![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/yuyimorales.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How’d I do? I don’t speak Spanish, but that’s my seven-questions-over-breakfast welcome to author\/illustrator Yuyi Morales<\/strong><\/a>, who is here this morning for a chat. <\/p>\n I’ve never been in the same room with Yuyi, but I have a feeling that, if I were, I’d be bowled over by her passion for what she does. This is what comes across in her work. Yuyi, who has been awarded the Pura Belpr\u00e9 Illustrator Award<\/strong><\/a> three times (2004, 2008, and 2009) and an Illustration Honor in 2004, has created one of contemporary children’s literature’s most unforgettable characters, Se\u00f1or Calavera, the traditional Mexican skeleton character from the Day of the Dead celebrations and the star of her original trickster tales, Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Chronicle Books, 2003) and last year’s Just In Case: a Trickster Tale and Alphabet<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Roaring Brook Press). The latter was the 2009 Pura Belpr\u00e9 Illustrator Award Winner, as well as an Author Honor Book, and featured motifs from Mexican culture for each letter of the Spanish alphabet. (Incidentally, to hear her talk about why she chose to bring that particular character to, well… life<\/em>, you can watch and listen at the interview she gave to At Your Library<\/strong><\/a> at the bottom of this post.) The Belpr\u00e9 committee praised Yuyi’s “vibrant, shimmering jewel-tone colors.” That would pretty accurately describe all of Yuyi’s books so far. (Did you see Little Night<\/strong><\/em><\/a> in ’07? Gorgeous.) I mean to tell you that her art wakes me right up<\/em>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m happy to have Yuyi over for breakfast. Her morning meal-of-choice is “slices of pineapple with plain yogurt, cereal on top, and cajeta, which is a goat milk caramel we eat in Mexico.”<\/font> I’ve got my 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: Artist. Art is endless — paints, words, stories, colors, comas, accents; they are all part of my work.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: What is your usual medium, or–\u2013if you use a variety—your preferred one?<\/font> <\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: Most of my work is made with acrylics on paper, where I always include elements from hand-made stamps and cut-outs. But most recently, I have started using puppets and photographs. <\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: I live in the San Francisco East Bay in a small suburb called Pleasant Hill.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you briefly tell me about your road to publication?<\/font> <\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: A few years after I arrived in the USA, I began taking evening courses to learn how to write and illustrate children\u2019s books. At an illustration class, I wrote and made a dummy and two paintings for what years later would become my book, Just a Minute<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. Then, I submitted it to the SCBWI Don Freeman Grant, and I won. I felt like I was rolling! So, I got brave enough to ask the SCBWI if I could send my portfolio with one of my friends for their portfolio display at their annual conference in LA, and they said yes. At the event, Harcourt Editor Janet Larson took my sample sheet, and a few months later she called me to offer me…my first {illustrated} trade book, Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. {See images below. Click to enlarge each.}<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you please point readers to your web site and\/or blog?<\/font> <\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: http:\/\/www.yuyimorales.com<\/strong><\/a>, http:\/\/yuyimorales.blogspot.com\/<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: I see at your site that you do school visits<\/strong><\/a>. Tell me what they\u2019re like.<\/font><\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: They are full of surprises. Literally, I arrive to the schools with my bolsa de sorpresas<\/em>, which is the name in Spanish for bag of surprises. As a child, I was fascinated by the fact that I could go to the store and buy an actual sorpresa, a surprise, for only a few cents. Sorpresas were these small paper bags stapled to a piece of cardboard. After paying, I would be allowed to yank a sorpresa bag from the cardboard and find out what was inside. Ah, what a joy it was getting one of these cheap toys, or a plastic ring, or a little card, or some other trinket. <\/p>\n Because I love surprises so much, I decided I would bring a few of them to my school presentations, too. When I go to schools, children are very curious to know what is inside my big bolsa de sorpresas. I always tell them that you never know what you might find inside and that it can be really cool, but sometimes surprises can also be strange and even scary. Occasionally, children scream when a sorpresa comes out — just the way I remember doing it, too, when I was a child.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Any new titles\/projects you might be working on now that you can tell me about?<\/font> <\/p>\n Yuyi<\/font><\/strong>: This Fall is the release of a book I illustrated, titled My Abuelita<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, written by Tony Johnston. This book is actually different from the work I have done in the past, because this time, in addition to painting, I built and staged puppets, took photographs of the scenes, and finished the illustrations digitally. You can see a few images of how I made this book here:<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/cover_smlsmaller.jpg\")
Yuyi’s newest title—narrated by a young boy who is assisting his grandmother, a professional storyteller, in preparing for a local school visit—has been met with accolades as well. My Abuelita<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Harcourt 2009), written by Tony Johnston, was illustrated in polymer-clay sculptures and digital photography, and Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls it “wonderful work.” (“Impishly expressive puppets,” the reviewer writes, noting Yuyi’s “glowing palette drawn from Mexican folk art. The vignettes seamlessly knit together realism and fantasy, giving every spread a dreamy physicality.”) The New York Public Library added My Abuelita<\/em> to their just-released Children’s Books 2009 — 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing<\/strong><\/a>. Below in the interview, Yuyi shares a making-of video for this new title, highlighting her puppetry work, and there’s also this detailed post<\/strong><\/a> at her blog about the book. <\/p>\ncup of coffee<\/del>…Let’s make that a gingerbread latte, my addiction-of-late, and I’m ready to chat with Yuyi. I thank her for stopping by and, especially, for sharing so much of her beautiful art today. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/gatos_werewolfa.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/just_in_case_ndpaper_bluea.jpg\")
\n
A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book<\/strong><\/a> (Roaring Brook, 2008)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/pura_belpre_winners.jpg\")
\n\n
![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/yuyibooks.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/_y_abuelita_back_cover1.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n
(Click to enlarge each.)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/luna_puppeta.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/my_abuelita_breakfast.jpg\")
\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/my_abuelita_materiala.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n
Bottom image is the materials used for the book (click to enlarge).<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/making_my_abuelita1.jpg\")
<\/a>7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Where are your stompin\u2019 grounds?<\/font><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/harvesting_hopea.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/harvesting_hope_paintinga.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/yuyischoolvisit.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/mama_was_a_luchadoraa.jpg\")
<\/p>\n