And then I would photograph those dioramas and bring them into Photoshop and tint them in various ways. I would make a layer of jungle, then another layer of jungle on top of that, and then another layer that has Mac and a tiger arm wrestling in front of that. “I wanted to do something new, so I ended up making these paper dioramas that had depth to them. The different textures and media used here really contribute to the idea of how books are made, so I was curious about how long it generally takes him to come up with the look and feel of a new book. I asked Adam about his artistic approach on this book, since each of his books seems to employ different techniques. How This Book Was Made casts Barnett and Rex as characters in their own book and traces the birth of a book from an idea in the author’s mind to an editor with unreasonable demands to an illustrator who brings the words to life to a printer in Malaysia on the other side of the world… and all of the adventures in between. Out of the mouths of babes.Īnd we’re all the richer for that idea. Thinking it would be something like Spider-Man and Spongebob Battle to the Death, he was surprised to hear her suggest that he turn that story–his epic tale of a how a book was made–into a book. Then, one day, a girl told Barnett that she had a story idea. And over the years, as kids kept asking the question, his story got longer and more elaborate.
How does a book get made? What started out as a relatively dry whiteboard presentation quickly took a left turn and involved pirates and the Bermuda Triangle. Mac explains that it’s a question he gets asked a lot by kids and when he speaks at schools. The idea for the book came from the most logical of all places: kids. It inspires kids to write and create, but at the same time, it reveals the mundane magic behind how books are actually made. What I love about How This Book Was Made is that it’s a creative call to arms, but not in the traditional sense. And books about the writing and editing process? Books that break the fourth wall, go meta, and pull back the curtain on the actual process of publishing a book? And books that feature an editor as a character? Well, this might be actually the first book that checks all those boxes, but it’s a guaranteed hit in my book. I work as a book editor, so I’m already predisposed to love books about books.
But How This Book Was Made, by award-winning duo Mac Barnett and Adam Rex, did just that.įull disclosure: the full-time gig that pays the bills when I’m not writing for GeekDad (and elsewhere) is in publishing. And it’s not often that one comes along and really just steals my heart at first glance. I read a lot of children’s picture books.