Hello Over There! feat. Sarah Howden and Sabina Hahn

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This book is brilliant mix of absurdity and beauty. It’s a story about a talking pickle, and also a story about life and death. About purpose and community. About the things we can and can’t control in life.

It’s also, I think, an incredible example of what is possible in a picture book when the words and images are waltzing together in perfect harmony. For example, the tender care and reverence that the group of animals who populate the story show towards the titular pickle is perfectly captured by the way they quietly place him atop a simple white pillow, something that is never mentioned in the text. As soon as I’d read this briny wonder, I knew it would be the perfect book to kick of this new series!

SABINA: What was your favourite children’s book as a child? What was your favourite grown up book as a child?

SARAH: One of my most beloved books as a kid was Mouse Soup by Arnold Lobel. It’s still so vivid in my mind that when I think about it, images flash up in my memory—like the two stones sitting on the hill. And Mouse wading into the water with the beehive on his head.

One of the things I loved about this book was that you could really settle in for a good-length story. There’s the framing tale of Mouse getting caught by Weasel, who wants to make him his dinner. But then Mouse delays things by telling him four stories, which he claims are needed to season the soup—so we get those too, all while the tension of what’s going to happen to Mouse is brewing.

Each of the stories is, of course, incredible, from the two large stones (maybe my favorite) to the bees who want to make a home on Mouse’s head to the thornbush growing out of an armchair and finally the too-loud crickets. Actually, just the other night, there were some noisy crickets outside our windows and I had a flash of this cricket story, not remembering it was from this book until afterwards. Mouse Soup is permanently embedded in my consciousness!

Anyway, as the pièce de resistance, we get to watch Mouse outwit the weasel, which never gets old. I was the youngest in my family, so maybe I liked this because it proved even if you were little, you could still triumph, haha.

As for my favourite adult book when I was a kid (what a great question), it was a National Geographic coffee table book my parents had called The Incredible Machine. It was all about how the human body works. I haven’t seen it in a long time but what I recall is that it was chock-full of drawings and photos, all about very fascinating stuff, including human development from embryo to birth, diagrams of how muscles work, cross-sections of organs, photos of medical technology… just everything about how our body functions and how we study it. I remember one page about aging that showed photos of a woman’s face as she aged from a child through to being a senior, which I just stared at and stared at. I think my mom still has this book, actually… I’ve got to look through it next time I visit!

SARAH: When you start on a project, and you've just got the manuscript, how do you conceive of it -- do you start by sketching characters? Or doing storyboards? Or maybe it varies by project?

How long did it take you to come up with the look for the Wise Pickle character? How did you arrive at the only-eyes look (which is genius)?

SABINA: Usually I take a manuscript, read it fully and then start doodling. Storyboard comes out of these doodles first. This way I get to see the characters from afar, looking at them from a distance in broad strokes and not too many details. After I get to know them, I will start sketching each character separately to see what they actually are like. There are so many different ways to draw anything and anybody. I will redraw and redraw characters and scenes, over and over, adding details, taking them away.

And now I will half answer and different question on how I arrived on the pickle look and other characters too.

The Pickle NEVER had a mouth. It just didn't fit somehow. He was who he was pretty early on, although he did have legs in one sketch.

The dog gave me trouble (I drew a dog as if I never have seen a dog in my life) and then spent a few hours sketching various dogs until I found one that fit the most.
Also, I kept reading chipmunk as "hamster" for the initial sketches. I am not sure how exactly it worked, but even when I would read the story out loud, I kept hearing and seeing a hamster. I actually considered leaving a "missing hamster" poster in the window of the Dry Cleaners but ultimately took it out. You can still see the ghost of the poster in the window though. Also, did you know that the word chipmunk comes from Ojibwe ačitamo˙nˀ (“squirrels”) literally ‘those who descend head first’?

The wise pickle has been one of the most fun and effortless (is that the word i am looking for?) projects I have ever worked on. Thank you, Sarah, for writing it!

Sarah: Thank YOU, Sabina, for the most wonderful art I could have imagined!

ABOUT SARAH:

Sarah Howden has been writing since a young age, and was especially proud of finishing her first mystery novel when she was eight. Since then, she’s learned a lot more about plotting, and her penmanship has worsened considerably.

Sarah is the author of several books for children, including 5-Minute Stories for Fearless Girls, Cone Cat and The Tunnel. She’s also had poems published in Grain and Jones Av., and stories in Chirp and Chickadee magazines. Most recently, she has just completed her first novel for adults.

Also an editor at Orca Book Publishers, Sarah enjoys focusing on a different aspect of writing in her day job, helping other writers sculpt their stories. She works out writing conundrums on walks around her neighbourhood or by distracting herself with Netflix shows and potato chips. Having grown up in the Niagara Region, she now lives in Toronto with her husband, daughter and two mischievous cats.

FIND SARAH ONLINE:

Instagram: @howden.sarah

ABOUT SABINA:

Sabina Hahn is a Latvian-born author and illustrator whose work blends quiet humor, emotional nuance, and a deep sense of wonder. Raised in Riga, she spent her childhood devouring books, daydreaming and drawing - habits that gradually shaped her creative voice and led her toward a life in storytelling. She now lives and works in New York, where she continues to turn her lifelong love of reading and doodling into expressive, character-driven art.