Bears Don't Eat Egg Sandwiches and The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse

Today, we’re settling into the reading nook with two tales of unexpected visitors. Featuring Bears Don’t Eat Egg Sandwiches by Julie Fulton, illustrated by Rachel Suzanne, and The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen.

Get Bears Don’t Eat Egg Sandwiches: | |

Get The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse: | |

The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse by Mac Barnett — THE WOLF, THE DUCK, AND THE MOUSE. Text copyright © 2017 by Mac Barnett. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Jon Klassen. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

PICTURE THIS: MORE FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS

Take a page from Rachel Suzanne, and use the real items around you to help with your illustrations.

“I created the illustrations for Bears Don’t Eat Egg Sandwiches by using lots of different textures! I scanned in real bread from my kitchen for the sandwiches and grass from the garden. I love using lots of different media to draw with, from crayons for Jack's hair to brush pens for the Bear.” -Rachel Suzanne, illustrator of Bears Don’t Eat Egg Sandwiches

How do you make being inside a wolf’s belly seem…not gross? Jon Klassen cracked it.

Illustrations from Jon Klassen for The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse — Courtesy of Jon Klassen

“The idea for this book is a lot of fun, but drawing the inside of a wolf could be kind of gross depending on how you decide to draw things. I thought Mac's words sounded like the characters were in a play — they announce things rather than just say them, and when you read it you find yourself being a little louder than normal, as if you were trying to make sure people in the back row can hear you.

So it made sense to kind of illustrate the book as if the characters were on something like a simple stage, with different backdrops that show where they are. The inside of the wolf is kind of a busy textured dark brown, lit with lights around the characters. You want it to feel cozy instead of gross, since the characters really seem to like it in there.

Here is my first test for the book, with the duck in bed. (See above.) The duck changed a bit from how he looks here, but this was pretty close to how the book ended up looking.” -Jon Klassen, illustrator of The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse

THIS WEEK’S ACTIVITY: PLAN A MEAL TO SHARE WITH A GUEST

Plan a meal to share with a guest!

What if there was a knock at the door, and you found yourself hosting an unexpected guest? What meal would you whip up to make them feel at home?

You can always share your pictures (or even recipes!) with the Julie's Library team — and they might even land on our library’s fridge!

THE BACKSTORY

Where do authors get their ideas?

"This book started with an image. That’s how a lot of picture books work for me: an image pops into my head. I was just picturing two animals who had been swallowed up by a wolf, but they were just living there, in the wolf’s belly, having a meal themselves!" -Mac Barnett, author of The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse

"At a picture book workshop we were asked the question, 'What if someone unusual came to your door?' A bear's unusual, I thought. Jack is based on a combination of children I know — all seemingly innocent, yet thoroughly determined and resourceful and able to wriggle out of anything with an ever-ready answer to everything. Love them!" -Julie Fulton, author of Bears Don't Eat Egg Sandwiches