Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

There’s nothing more fun than a book that is a shape! The first book of the nonfiction board book series by Sue Lowell Gallion and Lisk Feng (Phaidon Press) caught my eye immediately. It looks like a globe and stands up! One thing I didn’t think about was what that means for the writing. So thank you, Sue Lowell Gallion, for this fascinating post on what that entails.

GIVEAWAY! If you’d like to get in on the drawing for a copy of OUR UNDERWATER WORLD from Sue, be sure to leave a comment after the post.

Congratulations to Vivian Kirkfield, winner of EGYPTIAN LULLABY from Zeena M. Pliska! 

Circular Thinking By Sue Lowell Gallion

Every children’s writer knows that thinking visually is critical to creating a strong manuscript, whether it’s nonfiction or fiction. I remember one of my early fiction picture book manuscripts where the entire story consisted of human characters talking around a table in a kitchen (surprise, no one snatched that one up!)

But when you are writing a manuscript that will be paired with art, photographs, or both, you need to think beyond the words to the illustration possibilities on the pages.

The nonfiction board book series I’m doing with Phaidon Press and illustrator Lisk Feng has challenged my visual thinking, because it makes me think in the round. Our Underwater World, A First Dive into Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers, which releases Aug. 24, is the third in this series of large board books which open to create free-standing globes with magnetic closures in the front and back covers. It follows Our World, A First Book of Geography, which was a pandemic release in 2020, and Our Seasons, the World in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, which came out in 2022. These books are designed to encourage curiosity, conversation, and conservation through both their contents and design.

As I pondered contents, structure, and sequence of for this topic, I knew I had only 13 spreads to introduce both freshwater and saltwater habitats. The shape and size of these books drives the amount of text, which isn’t much! The rhyming poem that links the entire book is matched with secondary text blocks on 11 of the spreads. There’s no room for back matter (and I love back matter!)

Thinking round meant picturing a habitat through a porthole, a fish-eye camera lens, a periscope, or a snorkel or scuba mask. These books have required lots of collaboration throughout the entire process with my Phaidon editor, Maya Gartner.  How could we best ground the reader at the beginning of the book and in what order should we take the reader on this visual journey? What spreads would cover more than one habitat, such as a pond and a lake, requiring a split illustration? What geographic locations worldwide should be spotlighted? How could we provide a global perspective for older children reading the book? These decisions had to be made at the draft and text stage. And when the art was completed, how could the text be revised to be most interactive with the illustrations?

We ended up beginning this book with a family in a canoe on the Congo River in Africa, then the first page turn shows the same setting from an underwater view. From there, the book moves through rivers, ponds, and lakes to coastal mangrove forests (we chose the Sundarban mangrove in Bangladesh because Bengal tigers swim in that habitat hunting prey!) The saltwater section moved from shallow to deep ocean habitats in locations around the globe, ending with the Southern Ocean of Antarctica, and the book concludes with an aerial perspective and a world map illustrating our “blue connection.”

I also like to encourage kids to think visually about the physical properties of a book and its size and shape at school or library presentations. They can better understand how a book is made when I show early sketches and more finished art (thank you to my illustrator partners for sharing these!) followed by press sheets of the book before the sheets are trimmed. Then, I share a folded and gathered copy of the entire book before binding. I grew up in a family commercial printing company, working in the bindery and as a proofreader starting in high school, so this is another part of the book business that I love. The press sheets for Our Underwater World are going to be especially fun to share. My editors have been great about getting me these.

I hope this behind the scenes look at the process of making Our Underwater World helps you in expanding your visual thinking. It’s been an adventure for me!

Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of OUR UNDERWATER WORLD! (US addresses only, please. Winner announced 8/25/23)