When I first pitched Groundwood Books on a narrative nonfiction picture book on the urban forest, I wasn’t thinking about a series. I’d written a lot about trees for adults (my own experience treeplanting, city trees under duress, etc.) and it seemed like an important and relatable topic for younger readers. Others had the same idea because there were at least 3 other kids’ books about trees that came out around the same time! But when my editor, the late Sheila Barry, suggested we might consider water as the subject for the next book in our two-book deal, an idea started to burble and bubble beneath the surface. With more and more people living in cities around the world—some 80% of the earth’s population will live in urban centres by 2050—and all the stresses, challenges and opportunities this creates, we figured kids would need help decoding their environment. ThinkCities, a series about urban systems and sustainability was born. The books in the ThinkCities series are inspired by the urgency for new approaches to city life as a result of climate change, population growth and increased density. The series highlights the challenges and risks cities face, but also offers hope for building resilience, sustainability and quality of life as young people act as advocates for themselves and their communities. Conceived long before the pandemic, the first book, A Forest in the City (illustrated by Pierre Pratt), came out in April of 2020 just as the global virus was taking hold. Instead of gathering at my favourite local independent bookstore with friends and family to celebrate, my husband and I rode around the city delivering signed books on our bikes. I made paper cupcakes and blew out paper candles, learned how to make Instagram videos and launched a Youtube channel. We did our best and hoped the next book would come out in a pandemic-free world. City of Water (illustrated by Katy Dockrill) was published in 2021 in the middle of another global lockdown. We were already working on City Streets are for People (illustrated by Emma FitzGerald), all about sustainable transportation (bikes, scooters, subways, trams) and a manifesto about reclaiming the streets for human beings. The hitch was that no one was taking public transit at the time; even biking or walking was curtailed. The streets were empty. We nearly postponed publication, but I was convinced that in light of the pandemic, the book was more important than ever. Paris was giving its streets over to bicycles and pedestrians, electric vehicles were on the rise. Emma added some masks in the illustrations, and I added a few references to the dislocation and rupture of the pandemic. Fortunately, City Streets came out in 2022 when people were returning to the streets with a vengeance. The final book in the ThinkCities series, City of Neighbors (illustrated by Katy Dockrill again!), was just published this month (May 2023). This celebratory book about creative placemaking initiatives around the world—using art, music, dance, light, water and even public toilets to bring life to neighbourhoods—is, I think, a fitting cap to the series. Neighbors brings home the importance of community building and the potential for kids to make change in their own neighbourhoods. In the aftermath of global lockdowns, long overdo challenges to the status quo from #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, war and social/cultural/political division, a book about how we can come together to make our communities stronger, more equitable, greener, cleaner, safer and more fun feels very right. I’m proud of the series and pleased that, pandemic notwithstanding, the books are being shared and published around the world (Canada, US, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey so far), spreading the key message that kids can be fierce advocates for themselves and others. For this is the throughline in the series: the power and potential children have to change the world for the better. Onward!
For more on the series, visit my website www.andreacurtiskids.ca or Groundwood. Comments are closed.
|
Picture Books, Eh!We write, illustrate and support Canadian, and we're releasing picture books in 2024! Follow us for news on Canadian PBs, regular blogs by Canadian PB creators, and more. |