But I really love how the two forms can work together. I was an artist before I was a writer so, for me, sometimes drawing feels like a better way to say something. It's pretty exciting - there's a whole spectrum of possibilities between a straight-text novel and a graphic novel. I think it's becoming more and more common for novels to include drawings in some way. But by the time I finished it, she and the art director were saying, 'More drawings!' The first time I submitted part of a novel with drawings ( All Alone in the Universe), my then-editor said that as kids get older, they don't really want illustrations in their books. I've written and illustrated half a dozen picture books, and so far, all of my novels have drawings. In looking through all of the books that you have written, I realized that you illustrated Seed by Seed (which I loved). (Thanks!)ĭid you have to convince your publisher to allow you to do the illustrations for NUTS TO YOU? Do you think you will ever do other picture books? And do you ever sketch out characters or scenes when you are writing other books? But it still has to feel believable within the new, made-up rules. The combination of animal qualities and human qualities puts us in a place where normal rules don't apply, and that is fun, and freeing.

But it was fun to imagine the world from a squirrel's point-of-view - for example, the part that describes the first time Chai saw hunters wearing camouflage and thought he was seeing floating human heads with no bodies.

My squirrels became quite real and individual to me while I worked on this book, and they are clearly more human than squirrels actually are. Are there certain challenges or benefits to writing one type of story vs. Writing a book where all of the characters are animals must be different than writing a story where it is clearly realistic fiction. In NUTS, for example, I loved the moment when Chai, who has been a cautious squirrel and is so terrified when he is in the crevice with the bobcat waiting outside, loses his fear. Then I put them in situations and wait to see what they'll do, like an improv theatre troupe. There is a time in the writing of every book where the characters stop feeling like people/animals I made up, and start to take on a certain independence. I love it when characters surprise me, and they always do. As you wrote NUTS TO YOU, did you have other experiences where your characters surprised you? I loved the author's note and the description of the park and the squirrel and the peanut butter sandwich. Today, I am welcoming Lynne Rae Perkins to Kid Lit Frenzy.

Nuts to you perkins