The Boy Behind The Jacket
This moment makes me so happy! It's my younger son, Stefan, seeing my new book The Jacket for the very first time! Considering it was his awesome question about why books have jackets that served as the inspiration for this book, it's such an honor to be able to show the finished product to him.
Here is how The Jacket came to be. About a year ago, I took both of my boys (then ages 4 and 6) to the Brooklyn Book Festival. I was REALLY excited for them to meet Claudia Bedrick of Enchanted Lion Books, as we were doing more and more great stuff together.
Naturally, when we visited the EL stand, I bought several beautiful books. When we got home, we settled in with our new reads. And Stefan asked if he could take the jacket off the book he was reading. I said sure! And then he, who has a tendency to think deeply about things, asked me why books have jackets to begin with. His question struck a chord. I know why, as adults, we love for books to be jacketed. But in explaining our purposes, I wished there were a more romantic reason I could offer him. The idea that a book might NEED its jacket seemed like so much more fun. That's what I wished I could tell him!
I e-mailed Claudia that night to say, "I've had an idea for a story, and I’m coming to you first, because the question that led to it came straight from your beautiful, jacketed books. It feels practically fated that this should be done with you!" (Plus, I knew no one could do it more beautifully.) But I was worried that she might feel pressured, since Enchanted Lion is small and there is only so much they can do. But Claudia e-mailed back within the hour to say, "Let's do this!"
I love how the book turned out, because it's fresh on so many levels, all of which came out of the collaboration of three book-loving women. (The third being the incredibly talented illustrator Dasha Tolstikova, whose "knack for emotional range," as cited by Publishers Weekly in their review of this book, was key to this book's poignancy. It was also Dasha's idea that the story be considered from the perspective of the book, which was genius.)
There are so many things that I love about The Jacket. I love that Book narrates his own story, that the book includes instructions for readers to make their own book jacket, and that the cover has die-cut eyes. These elements delight me to no end and I hope children will enjoy them, too.
In essence, this is a book that was born from a child's wonderment, and then brought to life with tremendous care. I sincerely hope that The Jacket encourages children to think about their books as more than mere objects, but as worthy of a deeper kind of love and consideration.
And I will always remember this look on Stefan's face, which reflects to me a dozen emotions all at once, upon seeing his question answered in the form of a book.
