LITTLE ROCK — Cartoonist Stephan Pastis thinks there’s one thing that makes him well-prepared for his new career as an author of illustrated kids’ books.
“I’ve never been a good artist,” says Pastis, whose style of drawing uses clean, bold lines. Drawing for books lets him rely more on the words.
Pastis, who created the popular Pearls Before Swine comic strip, is too modest about his talents. Which perhaps makes him the polar opposite of his new creation, little Timmy Failure. Timmy is a boy detective who, while looking for clues, remains absolutely clueless.
“I have an unreliable narrator,” Pastis says of the lead character in the new book, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. “I have to remind myself every chapter: He gets everything wrong.”
Timmy Failure’s name fits him perfectly. Timmy is, in his mind, “the founder, president and CEO of the best detective agency in town, probably the nation.” But the more obvious the clues seem to be in front of him - hints that most young readers will quickly pick up - the more likely Timmy is to miss or misread them completely.
Yet Pastis is smart enough to also make Timmy likable. Timmy is an only child who lives with his mom. He doesn’t have a dad or any truly close human friends in his life. His best pal is Total, a sidekick who happens to weigh 1,500 pounds. Because he’s a polar bear. The catch: Total may or may not be real.
“I leave that … up to the reader,” Pastis says of whether Total is real or imaginary. The forever-hungry polar bear is real enough to Timmy, which - as with the tiger in Calvin and Hobbes - is what really matters. Total’s presence is a reminder of Timmy’s loneliness, which only makes us like the young detective more.
Pastis wasn’t necessarily looking to write children’s books. Drawing Pearls Before Swine keeps him busy: It appears in more than 650 newspapers and has been collected in books. But his agent suggested he try a children’s book, and Pastis is glad he did.
“Novel writing is so freeing,” Pastis says. “Writing for comic strips is restricting. I only have three panels to say what I want to say.”
Pastis is also very careful in how he draws Timmy. Every part of how he looks isdone to create a character. For example, one of Timmy’s eyes is also looking slightly off-center, to match the boy’s approach to life. In that way, Pastis says, “I have the ability to convey what I want to, emotionally.”
In other words, Pastis may not be a “good artist” - but he is one great illustrator.
BOOK BRIEFS
Maurice Sendak, who died in May, wrote in many moods, from silly on down to fairly despairing, and the books thatresulted have always seemed like facets of a complex crystal. My Brother’s Book (Michael di Capua Books/HarperCollins, $8.95, all ages) speaks of Sendak’s love for his brother, Jack, who died in 1995, in poetic language alternately high-flown (“slanting wide the world to the winter side”) and familiar (“his poor nose froze”).
References to Shakespeare abound, the pictures suggest a William Blake dream scape, and there are echoes from Sendak’s books. A slender volume, it seems to carry a great weight. Clearly produced by an artist contemplating the end of life, MyBrother’s Book probably could not be published except as a posthumous work, the editorial decision informed by our grief at losing an author we love. This is not a children’s book in the sense that most of his others are - actually, Sendak always said he didn’t write for children - rather, it is a kind of illustrated prayer.
Painter and writer Kadir Nelson turns his talents to the inspiring life of Nelson Mandela (Katherine Tegen Books/ HarperCollins, $7.99, ages 4-9), leader of historic change in South Africa. Mandela grew up struggling against harsh European domination ( apartheid) in South Africa, grew old in prison, and emerged to lead his country and give people striving for racial equality everywhere a renewed sense of strength as they “walk the last mile to freedom.”
Nelson’s deeply human portraits of Mandela at the various stages of his extraordinary life are the great pleasure of this book.
How much did young America rely on slave labor? This rich history is slowly being mined for children’s books. Brick by Brick by Charles R. Smith Jr., illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Amistad, $7.99, ages 4-8), tells the story of how slaves, on loan from owners, raised the original White House from the raw land that would become Washington: “Slave hands swing axes/ twelve hours a day,/ but slave owners take/slave hands’ pay.” Using names in the rhymes, the author underlines the individuality of workers who were used as bulk labor.
The Very Beary Tooth Fairy by Arthur A. Levine, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen (Scholastic, $6.99, ages 3-7) is not a splendid picture book, but it does invite reflection about the phrases parents use to teach children about diversity and tolerance. Zach is a small bear whose mother has told him to avoid humans. “They are dangerous and unpredictable,” she warns. But Zach is expecting the tooth fairy. What if she is a person? In Zach’s world, Santa is clearly a bear, because he leaves a paw-print signature. The Easter Bunny? Animal, no question. When the tooth fairy reveals herself, her actions will remind parents how deeply children consider the rules we give them, and how much we influence whom they admire and whom they fear.
Family, Pages 34 on 03/06/2013