Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your new book is Argus, a picture book illustrated by Andréa Wesson. What inspired
this story?
I seem to have a particular affection for characters who show up in places
where they aren’t expected. While writing this story, I first tried to think
of ways that Argus could win over Sally and the rest of the class. But then I
realized that he doesn’t have to do anything other than be his own unique
self. I already loved Argus. I just had to help Sally learn to love him, too.
When writing Argus, you must have envisioned your characters and settings in
a certain way. In particular, you describe Argus as green, scaly, with big yellow
eyes — but you never say what Argus actually is. When you saw the illustrations from
Andréa Wesson, was there anything that surprised you?
There is always an element of surprise when I see how an artist has depicted
characters from one of my stories, but that’s part of the fun of writing
picture books. I love finding out how an illustrator has interpreted a
character and what new elements he or she has added to help bring that
character to life. What I loved most when I first saw Andréa Wesson’s
illustrations of Argus was how expressive he is. His wings and tail and
ears are always lifting and tilting at odd angles, reflecting his moods. It’s
wonderful. I love how he turned out!