People often ask me how I found Michael Carroll to paint the illustrations in Big Bang! Actually, I didn’t. In children’s picture book publishing, publishers typically decide on an illustrator after the author completes the book. Of course, there are exceptions—such as when the author and illustrator are the same person. Once I completed writing Big Bang!—with lots and lots of support from my writer’s group and my wonderful editor, Alyssa Mito Pusey—it was time for Alyssa to find an illustrator. Alyssa asked me for my thoughts about illustrators whose work I liked, but that doesn’t always happen. I am lucky; Charlesbridge found Michael Carroll. After studying my text, he submitted lots of sketches to Alyssa. She asked me and another science reviewer to look at these. Did the images seem accurate? Did there seem to be any problems with the information that they conveyed? This check is critical for a non-fiction book. Michael’s thoroughness made it easy to complete this step. Once the content of the images seemed all set, Michael created his paintings. I think they are not only beautiful, but also incredibly perfect for the text. I feel honored to have my work combined with his. You can visit Michael Carroll’s web site to learn more about him, his works, and how he approaches painting. |
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