Kevin Henkes is a well known children’s book author and illustrator. You may know him best for his books filled with mouse characters like Owen, Chrysanthemum, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, or Wemberly Worried, among so many others.
But once in a while Henkes and his wife, fine art painter Laura Dronzek, will collaborate on a children's book together. Henkes writes the manuscript, and then hands it off to Dronzek for her to freely interpret the visuals that will go along with the story.
However, the first time they collaborated wasn't actually their idea. When Henkes wrote Sun & Spoon, their editor didn't think the initial cover art worked, so they asked Dronzek to give it a try.
"[It] was a great suggestion and it was so nice to give it up, still have my heart and soul attached to the novel, and then ... get this beautiful gift with these illustrations," recalls Henkes.
Dronzek said she had been interested in illustrating children's books even before she went back to graduate school, but had moved passed the idea as her fine art career grew. Henkes admits that since Dronzek had gallery representation, he thought that was her focus and considered their careers separate form each other. But once their editor first suggested the couple work together, it "opened the door," he says.
Their new picture book called Finding Things is their eighth collaboration. The book is a child-centered, cozy and rich picture book exploring connections, luck, nature and responsibility.
"If I'm writing a book and I know I think that it'll be for Laura, it's a different mindset for me, which is really nice," says Henkes. When he writes and illustrates his own pictures books, Henkes admits he'll self-edit heavily to dictate what he'll draw and paint. But when something is written for Dronzek, it gives a new sense of creative freedom.
"That way that we work, really, is that I love to get to the manuscript to the point where I think it's perfect [when Laura] reads it because I want her to say 'Yes, I would like to do this,'" explains Henkes. "And then once she does and our editor [says yes] I really do give it up and let Laura do her thing."
For Dronzek, she takes the manuscript and will take a couple months to think about what she'll do with the story and start sketching. She and Henkes work in separate studios right across from each other in their Madison-area home, where they'll check in and touch base about the story's progression.
"It's nice because we can go back and forth, but he's never said, 'You have to include this or do that,'" notes Dronzek. In fact there's only been one time in their book, Birds, where Henkes had a specific suggestion for one single page in the story.
"It is great to see someone else interpret my words," notes Henkes. "And I think really good picture books, when the words and pictures work together the way I think they should, you can't really separate them after they're together."
For any new story Henkes creates, it is centered around an "emotional truth" — whether that be in the lesson, the sentence structure, or how it makes the reader and child feel. Henkes will change single words and read the text aloud over and over until it sounds and feels right.
"I think good books often are thickly textured and maybe layered and have an understory that adults can appreciate and enjoy. But I really want it to be for a kid — that's really important to me," he explains.
For Dronzek's illustrations, she thinks about the fact that her pictures might be the first exposure to art for a lot of kids. "I want to make sure that the pictures really add another layer and have good design and are interesting," she says. "It's an interesting interplay between doing fine art painting and then switching to illustration because I think I should do more ... but I really try to pair it down and make it simpler but appealing to a child."
While children's books can come across as simple, it takes a long time and great attention to detail to get them to that point. Dronzek says she'll spend months reading the words over and over, asking herself how she can add to the pictures so that readers can see new details with each page turn. Henkes notes that the first draft of Findings Things was written in July of 2015, and he didn't give the final story to Dronzek until December of 2022.
The years of drafting is not uncommon for Henkes, and he's unique in his low-tech process doing every step by hand. He also stays away from email, digital illustration and most other forms of technology.
"If I'm working on a picture book it's [in] longhand, on paper, then I type on an old typewriter that was actually Laura's when she was in college. And when I'm drawing, the way I do it, I'll do my finished sketches and when I need to transfer it to my good paper — a lot of people who have really beautiful big, light-up drawing desks, I have a Mickey Mouse Club 10 by 12 plastic drawing desk that I've had since I was a kid," he explains.
Dronzek is similar in that she doesn't use any technology while illustrating — from storyboards to the finished paintings. "I really like the tactile sense of putting pen to paper," she notes. "I just think while I'm painting and so that's how I work things out and I've never gotten used to using the computer for doing any kind of artwork and I don't think I probably ever will."
Dronzek jokes that she does however use email.
With the couple's creative process being relatively low-teach and tactile, they hope the mindset it fosters comes through the page to help them connect with their readers.
"I think the older I get the more I'm drawn to very young picture books ... and I think it's maybe tied into trying to be mindful," says Henkes. "So I think looking closely, taking one's time, simplifying, all those things I think go into that and hopefully are part of the way I approach life."
For Dronzek, painting for young readers helps her focus on the beauty in the natural world. "It helps me sort of be centered in that same way [as Kevin], and also, it just is a joyful thing to go up to the studio everyday and be able to be in that world when sort of the world around you is going out of control sometimes," she says. "And I also am just happy to be thinking that this is going to get out there and children will be able to look at it and hopefully enjoy it."
When asked how they feel creating for each other, Henkes says: "I love it and it's a nice connection ... Seeing my words through her eyes is a nice present for me to receive."
"[Kevin] is such a good writer that it really is such a pleasure ... Not that there's never anything that drives you nuts, but we really get along and it's just been a really easy collaboration over the last however many years," says Dronzek.
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