Behold a summer escape in a picture book!
Releasing on August 1st from Flashlight Press, GIANT ISLAND reveals an astonishing secret as a grandfather and his two grandchildren embark upon a common, everyday fishing trip…or so they think…
Jane, this blog emphasizes the importance of brainstorming story ideas often to get to the book-worthy ones. Where did you get the idea for GIANT ISLAND?
Not in the usual way.
I was contacted by an editor I didn’t know, Shari Dash Greenspan, at a publishing company I hadn’t yet worked with, to help rewrite/edit the text of a book by an amazing illustrator, Doug Keith. Doug had the idea for a book about an island that is actually a giant, and what happens when a family visits it. The publisher already had the book dummy and about half of the paintings were done, but there wasn’t a working text because the story was all told visually by the illustrator. The pictures were fantastic, but they needed some assist with an actual story.
In other words, they needed a writer. And that’s where I came in.
I studied the pictures until I knew them by heart. I knew I had to give the book a text/story that matched its lyrical and yet humorous visual telling. The characters were a given—a grandfather, a grandson and granddaughter, a dog…and a giant… I couldn’t change them, I had to make them live.
I wrote, rewrote, invented, re-invented. Editor Shari edited and illustrator Doug occasionally re-drew, and the book became what you see now. So, NOT your usual way of creating a picture book.
Shari has become a dear friend and I am still trying to sell her something else!!! Or maybe I can convince her to do a RETURN TO GIANT ISLAND where the kids help save the island from becoming someone’s home. Doug could have a grand time with that.
Aha! It was the illustrator’s idea! There are many wordless PBs, though. Why did Shari want to add words?
The book had been meant to be a wordless book, but while the pictures were beautiful, the story’s subtleties were not clear enough without words. And the marvelous Doug was more artist than wordsmith. So we each brought our A games to make the book—artist, editor/art director, and author in that order. Not the usual order, but this time it worked. Whew!!!
Click on spreads to enlarge
What were your concerns as you were writing and wanting to stay true to Doug’s story? Did you communicate with him during the process?
I tried to stay close to what Doug had already done, at least as close as possible. I had my fierce (and funny) editor to keep me on track. We all wanted it to seem seamless. And I think (hope) that is true.
Was it harder than just writing the piece from the start and letting an illustrator go at it?
A bit.
But isn’t that just a reversal of roles? Because that is what artists do all the time—take the words and turn them into pictures!
Also, I have done this before, once with a picture book retelling of Sleeping Beauty with artist Ruth Sanderson. And in about twelve books of poetry in which I wrote poems to go with my son Jason’s photographs of animals on sea, land, and in the sky.
What do you hope readers will take away after reading GIANT ISLAND?
GIANT ISLAND is a book about magic and imagination that spans a family’s generations and ages, from children to grandfather. And it is also about storytelling, though that is subtext. And for me, it had another meaning because I got to meet and befriend both editor Shari and illustrator Doug.
What is it about magic and secrets that children love so much?
I am not sure. I know that from childhood, magic stories sustained me.
But I also remember a young Scottish boy, son of a friend, to whom I gave a witch book I had written, and he handed it back solemnly saying, “Boys like books about real things.” (Of course I know a computer scientist who creates fantasy board games. Go figure!)
This story involves a grandfather and his grandchildren—do you have any secret family stories?
As a grandmother, I often tell the story of MY grandmother and grandfather their eight children living in “the old country” (Ukraine). When the Russian Cossacks came to raid Jewish villages and set houses on fire, my five-foot-nothing, red-headed grandmother would gather her children and her neighbors’ children, put them into a large horse-drawn cart, and cover them with hey and grains. She would drive them out of the village and into the safety of the forest, waving at the Cossacks who thought, with her red hair, that she was probably Polish (and not Jewish). So they left her alone.
I hope I have inherited some of her tough magic, her courage. The family left their big house in the early 1900s and migrated to America. Last month the Russians bombed the house, but we lucky Yolens are safe here. It’s a story that my children and their children will be able to tell forever.
What a beautiful story, Jane! Or I should say, two beautiful stories!
GIANT ISLAND is a gorgeous book, and Jane brings GIANT ISLAND to life with subtlety, to let the majestic illustrations by Doug Keith speak with their wonder. Jane tells the reader only what they need to know—and the rest can be left up to the imagination. Who is this giant? How did he get here? What other adventures await the children?
GIANT ISLAND releases next week from Flashlight Press!
Blog readers, I am giving away a copy of GIANT ISLAND.
Just leave one comment below.
A random winner will be selected in two weeks.
Good luck!
Annie Silvestro is a lover of books who can often be found shuffling piles of them around so she has a place to sit or someplace to put her teacup. She is the author of the forthcoming BRAVO, LITTLE BIRD as well as DYLAN’S DRAGON, SUGAR AND SPICE AND EVERYTHING MICE, BUNNY’S BOOK CLUB GOES TO SCHOOL, BUTTERFLIES ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, THE CHRISTMAS TREE WHO LOVED TRAINS, MICE SKATING, and BUNNY’S BOOK CLUB, named a Kids’ Indie Next List Pick, an Amazon best book of the year for 2017, and a 2018 pick for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Annie lives with her sons by the beach in New Jersey where she laughs loudly and often. Visit her at 
Maria Gianferrari wonders and is in awe of the natural world and its inhabitants, domestic and wild cats included. She lives in Massachusetts with her inquisitive scientist husband and Maple the dog, a watcher who’s curious about anything that moves, especially if she can chase it! Curiously, though an unabashed dog lover, this is Maria’s third book featuring cats as main characters, most recently Bobcat Prowling, as well as Officer Katz and Houndini. You can learn more about Maria at her website, 
Pete Oswald is a #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator and an Annie Award-nominated animation production designer best known for The Angry Birds Movie film franchise and Oscar® Nominated ParaNorman, in addition to multiple animated studio films. He is also known for his work as a children’s book author and illustrator, and painter. Pete lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and three sons.
The first book in the series, THE MYSTERY OF THE BARKING BRANCHES AND THE SUNKEN SHIP, is based on real events involving a found cannonball believed to be from the Griffon, a treasure ship that sank somewhere in the Great Lakes in 1679 on the return from its maiden voyage. The ship has never been recovered, though over a million dollars has been spent trying. There’s even a Discovery Channel episode about it. When I first read a newspaper story about a 
My swimming teachers threw me off the high dive when I was 4. My mom pulled me from swim lessons that same day. On reflection, those swimming teachers were probably mid-teens, but it did wreck me for swimming. I like the water, but I don’t swim.
Yes! SWIM JIM is autobiographical! As are all my books in some way. Even “If UR Stabby” is all about my edgy introvert side that just wants to be left alone with my dog and listen to podcasts and write children’s books. Not all unicorns are rainbows and kittens, you know!
Kaz Windness is an autistic author-illustrator specializing in inclusive stories featuring cute and quirky animals for younger children and spooky and edgy humor for older kids and teens.
Ty Chapman is the author of SARAH RISING (Beaming 2022); LOOKING FOR HAPPY (Beaming 2023); A DOOR MADE FOR ME, written with Tyler Merritt (WorthyKids 2022); TARTARUS (Button Poetry 2024); as well as multiple forthcoming children’s books through various publishers. Ty was a finalist for Tin House’s 2022 Fall Residency, Button Poetry’s 2020 Chapbook Contest, and Frontier Magazine’s New Voices Contest. He is currently an MFA candidate in creative writing for children and young adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts and was recently named a Loft Literary Center Mirrors & Windows fellow and Mentor Series fellow. Visit him at 
In the spring of 2021, my editor reached out to see if I’d be interested in writing and illustrating another Penguin book to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Penguin’s first book, PENGUIN AND PINECONE, a friendship story. It was an incredible opportunity to bring the series back to the forefront with a new book!
Salina Yoon is a Geisel Honor-winning author/illustrator of a dozen picture books and early readers and nearly 200 innovative novelty books, with over 5 million books sold worldwide, including KIKI AND JAX, the life-changing magic of friendship, a picture book she co-authored and illustrated with international tidying superstar and bestselling author, Marie Kondo. Visit her online at 
MOON WISHES came about as a conversation with my husband Guy. The response from MOON WISHES was so kind and positive. I wasn’t sure what the response would be, because it was a different kind of picture book—soft, dreamy, poetic. I was pleased that people enjoyed MOON WISHES, but it really did not occur to me to write a sequel, or follow-up. But I was at a Christmas party in 2019 (a party full of children’s authors & illustrators, by the way), and I had brought a copy of Moon Wishes with me. One of the guests turned to me after reading Moon Wishes and said, “Well, when are you going to write SUN WISHES?” My jaw dropped. I had never considered that! So then I could not get that title out of my head, and within the next few days, the words poured out of me so easily, like a gift from the heavens.
Ever since Patricia Storms can remember, she has loved to draw, paint, write, read, and sing. She was 12 years old when my first cartoon was published in a Toronto newspaper. She got paid five dollars for that cartoon, so she figured that maybe she should keep drawing. She’s been writing, drawing and painting ever since, publishing dozens of books 
Writing for Kids (While Raising Them) 