Except in ping pong, there is no collaboration. It’s very much a back and forth kind of thing. Sometimes I’ll say I want to make such and such image really big and she’ll work around my image. She might move the type from where I thought it would look best to the other side of the page and I’ll adjust my art accordingly. And while I am making the art I am sending her spreads. As we get into the actual book she picks the font (always something better than I would have imagined), she designs the cover, the flaps, we talk about endpapers, etc.

I’ll work up a book dummy and from that moment on I am constantly running stuff by her. Sometimes with something visual or maybe a story idea. When we do a book, it starts with an idea I have. It is a true collaboration, but she is so modest the only credit she ever takes is a tiny “Designed by” on the copyright page even though we all appeal to her to take a bigger credit. Half of any success my books have had goes to her. Can you describe how that collaboration has contributed to your success? It took me a while to figure it all out.Ĭover and interior pages from It's a Book, Lane Smith On many of your books, you have worked with your wife, graphic designer Molly Leach on the book layout and design. I am doing the best writing and illustrating of my 30-year career right now. Then I’d meekly raise mine and state, “I’m fairly certain a newborn kangaroo is called a joey.” Just kind of a shy kid and a late bloomer in all things.Įven now at age 58, I feel like I am just getting started in children’s books. So take that Last Day of School Anxiety! I was also the guy who never raised his hand to answer a teacher’s question until everyone else answered incorrectly.

And I killed it with my rendition of Venus. My teacher said, “Why didn’t you do that on the first day?” Of course, the answer was, if I had bombed I would have never lived it down.

In sixth grade, on the last day of school, I brought my guitar to class and played a song. I was a late bloomer and forever afraid to speak up. Always in the back of the room observing and doodling. Were you that child? Did creating art provide a voice for you? You have said that you empathize with the quiet student in the back of the classroom.

A Perfect Day by Lane Smith