Award-winning children’s authors Avi and Brian Floca shared words of wisdom with Whittier fourth, fifth and sixth graders during a school visit Oct. 15.
While each author has produced award-winning books on his own, the duo has frequently collaborated on several beloved children’s books, including “City of Light, City of Dark,” “Poppy” and, most recently, “Old Wolf.” For these collaborations, Avi wrote the books and Floca illustrated them.
The duo shared some keen thoughts with the students, such as:
On writing, from Avi:
You can get ideas everywhere. You just have to remember to jot it the down.
The story idea is simply the beginning of a long process. I rewrite books 70 or 80 times. I’ll write and edit the original draft on my computer. Then, I’ll print out all the pages and edit it by hand. Then I’ll repeat the process. Then again.
When it’s just good enough, I’ll read it aloud to someone. This part really shows me where I need work – just listening to the text shows me where something might not work.
Writers don’t write for writing. They write for reading.
On illustrating, from Brian Floca:
I like to make pictures that tell stories. Pictures that make you wonder, who are they? What’s their story? What’s going on? Where are they going?
An illustrator must get immersed in the book’s story and really take in the overall feeling to understand where to draw a compelling image.
I often draw many more pictures than needed for a book. I like to get the overall feeling of the book, and sometimes I need to draw more pictures to capture that feeling. My pictures evolve as I better understand the characters and plot.
I have to consider the pacing when drawing pictures. I can’t have all my pictures be in the middle of the book, with nothing at the start and end. They must be spread out evenly.
More about the authors:
Avi was honored with the Newbery Medal for Crispin: Cross of Lead and a Newbery Honor for Nothing but the Truth. He is best known for several works of historical fiction, including The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and The Man Who Was Poe.
Brian Floca is the author and illustrator of Locomotive, which won the 2014 Caldecott Medal, as well as other favorites such as Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11. He has also illustrated the work of other authors, such as Kate Messner’s Marty McGuire novels. Brian’s books have also received four Robert F. Sibert Honor awards, a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators, and were selected twice for The New York Times’ annual 10 Best Illustrated Books list.