The Picture Book Buzz - Interview w/Nancy White Carlstrom, Claudia McGehee, and Counting Winter
Nancy White Carlstrom started writing when she was seven years old and has been writing ever since.
She says, "I write when I am happy and when I am sad, and especially when I celebrate God’s creation. When you read This Is the Day, I hope it will cause you to look at your world and be surprised by wonder every day of the week."
Nancy’s written over 50 books, including This Is the Day!, illustrated by Richard Cowdrey (2009), Mama, Will it Snow Tonight?, illustrated by Paul Tong (2009), It's Your First Day of School, Annie Claire, illustrated by Margie Moore (2009), Raven and River, illustrated by Jon Van Zyle (1997), Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? (1st in 9 book series), illustrated by Bruce Degen (1996), and The Snow Speaks, illustrated by Jane Dyer (1992).
Claudia McGehee is an illustrator-author living in a tallgrass prairie state. Her creative inspiration comes directly from nature, especially the regional prairies and woodland around her, and the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up.
Claudia pairs her main illustration medium, scratchboard, with vivid watercolor to create earthy, wood-cut like images. Some days she writes about pictures. Some days she draws about words. It’s all in telling a story.
Claudia is a native of Washington state. She lives with her family in a house and studio on a hill in Iowa City, Iowa. She earned degrees in anthropology (archaeology) and graphic design.
Claudia is the author/illustrator of a number of non-fiction picture books, My Wilderness: An Alaskan Adventure (2015), Where Do Birds Live? (2010), A Woodland Counting Book (2006), and A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet (2004). And she’s the illustrator of Creekfinding: A True Story, Jacqueline Briggs Martin (2017), Northwoods Girl, by Aimée Bissonette (2015), among many others.
Their newest picture book, Counting Winter, released on September 24th.
Welcome Nancy and Claudia,
Tell us a little about yourselves. (Where/when do you write or illustrate? How long have you been writing or illustrating? What is your favorite type of book to write or illustrate?
NANCY - I have always been a writer and can remember writing short plays in second grade and lots of poetry. I worked in the children’s department of our local library in Washington, Pennsylvania, where I grew up, and that’s where my dream of writing children’s books was born. When our first son Jesse was born, I had a babysitter come in for a few hours a week and I went out to write. The first manuscript I had accepted was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, and much of it was written in the Student Union of Seattle Pacific University near where we lived.
CLAUDIA - I’ve drawn and written for as long as I can remember, from long afternoons spent as a kid, creating pictures with a big tin box of crayons and a pile of scrap paper at my side, to filling notebooks with stories and ideas. I was fortunate as a kid to have parents who loved to read, so that sparked an early interest in books and picture book art. When I was in 2nd grade, my Mom encouraged me to write my own picture books. I’d stand by Mom’s side and dictate a story. She would type the story on the bottom part of the page and leave the top area for me to draw the scene. My elementary school librarian let me put my books in the library and friends checked them out! I had an inkling then that this is what I wanted to do when I grew up. It took me another 30+ years to get my next picture book published, but the seed was planted in my early years.
I’ve commercially illustrated since 1993, and my first picture book Tallgrass Prairie (University of Iowa Press) was published in 2004.
I’m drawn to stories inspired by the wonder of our natural world. I have an interest in including scientifically accurate details in my drawings but with some whimsy in the details (for instance, I’m known for giving animal subjects slight smiles!). I try and strike a good balance between fact and fun.
It is wonderful to get to know you both. What is one of the most fun or unusual places where you’ve written or illustrated a manuscript?
NANCY - When I used to travel back to New York City to see editors and publishers, I could get lots of writing done on the airplane since it was such a long trip from Fairbanks, Alaska to NYC. One time I had met with Bruce Degen, the illustrator of the Jesse Bear Books. We were walking around his old neighborhood of Brooklyn where he grew up and he said, “Don’t forget the Holidays.” So, on the trip back to Alaska, I started the book How Do You Say it Today, Jesse Bear?,a book of months of the year and holidays.
CLAUDIA – Most of the time, I am rooted in my Iowa City, Iowa studio, where my illustration board is positioned to look out onto a lush Midwest woodland. I have a good-sized library with my computer set-up, art supplies, and large working table handy, so I don’t do a lot of illustration work outside of this area. I tend to make my first story ideas in long-hand, whenever they hit me, and then work on edits in the studio as well.
My illustration style involves fairly small scale pieces (think 10”by 10” on average) so I can work mobile at times, if I am traveling or need a break from the studio. Once, I finished a book cover in a hotel lobby while we were on vacation! It wasn’t ideal, but deadlines sometimes overlap life.
Nancy, what was your inspiration or spark of interest for Counting Winter?
NANCY - Counting Winter grew out of my experiences living for 18 years with my family in Fairbanks, Alaska. It all began with one lone fox walking across the snow near our house, merging with a memory of one lone fox running across the fields of my brother’s farm in Pennsylvania, merging with one lone fox on a white expanse of card I sent to a dying friend. It grew and grew, becoming something more over time.
I tell students my writing is like cooking a pot of stew, as I toss in more ingredients and let it simmer on the back burner. This text simmered longer than any other and almost was forgotten in my file drawer of manuscripts.
I love that analogy. And what a great example for never throwing out ideas. Claudia, what about the Counting Winter manuscript appealed to you as an illustrator?
Text © Nancy White Carlstrom, 2024. Image © Claudia McGehee, 2024.
CLAUDIA - When I first read Nancy’s manuscript, I loved the text’s bounding energy, and the animals featured all connected with actions very evocative of their nature and of nature. I loved the idea of a one-season book, of highlighting deep winter. I knew my style of illustration could complement this world.
I’ve always drawn inspiration from many facets of nature, and Counting Winter resonated with familiar, deep notes from my own outdoor observations. As I read the manuscript, I was transported back to the snowy winters of my native Washington State and travels through Montana, Alaska, and Scandinavia. I looked forward to expressing animal life that continues to flourish even in the cold climes.
It definitely did match your style beautifully; I can see why you fell in love with it. Claudia, what is the hardest or most challenging thing for you about illustrating Counting Winter?
CLAUDIA - The most challenging was working out each page’s compositions that felt somewhat scientifically feasible and were fun for kids to view. So that said, illustrating counting books is all fun and games on the first few pages, where creatures stroll solo through peaceful woodlands or nuzzle in pairs on tree branches. After a while (and I tend to work chronologically), as the numbers climb, it gets more complex! With Counting Winter, multiple owls wanted to perch in the page gutters (no!!), an eight-dog sled team veered wildly verso to recto! Seven chonky muskox head-butt for text space! It was an illustration challenge I enjoyed.
Sounds like a fun puzzle! How many revisions did Counting Winter take for the text or illustrations - from first draft to publication?
NANCY - It’s hard to know how many revisions I had for Counting Winter, as sometimes it’s just a matter of changing one word. In fact, usually I start with many more words than I need, so it’s a cutting away process. Sometimes finding just the right word is difficult, but I have been doing this for many years now – over forty – and that helps.
CLAUDIA - I typically do a number of “thumbnails” (small, fast, first impression drawings) and then more detailed rough sketches that I whittle down to a final “dummy” that gets shared with the editor. The editor provides feedback on the concepts. I edit from their feedback and then go to the final scratchboard illustrations.
Sure would be interesting to see what you each had to whittle to create this fun ode to winter. Claudia, many illustrators leave treasures or weave their own story (or elements) throughout the illustrations. Did you do this in Counting Winter? If so, could you share one or more with us?
CLAUDIA - The atmospheric scenes that Nancy’s text evoked gave me plenty of opportunity to slip in other arctic denizens that were not necessarily named in the text. On the vole page, I included a lynx to provide a little scale and interest to the burrowed vole habitat. I hope I gave the lynx a non- menacing vibe (no voles are harmed in this scene, although I did learn from my research that voles are a vital winter meal source for many large mammals in Alaska!). I was also thrilled to give one of the musk ox some extra personality by showing off his snowflake tasting ability. We had some room in the back of the book, and I love including picture maps in books when I can, so I created a wordless “map,” an imaginary pathway the reader could “walk” and see all the animals mentioned in the poem.
That musk ox is so cute, and the map is such a great way to tie it all together and carry the reader to the following animal profiles. Nancy, when you first saw Claudia’s illustrations in Counting Winter, did anything surprise, amaze, or delight you? Which is your favorite spread?
Text © Nancy White Carlstrom, 2024. Image © Claudia McGehee, 2024.
NANCY - I was both delighted and surprised by Claudia’s stunning illustrations. They certainly take my text to a whole different level. I really like the owls and woodpeckers because I can visualize very specific woods where I encountered those birds in the first winter of our Alaskan sojourn. The musk ox adds an unexpected whimsical touch from such solid creatures. And I love that she uses scratchboard which is so different from my other book illustrations.
I totally agree with you. Claudia, is there a spread that you were especially excited about or proud of? Or perhaps one which is your favorite spread?
Text © Nancy White Carlstrom, 2024. Image © Claudia McGehee, 2024.
CLAUDIA - Haha! It’s hard to pick amongst your “children”- I was excited to illustrate each stanza! I’m most proud of the first one, the red fox, as he really opens the book with a kind of wonder and mystery. I love squirrels and thought learning about how they make middens was truly cool! I enjoyed composing this page to include the little trio munching on their dinners in their cozy hollow. I was happy with how the sled dogs “heartily racing winter” turned out, especially the guys with the roiling tongues and the wacky eyes!
Finally, the cover is actually now one of my favorite covers of all my covers, too. The editor team suggested that violet background and I think the winter details really pop out from this. Plus, the fox again is so inviting.an animal.
It is a tough question, but you answered it perfectly. What's something you want your readers to know about Counting Winter?
NANCY - I hope readers can catch the awe and wonder I feel when I observe nature. As I write in the author’s note “Open your wise and wonderful eyes to the natural world around you. Look and see the ways of the wild, their paths and tracks. Listen to the stories and songs of its creatures.” If this inspires my readers to write their own poems or dream their own dreams, then my writing has become a shared joy.
CLAUDIA - Counting Winter is a joyous collaboration that expresses a pretty complex environment that thrives and survives the coldest time of the Alaskan year. I hope our readers will be transported by word and image to worlds not normally experienced outside their door and that this sparks a curiosity to get out there and observe what they see in their own worlds and beyond.
I think you will succeed in these hopes. Can you think of something you wish you’d known before you started the publication journey with Counting Winter?
NANCY - No, I can’t think of anything except that the timing of this publication has been just right for me, personally. It’s been a very difficult year with my husband having numerous and serious health issues. So, writing the Author’s Note last fall seemed like such a gift to have a pleasant distraction from all we were going through.
CLAUDIA - It’s always a bonus to have been to the area where the scenes you are illustrating are set. I try and travel to settings if I have a chance. I’ve been to Alaska only in the summer months, and due to various circumstances, I could not get up to Alaska during a winter before the book art was due. So, I only imagine the white clad spruces and snow layered tundra. One day, I will go!
Nancy, I am so sorry and hope this year is better! Claudia, your imagination is spot on and I hope you do get to go one day. Are there any new projects you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?
NANCY - I have lots of manuscripts in my file drawer, many of which have never been submitted. So, I am revisiting these, perhaps revising a little. One I am especially fond of is called At Grammy’s House.
Also, I have a granddaughter who was born deaf, had a cochlear implant at age one, and now as a five-year-old kindergartner, signs and speaks orally. I would like to write something about her and her world.
Our 7-year-old grandson is bilingual – Portuguese and English – and lives downstairs part of the time as well as in Brazil. Our 8-year-old grandson has a strong interest in sailing and all things connected to the sea. So, I have lots of new material for poems and stories with these much loved grandchildren, to whom Counting Winter is dedicated.
CLAUDIA - I am finishing up a collection of nature poems called Rings of Heartwood, written by Molly Beth Griffin (Minnesota Historical Society Press). Twelve poems exemplify some aspect of growing up found in the natural world (wood ducklings having to leap from tall trees a few days after they are born to join their mother in the pond; baby bat pups live together and are watched over by other bat-moms in nurseries; etc.) that relates in some way to human challenges of growing up! The poems are very sweet yet powerful. I’ve enjoyed the many varied leafy woodland scenes I’ve created for this one. Beyond this, I’m working of a few manuscripts of my own.
Nancy, I do hope you write one for your granddaughter. Claudia, what a gorgeous cover! Best of luck to both of you on all these projects. Last question, what is your favorite National Park or Forest, regional park, or city park? Or the one you’re longing to visit. Why?
Dcoetzee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
NANCY - My favorite city park in Seattle is Discovery Park, not far from where we live. In fact, many years ago I worked on two manuscripts there, and they eventually became the published books Heather Hiding and What Does the Rain Play? [A number of years ago, I lived near here, too. It's an amazing park with forest trails, Puget Sound beach access and trails, a lighthouse, and much more.]
As for National Parks, I would have to say Denali in Alaska, as I have many good memories of visiting over the years we lived in Fairbanks and especially the times my husband flew us there in a small plane. Flying over the colors of the fall tundra and getting close to the snowfields and glaciers were highlights.
And back in our younger days, we used to hike a lot at Mount Rainier. In fact, we were on our way there the morning Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980. But that’s another story. [Woah!]
© City Channel 4 - Iowa City
CLAUDIA - I live just a five-minute walk to an entrance of one of our best and wildest city parks, Hickory Hill Park. (Virtual Tour) I walk there in four seasons, almost daily, as a break from work, and also to check up on the various critters and plant life along the route that winds through woodland and native prairies. I note seasonal changes. I thrill to see an occasional fox or a rare blooming wildflower. It is a good thinking time. I’ve resolved many an illustration challenge walking these trails! And during winter, I was extra inspired to think over my days’ progress in Counting Winter.
On my travels, I have several natural spaces I love to revisit. In a pine forest-lake trail, close to my in-law’s house in Germany, I listen for the call of a cuckoo bird! I see wild pigs! The ocean beaches of my childhood in Washington State hold dear and formative memories of the power and wonder of nature. Hiking in Northern New Mexico, where it is so quiet you hear crow wing beats flying overhead, is another favorite area. To walk the lands is to be part of the lands and know the lands…!
Thank you Nancy & Claudia for sharing with us a bit about yourselves and your new picture book.
To find out more about Nancy White Carlstrom, or to contact her:
Website: https://nancywhitecarlstrom.com/
To find out more about Claudia McGehee, or to contact her:
Website: https://www.claudia-mcgehee.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claudia.mcgehee
Review of Counting Winter
I adore Nancy White Carlstrom's The Snow Speaks, and Jessie Bear books. I was really excited to see this new winter book from her and Claudia McGehee. The cover is so stunning and it is just as beautiful inside. This book is a wonderful lyrical ode to the animals and plants which thrrive in the Alaskan winters.
Counting Winter
Author: Nancy White Carlstrom
Illustrator: Claudia McGehee
Publisher: Eerdmans Book For Young Readers (2024)
Ages: 4-8
Fiction
Themes:
Winter, counting, animals, and poetic.
Synopsis:
An atmospheric tribute to the beauty of winter and its creatures.
One red fox walks across the white snow—quietly stalking winter. Two ravens croak and gurgle—raucously talking winter. Three snowshoe hares hop on big paws—silently tracking winter. Four red squirrels feast at their midden full of cones—hungrily cracking winter. Wherever you look, another creature is making its mark on the snow-covered season.
Inspired by the author’s years in Alaska, this lyrical book celebrates the rhythms of the tundra and its inhabitants. Poetic lines and stunning scratchboard art create the perfect read for chilly days—whether winter is just beginning or just starting to melt into spring.
Opening Lines:
One
red fox walks
across the white snow
quietly
stalking winter
What I LOVED about this book:
This is a stunningly gorgeous picture book of the animals and habitats common in an Alaskan winter. Sparce, lyrical, poetic stanzas count twelve animal species and offer a peak into their habitats and habits during this seemingly stark time of year. Establishing the free verse poem's internal rhyme and pattern, the first stanza ends with "quietly/ stalking winter."
Text © Nancy White Carlstrom, 2024. Image © Claudia McGehee, 2024.
Each subsequent animal's stanza begins with the next number and ends with an adverb, "ing" verb, and "winter" - exploring the animal's relationship to this season. For instance, "Two ravens . . . raucously/ talking winter." Claudia McGehee's scratchboard and watercolor illustrations provide perfect subtle colors and great texturing for this wonderful ode to winter. I love the intricate detail, shadings, and bits of humor (a lynx listening to the six voles or the musk ox with its tongue sticking out) Claudia McGehee captures with her illustration style.
Text © Nancy White Carlstrom, 2024. Image © Claudia McGehee, 2024.
Four
red squirrels feast
at their midden full of cones
hungrily
cracking winter.
Nancy White Carlstrom's poem includes soaring golden eagles, skittering voles, frisky sled dogs, and flitting chickadees. As a naturalist and devout birder, I adored the "Ten busy woodpeckers/ hammer out a steady beat/ suddenly/ taming winter." with so many woodpecker species shown in the spread and the intriguing idea of them controlling winter.
Text © Nancy White Carlstrom, 2024. Image © Claudia McGehee, 2024.
The illustrations beautifully bookend the poem. Beginning on the title page, with a child riding in a single sled with two dogs, and wrapping everything up with a wordless map on the final page of the same sledder's journey through the woods showing each of the animals strategically located along a twisting path, as well as a hidden surprise. It includes an author's note and an illustrator's note, as well as a wonderfully inventive "animal profiles" page providing information on all the featured animals. This is such a wonderful poetic ode to winter and the flora and fauna in Alaska. That just so happens to be a counting book, too.
Resources:
make some fun winter crafts, including an arctic fox, snowy owl, and snowflakes.
what animals live in your area in the winter? Can you model the poem format and create your own stanza(s) or draw a picture of the animal(s) in the winter? What do the animals do during the winter? When and where do you see them or their tracks?
take a look around your yard, park, or trail for animal tracks. Here's a Field Guide and a Video on tracks. What did you find? Which ones do you find in the winter?
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