Cover story: Roar Squeak Purr: A New Zealand Treasury of Animal Poems
Editor:
Paula Green
Illustrator:
Jenny Cooper
Publisher:
Penguin Random House
ISBN:
9780143775140
Date Published:
05 October 2022
Pages:
288
Format:
Hardback
RRP:
$45.00
We’re all told not to judge a book by the cover – but we do. It’s the book’s main selling-point, especially if we know nothing about the author and/or haven’t sought out the title based on a review. Completely unscientifically and from a book buyer’s point-of-view, rather than a designer’s well- honed eye, each month Kete judges books by their covers to come up with one we deem to be the most alluring. Partly because it provides an opportunity to hear from the sometimes-unsung heroes of the literary world: the designers.
Our October winner is Roar Squeak Purr: A New Zealand Treasury of Animal Poems edited by Paula Green and illustrated by Jenny Cooper with a cover design by Cat Taylor. These three have read through hundreds of animal poems, by our best established and emerging writers, to create ‘a marvellous menagerie’ and a roarsome cover. Here’s our they did it.
Cat Hanley on designing the cover:
How did you come to design the cover for Roar Squeak Purr?
I’m one of two inhouse book designers at Penguin Random House, so I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to work on Roar Squeak Purr.
What is it that you like about this kind of imagery, which matches eye-catching typography with graphic design – and why did you choose this rather than, say, a cute picture of a kitten or a puppy?
Jenny is such an incredible artist, who could just as easily have designed a cute kitten cover for us, but I love how striking and bold this cover is. Even though it’s a huge, roaring lion, it’s still pretty cuddly and cute.
How – if at all – do the “rules” of designing a book cover for children differ than one for adults?
I don’t think they differ too much, if anything children’s book covers need to appeal to a bigger audience as they need to draw in both adults and children. It’s lovely to have some tactile finishing for children to touch and feel.
What was the process for bringing it all together and how closely did you work with Jenny Cooper on the design?
The cover design started with a meeting between our project team: the book’s publisher, editor and me. We thew around some ideas and scribbled a very basic design approach on a piece of note paper which was sent to Jenny!! It was literally an open mouth with some teeth and the title in large letters. I also mocked up a few type options of how the title could sit, then what came back from Jenny was a little piece of magic!
She cleverly created the beautiful, full wrap cover with the lions face on the front (and a little mouse for me to incorporate into the type) with his mane wrapping to become an underwater scene on the back. I played a bit more with the title lock up and colour, then created the deboss and spot UV layers to give a lovely tactile finish.
What other book covers, or art works, inspired you or fed into the creation of this cover?
Our team all loved the cover of Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! by Fiona Waters and Illustrated by Britta Teckentrup.
Who - what - has influenced you creatively? Do you have any favourite book covers?
There is no one thing that influences my creativity. I tend to find inspiration everywhere from wandering around bookshops, street art, art galleries, social media, to walking on the beach. Often I’ll wake in the night with the solution to a design puzzle.
We’re told that we should never judge a book by its cover but we all do. Is there a book that you’ve bought or picked up to read because of the cover?
Totally! I am always drawn in by beautiful covers, especially ones with extra special finishes. Even though my kids are now teenagers I still find myself pawing over beautifully illustrated children’s books.
Illustrator Jenny Cooper on doing the artwork
What was the process of bringing it all together and did you read every single poem?
Of course, I read every single poem!!! Many times.
What were the challenges and, equally importantly, the joys of producing a cover and illustrations like these?
The main challenge for a book like this is the sheer size. I can’t illustrate every poem but I feel really bad for the authors whose poems aren’t illustrated. That is on my mind constantly. I really hope they are not disappointed. And if they don’t get an illustration, it doesn’t mean that the poem isn’t great, or I don’t like it. Often a poem contains such interesting ideas or characters, they require just too much time. So, I have concentrated maybe too much on the quicker, funnier poems, which is sad for some authors. It takes so much time to fully develop a character and time was short.
But the lovely thing about a poetry anthology is the wonderful variety and every page being different. It is so stimulating and so interesting, not having to draw the same characters 30 or 50 times as with a normal picture book. I love the variety and Paula choses such wonderful poems: funny, poignant, sad, thought provoking, unexpected. It is really fun trying to take on the feel of each poem and capture it on paper, without being too prescriptive and limiting kid’s own interpretation of a poem by giving too much away. So, in a way it is good if poems DON’T get illustrated as it leaves the reader free to make their own flights of fancy.
Do you have a favourite animal to draw?
Anything fluffy. In fact, anything living at all… I even enjoyed the barnacles for this book. In 30 years of illustration, my very first barnacles! I love anything that is sentient but cars/houses/bikes/ furniture I find boring. It is the eyes that have it, for me. I love to draw thinking feeling beings and as I draw them I (very briefly) become tame…. I often find myself making the same expressions as the figures I am drawing. Good thing no-one can see me.
How – if at all – do the “rules” of illustrating a book cover for children differ than one for adults?
I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed in my answer…. There apparently are ‘rules’, you’ll know them better than me. I often find myself at odds with editors over cover designs …. I just want a lovely interesting cover but editors want shelf-readability, so they want very simple, very bold designs,most of the interest in the top half of the cover so it shows in the shop. Also, often the publisher needs the cover for publicity, even before the book is illustrated. Ideally the cover comes last, as it is the ultimate expression of a finished book. This particular cover had none of those issues, plus was fun to paint.
What other book covers, or art works, inspired you or fed into the creation of this cover?
I must be honest and say that the main inspiration for the cover came from Cat who sent me a rough scribble of a lion’s open mouth. To many people, it wouldn’t mean much but I got it. The boldness and impact of an open lion mouth. Once she came up with that idea, the rest was easy, you can always tell a good idea when you see one. We had done a previous poetry anthology with Penguin Random House (PRH) and Paula, and I’d done some roughs along the lines of the first book. But they were ditched when Cat sent her idea.
And then I included a private joke with the lion’s mane becoming the anemone on the back cover. I particularly liked the undersea pages of the book and was glad to be able to use them on the cover. But I guess the main inspiration was the inside of the book, of course.
We’re told that we should never judge a book by its cover but we all do. Is there a book that you’ve bought or picked up to read because of the cover?
Almost every children’s book I have ever bought was because of the cover… almost never for the writing. A good cover is a work of art, with the text, book shape, illustration all working together to form a balanced, beautiful whole. Roar Squeak Purr, I think, makes a lovely cover and thanks to PRH for the embossing, too. It gives a luxurious feeling to the book.
Editor Paula Green on what she thought of the cover:
“When I first saw the cover of Roar Squeak Purr, my family and I uttered a string of WOWs at both design and illustration. The words in the lion’s mouth lift off the cover with their sheeny turquoise, such a delightful contrast to the warm hues of the mane. The gigantic toothy gape of mouth is like a magnificent roar or a yawn. I adore the little mouse, with its mouth wide open ready to squeak, no matter what ruckus the lion is making. The cover gives clues: this is a book that will be loud and whispery, small and large, cheeky and sleepy, daring and timid. The lion’s mane, so delightfully textured and patterned, pulls you to the back cover. And then a second gasp. The genius blue background becomes ocean, and the character-rich fish eye the lion’s mane, which is now twitching seaweed.
“I am reminded of how I think of children’s book illustrations as poems on the page, works of art that become story and poetry, that add terrific layers of interest to the text. Jenny has created a sumptuous feast of images. They deliver shifting styles, animation, lively facial expressions, colours that range from soft to striking, animals that are utterly real or invitingly imagined. Most importantly, Jenny’s illustrations give vital life to the poems. They pop and gleam and fascinate, and they transform a poetry anthology into something special. I was particularly moved by the response of the young Poetry Box poets with poems in the anthology; they felt honoured to see their writing in a book and their poems so exquisitely illustrated.
