Making We Leap Together

My latest book titled We Leap Together comes out April 1st. It's a story about connection, parental bonds, NYC, and humpback whales. This month I discuss my process behind making this book.

We Leap Together comes out April 1st and is available for pre-order.

The idea for this book started with a whale watching trip I took with my family off the coast of Brooklyn. Those of you who don’t live in NYC are probably surprised that you can see whales in Brooklyn. It turns out, not many of us New Yorkers know about it either. I’ve seen plenty of whales during the summer in Montauk, on the east end of Long Island, but never imagined that I see them leaping near the city skyline. My city friends were shocked when I told them I went whale watching in Brooklyn. It turns out, years of conservation efforts have enriched New York City waters and repopulated the bay with a variety of fish, attracting whales along their migratory path.

It only only takes about 30 minutes or so by boat for prime NYC whale watching. My family and I took a ride on the American Princess on a Sunday afternoon. Three humpback whales treated us to a display of bobbing, diving, mist spraying, and leaping. I documented our trip on social media with photographs from my Father-in-Law and a Brooklyn elementary teacher responded to my post “Whales in Brooklyn! That sounds like a picture book.” That’s all it took. I immediately started working on ideas.

I called my first draft The Day the Whale Came to Brooklyn about a boy boarding the ferry on a very regular and uneventful day,

“All aboard! We leave the dock floating past city buildings, city bridges, city parks, and city people.”

and who eventually sees a pair of humpback whales, turning his regular day into a spectacular day.

I sent this to my agent who thought the idea was intriguing but that my story was too straight forward. This was a generously kind way of saying, yeah whales in the city sounds like a fun idea but your story lacks an idea, purpose or any originality. So began the long process of teasing an idea out of this one concept—whales in the city. After many more badly written stories, I tried approaching things from the other direction and began drawing. It was through making pictures that I came up with this idea of connecting the human experience with whales. I did a bit of reading, watched a few whale documentaries and worked on drawing parallels (literally) between whale behaviors and ours. My working title was The Boy and the Whale.

It was this sketch comparing columns of light in the water to tall city buildings that really unlocked things for me.

I made more connections, linking whale behaviors such as bubbles and songs to kids in the city. What tied the whole thing together is the unique bond a mama whale has with her calf—swimming together for miles, feeding them, teaching them, playing together, and protecting them. As I got to know the whales a little better, my story got a little better too. I learned that a mama whale will whisper to her calf.

I made a revised dummy with these new ideas and my agent and I agreed it was finally time to pitch my book idea. I had just finished illustrating a book for Knopf / Random House and thought my editor on that project would like this new whale story. We had built trust and a solid working relationship having just finished a book together so I sent her the sketches, fingers crossed, and… she loved it! It wasn’t long before she got in touch with an offer.

We tied up a few loose ends with the sketches, I received some great feedback from my editor and art director, and I began making final art. With the pitch process having gone so smoothly, I figured making the art would be a breeze. However, it was anything but.

As the deadline approached, I called the team, tail between my legs, asking for more time. Less than half of the book was finished and the images I did have, I hated. I had spent months reworking the same handful of pictures over and over again but nothing I made seemed to work. Whatever feeling, tone, or imagery I had envisioned with my sketches and was now grasping for, just wasn’t happening on the page. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is pretty common among artists. (Please tell me I’m not the only one) Sure, there have been projects here and there that come together effortlessly, but for the most part, when I sit down to make art for a book I’m often stuck in between two realms. One where everything I make feels stiff, automated and not at all new, interesting or unique—It’s all been done before. And the other—I’m so clueless as to what I should do its as if I’ve never made a book before. I’ve made about 26 books at this point.

I’m not even sure how I got out of this rut. Sheer will I guess. Fear of failure. Nothing worked until one day it did. I pushed through. Colors and textures emerged. The human characters began to feel human. And the whales finally hit the right emotional note.

After many drawings, paintings, mouse clicks, sweat and tears, and months of waiting, I received a box full of copies of my finished book. With any luck, many of you will read it.

We Leap Together comes out April 1st but you don’t have to wait until then to purchase a copy. It’s available for pre-order at several places and pre-orders are super helpful to authors:

My Bookshop at Bookshop.org

My Publisher, Random House Books for Children

Your local Book Store including Books are Magic in Brooklyn

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold.

For those of you who live in the city, I have a few story time / book signing events planned:

Sat, April 5, 11am, Books are Magic at Montague Street.

Sat, April 5, 2pm, Natural History Museum, Earth day celebration.

Sat, April 26th, 10:30am Lofty Pigeon Books