Tony DiTerlizzi pushes the boundaries of bookmaking with his latest, The Search for WondLa (S & S), which combines a traditional novel with a graphic novel and the interactivity of a computer.
SLJ spoke to the award-winning author and illustrator about the inspiration and creative process behind this augmented reality children's novel, what's in store for books two and three, and a Wondla movie already in the works with Paramount Pictures.
The Search for WondLa (S & S ) is the first novel that you've written and illustrated. Was it something you've always wanted to do?
If you page through the book, The Art of Maurice Sendak, there is a chapter about halfway through titled "Digging Deep." It marks a point when Maurice's stories evolve past telling fun and entertaining tales and begin working on multiple levels.
I saw that book for the first time when I graduated from art school back in 1992. I dreamed of one day creating stories for children and perhaps being able to compose something that both entertained the reader but compelled them to ponder some of the universal questions that we all share: what is my purpose in the world? What will I accomplish in my life? Why am I here?
So, completing The Search forWondLa feels like a big accomplishment for me, not just because of the workload-in writing and illustrating it-but because of how far down I dug within myself to bring this story out.
Our WondLa reviewer wrote, "DiTerlizzi is pushing the envelope in his latest work, nearly creating a new format that combines a traditional novel with a graphic novel and with the interactivity of the computer." How did this format all come about?
Every time I begin a story I ask myself many questions about what format the book should take. Understanding the story's needs and wants is successful to creating the final book's package. WondLa's plot is structured like the epic hero's quest yet it contains sci-fi technology, so right away you know the final book will be a combination of the two.
As far as the illustration format, I have always wondered why there is an unwritten rule about bookmaking that says, "the older the audience the less art there should be." Yet, if you go back a century and examine titles from The Golden Age of Children's Books, they abound with mature and sophisticated tales matched with mature and sophisticated visuals. Look at Arthur Rackham's illustrations for Rip Van Winkle or H.J. Ford's art in any of Andrew Lang's Rainbow Fairy books. The art is exquisite and hardly juvenile-and that was when books were not competing with the highly visual mediums of television, films, and video games for a child's attention.
Also, I remember having trouble with reading comprehension in the fifth grade. My teacher, Ray Strassburger, recognized this while I struggled with my book reports. He suggested that I draw illustrations of my own design to accompany my reports. Much later, I realized that I learn through visuals more so than I do memorizing words. Even today, I have to read passages more than once to really savor what the writer is telling me.
I thought of all of this while mapping out the look of WondLa. I decided to invert the little vignette illustrations that you usually find at the front of the chapter into lavish two-page illustrations, with just a paragraph or two leading the reader in. I tried to make it a window into Eva Nine's (the hero) world. The final book contains 70 illustrations-more than I did for any of The Spiderwick Chronicles books-and in of itself becomes a (hopefully) cherished object. It is something so special, you don't want to experience it on an e-reader-you want the real thing.
Did you originally plan to have interactive components or was it something that evolved along the way?
It evolved along the way. My editor extraordinaire, David Gale, rang me up one afternoon and asked if I knew what Augmented Reality (AR) was. I had to admit I did not. He then directed me to some websites that demonstrated what it was and how it worked. He then explained that, though AR had been used in many sorts of marketing campaigns for books and films, it had not really been used as a key component in a children's book-as far as we knew, we'd be the first and Simon & Schuster felt that WondLa would be the perfect fit.
I wondered if it would come across a bit gimmicky to the readers. After all, I had labored greatly to create this poignant fairy tale with themes of family, the natural world, and technology. But I thought of one of my inspirations, L. Frank Baum, and wondered what he would do in my position? I knew my answer immediately and went for it.
I heard that WondLa took 10 years to complete. Was it the combination of writing and all the illustrations that took so long?
The seeds for Wondla are in my sketchbooks from 1997 to 1998. There are early drawings of Eva Nine [the hero] and her friends right next to early drawings of Thimbletack and Hogsqueal (from Spiderwick).
Back then, all I knew was it was a story about a girl who was the only human on an alien planet. She was raised by a robot and together they went on a fairy tale-like adventure in a world full of aliens and spaceships.
Over time, I thought about the premise and the characters. Once you get past the inspiration of an idea, how does one develop its potential and harness the initial excitement to sustain a 500-page novel? For me, it was all about taking the time to figure out what this story was and wasn't.
I thought about the heroines in stories I loved as a kid. Protagonists like Dorothy Gale, Wendy Darling, and Alice Liddell. Why did I keep returning back to their stories over and over again through the years? What about them excited my imagination? I wondered if kids today could still relate to those characters that, to me, seem both timely and timeless. I tried to harness the magic that I felt within those old classics and create something new that also contained the challenges kids face today.
Wondla is a sci-fi book with an old fashioned look and feel. Was that something you always had in mind?
I always look backwards before I go forwards. Yes, WondLa is full of many classic sci-fi elements (robots, aliens, hovercraft, etc.) but it is a fairy tale at its heart. It contains many familiar fairy-tale plot motifs we all know of: a little girl lost in the woods, an evil huntsman after her, forest spirits who aid her in response to her own kindness and an uncaring queen who rules the land. That tells you it should be illustrated with a nod to classic fairy tales.
The artwork in WondLa is stunning. What can you tell us about the creative process and how it compares to your other works of art?
Thank you! As an illustrator, it's good to hear a positive response to your work where you are breaking new ground stylistically. That puts me in a vulnerable place, but I am always excited for exploration in technique, mediums, and style. It keeps my art fresh. It keeps it lively.
The best way to describe the process may be to contrast it a bit with the work I did for The Spiderwick Chronicles. For those books, I wanted the look of the art to hark back to images we've seen from old editions of Grimm's or Anderson's fairy tales. I used old-fashioned dip pens and worked in a sketchy style that was inspired by Arthur Rackham, A.B. Frost, and Ernest Shepard. If the illustrations were colored (as in the frontispiece), I used tonal washes of watercolor over a glaze of brown to further the illusion of an undiscovered antique children's book juxtaposed with modern day kids.
For WondLa, I wanted almost a sterile, scientific feel to the art. I used technical pens with fixed line-widths for the ink drawings and colored the images digitally. I was looking at the flat graphic style of Alphonse Mucha and Ivan Bilibin for inspiration. In their work, there are artifacts of the printing processes that I emulated such as stippling to create gradients. I made some stipple patterns by hand, which I incorporated into the final art so that I could find a harmony between the technological aspects and my traditional handiwork.
My little kids are just as fascinated with your picture books as when I read them The Spiderwick Chronicles. Is it harder to write for younger or older kids?
Each type of book has its challenges. For me, I think picture books are harder to create because the symbiotic relationship between word and picture is such a delicate balance. I feel like the titles I've created are too wordy or too sparse. I suppose I'll get it right one of these days.
Right now, chapter books are more my speed. I like a longer story where the characters and world can be fully fleshed out. As I mentioned earlier, there is no reason a chapter book can't be just as lavishly illustrated as a picture book. I think Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret is an exceptional example of this. Like Brian I feel that, as a storyteller working today, it is up to me to push the boundaries of bookmaking as far as possible. It's the only way we will get children to put down a remote control, cell phone, or video game controller, and get excited to pick up a book.
Do you always have younger kids in mind even when writing for older ones?
I write for me first and foremost. I ask, would I have enjoyed this story as a kid? Do I look forward to reading it to my daughter? Then I start thinking about the bigger audience.
Every child has a different level that they read at. Some can read well beyond the norm for their age, but may not understand the subtleties and nuance of what's being said. They may not comprehend the bigness of the ideas being presented. I think that's okay. In fact, that's what has inspired me to return to certain books, like Watership Down, Charlotte's Web, or The Hobbit time and again since I first fell in love with them as a kid.
Are there times when you prefer writing to illustrating and vise versa?
Both are parts of a whole to me. Honestly, I don't consider myself a great artist or even a fantastic author, but combined I think I am a pretty darn good storyteller.
I always have the finished book in mind while I work. How could art emphasize this scene here? Would fewer words work if there were an illustration present? How do the two work together to convey the narrative and emotion? That's how I think as I work through the book. It's taken me a decade, but I think I am finally starting to figure it out.
Even the creation process is a mix of the two. For WondLa, you can find drawings of Eva Nine surrounded by notes in my sketchbooks. That's where the genesis of the characters is recorded. I draw them as I visualize them, then begin figuring out who they are and what their story is. In time, the plot develops and the character designs are refined to suit the final story. I've been creating this way since I was very young, so it is a very organic process for me.
WondLa is the first of three books. What can you tell us about the other two?
I can tell you that I planned out an overarching plot for all three books, then figured out where to break the stories. The theme of compassion vs. aggression will be consistent throughout as the action ramps up from book to book ending in the climatic finale.
I think that Eva's step into adulthood will continue to evolve. In the first book, she learned the importance of family and began to get an understanding about the ways of the world.
In the second book, she'll come face-to-face with the truth. We'll find out what happened to Orbona and the humans living there. We'll also learn more about Rovender and his clan. When Eva discovers the history of her people, she realizes that the truth is not always black and white-it can also be many shades of grey.
As we head into the third book, she'll have to make her own moral decisions that she must live with. That was a big step for me as I grew into a young adult. We all have to live with the choices we've made in our past, good or bad.
Is there a WondLa movie in the works?
Much to my surprise and joy, Paramount Pictures optioned the book this spring. A literary scout got a hold of an early manuscript that was then shared with studio executives, who loved the material. This thrilled me because their excitement was based solely on the story and words. None of the illustrations were completed when they optioned the book so that was a tremendous validation for me as a writer.
We've had some preliminary discussions about a general approach and the books are out to potential writers-basically the first stages of a long process. I'd rather the studio take their time and get the right talent involved as opposed to rushing it out. A passion and understanding for the underlying source material always leads to a smart and thoughtful adaptation (think of what Peter Jackson did with Lord of the Rings). I think once the book is released in September, the studio may get some unexpected phone calls from potential directors, writers, or actors who may not have been on our wish list. That had happened with Spiderwick, much to everyone's delight.
What does your daughter think of your books?
My three-year-old daughter, Sophia, loves books and can already read simple words. I credit this mostly to reading Mem Fox's Reading Magic way-back-when. That book had a tremendous impact on Angela [DiTerlizzi's wife] and me. Consequently we started reading to Soph in utero, and every day since she was born. It still is the highlight of my day.
I let her pick whatever books she likes off of her shelf at night before bed. Sometimes she picks mine, but most of the time she doesn't. We've read Ted, The Spider & The Fly and Kenny and The Dragon. She adores Ted, which makes me a very proud dad. Currently, she's been into Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever, David Gordon's Smitten, Scott Fischer's Jump, and the storybook adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro.
With two stay-at-home working parents she is very present while Ang and I labor away on our books. Soph would come into my studio and draw with me while I worked on the illustrations for WondLa and ask about what was happening in the story while I typed away on the manuscript. If you ask her what I do she would say, "My dad makes books." I love that.
What are you working on now?
I am plotting away on the second book, tentatively titled The Story of WondLa. I am designing new bizarre alien life forms for my heroine Eva Nine to meet and new wondrous lands for her to explore. The imaginative 10 year-old in me is dreaming up books that the 40 year-old me can create...and I couldn't be happier.
RSS
