Welcome back to "Three Questions With," the series where subscribers and friends of PJ Library get to know a different author, illustrator, musician, or other creative professional who helps bring the stories you love to life. Today we're chatting with author, illustrator, and animator Sarah Lynne Reul.
We’re delighted to announce that Sarah Lynne Reul's book, Bubbie & Rivka's Best-Ever Challah (So Far!) is a PJ Library selection and will be mailed to families in the fall of 2022.
Best advice for kids who would like to become authors/illustrators?
Read! Read everything you can; picture books, graphic novels, chapter books - anything you can get your hands on. If you want to MAKE stories, you need to fill your head with as many stories as you can. Then, remember that when you're working on a new drawing or story, try not to worry whether it's perfect or not - you can start messy, and keep going to make it more of what you want it to be. Just keep going - that's what I try to do!
When did you know that you wanted to be an illustrator?
When I was a kid, I loved drawing and writing stories. As I got older, I worried that my drawings weren't "good enough," so I stopped for a long time. Years later, as an adult I missed drawing. I realized that if I wanted to create pictures I'd love, I needed to start where I was, and just be willing to try. I went back to school to learn about hand-drawn animation, practiced drawing a ton, and I started creating picture books. After reading to my own kids, I realized that a good picture book is almost like a short film - a whole world you can fall into.
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Try not to worry about whether your work is perfect! Whether something is "good" or not doesn't matter as much as you think it might. What DOES matter is that you keep going. Keep paying attention to, and learning about the world around you, letting yourself be amazed, and creating things to tell about it.
More About Sarah Lynne Reul
Visit Sarah's website to learn more about her career as an illustrator, writer and award-winning 2D animator who likes science, bright colors, tiny things, drawing on photos and figuring out how things work.
Sarah grew up in Brooklyn, but now lives just outside of Boston with her husband, two girls, two cats and one dog. During her workdays, she spends her time creating new books and visiting schools for author/ illustrator visits.
August 1, 2022