Jean E. Pendziwol’s highly acclaimed picture books include When I Listen to Silence, illustrated by Carmen Mok; I Found Hope in a Cherry Tree, illustrated by Nathalie Dion; Me and You and the Red Canoe, illustrated by Phil; and Once Upon a Northern Night, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award). She lives in Northwestern Ontario on the shores of Lake Superior.

Todd Stewart is an illustrator and printmaker. His debut picture book, The Wind in the Trees (Quand le vent souffle), was a finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award. He has also illustrated Flow, Spin, Grow by Patchen Barss and See You Next Year by Andrew Larsen, among other titles. Todd’s screen-printed art has been shown in public and private exhibitions across Canada. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.

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Imagine you could spend a day with any person, living or dead. Who would you choose and what would you do?

JEP: I think it would be amazing to spend time with wise authors who have written so beautifully and insightfully, like Margaret Atwood or Richard Wagamese or Anthony Doer. Wouldn’t it be fun to gather a group in a room and just chat. But if I’m being honest with myself I would much rather have another day with my Mom who passed away over fourteen years ago. We’d probably work in the garden, play card games at the dining table of our “camp” with a view of Lake Superior, and then cook some sort of fabulous meal together (while already planning the next one). It would be so wonderful to be able to introduce her to her great-grandchildren.

TS: I would choose to spend a day with my grandfather in Saskatoon. We would start the morning early in his shop, where he taught me woodworking, stained glass and pottery, and this time I wouldn’t snap the bandsaw blade like I did every other time. He was never impatient with me when this happened. He was a pilot in WWII and in the afternoon he’d take me up in a Spitfire and we would fly low over the Prairies. At dusk we would paddle along the North Saskatchewan river, and walking home, everything underfoot would be crisp with the first frost. A day like that, I’d be asleep by 9. Perfect.

What advice would you give your ten-year-old self about 2024?

JEP: So many things little ten-year-old me would benefit hearing about 2024! It’s been a full year for me personally, but also an interesting one globally. By the time I was ten, I was already intrigued by writing and storytelling, so I think I would tell myself to continue being open to creativity, reading widely, and exploring language as a way of artistic expression. At that age, the books I was reading never featured the landscape, history or people of Northwestern Ontario especially Lake Superior, the boreal forests and old, stunted mountains along the shore. I thought literature needed a setting like a big city, foreign country, the prairies or the east coast because that’s what was in the books I read. So I would also tell little-me that our greatest artistic satisfaction and success comes when we’re being true to who we are and where we come from. Sometimes, it’s hard for us to believe that our own stories, our own lives, are worth writing about.

TS: I’m not sure I understand the question exactly. I would encourage any ten-year-old living in 2024 to keep practising kindness and to stay curious. Read more books. Stay off screens. Spend time alone in the forest. That sort of thing.

Who has been the biggest influence in your journey as a writer or illustrator?

JEP: Hard to pick one as there have been so many! But I’m grateful for an early educator who saw my passion for writing and nurtured it. When I was in grade five and attending St. Vincent School in Thunder Bay, the librarian, Mr. Christie, read one of my stories and helped me make it into a book. We gave it a Dewey Decimal number and taped a circulation cardholder to the back cover then added an index card with my name on it to the wooden drawers of the card catalogue. It was very inspiring to see my book on the library shelf alongside other books by “real” writers. I would love to be able to tell that librarian how much this meant to me.

TS: I’ve been an avid reader and illustrator since I was a child. As a kid from the 1970s I grew up with Alligator Pie and Garbage Delight. Still two of my all-time favourite children’s books. Great examples of that perfect relationship between text and image. Dennis Lee and Frank Neufeld introduced me to poetry, and the message I found in their words and images, that being silly and different was OK, has always resonated with me. I still catch myself reciting lines from these poems to myself and Neufeld’s linework influences the way I illustrate to this day.

What did you learn about yourself as you worked on Skating Wild on an Inland Sea?

JEP: I wrote Skating Wild on an Inland Sea very quickly and to a deadline in late fall 2020, which forced me to sit down and put something on the page in the midst of a COVID-related creative slump. Even when I wasn’t feeling inspired to write, exploring with language resulted in something I’m very proud of. Originally written as an audio installation inspired by the sounds made by a frozen northern lake as it expands and contracts, I later adapted the story as a picture book. While I always like to explore all the senses in order to evoke place, this was the first time I started with sound. I learned that there are different ways into a story and to be open to actively finding them.

TS: I learned that I love working in children’s book illustration more than any other type of work I do and mostly it’s because I get to work with good people. I enjoy the working alone part; but I’ve come to really love the relationships I’ve made through regular communication with authors and the staff at the publishing houses, working together through each step of a book project. I learned that I’m more of a people person than I had initially thought!

What was the last book by a Canadian author that changed you in some way?

JEP: I recently read Real Ones by Katherena Vermette. Several times while reading the book, I found myself pausing to reflect on what Katherena was saying about art and culture. The story challenged me in a good way.

TS: This summer I read The Future by Catherine Leroux. It really is a book worth celebrating! I think it’s my favourite book of the last three years. I love a story whose setting is like an idea of a place rather than the place itself, which in the case of The Future is an idea of the city of Detroit, already one of my favourite places; and that idea is so real and harrowing and yet it’s this story about hope and love. I was blown away by it.