The Picture Book Buzz - Interview w/Carter Higgins and Review of Round and Round the Year We Go

Carter Higgins is a creative storyteller who designs playful experiences around visual literacy and believes the wit of kids' language is the best poetry of all.

She is an Emmy-winning visual effects and motion graphics artist and spent a decade as an elementary school librarian. She lives in Las Vegas.

For more information on Carter, see our earlier interview (here).

Collage of the covers of Carter's ten books.

She’s the author/illustrator of Some of These Are Snails (2023) and Circle Under Berry (2021). Carter is also the author of A Story Is to Share: How Ruth Krauss Found Another Way to Tell a Tale, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (2022), Big and Small and In-Between, illustrated by Daniel Miyares (2022), Bikes for Sale, illustrated by Zachariah Ohora (2019), Everything You Need For a Treehouse, illustrated by Emily Hughes (2018), This is Not a Valentine, illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins (2017), and the chapter book series Audrey L and Audrey W, illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann. As well as the MG novel - A Rambler Steals Home (2017).

Carter’s newest author/illustrator picture book, Round and Round the Year We Go, released on August 6th.

Welcome back Carter! So glad to spend some time with you.

What is one of the most fun or unusual places where you’ve written a manuscript?

I wrote Bikes for Sale at an empty bar. It was morning, and the restaurant hadn’t opened yet. But I had some connections, so I pulled up a stool. The owner (hi, Vincent!) let me use a fresh legal pad from his office.

Aww, that sounds like a fun time. What was your inspiration or spark of interest for Round and Round the Year We Go?

Book cover - the heads of four kids and two mice peek in from the edges with the title in the middle.

A few years ago, I was organizing my writing notebooks and the phrase, “month book” was in more than one of them. But that was it. I think it was one of those ideas you carry around until you figure it out. Maybe the built-in structure of a calendar felt limiting? Like, how do you even write a “month book” when Chicken Soup with Rice exists?!

But during a busy season, when I didn’t have enough time to draft a longer story, I remembered poems. Digging into what makes April April or July July fit into five and ten-minute chunks.

That is such a cool way to approach the book's format. Which came first – the text or the illustration? How many drafts, or revisions, did Round and Round the Year We Go take from idea spark to publication?

I wrote all the text first but intended to illustrate it myself. Round and Round is my first book that includes people (!) in the illustrations. But I wasn’t confident I could pull that off, so I was careful to only include signature things from each month and season. Thankfully, my editor and art director were gentle with feedback that a book about experiencing the months of the year should, you know, have kids experiencing it on the page.

Of course that was the right decision, but it required a lot of rewriting to ensure it was exactly what I wanted the book to sound and look like. I started sketching after draft number 22.

Woah! Then you had sketching drafts.... What was the toughest aspect of writing Round and Round the Year We Go, the text or the illustrations? What was the most fun?

Illustrating those kids was the toughest part! Eyebrows, eyes, mouths—anything that makes a human look human? Expressive? That was the hardest part for me. The most fun was definitely the lettering.

Interesting. Now for a tough question - Which is your favorite spread? Why?

Internal spread - on the left of a kidney shaped table two kids enjoy cupcakes. On the right two kids watching plants grow and flower.

Text and Image © Carter Higgins. 2024.

Tough! I love the kidney table in April, the perspective of November, and the snow of January and December. How’s that?

Wonderful! But I'm just going to show one of these. Is there something you want your readers to know about Round and Round the Year We Go?

I don’t know that they need to know this as much as feel it, but each month’s poem is driven by the sound of the month itself. January and February have a lot of -ary sounds, July has lots of long i sounds, and the -er of November and December is a perfect kind of brrr. I love the puzzle of what text should sound like, in poetry or prose.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us! Many illustrators leave treasures or weave something special throughout the illustrations. Did you do this in Round and Round the Year We Go? If so, could you share one or more with us?

The next-to-last spread, which requires the reader to turn the book sideways, shows all four kids in a tree. I suppose they are technically in the tree at different times of the year, but that picture is a nod to the big dog party towards the end of Go, Dog. Go!

That's so cool! What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten - whether it’s regarding writing/ illustrating or not?

Max out your library card. It’s free!

I love this advice! Are there any projects you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?

This is a touch abstract, but if Round and Round is a book loosely inspired by putting up classroom decorations, my newest project is loosely inspired by tearing them down.

Intriguing....we are definitely going to have to keep our eyes open for this book. Last question, what is your favorite National Park or Forest, regional park, or city park (anywhere in the world)? Or the one you’re longing to visit. Why?

Photo of Jockey Ridge State Park, NC © Ray Matthews

Photo © Ray Matthews

I’ve been thinking a lot about special places from my childhood lately and would love to revisit Jockey’s Ridge State Park soon. It’s on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, in Nags Head.

Oh, and Maria! I recently did an event at the Cannaley Treehouse Village, a part of Metroparks Toledo—a total dream!

Photo of Treehouse in Cannaley Treehouse Metroparks, Toledo

Oh my gosh, this does look like a dream place for an event, retreat, or afternoon of writing (or playing!)

For more information about Carter Higgins, or to contact her:

Website: https://carterhiggins.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carterhiggins

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarterHiggins

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carterhiggins/

Review of Round and Round the Year We Go

This inventive picture book carries four kids and two mice on a wonderful rhyming romp through the months and seasons of the year, exploring some common activities, food, and holidays along the way.

Round and Round the Year We Go

Author/illustrator: Carter Higgins

Publisher: Neal Porter Books/Holiday House (2024)

Ages: 4-8

Fiction

Themes:

Poetry, monthly activities, seasons, and weather.

Synopsis:

Eric Carle meets Chicken Soup with Rice in this joyful dance through the year one month at a time, sure to whirl young readers right along with it.

Time never passed so happily! From sledding and snowman-crafting in January to the New Year’s countdown in December, childlike drawings and jolly text describe each month of the year with all the fun that each one promises. This book works like a song: each month is a new verse, and readers transition into each new season by a chorus with a recurring refrain, which is riffed on throughout the year.

Beloved author-illustrator Carter Higgins is back with all her quirky warmth in Round and Round the Year We Go, a book as fun to read aloud as it is to listen to and learn from. Story time is sure to provoke giggles, games, and ideas for your own seasonal escapades.

Opening Lines:

days are made of ups

and downs

of minutes

moments

month by month

they’re sometimes fast

and sometimes slow

SO....

round and round the year we go

What I LOVED about this book: The book actually starts in the end pages, beautifully leading up to and including the title page. Carter Higgins gorgeous and geometric cut paper art and poems with lots of heart really do remind me of Eric Carle. The wonderful rhyme is fun to read and carefully chosen to evoke special parts of each month.

Internal spread - on the left a bare tree and a kis on a sled int he snow. On the right, another kid pulling the sled and two kids sledding from the top of the hill, while a mouse in the foreground makes a snowmouse.

icy air where

snowflakes vary

branches bare in

january

boots in pairs and

sleds to carry

at the top

it’s very scary

In addition to the kids, who joyfully romp through the seasons and months, Cater Higgins included two mice - one with pink ears, one with purple ears. Kids will have fun looking for them on each spread. Sometimes the mice interact wordlessly, sometimes they have their own little poem (like in the above spread as it builds a snow mouse - "temporary/ berry buttons/ carrot for a nose."), and sometimes they a little dash of childlike snarkiness ("whatever").

I love how, each time the seasons change between the months, Carter Higgins highlights fun kid art and a seasonally colored (green = spring, yellow = summer, orange = fall, and blue= winter), textured, plain page with one of the mice and a masterful twist to the end of the title/refrain - "rainy waiting/ shady spring/ round and round the year we swing."

Internal spread - on the left, a collage of four kid's art work as a mouse lounges on a bookshelf. On the right, a mouse on a green back ground wlecomes spring.

While the collage-like images do an awesome job of capturing the activities, weather, class art activities, and sensations of each month and season, the poems tantalize the tongue with words like "sticky fizzle/ summer snooze" and "pumpkin patchy/ partners."

It's fun to watch how items, like popsicles and smores, are mirrored between the mice, artwork, and kids. For instance, on the previous spread introducing the change to summer, the pink-eared mouse has a green popsicle, and the purple-eared mouse runs across a line with drying artwork, knocking loose a corner of a picture of smores on sticks. Then one child enjoys a cooling popsicle, while another child and the pink-eared mouse have smores. I really like the font Carter Higgins uses for the names of the months.

Internal spread - on the left on kid swimming with a floatie as another jumps in for a cannonball. On the right, two kids leaning against a tree trunk at night eating a s'more and reading a book as a little mouse in the foreground makes its own s'more.

Briming with joy, this is a wonderful journey of four young friends through a year of art, activities, and sensations. Captured with some fabulous poetry forms and fun made up words. "nothing left/ to do in/ August/ it’s your birthday?/ oops, i’m wrongest" that make it feel very child-like. After December, with a circular lead in back to January, the ending is a little unexpected, humorous, and thought provoking. This is a spectacular book for snuggles, exploring seasons and months, and learning to play with poetry and the delicious sounds of words.

Resources:

photo collage of some examples of four seasons depicted on 1 tree.

using the tree near the end of the book as an example, how would you show all four seasons on 1 tree at the same time? You could paint it, use found item collage (like buttons), make a tissue paper "stained glass" tree, or a multi-sided paper tree.
thinking about the months and seasons, what activities do you like to do? What foods do you like to eat? Does your family have a special dish, holiday, or seasonal activity? Write a poem, a story, or a list or draw an image of make a cut paper image of something special or fun which you and/or your family does during the year.
what is your favorite month? Why? Thinking of the fun words used in this book, how would you describe this month? Write a poem, a list of words, or a story about your month.