Cover Reveal: Gurple and Preen

Debbie Ridpath Ohi joins us today for the cover reveal of her new picture book, written by Linda Sue Park , Gurple and Preen: A Broken Crayon Cosmic Adventure! Click and watch the video below, then keep reading to learn more about the inspiration behind the story.

Debbie: I love Laurent Linn's cover design, don't you? To answer this question, I thought it best to ask Laurent. Here's what he said:

Laurent: When I approach concepts for a book’s cover design I consider many things: who is the key audience, what other books are out there that may be similar in theme or story (to be sure ours is unique and not derivative), and especially what is the essence of the story and its meaning. For GURPLE AND PREEN, the themes of drawing and imagination and, of course, crayons, are all important. But far more than that, the two extremely unique and important aspects of this book are Debbie’s brilliant “broken crayon” inventions and our two main characters themselves.

Gurple and Preen carry the story and are quite special in their design, so boldly and playfully featuring them as the “stars” on the cover was clear to me right away. But how to show that objects come from broken crayons without cluttering the cover? I always want the type design to feel organic and a part of the art, so having some of the type come from the broken crayons was the perfect solution. It shows us enough of what’s in store for a reader but also leaves a lot to mystery, which hopefully will make someone want to open the book and find out more!

Debbie: My favorite spread is the last one in the book. I don't want to give away too much about the ending because I'd really like readers to encounter it in the context of the story, but it was the most fun to draw and also ties everything together. When I first read the ending in Linda Sue Park's original manuscript, I was deeply moved.

Here are two other spreads I love:

Debbie: The child astronauts! Those spreads were a lot of fun to draw.

Outside of GURPLE AND PREEN, I've been thrilled to see the response from educators and librarians to my broken crayon art, and how they are using broken crayons with young people to help inspire art and writing. I've collected some of their tips and examples at DebbieOhi.com/broken-crayon as well as free, print-ready templates....thank you to all who contributed! You never know what will come out of a broken crayon.

Debbie: Teamwork played and still plays an essential part of my career.

I'm grateful for all the encouragement and advice I received early on, especially when I was starting to get discouraged. When you feel down about your work, it almost always helps to talk about it with someone you trust. Surround yourself with friends who inspire and encourage you, and try to do the same for them when you can.

I've learned that creative collaboration is fun and productive! Yes, a book creator needs to be able to work independently and be comfortable with a lot of time in focused isolation, but part of the experience I enjoy the most is working with others to help make the book the very best it can be. At Simon & Schuster Children's for my picture books, I worked directly with Laurent Linn (my art director) and Justin Chanda (my editor) during the creative process of writing and/or illustrating.

Then there are the people behind the scenes who help proofread and check over everything, help with the production of the physical book, help get the word out there about the book, help organize events, and much more. Most of these people are at Simon & Schuster in NYC but Simon & Schuster Canada also helps with publicity and marketing of my books on the Canadian side, as well as organizing my events here. My agent, Ginger Knowlton, and the rest of the team at Curtis Brown Ltd also help guide and advise me, plus their foreign rights department are always looking for ways to get my books into the hands of young readers in other countries as well.

My biggest takeaway: There are many, many people who are working hard behind-the-scenes of every children's book! I'm grateful for them all.