Spotlight on Douglas Florian + DMC Challenge

DOUGLAS FLORIAN
                                                                                          Photo: Lee Taplinger

Happy New Year! 

It's great to be back. I hope you're as excited as I am about what's in store for the Ditty of the Month Club in 2016, including interviews with some fabulous authors and editors (Douglas Florian is in the house!) and reviews of new children's poetry collections, rhyming picture books, and verse novels. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Last month, Old Man Winter's frosty fingerprints were nowhere in sight. Now it appears he's taken up residence in a certain Manhattan studio. Believe it or not, Douglas Florian has been without heat for several weeks. (42 degrees at last check.) Fortunately, this endearing and enduring author/artist persists despite all obstacles, much as he has throughout his nearly 40 years of illustrating and writing for children. In lieu of a heat lamp, it's my pleasure to offer Douglas our first TLD spotlight of 2016. 

Douglas Florian

Douglas Florian was born and now works in New York City. He has written and illustrated more than 50 children’s books. These include beast feast, winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, insectlopedia, a national bestseller featured on National Public Radio and The Today Show, Dinothesaurus, which was a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, and Poetrees, which School Library Journal called an “exquisite collection.” He has recited his poetry at Carnegie Hall, The Museum of Modern Art of New York, and The White House, and he has visited more than 700 schools as an author/artist. 

More on Douglas's art and poetry can be found at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, at his website, and at his blog, Florian Café: A Poetry Commotion.

THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS
little bee books, Feb 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1499801040
Find at Amazon.com or via IndieBound.org

Grab some hot cocoa, a slice of warm ginger cake, and your coziest quilt, because there's no better recipe for winter bliss than snuggling up with Douglas' newest picture book with illustrator Sonia Sánchez: THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS (little bee books, 2016).

Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to find a favorite young child to share it with. Shouldn't be hard to do, but choose one that appreciates the finer qualities of bunnies. Not just their cuddly exteriors, but their exuberant, fun-loving personalities. The joy they take in leaping and creeping, exploring and lazing, chewing and thumping, giggling and playing. Not that there's anything wrong with being cuddly, mind you. This book is the ultimate in warm and fuzzy!

Here's an excerpt from the School Library Journal's starred review of THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS: 

In this title, Florian creates a rhythmic and rhyming tribute to rabbits. Unlike the bees in his UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings (S. & S., 2012), the habits in this title are imaginary, though Sánchez’s layered paintings create a world so well matched to the poetry that readers probably won’t notice…. Perfect for a lap-sit, this title works well for preschool and primary-aged storytimes and, with every rabbit different from the next, provides plenty of details for kids to pore over. VERDICT: A playful and appealing choice.

An added benefit is that children will see themselves in these rabbits, so expect to have a discussion about all of their wonderful habits too!

If you're familiar with what I would call Douglas' signature poetry—characterized by inventive language, freedom of form, and clever humor—you'll find the playfulness of THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS quite different. It leans more toward sweet and charming, than mind-bending and witty. What does carry over, however, is Douglas' inclination toward a fresh approach, a unique perspective, and lighthearted sense of whimsy.

In my research for today's interview, I discovered Douglas' take on how to encourage creativity:

You can't make somebody an artist or writer. They have to catch it themselves, like the flu. I can only take them interesting places and encourage them to be observant and open-minded.

While I doubt the reason there's no heat in Douglas' studio is so that visitors can catch creative influenza, it's true that Douglas creates settings for children to play in their own imaginations. He inspires them, in words and pictures, to pick up their own pens and brushes.

If you're ready, let's find out more about Douglas Florian, beginning with five favorites:

Douglas Florian, outside his studio on West 52nd Street.
"When I look out my window I can sometimes see the
children of PS 111 playing in their schoolyard." –D.F.

FAVORITE SOUND:
Children playing in a playground

FAVORITE MUSIC:   
I currently like to listen to Beck

FAVORITE QUOTE:   
"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted."  
              ~Mae West
 
FAVORITE COUNTRY YOU'D LIKE TO VISIT:   
18th Century Japan

FAVORITE VACATION SPOT: my studio

Douglas Florian in his favorite vacation spot.  Photo: Andre Smits

What drives you to create books for children and what aspect(s) of your career do you enjoy the most?

In children's books today there is an enormous amount of freedom for both authors and illustrators. The only limit is one's own imagination and business restrictions of the marketplace. I always strive to create something new in a personal and heart-felt way. To do something no one else could have done.

In an interview on KIDLIT 411, you gave some advice to aspiring writers and illustrators: 

...be dissatisfied and keep growing as a writer and an artist. When Hokusai was already 80 he said, "I hope to live to 90 so I can start to do something good." Also, keep your eyes open, your ears open and your mind open.

You began your publishing career as a cartoonist and illustrator, eventually embracing poetry and self-identifying as an "Authorstrator" with numerous collections of your own poetry and paintings. More recently, with the publication of I LOVE MY HAT (Two Lions, 2014) and three works to be published by Little Bee Books this year: THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS,  ONCE I WAS A POLLYWOG, and LEAP, FROG, LEAP, you've handed the paintbrush over to other illustrators. You're writing picture books, board books, and even chapter books. Is this all part of your personal development plan?

Listen to Douglas Florian
read How to Draw a Dragon
at No Water River.

When I was working on my book HOW TO DRAW A DRAGON (Beach Lane Books, 2015) I had to pass my other books off to other illustrators. My dragon book took close to 2 years to finish, on and off. I'm doing chapter books as well because there is much more demand for them in schools today. It was a new and very involved experience to create two chapter books.

Are there practices from your discipline as an artist that you bring to your writing?

I get to my studio very early, about 7AM and leave rather late, usually 7 PM. Both as an artist and writer I  try to be observant and open to things I see and hear, both new things and old. I also try to have something new or unique in each book.

Douglas Florian:  Bothe pale and wan, oil on wood, 18x18 inches  2007-2011

What inspired you to write THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS?

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) challenged me in his poem:

THE RABBIT

Here is a verse about rabbits
That doesn't mention their habits.

I took that as a dare to write something enchanting and fascinating about the habits of rabbits. That and the 77 rabbits in my home who kept nudging me.

From THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS, text © Douglas Florian, illustrations © Sonia Sánchez (click to enlarge)

Would you share a favorite selection from THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS and tell us why it's a favorite?

I think my favorite spread is this:

There's playing with leaves when the autumn winds blow. In winter there's building a rabbit of snow.

I think it's funny that rabbits would not only play with leaves but build a rabbit of snow.

From THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS, text © Douglas Florian, illustrations © Sonia Sánchez (click to enlarge)

You must have had vivid pictures in your mind as you wrote the story. Does giving up the illustrator's hat feel like a loss of control, or is it freeing somehow?  Can you give us an example of something Sonia Sánchez brings to the illustrations for THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS that you admire?

I did indeed have pictures in my mind and I wanted the illustrator to be on the same wavelength as those pictures. When Jenna Pocius of Little Bee Books showed me the art of Sonia Sánchez from Spain I knew she was the one to do that, and then some! I'm thrilled with the job she has done, so imaginative, and with so much variety. She has such a beautiful line, her characters are so expressive, and I love her rich textures.

End papers from THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS, © Sonia Sánchez

 Douglas Florian. Photo: Lee Taplinger

What are a few of your most wonderful habits?

Almost every morning I take the same train to work, sitting in the same seat. When I get to my studio I eat the same breakfast: a Chobani strawberry yogurt and a mocha frappuccino. I check my email. Read the NY Times online, call my old college buddy, and then get down to work.

Can you give us a hint about what's coming up next for you?

I will have two more board books with Little Bee, and hopefully a sequel to our rabbits book. And I also hope that my agent Rubin sells my two chapter books. That and my retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum (just joking).

If you had all the world’s children in one room, what would you tell them?

I would tell them: My, what a big room this is! Let's sing some songs together!

Douglas Florian with all the world's children... give or take a few.

Finally, please tell us what you have chosen as this month’s ditty challenge.

My ditty challenge is to write a poem about nothing.

Whoa. Talk about starting the year off with a blank slate!

Won't you please give Douglas Florian a big, bunny BOOYAH for stopping by today with all of his bunnies in tow? (I think there may even be a few more than when we started.)

Thanks also to Little Bee Books for generously offering a signed copy of THE WONDERFUL HABITS OF RABBITS for a random giveaway at the end of the month. 

You are free to interpret "nothing" however you like, but nothing would please me more than seeing your poem this month!


HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

Throughout the month, send your poems about nothing to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right.

For children under 13 who would like to participate, please read my COPPA compliance statement located below the contact form.


BLOGGER FRIENDS: Thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs– I love that!  Please also remember to send me a copy of your poem or a direct link to your post. That way I know I have your permission to post your poem on Today's Little Ditty.

Some poems may be published on the blog as daily ditties, but all of them will appear in a wrap-up celebration on January 29th, 2016.

Follow the bouncing bunnies over to The Opposite of Indifference where Tabatha Yeatts is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup.