Interview with Adam Rex, author and illustrator of Pssst!

Interviewed by Cheryl Rainfield.

Pssst!
written and illustrated by Adam Rex
Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books
Pub date: September 2007
ISBN-10: 0152058176
ISBN-13: 978-0152058173

Synopsis:
A child, a visit to the zoo, animals–sounds like good, simple all-American fun. But there’s something different about this zoo. These animals want things. Unusual things. What will they do with them?

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Adam Rex graciously agreed to do an interview with me. His humor and love of fiction and illustration. And as special treat, he also included a photo of some of the models he used for Pssst! -–a couple of well-sculpted toys that he used in conjunction with pictures of actual animals to give him reference for his paintings, as well as his own sculpture of Zooey, the main character in Pssst!

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Why did you write and illustrate Pssst!? What was the spark or inspiration for the book?

Can’t remember. The whole idea just dropped into my head one morning, leaving only the exact dialogue to be written. I may have woken up with the concept. That’s been happening a lot lately.

I really enjoyed how most of the text appears through dialog bubbles. It reminded me of comics. Do you read comics, or did you used to? Why did you decide to make the girl’s speech appear that way?

I’m a big comics fan. I think there’s a pretty razor-thin distinction between the comics form and picture books anyway. It would only take some reformatting to turn almost any picture book into a comic, or almost any comic into a picture book. As an author-illustrator, I can write and plan the visuals at the same time, so when I get to a point in the story in which, for example, the javelina is trying to get Zooey’s (the main character’s) attention, I could write,
I heard another Pssst! This one came from the javelina enclosure.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hola,” said the javelina.
and so on, and maybe illustrate all this with just one image of Zooey and the boar. Or I could simply show another “Pssst!” in a word balloon, then show Zooey next to the javelina enclosure and continue the dialog in pictures and word balloons from there. Neither way is right or wrong, of course, but you certainly don’t need both approaches at the same time. It would be redundant.

It feels like there are many layers of humor and understanding in your illustrations–some geared for child readers, some for adult readers. Did you intentionally write to reach both sets of readers?

some of Adam Rex’s models for Pssst!

I think I really write for myself, with my child audience firmly in mind as well. But first and foremost I’m trying to make books that I like, and trusting my editors to tell me if they have kid appeal as well. So I hope there’s always something for the parents in my books. They buy them, after all, and they’re probably the ones reading them, if I’m lucky. I want kids to love my books, and I at least want parents not to die a little inside when my books have been requested for the tenth night in a row.

What was the hardest thing for you to write in this book (a character, the beginning or ending)? Why?

The ending practically came first. I guess the biggest challenge was to select the animals, and to give each some object they could reasonably need, but which could also be useful for the surprise ending.

What was the hardest thing for you to illustrate in this book? Why?

Well, I illustrated the whole thing in a style I’d never tried before–-fully-modeled and rendered characters within a fairly flat tableau of color and line art. I had to figure out how the whole thing was going to look as I went along, and that was a big challenge.

If there’s an idea or message you hope your readers take away from your book, what is it?

It’s okay to say no when zoo animals ask unreasonable things of you. Be polite but firm.

Thank you, Adam.

You can check out Adam’s site at: http://www.adamrex.com

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Pssst! by Adam Rex is one of the best picture books I’ve ever read. It’s funny, intelligent, and fanciful, with perfect pacing, snappy dialog, and beautiful illustrations. It’s a wonderful fantasy joyride into the imagination. But don’t just take my word for it–read the book if you haven’t yet. You won’t regret it.

You can read my complete review of Pssst! here: http://www.cherylrainfield.com/picture-book-review_Pssst.html

September 24th, 2007