Image of the Week: Monterey Pine
© D. Yael Bernhard
This illustration from my picture book Just Like Me, Climbing A Tree (Wisdom Tales Press, 2015) shows a massive Monterey Pine, which grows only on the west coast. The book features a dozen different trees from all over the world, and the children that interact with them. I wanted the subjects of this multicultural book to represent every continent – so I started with a world map, and spread my selections out as evenly as possible. In North America, I chose the Southern live oak on the east coast, and this magnificent western pine that thrives along the coast of California and Mexico. Also included in the book are exotic trees such as the African baobab and the South American kapok, as well as common trees such as the European willow, the Asian fig, and the Australian mulberry.
To a child, a giant tree such as this one is a world unto itself – a jungle gym of delight. My editor and I debated whether the girl appears safe enough, hanging upside down. I hooked her feet under a branch to help secure her. Unfortunately, publishers need to consider issues of liability that may arise from what their books show or teach. Yet children everywhere are naturally drawn to climb trees, and their love of nature is partly what makes them all alike, no matter what country or culture they hail from. Ultimately we decided to relax, and put a short disclaimer in the back of the book reminding parents to supervise their kids when climbing trees.
It's hard to see here, but there's another climber in the tree: a spider in its web. In every illustration, the child is observing or discovering something in or on the tree. I used alliteration to describe these interactions – in this case, she "spotted a spider." On other pages, the child "dodged a dragonfly," "caught a caterpillar," "leaped to a limb," or "knew about a nest." Throughout the book, this rhyming poem of interactions weaves all the subjects together, as if they're all one – emphasizing the universality of children's experience.
This is what I consider an "anti-racist" book. It doesn't hit the reader over the head with its message, but quietly shows children that no matter their origins or ethnicity, they have a place in this world that's normal and natural. The book doesn't spotlight victims of poverty or prejudice – it simply depicts all children as equal, portraying the diversity of human experience through a non-racist lens. As I was taught in a long ago college class on children's literature, a picture book should "show, not tell."
The lavender hues of the background were chosen to contrast the tree, and to create variety in the sequence of spreads in the book. I tried to make every background a little different, with skies ranging from aqua to cobalt blue to lavender to peach. In this case, I tinted the lavender two ways: one shade tending toward periwinkle in the water, the other toward magenta in the sky. I use this technique often in my art: secondary colors (purple, green, and orange, all made from mixing two primary colors together) that are tinted in two different directions. It creates a subtle tension that makes the art more engaging.
Just Like Me, Climbing A Tree is one of my youngest picture books, targeted for ages 5 and up. For older readers, the back of the book includes more information about each tree – for example, the Monterey Pine provides winter habitat for migrating monarch butterflies, and its cones are adapted to open up in response to heat in order to reseed after a wildfire. As always, I learned a lot myself!
You can order a signed copy of Just Like Me, Climbing A Tree here.
A good week to all!
