns:
I’ll save these for what’s coming up in the Meet Aaron Becker report;
I learned a few things about the backstory that are AWESOME!
I heard Aaron Becker speak at Hicklebee’s
on September 23, 2014
about Journey, Quest, and everything else!
He talked first about Journey, then Quest.
He asked us about what a journey is and how it’s different from a regular trip or adventure. “Is it you don’t know where you’re going?” he asked us. Someone in the audience said, “It’s about the process, not the destination,” and he really liked that.
He took us through all of Journey on the projector so the images were big enough for everyone to see. It was awesome to see him “read” his wordless book to the kids. On each page he would ask questions to pull the story out of them and have them talk about what was happening in the picture. They looked at body language, use of color, and tried to find the little secrets hidden in the pictures.
A fun tidbit about Journey:
Do you know why the castle has no roads?
Because the King who lives there (who we see in Quest) is in love with a Mermaid, but she didn’t want to leave water behind to live with him. So the roads are all waterways so she can come visit him whenever she wants.
Journey started with the castle. He drew it before the story, and knew there would be a girl going on a journey, and that she would be going to this castle. (He didn’t add the boy until later drafts).
When he drew the castle intially, he wasn’t happy with the perspective of one of the drawings so he took it and rebuilt it on the computer, then redrew it, and printed it out on watercolor paper.
“I taught myself watercolor to do this book,” he said. “I wanted it to be magical and I thought that’d be the best medium.” He told us he uses dip pens, brushes, ink, and watercolor to make the finished art.
Have kids who want to learn how to draw? He recommended Ed Emberely books 🙂
He shared the story of the day he mailed off his contract for Journey.
It was a grey day, snowy and cold, and on his way to mail it off, he noticed a red ball roll right in front of him. there was no one around; the ball didn’t appear to belong to anyone. This really inspired him.
“Don’t give up,” he said. “Sometimes a red ball will roll over and cheer you up.”
Then he showed us the trailer for Quest, and if you haven’t seen it, go ahead and watch it here. He made it and it’s pretty epic!
He did the same sort of thing he did when he read us Journey, but pointed out a few things during the presentation.
He asked about the boy and the girl and what they usually draw.
The kids responded with:
The boy usually draws animals
and the girl usually draws things…which was teased out to include equipment and transport devices 🙂
He pointed out what happens after the bird takes the crayons: The emperor and his men are afraid of light and color and it’s just too much for them. You can see them reacting in the book accordingly.
Lastly, he pointed out how it was raining at the start of the book,
but, after their adventure in the other world,
when the kids get back to our world,
there’s a rainbow.
About that he said, “When we go off and play in our imaginations,” he said, “it may not be real, but it does change our life in a real way.”
What about the next book?
It’s called Return, and the story is finished. The girl goes back to the world and is followed by her Dad and something happens to him. It will be out in two years.
Someone asked him about the bird,
and the answer to that unlocked even more backstory!
It was so cool to hear about it all, so here it is, paraphrased:
The bird represents the childlike aspect, fun, freedom, what we’re looking for/let go of, and the emperor wants to capture him because he wants that all for himself. The purple bird knows all though; he was around before the crayons were!
Way back the bird belonged to a King, and the king had two crayons, a white and a black.
But the King had a problem.
He had three sons and only two crayons!
So he made black prism and through magic the white crayon went through the prism and came out being six different colored crayons.
The oldest son got the Orange and Yellow crayons. He kept one for himself and then gave one to the mermaid he fell in love with.
The Middle Son got Green and Blue crayons. He divided himself into the sky and the mountains; the green marker is in the forest and the blue in the sky by the temples.
The youngest son got the Red and Purple crayons, but he didn’t want them if he couldn’t have all the crayons, so he threw them away. The purple bird brought them to our world, to the boy and the girl. And then this son created a land with no magic and is now…the emperor!
He ended by answering questions.
The first was about how long it took him to do the books.
1.5 years for the first two, and 2 for this last one.
Then a kid asked him if he thinks of himself as an author or an illustrator.
It’s one of those seemingly simple questions that actually sometimes turns out to be sort of deep.
“I don’t think of myself as an author,” he said. “I ought to, but I really like to draw pictures.”
I talked to Aaron in line and he was impressed by my thank you note to him.
“You even got the order right and everything!” he said,
which will make sense if you read the book.
Also, let me talk about my wardrobe for the event.
I got dressed like this:
and did not even REALIZE that I was dressed in the two colors of the crayons featured in the book! I’ve never had a book unconsciously affect my fashion! That’s so crazy!
Overall, another awesome day at Hicklebee’s.
Oh, and no picture with Singe Singe, since I got one with him in LA at the conference.
So I got this one instead, which I’m just NOW remembering, so I’ve got to send it to Eric 🙂
What did you read today?
This is good for me to get these notes out of my notebook and sharing them with you all.
I have so many notes from meeting authors and illustrators;
I’m going to have to go through and write up a bunch more posts!
Until tomorrow,
KE
Today I am reading cookbooks! Dorie Greenspan’s “Chez Moi” finally came out today. I’ve already started making her cannele recipe. You have to let the batter sit in the fridge at least 12 hours. They are French — you just don’t whip up a batch of anything French.
I also finally tried the coleslaw recipe (from another book) I’m hoping to share with Jon Klassen. It was definitely one of the better ones I’ve tried. I think I need to try it again and cut the cabbage a bit more finely. The recipe is written very loosely with things like “heaping tablespoons” and “to taste”.
There is also a pie cookbook that showed up today. I need to look at that to decide what to make for Thanksgiving. The people coming to dinner aren’t pumpkin pie fans. Maybe Shoo-fly?
I am actually hoping to get to meet Dorie Greenspan when she comes to Pasadena next week. She writes very detailed recipes that are easy to follow.
Thanks for sharing another great author event. I get Hicklebee’s newsletter and am amazed by all the great events they have. I used to act like Irvine to Berkeley was commutable — sadly I know better now.