nonfiction

kirkus q & a with
helen frost
and rick lieder
Step Gently Out
Helen Frost and
photographs by
Rick Lieder
Candlewick
(32 pp.)
$15.99
Mar. 13, 2012
978-0-7636-5601-0
Ages 2-5
With Step Gently Out, the stunning firsttime
collaboration between poet Helen Frost and
nature photographer Rick Lieder, proponents of
the odd separation of author from illustrator in
children’s publishing are hereby put on notice.
The marriage between word and image in this gorgeous
picture book melds one poem encouraging
young readers to explore insect wonders of the
natural world with breathtakingly intimate photographs
captured only with the aid of natural light.
Its success is both organic and the result of Frost
and Lieder’s creative union from their project’s
inception. We had the privilege of speaking with
these gifted artists together as they discussed the
genesis of their lyric venture centered on bugs.
Q: What came first, the poem or the images
Rick Lieder: I think probably the images. Helen
and I met at a book signing and talked about some
of the work I’d been doing. I’d been focusing on
nature photography, and I ended up sending her
quite a few images, and she wrote a poem based on
them. I took that and made a book dummy of it.
It was a true collaboration, and we went back
and forth figuring what was going to go with what.
It was great to work with someone who really
understood what I was doing, and Helen’s poetry
is so great. Eventually we came up with something
where the words and pictures really came together,
and you couldn’t think of one without the other.
Helen Frost: Usually when the images come
first, the illustrator illustrates them and the text
serves like captions of the images. It wasn’t like
that here. We worked closely together to ensure
that one half of the book would enhance the other.
Editors usually separate authors and illustrators,
but we worked together from the beginning, and
then our editor came into the process and was very
respectful of that.
Another part of the collaboration was I didn’t
write from the photographs exactly. I looked at
the photographs, and that sort of awakened in
me the sense of an experience that I used to have.
There may be a couple of exceptions, but I tried
not to write about something I hadn’t experienced
myself. So I would look for the insects and really
observe closely what was in my backyard. Because
Michigan and Indiana are relatively close, there
are fairly similar insects here, and I would write
from my own experience with Rick’s photographs
kind of in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t like I
was writing for each photograph. Almost always if
I wanted to write something, Rick had something
to go with the text.
Q: Are kids particularly well- or ill-suited to relate to insects
HF: Well, I loved insects as a child. I got all kinds of
props in my family because I was brave enough to
pick up a spider or something. I collected insects
when I was little, and I remember when I was 3 years
old going to a museum—it must have been an entomologist’s
lab. I remember this huge room with cases
and cases of insects, and I just loved that. I loved the
word entomologist, and I would tell people that was
what I was going to be when I grew up. That’s hilarious
because I probably loved the word as much as the
insects. I don’t know. What do you think, Rick
RL: I have always been interested in this. I think
that if you just leave them alone, all children are
drawn to this. When you’re young, everything is
new. I really think that more children, if we just
let them be children, would be fascinated with all
this new, incredible life. Insects in particular are, in
some cases, so different from us, but they’re also so
fascinating in all their different forms that I think
a child just left on his or her own would find the
wonder there and be fascinated by the variety and
the colors, the beauty of these small creatures. I
think there’s a curiosity there that, for whatever
reason, we lose as we get older. If we spark it in kids
early, it will just get them more interested in what
the world really is like.
Q: Now Rick, do you choose your bugs, or do your bugs
choose you
RL: I would say they choose me. One of the things I
was trying to do was go out without any preconceived
notions of what I was going to do. I never know what
I’m going to find—what insect, what creature. I’d say
the same about photographing birds. So the fun part
is just to go out, see what happens, and see what I can
do with that once it presents itself. I might find an
ant, a bee, a praying mantis…
HF: I live in Indiana, and Rick and his wife live near
Detroit, and when we got the contracts for the
book we were excited, so we met halfway between
at a place on a lake. After dinner, we were walking
around, and to me it was OK, this is a pretty sunset,
and all of a sudden, I saw Rick zeroing in on a
leaf, and there was a grasshopper. And then he just
took a picture. It was fun to see him in action.
9
For the full interview, please visit kirkusreviews.com.
HELEN FROST photo © James D. Gabbard; RICK LIEDER PORTRAIT COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
children pouring water from a large bucket into a smaller one on
the ground: “Slosh from the big one / into the small. / Whooshing
and sloshing—your own waterfall. / SPLASH!” Rhythm
and rhyme are spot-on, and the bouncy verses and onomatopoetic
words are sure to catch and hold listeners’ attention. The
combination of rhyme, simple vocabulary, bright colors, white
backgrounds and simple details suits this beautifully for the
preschool set. Hilb’s trademark style is definitely in evidence
here—the pages are populated by adorable rosy-cheeked and
ethnically diverse children engaged in the business of play.
Yet another spark for young imaginations. (Picture book. 2-5)
ONE FOR
THE MURPHYS
Hunt, Lynda Mullaly
Nancy Paulsen Books (224 pp.)
$16.99 | May 1, 2012
978-0-399-25615-8
Sent to a foster home after a beating
from her stepfather, eighth-grader Carley
Connors learns about a different kind of
family life, first resisting and then resisting
having to leave the loving, loyal Murphys.
Carley is a modern-day Gilly Hopkins, bright and strong,
angry and deeply hurt. She’s torn between her love for her
mother and her memory of the fight that sent her to the hospital,
when her mother caught and held her for her stepfather.
Her foster-care placement is terrifying. Mr. Murphy, a fire chief,
and his eldest son Daniel don’t even want her there, and Mrs.
Murphy is just too nice. It is 4-year-old Michael Eric and his
red-headed brother Adam who first break the ice. Slowly won
over at home by the boys’ open affection and Mrs. Murphy’s
patience and surprising understanding, Carley also finds a
friend at school in the prickly, Wicked-obsessed Toni. The firstperson
narration allows readers inside Carley’s head as she
fights against both showing emotion and her growing pleasure
in belonging to their world. There’s plenty of snappy dialogue as
well. By the end of this poignant debut, readers will be applauding
Carley’s strength even if they’re as unhappy as Carley is
about the resolution.
A worthy addition to the foster-family shelf. (Fiction. 10-14)
EVERY COWGIRL
LOVES A RODEO
Janni, Rebecca
Illus. by Avril, Lynne
Dial (32 pp.)
$16.99 | May 24, 2012
978-0-8037-3734-1
Giddy-up, bicycle girl!
This horse-loving cowgirl is quick
with her pedals and getting ready to compete in a bike rodeo at
the county fair. Reigning champ and neighborhood cowboy A.J.
Pickett is sure to be competition, but Nellie Sue, resplendent in
her girly cowgirl gear, just knows that she and her two-wheeled
horse, Beauty, are going to win. Energetic, pink-strewn illustrations
with plenty of action show the heroine practicing and
later attending the long-anticipated fair. The day itself is full of
various delights, and Nellie Sue gets to pet the animals, sample
the food and even take part in a pie-eating contest. Then it’s
time for the rodeo to begin, and our heroine is up first! Will she
win When fate intervenes, Nellie Sue is stoic; for “even more
than a blue ribbon, every cowgirl should have a badge of honor.”
This paean to good sportsmanship and friendship is suspenseful,
nicely paced and infused with exciting details that will appeal to
both the princess and the tomboy sets.
Terrific for cowgirls and bike riders everywhere. (Picture
book. 4-7)
THE HUEYS IN
THE NEW SWEATER
Jeffers, Oliver
Illus. by Jeffers, Oliver
Philomel (32 pp.)
$10.99 | May 3, 2012
978-0-399-25767-4
The clothes make the Huey in Jeffers’
picture-book ode to nonconformity.
In what promises to be the first in a series about the Hueys,
little egg-shaped creatures with just lines for limbs, the cast of
characters are indistinguishable from one another until a fellow
named Rupert knits himself an orange sweater. The text plainly
states that “most of the other Hueys were horrified!” when
Huey strolls by in his jaunty new duds. And the subsequent line,
“Rupert stood out like a sore thumb,” is delightfully understated,
since his oval form wrapped up in an orange sweater looks
rather sore-thumb–like. Then, another Huey named Gillespie
decides that “being different was interesting,” and he knits himself
a sweater just like Rupert’s. This gets the proverbial ball of
yarn rolling, and, in scenes reminiscent of The Sneetches, soon
many, many Hueys are knitting and donning identical orange
sweaters in order to “be different too!” In Jeffers’ expert hands,
the message of respecting individuality comes through with a
light touch as Rupert concludes the story by deciding to shake
things up again as he dons a hat. “And that changed everything,”
reads the closing text, with a page turn revealing a little parade
of Hueys decked out in a broad array of different clothing, from
feather boas to pirate hats.
A joyful take on a serious lesson. (Picture book. 3-6)
858 | 15 april 2012 | children’s & teen | kirkusreviews.com |
| kirkusreviews.com | children’s & teen | 15 april 2012 | 859