One Impossible Peek Behind
Yuyi Morales’s Artwork Before Breakfast

Just in case on Monday (with the visit from author/illustrator Philip C. Stead) we illustration fans—and I use “we” here to mean myself and 7-Imp’s wonderful readers—didn’t get enough of that fascinating process stuff, the peek into the making of our favorite picture books, I’ve got a bit more today with illustrator Yuyi Morales, who visited me in 2009. Yuyi’s latest illustrated title is called Ladder to the Moon (Candlewick, April 2011), written by Maya Soetoro-Ng (who, you will see at this link, is the maternal half-sister of President Obama, and who seems to be making talk show rounds this week to discuss this picture book — or so I’ve noticed when I’ve hit social media sites, though I’ve been too busy this week to watch any of the footage).
Maya’s story, inspired by her daughter’s questions about her late grandmother, opens with a young girl asking questions about her maternal grandmother: “What was Grandma Annie like?” to which the girl’s mother replies, “She was like the moon…Full, soft, and curious. Your grandma would wrap her arms around the whole world if she could.” Read the rest of this entry �