by Charlotte Offsay & Abi Cushman

Thank you Tara for having us on your blog today and for agreeing to let us interview one another in celebration of the cover reveal of our upcoming picture book, THE QUIET FOREST! A big thank you to you as well for creating such an inspiring Storystorm event every year—without it THE QUIET FOREST wouldn’t exist! You are a kidlit treasure, and we are endlessly grateful for your support!

[Aww, gosh, I’m blushin’, thanks!]

THE QUIET FOREST is a cumulative picture book in which one mischievous mouse’s mishap quickly snowballs into a chain of outrageous events, causing a whole forest full of animals to have a very loud day indeed! Can the animals now find a way to bring calm and quiet back to their home?

Abi: Charlotte, this is such a fun, clever book. And it’s a Storystorm success story! Where did the idea behind THE QUIET FOREST come from?

Charlotte: Wow, thank you Abi, I really appreciate your kind words! Before I answer your question, I have to say what a treat it is to get to partner with you on this book in particular. I was already a big fan of your hilarious and huggable characters long before editor Catherine Laudone suggested partnering with you on our book–I squealed with delight when she did! I’m absolutely blown away with what you have come up with and I love it even more than I knew I would!

Now, back to your question… Where did the idea behind THE QUIET FOREST come from?

I participate in Tara’s Storystorm event every year in an attempt to mine as many story ideas as I can and fuel my writing throughout the year. Some ideas are concepts or phrases that make their way from one year’s list to the next, waiting for their turn… a.k.a waiting for inspiration to hit. I had been wanting to write a story about spreading kindness for a few years but had never quite found the right way into the story.

After reading a Storystorm post on playing with picture book structure, I wrote: kindness—cumulative structure? on my Storystorm list. One September morning when I was looking for a new writing project to work on, I decided it was time to try a cumulative story about kindness and feature animals as my characters since I had been itching to write an animal-themed picture book! I then pulled every cumulative structure picture book off my shelves and sat down to write what would eventually (after many, many revisions) become, THE QUIET FOREST!

Abi: On top of a cumulative structure, you’ve also incorporated onomatopoeia and alliteration into the story. It’s quite the writing marvel! What was the writing process like for THE QUIET FOREST?

Charlotte: You are too kind! THE QUIET FOREST was simultaneously one of the easiest and hardest books to write—allow me to explain… Writing a cumulative structure picture book has a set structure to it which made a nice frame that felt easier to start from. It allowed me to use the frame even when selecting the animals for the story, as the cumulative structure built, the animals I selected increased in size. Having the animals in place allowed me to see that onomatopoeia would help increase the fun of the read aloud and alliteration even more so. But as I moved on to editing the manuscript, my desire to have all of these pieces in place while creating a story that built logically in chaos became one of the bigger brain teasers I have had to battle in my writing. I needed all the pieces to feel natural and not forced which led to a large number of hours of my manuscript chopped up on my office floor moving pieces around while simultaneously scouring wordhippo.com for a word or phrase that would fit my strict parameters. Writing THE QUIET FOREST felt like solving a puzzle to write and it wasn’t until I saw your brilliant illustrations that it finally felt solved.

Image © THE QUIET FOREST by Charlotte Offsay, illus. by Abi Cushman (Paula Wiseman Books, 2024)

Charlotte: In the book, we get to see the mischievous mouse swinging into a pile of pancakes, a deer picking flowers, and a moose painting. How did you dream up all of the fun antics for these characters? Where did you draw your inspiration from?

Abi: When I first read your manuscript, Charlotte, I could see the potential for really fun action scenes. You left me room to explore exactly what those animals were doing when they each got interrupted, which was amazing. My first goal was to think of what action could go with each sound word that would be the most visually fun for kids. I wanted to err on the side of going BIG.

So I printed out the manuscript and made doodles in the margins with some possibilities. What goes splat? A tube of toothpaste? A bottle of ketchup?

I decided on pancakes because I thought a scene of a mouse flying into a stack of pancakes would be the funniest for kids.

Image © THE QUIET FOREST by Charlotte Offsay, illus. by Abi Cushman (Paula Wiseman Books, 2024)

But once I had brainstormed activities that would be the most fun when they got interrupted, I also had to consider how these activities might come together at the end. This story is so wonderful because just as one mischievous act can snowball into a chain of outrageous events, one simple act of kindness can also spread and change the course of the day. I really wanted to show in the illustrations how each animal’s individual activity at the beginning comes together at the end to contribute to a sense of community.

So now, without further ado, we are thrilled to present the cover of THE QUIET FOREST, which was edited by the incredible Catherine Laudone and beautifully designed by art director Krista Vossen. THE QUIET FOREST releases March 12, 2024 from Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster and is available for pre-order now.

Charlotte Offsay was born in England, grew up in Boston, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Through her work, Charlotte hopes to make children laugh, to inspire curiosity, and to create a magical world her readers can lose themselves in time and time again.

Charlotte is the author of The Quiet Forest, illustrated by Abi Cushman (Paula Wiseman Books, 2024), Challah Day, illustrated by Jason Kirschner (Holiday House, 2023), A Grandma’s Magic, illustrated by Asa Gilland (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, April 2022), The Big Beach Cleanup, illustrated by Kate Rewse (Albert Whitman, 2021), and How to Return a Monster, illustrated by Rea Zhai (Beaming Books, 2021).

Learn more about Charlotte’s work at charlotteoffsay.com and follow her on Twitter and Tiktok at @COffsay and on Instagram at @picturebookrecommendations. Charlotte is represented by Nicole Geiger at Full Circle Literary.

Abi Cushman is the author-illustrator of SOAKED!, ANIMALS GO VROOM! and WOMBATS ARE PRETTY WEIRD. Her upcoming book, THE QUIET FOREST, written by Charlotte Offsay, releases in 2024. Abi has also worked as a web designer for over 15 years, and runs two popular websites of her own: MyHouseRabbit.com, a pet rabbit care resource, and AnimalFactGuide.com, which was named a Great Website for Kids by the American Library Association. In her spare time, Abi enjoys running, playing tennis, and eating nachos. (Yes, at the same time.) She lives on the Connecticut shoreline with her family.

To learn more about Abi and her books, visit her website at AbiCushman.com. If you like secrets, exclusive sneak peeks, wombats, and special giveaways, subscribe to her newsletter.