Sophie Blackall has illustrated many books, including the Ivy + Bean series, Ruby’s Wish, and has twice won the Caldecott Medal. Originally from Australia, Sophie now spends half her time in Brooklyn, New York, and half her time on planes and boats and trains, trying to see as much of our world as she can. Her latest book is If You Come To Earth, a picture book which was recently named a Publisher’s Weekly Best Children’s Book of 2020.
Today, Sophie Blackall is on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …
Sophie Blackall
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Melbourne, but by the time I was 17 I had lived in nine houses, so my childhood was a little nomadic. There were constants, though: always a garden, always shelves of books, and always the familiar kitchen table where I could draw on big sheets of paper I begged from the butcher’s shop. My favourite of the many old houses my mother bought for a song and renovated with salvaged materials, was a cottage in Willunga, South Australia, in a tiny almond orchard. There was a vacant block of land next to us with an abandoned caravan full of the previous occupant’s Popular Mechanics magazines and rusted cans of soup. Best. Playground. Ever.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
The answer was the same at 12, 18 and 30! A children’s book illustrator. (For a brief period around the age of 14, I considered being a pastry chef, but that was short-lived.) I couldn’t believe that as a children’s book illustrator you could spend your days drawing, that stories could appear before your eyes, that you could justify hours spent in art supply shops, that you could do this from anywhere in the world, and if you did it well, you could even get paid for it. I still can’t quite believe it.
3. What strongly held belief did you have when you were younger that you do not have now?
When I was young, I trusted grown ups. I thought they had to be smarter and wiser and stronger and kinder and less judgmental and more honest than us children. Now I put my faith in the kids. They are the ones who are fighting for social justice and fighting to put an end to gun violence and fighting to save our planet. We should listen to them.
4. What are three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – that you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
Winnie-the-Pooh was the first book I bought with my own money, from my mother’s antique shop, for a dollar, because I read it over and over in the shop after school, and I knew it had to be mine forever. I loved the hilarious and heartbreaking small stories and E.H. Shepard’s endearing, charismatic, brilliant drawings. I still have my copy, and it’s still my favourite book.
In The Principles of Uncertainty, the author and illustrator Maira Kalman finds delight in the mundane, and beauty everywhere. Her particular, generous curiosity is infectious and inspiring. I have learned so much from this book.
The Augsburg Book of Miracles is an illustrated manuscript from the 16th century and probably one of the biggest influences on my work. The drawings show various “miracles” and natural phenomena and disasters and shooting stars and eclipses and comets. There is a sense of awe and wonder in the paintings that I aspire to in my own drawings. To look at the world with fresh eyes, like those of a child, or a visitor from outer space.
5. What made you choose to write a children’s book?
When I was twelve, I traced Shepard’s drawings on the afore-mentioned butcher’s paper and decided then and there that I wanted to make books when I grew up. And I knew that books for children were the best kind of books because they were more likely to have pictures in them. It took me 20 more years before I would make my first book. If You Come to Earth is my 46th.
6. Please tell us about your latest book!
The idea for If You Come to Earth arrived on top of a Himalayan mountain in Bhutan. I was working with Save the Children and had climbed a zig-zagging path to reach a tiny two-room school with ten students. We couldn’t understand a word each other said, but the children drew pictures for me and shared their lunch, and I showed them some books. I have made books about boars and babies and bears and lighthouses, but what I wanted in that moment was a book that would bring us together. A book about their home and mine.
If You Come to Earth is written as a letter from a child to a visitor from another planet, explaining our world. “If you come to Earth, here’s what you need to know …” Where our planet sits in the solar system, for instance. The fact that it’s made of land and water. Mountains and plains. Cities and towns. That the people who live here come in all shapes and sizes, and that we love each other. That we get cold and hungry, that we are always learning, always busy, that we are not alone, that we share the planet with creatures in the sea and animals on the land and birds in the sky. That we make music, and art, and mistakes, that we tell stories, in many languages, including sign language, and braille.
But there are so many things we still don’t know.
We don’t know where we were before we existed or where we go when we die. But right this minute, we are here together on this beautiful Earth. And that’s worth celebrating!
7. What do you hope kids will take away with them after reading your book?
If You Come to Earth took nearly seven years to make, and I wanted to make every detail count. To include things that some kids will find familiar and things that some will find surprising. To draw a crowded bus that every Congolese person will recognize, and also my family’s old station wagon with a Christmas tree tied on top. To show a North American roast turkey dinner and also ema datshi, the Bhutanese dish of stewed peppers and yak cheese.
Finding a way to zoom in and out from macro to micro was challenging in the best way. I wanted kids and their grown ups to be able to read the book in ten minutes, but also to want to spend ten minutes on each page.
If You Come to Earth is framed as one child’s view of the world, but the details were contributed by hundreds of friends and strangers. The birds I chose to draw were suggested by friends far and wide, and the colour names were selected from over 1500 hundred submissions on Instagram, many of which came with detailed personal anecdotes, adding another rich layer of community to the book.
And every time I got too invested in the story behind a paint colour name, or too focused on the markings of a peanut shell, I would step back and think of our planet rotating and revolving in space, our planet which holds everyone we know and everyone we’ve never met and all our food and all our water and all the art and books and music, and every ant and every sneeze and every comma, every atom of every living, and non-living thing.
When we remember that we are all here together on Earth, when we are inspired by, say a passing comet, to look up to the sky, then for a moment our differences can seem insignificant and our conflicts irrelevant. So many people contributed to this book, sharing details of their lives, helping me come up with funny colour names, giving me a secret message to include in braille. The community I found was one of the most rewarding parts of making this book and I hope readers come away feeling connected to their own communities and fellow human beings.
8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
I am lucky enough to be illustrating a book called The Beatryce Prophesy, written by the great Kate DiCamillo, and I am full of admiration for her ability to create a world full of characters who feel as though they’ve always existed, and a story you know you will return to again and again. It’s exactly how I felt when I first read Winnie-the-Pooh when I was seven.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
My most ambitious project to date is to turn an old, abandoned dairy farm in rural New York into a retreat for the children’s book community. A place to read and write and draw and walk and talk and think and eat and drink. It’s called Milkwood Farm and we are hoping to open, Covid willing, in July 2021. (You can find out more on Instagram @milkwoodny!)
10. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Write. Write it down. All of it. Or as much as you can. Every day. Even if it’s a note on your phone. And now and then, go back and read it. Most of it might make you squirm — that’s okay, you don’t have to show anyone else. But in there, there will be nuggets of gold. Kernels of truth. Seeds of ideas.
Thank you for playing!
—If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall (Hardie Grant Books) is out now.
If You Come to Earth
If you come to Earth, there are a few things you need to know.
We live in all kinds of places.
In all kinds of homes.
In all kinds of families.
Each of us is different. But all of us are amazing.
And, together, we share one beautiful planet.
If You Came to Earth is a glorious guide to our home planet, and a call for us to take care of both Earth and each other. This stunning book is inspired by the thousands of children Sophie Blackall has met during her travels around the world in support of UNICEF and Save the Children...
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